Reformers to Know- John Knox and Erasmus

DAY 39 4/8/17- DAY 39 REFORMERS TO KNOW- JOHN KNOX, THOMAS CRANMER
Amos answered, “I was neither a prophet nor the son of a prophet, but I was a shepherd, and I also took care of sycamore fig trees. But the Lord took me and said, ‘Go Prophecy to my people.’” (Amos 7:14,15)

John Knox (1513- 11/24/1572) was a Scottish Reformer who both started and formed Presbyterianism in Scotland.  Knox studied at the University of St. Andrews and possibly the University of Glasgow.  He was influenced by Patrick Hamilton and George Wishart.  Wishart had been persecuted for speaking out against the veneration of Mary.  He had been exiled and when he came back to Scotland, Knox became his bodyguard brandishing a two-handled sword.  However, Cardinal Beaton had Wishart arrested and burned at the stake.  While Knox was a fugitive some Protestants assassinated Cardinal Beaton in St. Andrews castle.  Many protestants rallied to them, including Knox.  The French besieged the castle and Knox was made a French Galley slave for 19 months.  In 1549 he was released in exile to England where he had influence upon the writing of the second edition of the Book of Common Prayer and became a chaplain to the young king, Edward VI.  He disputed with Thomas Cranmer over kneeling in communion, so that a caveat was said that kneeling was not for veneration but humility.  When Edward died, Mary Tudor tried to restore Catholicism and Knox went in exile to Geneva where he met Calvin and then to Frankfurt.  When he left Frankfurt he broke all ties with the Church of England.  He returned to Scotland in 1556 where he was put on trial by the bishops in Edinburgh.  But he had so much noble support that the bishops delayed the trial.  He returned to Geneva.  He wrote (1558) “The first Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women” in which he decries women in any position of authority especially Mary Guise, Mary Tudor, and Mary Queen of Scots.  Later he softened his tone before Elizabeth I of England.  1559-1560 saw the Church of Scotland become Protestant and Reformed.  In 1560 Knox’s wife Margery died leaving him two children under five.  In 1561 Knox and five others named John wrote the Scots Confession and the Book of Discipline that promoted a predecessor of Presbyterianism where each congregation could hire but not fire their ministers, and superintendents, not bishops, were put in charge.  However it was not until l689 that Presbyterianism took full root.  In 1562 and 1563 the catholic Queen Mary accused Knox of being irreverent and even treason but he was exonerated.  She supposedly said, “I fear the prayers of Knox more than all the armies of Europe.”  Indeed Knox prayed while in one of his many exiles, “Give me Scotland or I die.”  He was also purported to have said, “One man and God is a majority.”  Knox died and his remains are in a barely marked grave in the parking lot. He taught his followers not to revere him, but to listen to his teachings from the Word of God. 
      Thomas Cranmer (7/2/1489- 3/21/1556) was Archbishop of Canterbury during the time England separated from the Latin Catholic church.  He wrote arguments for the annulment of King Henry VIII’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon and the idea of Royal Supremacy, that the king should be in charge of the churches in his realm.  He was born to a modest family in Nottinghamshire.  He studied at Cambridge and also studied LeFevre and Erasmus, Christian humanist with some reforming ideas.  In 1532 he was appointed ambassador to the Holy Roman Empire and set aside his vows to marry Margarete the niece of a reformer in Nuremberg, Osiander.  Cranmer was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury 3/30/1533 and immediately began working on the annulment of Henry’s marriage to Catherine.  Cranmer later oversaw the annulment of two other marriages at Henry’s convenience. Later it was found that Henry had already secretly married Anne Boleyn.  Cranmer became Henry’s main confidant when Thomas Cromwell was executed.  However, the church made few reforms until after Henry died and the young Edward VI succeeded him.  Then Cranmer was able to write the Book of Common Prayer that had a vast influence on the English language.  He allowed Bucer and Knox to come into England and influence the second edition of the Book of Common Prayer.  When the catholic Mary ascended the throne she declared Cranmer a heretic and treasonous.  Cranmer recanted his Protestantism- but on the day he was executed he recanted his recantations. 

Prayer: Lord, we have horribly offended you.  Have mercy on us and lead us in the way of righteousness this day.  (From Prayers of Knox)

Reformers to Know- John Calvin

DAY 38- 4/7/17- DAY 38 REFORMERS TO KNOW- JOHN CALVIN
But Moses said to God, ‘Who am I that I should to go Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out? (Ex. 3:11)

