 Hawking Indulgences So much money is
going into the coffer |
| Describe and analyze the underlying causes which brought about the Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century. |
| And yet my
conscience could never give me certainty, but I always doubted and said, You did not
perform that correctly. You were not contrite enough. You left out that confession. The
more I tried to remedy and uncertain, weak and afflicted conscience with the traditions of
men, the more each day found it more uncertain, weaker, more troubled. Martin Luther speaking
of his days as a monk, |
| Julius: Some say there is one cause
for which a pope can be deposed. Peter: When he has done something good, I suppose, since he is not to be punished for his bad deeds. Julius: If he can be publicly convicted of heresy. But this is impossible, too. For he can cancel any canon he does not like. Or he can recant. Peter: Fortunate pope, who can cheat Christ with his laws! Quite true, the remedy in such case is not a council. Erasmus' play in 1514 entitled Julius Excluded |
Within two weeks these theses were circulating throughout all Germany, and in a month throughout Christendom, as if the angels themselves were serving as messengers to bring them to the attention of all men. Myconius speaking of Martin Luther's 95 Theses, 1517 |
| German
money, contrary to nature, flies over the Alps; the pastors given to us are shepherds only
in name; they care for nothing but the sheep's fleece, and they fatten on the sins of the
people. One
of the "grievances" brought before the diet by the |
| You know
that now in our time, as also many years heretofore, the pure, clear and bright light, the
Word of God, has been so dimmed and confused and paled with human ambitions and teachings
that the majority who by word of mouth call themselves Christians know nothing less well
than the divine will. But by their own invented service of God, holiness, external
spiritual exhibition, founded upon human customs and laws, they have gone astray, and have
thus been persuaded by these whom people consider learned and leaders of others to the
extent that the simple think that such invented external worship is spiritual. From Ulrich Zwingli's debate in Zurich, 1523 |
| We must
resist the lust of the flesh, which, unless kept in order, overflows without measure.
Where is our gratefulness toward God for our clothing if in the sumptuousness of our
apparel we both admire ourselves and despise others? For so many so enslave all their
senses to delights that the mind lies overwhelmed. A Look at the Giver of the Gift Presents |
| Like an
insidious devil you pervert the Scriptures. You say that the Church consists virtually in
the pope. What abominations will you not have to regard as the deeds of the Church? Look at the ghastly shedding of blood by Julius II. Look at the outrageous tyranny of Boniface VIII, who as the proverb declares, 'came in as a wolf, reigned as a lion, and died as a dog.' You make the pope into an emperor Maximilian and the Germans will not tolerate this. Martin Luther
responding to being |
| By how many human regulations has
the sacrament of penitence and confession been impeded? The bolt of excommunication is
ever in readiness. The sacred authority is so abused by absolutions, dispensations, as the
like that the godly cannot see it without a sigh. Aristotle is so in vogue that there is
hardly time in the churches to interpret the gospel. Erasmus in The Annotations on |
Hawking Indulgences So much money is
going into the coffer |
| Indeed, we
declare, announce and define, that it is altogether necessary to salvation for every human
being to be subject to the Roman pontiff. Pope Boniface VIII in 1302 |
| Doubtful
sentences of divine law, especially on those matters which are called articles of the
Christian faith,… must be defined only by the general council of the believers,…
no partial group or individual person of whatever status [the pope], has the authority to make such definitions. Marsiglio
of Padua (1270-1342), |
