RELG 330 - History of Christianity
Course Notes
Chapter 23
Page 319 - Purgatory was originally not thought of as just a period of punishment, but as a time of cleansing (purging) for sinners, to get them "pure enough" to come into the presence of God. The medieval mind had lost sight of the fact that Jesus' death and resurrection is enough to cleanse sinners who trust Him to do that.
Page 320 - the Diet of Speyer. A Diet was a German Council, attended by clergy and lay leaders. There were actually two Diets of Speyer, held in 1526, and again in 1529.
The Diet of Speyer held in 1526 decided that each German Prince should order the Church in his state according to the dictates of his own conscience. So a Lutheran Prince could favor Lutherans in his principality, and a Roman Catholic prince could favor the Roman Catholic Church in his.
The later Diet held in Speyer in 1529 was stacked with a Roman Catholic majority, and aimed at ending all toleration of Lutherans in regions held by Roman Catholics. At that Diet the German leaders formulated a letter to the authorities, protesting against abuses in the Church, demanding freedom of conscience and the rights of minorities. The letter was signed by six German Princes and fourteen cities, and began "Wir protestieren . . ." (We protest . . .). Hence they were called Protestants.
Page 324 - Michael Servetus (See Page 344) was a Unitarian,
Page 329 - Philipp Melanchthon - his name is pronounced mel-ANK-thon
Page 330 - Luther's statement - the textbook does not give the full context. After stating the reasons for his faith to the Diet of Worms, Luther siad "Hier stehe ich. Ich kann nicht anders. Gott hilfe mich." (Here I stand. I can't do anything else. God help me.)
page 330 - Free Cities in Germany were not under the control of a king or prince. They were usually the larger trading centers, particularly the ports such as Bremen and Hambourg on the North Sea. They were independently organized, and were generally run by groups of prominent merchants.
Page 332 - Map of German Protestantism does not who some important places. Speyer is on the river Rhine, about 20 miles to the south of Worms. Heidelberg is about 30 miles south-east of Worms; it was the capital of the Palatinate. Schmalkalden is about 70 miles north-east of Frankfurt, in the region of Thuringia (not shown on the map)
Page 339 - Henry VIII ended monasticism in England by seizing the lands and properties of the monasteries. Although he said that it was because the monasteries and nunneries were corrupt, it was really so that he could grab their possessions for himself. The 'Dissolution of the Monasteries' caused great hardship in England - not only were all the monks and nuns forced to leave their monasteries and try to live secular lives, but the monasteries had run hospitals for the sick, and provided food for the poor and lodgings for travelers. All of those community services were disrupted.
Page 339 - The textbook is incorrect when it says that Queen Mary I of England tried to restore Roman Catholicism to Britain. She tried to restore Roman Catholicism to England (and Wales). Britain was not a politically united entity at that time. Mary Tudor was Queen of England and Wales, but Scotland was a separate country, with a Roman Catholic Queen, Mary, Queen of Scots. England and Scotland were brought together in the next generation, after Elizabeth I of England died, and James VI of Scotland, the son of Mary Queen of Scots, became James I of England.
Page 340 - the Great Bible of 1538 was given that name because of its large size. As Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer ordered that a large English Bible should be set up in every Church in England, available for anyone to read. The Bibles were generally chained to a stand so that they would not be stolen. The translation was carried out by Miles Coverdale, who used the 'Matthew's Bible' as his main source.
Page 340 - the Litany of 1545. A Litany is a set of prayers, in which a leader recites a series of petitions, and the people respond with a fixed response, such as "O Lord, hear us". The Litany of 1545 was the first set of such prayers in English (rather than in Latin) As Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer wanted the English people to get used to prayers in English rather than Latin.