John Calvin (7/10/1509- 5/27/1564) was the greatest theologian of the Reformation.  He was born in Noyon France, where Charlemagne was crowned in 768.  John Calvin’s father, Gerard, was a lawyer for the Bishop of Noyon.  His mother, Jeanne LeFranc, died perhaps of the plague when he was three years old.  When Calvin was four Pope Leo X started selling indulgences- which was one of the last straws of corruption in the church for the Protestants.  When Calvin was seven Erasmus made his first Greek translation of the Bible, paving the way for the Bible to be translated into German (translated by Luther), French (translated by Calvin’s cousin Olivetan), and English (Tyndale and Genevan translations- which Calvin influenced). When Calvin was three, Jacques LeFevre, a professor in Paris wrote that we are saved by grace alone.  When Calvin was eight Luther posted his 95 theses on the Wittenburg door fueling the Reformation.  When Calvin was 19 (1528) Henry VIII declared the Church of England Protestant.  Calvin had a brother, Charles, who was an early Protestant in France and persecuted for his faith.  Calvin studied law at Orleans but later went to the University of Paris.  But in 1531, at 22, Calvin’s father died and Ulrich Zwingli of Zurich was killed in a battle with Catholic armies.  In 1532 he wrote a humanist commentary on Seneca that didn’t sell well.  Calvin wrote of his conversion in 1533 that “God by a sudden conversion subdued my heart.”  In Paris Calvin helped write a sermon by Nicolas Cop expressing that the Bible was more authoritative than the church.  Some authorities threatened his life.  Calvin literally jumped out of a third story window to flee some entering the door.  He changed his name to “Charles D’Espeville” (Charles of the City of Hope), and his own servant robbed him of all he had.  Calvin fled to Basel where he wrote the first (1536) Protestant theology book, “The Institutes of the Christian Religion.”  It is said that what Einstein is to physics Calvin is to theology.  In 1536 Calvin visited northern Italy and was passing through Geneva when William Farel threatened him with God’s wrath unless he stayed and preached in Geneva.  But when Farel and Calvin insisted the church (not the state) has the power to say who should take communion, they were exiled by Geneva’s City Council.  Calvin wrote, “Surely if I had merely served humans, this would have been a poor reward.  But it is my happiness that I have served Him who never fails to reward his servants to the fullest extent of his promise.”  Calvin went to Berne and then Strasburg where he preached to French exiles under the influence of Martin Bucer.  In August 1540 Calvin married a widow with two children, Idelette de Bure with whom he had no children.  Later Calvin boasted that in Christendom he had 10,000 children.  In 1541 the Genevans begged Calvin to come back.  Many from all over the world came to Geneva.  John Knox said that Geneva was “the purest school of Christ on earth.”  In Geneva Calvin preached every day, lectured three times a week, was present at every town council, yet found time to write thousands of letters and books.  There are over 2,025 sermons in the Genevan library by him.  He founded the Genevan Academy (University of Geneva and Seminary).  In a time of turmoil Calvin’s writings on Providence and the Sovereignty of God took hold.  His teaching was known as Reformed Theology and had influence over the Netherlands, Hungary, Scotland, parts of France, parts of England, Ferrara Italy, Geneva, Lausanne, Neuchatel, and more. At his death Pope Pius IV said,  “The strength of that heretic [Calvin] consisted in this, that money never had the slightest charm for him. If I had such servants my dominion would extend from sea to sea.”

Prayer: I offer Thee my heart Lord, promptly and sincerely. (Prayer of John Calvin) 

Reformers to Know- Oecolampadius and Melanchthon

DAY 37- 4/6/17- DAY 37 REFORMERS TO KNOW- OECOLAMPADIUS, MELANCHTHON
Since we are surrounded by such a cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and run the race set before us.  (Hebrews 12:1)

Oecolampadius (1482- 11/24/1531) original name was Hussgen- or House Lamp (thus Latin Oecolampadius) born in the Electorate of Palatinate (Uppper Region of the Rhine in Germany), but later spending most of his time in Basel.  For three years 1519-22 he preached in Augsburg where he encountered and accepted Luther’s teachings.  He briefly became a monk but upon quitting said, “I have lost the monk and found the Christian.”  Oecolampadius had a deep respect for Mary and is quoted thus from both Catholics and Protestants. He once said, that Mary is the neck that mediated the graces of the head (Christ) to the mystical body of Christ- the church.  However he criticized the practices of veneration like the rosary and the abstaining from drink and sexual relations on Saturday only to over-indulge on Sunday.  He represented the Reformed thinking at the Marburg Colloquy coming into disagreement with Luther. 
     Melanchthon (2/16/1497- 4/19/1560) was Luther’s right hand man and successor in Wittenburg.  He is criticized by Lutherans of conceding too much to the Reformed in an effort for unity among the Protestants. 
Melanchthon was a deep thinker and theologian par excellence formulating fuller Luther’s ideas of Justification by Faith, the contrast between Law and Gospel in Lutheran thinking, and differences between his view and transubstantiation.  He did not believe that the bread and wine were changed into the body and blood but were rather united with the body and blood of Christ in the sacrament.  Melanchthon was the main author of the Augsburg Confession, one of the great documents of the Reformation.  Melanchthon also worked with Bucer to try to unite the Lutheran and Reformed branches at Marburg and the Wittenburg Concord.  At the end of his life, the Lutherans were defeated militarily.  Melanchthon refused to sign the Augsburg Interim. But later he signed some documents called the Leipzig Interim that many felt gave too many concessions to the Roman Catholics (conceding the indifferent/adiophora items like candles, vestments, and holy days).  Some Lutherans accused him of being a heretic but he bore this with grace and hope.  The Formula of Concord in 1577 re-united the Lutheran churches. 

