Calvin and Calvinism
Luther and Zwingli
The Twentieth Century
Turning points, third edition, chapter 12
The Church in Britain in the 19th Century
Background Factors/Events
The French Revolution (1789)
An up-ending of tthe status quo that had been in place since medieval times.
By contrast, Britain had already had its revolution.
Church and status quo had been very closely linked thus Revolution almost destroyed the church (and it was illegal for a time)
Initiated on the back of growing disparity between rich and poor and by Descartes, then Voltaire, Russeau whose rational humanism was able to undermine the status quo
Within the revolution a period when no one was in charge and everything was violently turned on its head
In Britain, church and aristocracy very threatened and caused them to challenge the rational, enlightenment under-pinnings of revolution.
The church in the age of reason - chapter 10
Methodism and the Evangelical Revival
The Hanoverian Church of England, despite its redeeming qualities, stood sorely in need of reform. The age of reason had forgotten certain fundamental human needs; natural religion might satisfy the minds of some, but the hearts of multitudes were hungry. The weaknesses of the established church - its failure to provide adequate care, the inflexibility of its parish system, its neglect of the new towns â left a vast and needy population waiting to be touched by a new word of power. âJust at this time, when we wanted little of âfilling up the measure of our iniquitiesâ, two or three clergymen of the Church of England began vehemently to âcall sinners to repentanceââ. In two or three years they had sounded the alarm to the utmost borders of the land. Many thousands gathered to hear them; and in every place where they came, many began to show such a concern for religion as they never had done before,â This is Wesleyâs own account of the beginnings of the Methodist revival.
The English Reformation
Precursors:
Wycliffe and the Lollards (see last week)
Humanismâs influence on scholarship: not just reformers â eg. Thomas More (1478-1532)
The beginning of reform
Henry VIII (1491â1547), King of England from 1509â1547.
Married Katherine of Aragon (daughter of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella) in 1509. K had been married to Henryâs older brother, Arthur, who had died in 1502.
Henry wasnât a natural âreformerâ â tended to be very conservative about belief and practice: wrote Assertio Septem Sacramentorum (asserting there are seven sacraments) against Luther in 1521. Pope bestowed on him the title Defender of the Faith (Fides Defensor) in thanks.
Calvin
Zwingli (1484-1531)
In Zurich the Reformation came in the way normal among the free cities of the Holy Roman Empire. The leading citizens were influenced by the reforming doctrines; they resisted and repudiated the authority of the Bishop of Constance when he tried to interfere; the city council legislated to reform the churches and parishes, with the advice of its chief pastors, to allow clerical marriage, to remove superstitious images and relics, to suppress. the monasteries and use their endowments for education, and to order a vernacular and simplified liturgy instead of the mass, The process began in 1522 and was complete by 1525, As in other cities, the council followed with reforming regulations to control public morals,
The Counter-Reformation
CATHOLIC REFORMATION
Tue name of Counter-Reformation suggests a fight against Protestantism; There was a political aspect of the CounterReformation, a league of Catholic powers ready to crusade against the new Protestant states. There was also a true sense in which the fight against Protestantism encouraged the reforming movement within the Roman Catholic Church. But it did not create it. The conflict with Protestantism gave to reform a new edge, to cut through the vested interests and administrative conservatism which 2 frustrated reform. It gave to reform a dynamic, a vitality, an affection for ancient ways, and a mistrust of Protestant ways,