Page 340 - The Prayer Books of 1549 and 1552. As Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer wanted the English people to have Church services in English rather than Latin, so he translated the Latin Mass and other services and prayers into English. The young King Edward VI and Parliament agreed, and the first 'Book of Common Prayer' was published in 1549. Its use was enforced in the parish churches in England. It contained a Communion service, services for Baptism and Confirmation, services for daily prayer every morning and evening, the Psalms, and a calendar for reading almost the whole Bible over the course of a year. It became known as the 'Book of Common Prayer' (or BCP) because it used the common language (English) rather than Latin.
In 1549 parliament passed an 'Act of Uniformity' ordering that the BCP should be used throughout England (except in places such as Universities where everyone understood Latin). The first BCP (of 1549) was still rather Catholic in tis doctrine and prayers, so it was revised and re-issued in 1552 in a more Protestant version.
When she became Queen in 1553, Mary I forbade the use of the BCP and England went back to the Latin Mass, but after Mary died Queen Elizabeth I restored the use of the BCP in a new edition of 1559.
Page 340 - The Articles of the Church of England are short statements of what beliefs were agreed upon by various councils of bishops and other Church leaders in the Anglican Church.
In 1536 the Ten Articles of faith upheld three sacraments ( Baptism, Penance, Eucharist). Images of saints were retained as representations of virtue, but were not to be worshipped.
In 1539 the Six Articles were ordered by King Henry VIII in an attempt to curb the Reformation - they asserted the doctrine of transubstantiation, enforced clerical celibacy, and directed that the laity were not to receive the consecrated wine at communion. As a result several bishops resigned; most of the other bishops did not enforce them.
In 1553 (after the death of King Henry VIII) the Forty-two Articles were drafted by Thomas Cranmer in order to restore the Reformation in England. The death of Edward VI, and the accession of Queen Mary meant that the Forty-two Articles were annulled.
In 1536 (after Elizabeth I came to the throne) the Thirty-nine Articles, based on the Forty-two Articles, were issued by Convocation. Queen Elizabeth I herself was involved in their formulation. They steered a course between Roman Catholicism and Calvinism, and, with a few amendments, are still in use as a description of Anglican belief and practice.
Page 340 - The Homilies - at the time of the Reformation in England, many of the parish clergy were not well-educated and were not used to preaching, so many church services did not include a sermon. As Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer directed that church services should include a sermon. To help the clergy, Cranmer produced a series of sermons, which were published as the Homilies
Page 342 - Scotland The textbook does not tell us about the political situation in Scotland at the time of the reformation.
In 1503 James IV of Scotland married Margaret Tudor, daughter of Henry VII of England, and sister of the future Henry VIII.
In 1512 the future King James V was born to James IV and Margaret Tudor.
In 1513 James IV of Scotland invaded England and was killed at the Battle of Flodden Field. His baby son became James V, and his widow Margaret Tudor became Regent. Margaret Tudor married the Earl of Angus in 1514, and in 1515 the Scottish Parliament made the Duke of Albany the Protector of Scotland. Mary Tudor fled back to England, leaving her son in Scotland.
In 1524 James V (at age 12) was crowned as King of Scotland.
In 1538 James V married the French princess Marie de Guise.
In 1542 Mary Queen of Scots was born, and six days later James V died. Mary became Queen of Scotland when she was 6 days old, though she was not crowned until 1543. Scotland was torn between groups of rival Lords, Protestants against Roman Catholics, and in 1548 Mary Queen of Scots (aged 6) was sent to France for safety. Marie de Guise remained in Scotland to protect her daughter's position as Queen. She and her daughter never saw one another again.
In 1558 Mary, Queen of Scots married the Dauphin (heir to the throne) Francis of France, and became Queen Consort of France in 1559.
In 1560 Frances II died and Mary's status was reduced to that of Dowager. Also, her mother Marie de Guise died, so Mary Queen of Scots decided to return to Scotland to rule for herself. She returned to Scotland in 1561
When Mary, Queen of Scots, returned to Scotland in 1561 she found John Knox already there and active in spreading Calvinism. She and Knox had a series of stormy interviews, though Mary's policy towards Protestants was generally moderate.
