Hello rocco21
It can be argued that the Reformation was the culmination of many
earlier attempts to reform the church. Howard A. White in his “The
History of the Church” cites J.H. Mefle D’Aubigne (“History of the
Reformation of the Sixteenth Century”, 5 vols., New York, 1859)
describing these movements as "Protestantism before the reformation.",
and Fisher in his “History of The Christian Church” [White supplies no
further details in the extract given] as calling them "Reformers
before the reformation.". He selects five movements, out of the many
that existed as displaying important characteristics:
The Albigenses who became very active in Southern France c. 1170 A.D.
They were against the concept of authority in religion, thought the
worship of statues and images was wrong, and did not believe in
purgatory. They encouraged people to read the New Testament and
recognised its authority. Pope Innocent III started a campaign of mass
murder against them.
The Waldensians were established by a merchant from Lyons, France,
Peter Waldo at about the same time. Waldo called on the Bible to
support his opposition for what was going on in the Roman Catholic
Church. The Waldensians put great importance on the notion of pure
living. They ran away from persecution in France to hide in the
northern parts of Italy.
John Wycliffe (1324-1384) was born in England and studied at Oxord.
He had been "The Morning Star of the Reformation". He opposed the
Roman Catholic church on a number of dogmas including the dogma of
transubstatiation (believing bread and wine is really changed into the
body and blood of Christ) and also was against the authority of the
Pope. He also spoke against the tradition of making a confession of
sins to a priest rather than directly to God. Wycliffe translated
the Bible into English.
John Huss (1369-1415) was a Catholic priest from Bohemia (now Czech
Republic). He was influenced by Wycliffe. He claimed that the
authority of the Bible was above that of church dogma. He was very
critical of the priesthood of his time. Like Luther later on, he
spoke against the sale of indulgences. Finally, the Catholic church
proclaimed him a heretic and he was burned to death
John Wessel (1420-1498) was another reformer whose criticisms of the
Catholic church and statements of belief predated those of Luther.
Jerome Savonarola (1452-1498) lived in Florence, Italy. He spoke
against the authority of the pope. The pope tried to bribe him by
saying he would be made a cardinal, but he refused this. He also
criticised the immoral lifestyle of the priests of his day. Finally
he was excommunicated, arrested and burned to death.
Information extracted and reworked from “The Reformation” (extract
from The History of the Church by Howard A White)
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Parthenon/2104/reformation.html (web
site of the Appius Forum)
Stephen Bowd of the Manchester Metropolitan University, UK has written
a book “Reform before the Reformation: Vincenzo Querini and the
Religious Renaissance in Italy” (Brill Studies in Medieval and
Reformation Thought, vol. 87: Leiden, Boston, Cologne, 2002,
http://www.brill.nl/ )
He argues that “an unduly neglected but important aspect of the
Italian Renaissance was church reform.” His book looks at this notion,
as reflected in the unpublished manuscripts of a nobleman from Venice,
Vincenzo Querini (1478-1514), who became a hermit in the Camaldolese
Order [off shoot of the Benedictines].
“Querini’s attempt to reform himself, the Roman Catholic church, and
the whole of Christendom… employed a range of scriptural, humanist,
conciliar, monastic, and mystical methods that had medieval
antecedents but were also imitated by reformers after the Reformation.
More generally, I argue that between c. 1450 and c. 1550 there was an
unbroken and increasingly popular search for reform and spiritual
renewal drawing on the medieval traditions and institutions of the
Church, especially monasticism. My research on the Camaldolese order
and the interaction between religion and humanism has highlighted the
positive contribution of monastic orders to Catholic recovery and
reform before and after 1517. Highly educated monks and hermits such
as Querini were among the vanguard of Renaissance reformers offering a
reformed Catholicism to laypeople that could satisfy the faithful
spiritually and intellectually within the protective arms of the
Church. One of the targets of these Renaissance reformers was
‘superstition’ “
Information from Stephen Bowd’s home page at
http://www.mmu.ac.uk/h-ss/heh/sbowd2.htm
From the web site of the Barnabites, a Catholic clerical order
http://www.catholic-church.org/barnabites/b42hst23.html comes the
following:
A list of Catholics who attempted internal reform of the Catholic
Church: Catherine of Siena (1347-1380), Vincent Ferrer (1350-1419),
Bernardine of Siena (1380-1444), and John Capistrano (1386-1456).
“The Fifth Lateran Council (1512-1517), convoked to condemn the
abusive council (conciliabulum) of Pisa (1511), also tackled the
question of Church reform. In his opening address, Augustinian Giles
of Viterbo called for personal renewal as a way toward institutional
reform.”
The Evangelism movement inn France was attempted reform before Luther.
“This movement, akin to Christian Humanism and Devotio Moderna,
called for a return to the spirit of the Gospel. Its center was the
Circle of Meaux, founded about 1521 by Bishop Guillaume Briçonnet
(1472-1534) and made famous by his vicar general, Jacques Lefèvre
d’Etaples (c. 1461-1536).”
“reaching back to the 14th century, Observance meant returning to the
original ideals of the order. …In 1404 the general chapter of the
Servites decreed the revitalization of eremitical life at Monte
Senario in Tuscany under the direction of Blessed Anthony of Siena.
Through the energetic leadership of Nicholas of Perugia, superior
general, (d. 1460), the restored eremitical life at Monte Senario gave
rise to the Congregation of the Observance.”
It mentions the Camaldolese Order, who “experienced this renewal
through the Congregation of Hermits of Monte Corona… Serafino Aceti
da Fermo (1469-1540) led a similar renewal for the Canons Regular of
the Lateran Congregation. Other religious communities who experienced
the same revival were: the Augustinians… the Dominicans… above all,
the Franciscans: in 1517 the separation between Conventuals and
Observants became final and complete and in 1528 the new Franciscan
Order of the Capuchins was formed.”
Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross are mentioned as reforming the
Carmelites in Spain.
The Oratories had members both clerical and lay who attempted “to
achieve personal sanctity by means of good works on behalf of others.
Self-reform was to precede Church reform. In 1497 the Oratory of
Divine Love, the first organized form of this movement, was founded in
Genoa, by a layman, Ettore Vernazza (d. 1524)…”
Two quotations are given from other authors:
Thomas Bokenkotter said "The general picture of reform activity
before Luther shows a number of bright spots. Individual Christians -
laymen and priests - anxiously pursued reform in many and various
ways" (Thomas Bokenkotter, A Concise History of the Catholic Church,
185). While Hubert Jedin commented: “The Protestant Reformation owed
its success to the fact that the attempts at reform which sprouted
from the soil of the Church did not come to maturity" (Hubert Jedin, A
History of the Council of Trent, 2.165).”
Other links for further information:
Albigenses: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01267e.htm (Catholic
Encyclopedia)
http://www.bartleby.com/65/al/Albigens.html (Columbia Encyclopedia)
Waldensians: http://www.xenos.org/essays/waldo1.htm (The Waldensian
Movement From Waldo to the Reformation : A Research Paper By Dennis
McCallum, Xenos Christian Fellowship web site)
Biographies: Hus http://atheism.about.com/library/glossary/western/bldef_hus.htm
http://logosresourcepages.org/huss_b.htm
and Wycliffe http://atheism.about.com/library/glossary/western/bldef_wycliffe.htm
and http://www.sepoangol.org/wycliffe-e.htm
John Wessel http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15590a.htm
Savoranola http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13490a.htm and
http://latter-rain.com/eccle/savona.htm
Search strategy: reform "before the Reformation" |