Prayer: Lord, thank you for your servants who stand up for the people against the wolves of the day.  Help me to be bold in standing up for you.  

Oecolampadius                                                   Melanchthon

Reformers to Know- Zwingli and Bucer

DAY 36- 4/5/17- DAY 36 REFORMERS TO KNOW- ULRICH ZWINGLI, MARTIN BUCER
“Whom shall I send?  Who will go for us?” Isaiah 6:8

Ulrich Zwingli (1/1/1484- 10/11/1531) was a humanist scholar who studied at the University of Vienna and the University of Basel and became a priest.  Luther was concerned about his own salvation and studied scripture, while Zwingli was concerned about being a good pastor to his congregation, and studied Erasmus’ translation of the New Testament (Latin and Greek).  In 1519 the pope sent a representative to ask that people pay indulgences (paying to relieve sins for the living or the dead) in order to build St. Peter’s in Rome.  Zwingli convinced the rulers and the gates were shut not allowing the representative (Sanson) to come into the city.  In 1519 he became the pastor of the Grossmunster church in Zurich and began preaching straight through Matthew. This year a plague broke out that killed a fourth of the population.  Most were encouraged to leave the city, but Zwingli did not leave his post.  Eventually he contracted but survived the plague.   In 1522 he began preaching his ideas of reform by breaking the Lenten fast publicly by eating sausages.  By October 1523 Zurich had taken all images and statues of the saints out of their churches.  Zwingli was a leader of Zurich and was instrumental in forming and breaking alliances among the Swiss Cantons and Philip of Hesse and Strasburg. In 1529 Zurich formed a Christian Civic Union with Bern and Constance (other cities such as Basel joined).  Five Swiss Cantons formed the Christian Alliance of Catholic states.  A war occurred in which Zurich won and Zwingli pushed for the free preaching of Protestantism there.  In 1529 the Marburg Colloquy tried to unite Lutheran and Reformed (Zwinglian) thought.  It agreed on fourteen points but disagreed about the sacraments.  Zwingli saw baptism and the supper not as sacraments but as an ordinance (command) in which we remember Christ.  On October 11, 1531 the five catholic states attacked Zurich which was unprepared and only musterd 3,500 men to face an army twice its size.  Zwingli was killed, once again refusing to leave his people.  The love he had for Switzerland and for his people made his teachings stick with them.  Afterwards Henrich Bullinger succeeded Zwingli.  He was able to unite the Protestant Cantons and achieved a relative peace, writing the Second Helvetic Confession which is part of the PCUSA’s Book of Confessions. 
      Martin Bucer was a humanist scholar who mainly lived in Strasbourg Germany (11/11/1491- 2/28/1551).  He originally was a Dominican Friar as well.  He met Luther in 1518 and renounced his vows and was excommunicated- fleeing to Strasbourg. Bucer tried to mediate between Luther and Zwingli at Marburg, and later with the Tetrapolitan Confession and Wittenburg Concord (which he helped write with Melanchthon).  Bucer took Zwingli’s views about the supper as a memorial, but thought this was a secondary, indifferent matter.  He noted that Luther rejected “impanation” (the idea that Christ became the bread), but Luther rejected Bucer’s saying there is no difference.  In September 1530 Emperor Charles V declared that all Protestants should join the Catholic Confession or be forced to do so by the military.  Melanchthon and Bucer wrote a common nine theses in response to try again to unite the Lutheran and Reformed confessions.  Luther met with Bucer and, though he disagreed with him asked him to continue to try to unite.  Zwingli neither agreed or disagreed, but Bucer traveled to many different German and Swiss cities pleading for unity.  He once said, “If you immediately condemn anyone who doesn't quite believe the same as you do as forsaken by Christ's Spirit, and consider anyone to be the enemy of truth who holds something false to be true, who, pray tell, can you still consider a brother? I for one have never met two people who believed exactly the same thing. This holds true for Theology as well.”  Bucer continued to work to join the Lutheran and Reformed churches- helping to write the First Helvetic Confession and the Wittenburg Concord- but full agreement was never achieved.  When Calvin was fleeing for his life- Bucer welcomed him in Strasbourg.  Bucer tried to get the Catholics and Protestants to form a German National Church separate from Rome, but this failed with the Schmalkaldic Wars.  He was exiled to England in 1549 where he helped Thomas Cranmer with the second edition of the Second Book of Prayer.  When Mary Tudor came to the throne, she tried to restore Catholicism and had Bucer’s body dug up and burned.  Elizabeth I, later put a plaque down at the place of Bucer’s original burial.  Bucer lived a holy, sincere life in which he valued love over theological differences. 

Prayer: Lord, Help me to value the boldness of Zwingli and the love and unity treasured by Bucer.