In 1565 Mary married her cousin Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, and the couple had a son in 1566 - the future James VI of Scotland and James I of England.
Darnley was jealous and probably abusive - in 1566 he had Mary's secretary murdered in her presence. Mary had fallen in love with a Scottish laird, James Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell. In 1567 Bothwell murdered Darnley, and tried to make it look as if Darnley had perished in a fire; Bothwell was tried for murder, but was acquitted by a panel of crooked judges. Bothwell divorced his previous wife, kidnapped Mary, and married her that same year (1567)
The murder of Darnley, and the marriage of Mary Queen of Scots to Bothwell, aroused the Protestant lairds of Scotland to rebellion. Mary and Bothwell were defeated in battle, and Mary was taken as a prisoner to Lochleven Castle. Bothwell fled to Denmark, where he was imprisoned for the rest of his life.
Mary was forced to abdicate, and young James was crowned as James VI of Scotland - he was to be brought up as a Protestant. Mary escaped from Lochleven Castle and raised an army, but was defeated again, and fled to England, where she thought her cousin Elizabeth I would support her. That was one of the worst mistakes of her life - it would have been far better to have escaped to France. Mary did not realize that Elizabeth's position as Queen of England was threatened by her existence - the Roman Catholics in England, who did not recognize Elizabeth as a legitimate queen, regarded Mary Queen of Scots as the true Roman Catholic heir to the English throne. Mary Queen of Scots was kept as a prisoner in various castles in England for 19 years, and her correspondence was spied upon carefully. In 1586 Mary wrote a letter implicating herself in a plot to supplant Elizabeth; Elizabeth was at first unwilling to have her cousin executed, but finally agreed that it was too dangerous to let her live. Mary Queen of Scots was beheaded in 1567; her son, James VI, did not raise much of a protest about his mother's execution.
Page 342 - John Knox - What the textbook doesn't tell us is that John Knox was a preacher at St. Andrews (on the East coast of Scotland) when it was attacked by French galleys in 1547. John Knox was taken as a galley-slave to France, but was released in 1549, and went to England. He was made a chaplain to King Edward VI, and helped in the production of the BCP of 1552. When Edward died and Mary I came to the throne (1553) John Knox fled to Geneva, where he met John Calvin.
One of the reasons he did not return directly to Scotland was that the ruling party, led by Queen Marie de Guise, the mother of Mary Queen of Scots, was Roman Catholic. In 1558 Knox wrote a violent diatribe against Marie de Guise, but applied to all women rulers, entitled "The First Blast of the Trumpet against the Monstrous Regiment of Women" (Marie de Guise in Scotland, Mary Tudor in England, Catherine de Medici as Regent in France). When Elizabeth I came to the throne she was offended by Knox's pamphlet, and refused him permission to enter England.
Knox returned to Scotland in 1559, where he became the leader of the Reforming party. Marie de Guise died in 1560, and Mary Queen of Scots did not return to Scotland until 1961. This gave John Knox time to draw up the 'Scottish Confession' for the Reformed Church of Scotland, and get it adopted by the Scottish Parliament. The reformed 'Church of Scotland' was founded on Presbyterian Calvinist lines in 1560. Knox also organized a commission which abolished the power of the pope in Scotland and abolished the Roman Catholic Mass - making it a crime punishable by death to celebrate or even to attend a Mass.
When Mary Queen of Scots landed in Scotland in 1561 John Knox was very much in control of the Church in Scotland. They had several stormy meetings - she insisting on having the Mass, he preaching violent sermons against her. After Mary lost her fight for control, and fled to England, John Knox was closely connected to the Regent, the Protestant Earl of Moray (and a step-brother of Mary Queen of Scots). He preached the sermon at the coronation of the young James VI of Scotland (later James I of England). He remained in Scotland as a champion of the Reformed party against the Roman Catholic party until his death in 1572.
Copyright © 2005 Shirley J. Rollinson, all Rights Reserved
