The Protestant Reformation: The Divide Over Indulgences

Rob Lewis

Submitted to Dr. Sean McDowell

Historical Theology CSSR514

BIOLA University-Apologetics/Science and Religion Program

Date

4-23-19

The Apologetic Aim

The medieval church had grown in power and influence, and many look back to that time and see it as an example of how organized religion is really about power and money. With an honest view of the medieval church in mind, anyone today who would be looking for an example of religion being used to control and exploit the common man would find a fitting example there. It is true that there was much corruption, power grabbing and political and financial gain to be had through securing an office in the Church. It is also true that the power of the Pope had become so great that when a corrupt Pope was in power they were able to exercise great authority over the people as they acted as the mediator between God and man. The apologetic aim then is to show that this part of Church history is an example of a perversion of true Christianity, and that the Reformation was a response to this perversion. And while some look to the medieval church for proof that organized religion is simply a means to an end for power and money, others look to the Reformation as a negative event that split the Western Church unnecessarily. This paper will respond to both of these issues, primarily showing that the Reformation was a response to the valid complaint that in our history there has been corruption and exploitation, and in this same line of thought, the Reformation was necessary in restoring to the Church the gospel message that the Church is called to preach in submission to Christ through a unified submission to Scripture.

Early Signs of Church Reformation

The Church universal enjoyed over a thousand years of wide and meaningful influence in western civilization before the Protestant Reformation began. The Reformation must be seen in light of this reality as the Church as a whole had been a true light in the world, bringing about much good through caring for the poor, teaching, copying and preserving Scripture, and calling the world to a life of holiness and reconciliation with God through Jesus Christ. The Church raised up many important theologians who took up the cause to systematically approach complex theological ideas, as well as to take a stance to defend essential Christian doctrines. This can be seen in the great councils convened long before the Reformation. These councils took a biblical stance on important theological truths and doctrines, such as the divinity of Christ at Nicea in 325 A.D., which was in response to the Arian controversy. These great teachers and theologians not only attended these councils of the Church, but also took a stand in articulating precise and biblical responses to these critical controversies, paving the way for a unified orthodoxy for generations to come through the creeds they produced.

With all of the good in mind, there arose signs of trouble as Christianity became increasingly formalized in leadership hierarchy, which was not without political pressures and corruption. The papacy was born out of the new order that formed under the conversion and influence of Constantine in the fourth century. Some of these changes are well noted by the church historian Justo Gonzalez.

Until Constantine’s time, Christian worship had been relatively simple. At first, Christians gathered to worship in private homes…After Constantine’s conversion, Christian worship began to be influenced by imperial protocol. Incense, which was used as a sign of respect for the emperor, began appearing in Christian churches. Officiating ministers, who until then had worn everyday clothes, began dressing in more luxurious garments-and soon were called ‘priests,’ in imitation of their pagan counterparts…Eventually, the congregation came to have a less active role in worship.[1]

As Gonzales stated, there became an increasingly formal element to worship, including an elevated status of the minister. Throughout medieval Christianity the struggle would continue as simony (the buying of church offices) would become common and clergy would increasingly give into political and personal corruption. As Nicholas of Oresme put it in 1363 A.D., the church needed reform for, “From the sole of the foot to the crown of the head there is no health in it.”[2]

The Early Reformers

This is where the first signs of a need for reform would present itself, namely with the clergy and the power of the papacy. Two early reformers would pay dearly in calling for the church to be reformed from within, and their ideas would be influential in the Protestant Reformation led by Luther in the following years after their influential calls for reform. The first was the Englishman John Wycliffe (1320-1384), who took a stand against the corrupt church in the 14th century, and was condemned in 1377 A.D. for attacking the power of the pope. Wycliffe argued that every man, whether a priest or layman, had an equal place in God’s eyes, and thus Wycliffe anticipated the Reformation doctrine of justification by faith alone with his doctrine of “dominion founded on grace”, which attacked the medieval barrier between the individual and God found in the papacy, which Wycliffe referred to as the principle of falsehood.[3] Also, Wycliffe believed that common people, “craftsmen and peasants”, should have the Bible in their own language, and so he led a group of Scholars at Oxford in translating the Bible from Latin into English.[4]

The second important voice calling for reform within the clergy was the Czech John Hus (1369-1415), a voice that would be silenced on July 6th 1415 A.D. when he was unjustly executed by being burned at the stake for heresies he never taught after being led past a pile of his books being burned in the church yard.[5] His execution was just over one hundred years prior to the start of the Protestant Reformation which began in 1517 A.D. Hus believed that Christ, rather than the pope was the head of the church, and in the early 15th century he aimed at bringing about a restoration of the Christian life, starting with the clergy returning it to its highest ideals, by attacking the highest ranks of the church who were known to have purchased posts, practiced fornication, were largely absent, and enriched themselves at the expense of the people.[6] These were the practices of those trusted and authorized to be the spiritual leaders of the people of God, and who would also be seen as the mediators between God and man. Late-Medieval theology held that the Pope was above bishops, councils and emperors, and since the Bible’s true meaning could only be known through papally approved interpretation, the Pope was above not only the Church, but above Scripture too.[7]

The issue of the Pope’s power and how a person could access God would be a point of contention in the dawn of the Reformation, and it would be related to one of the three great principals of the Protestant Reformation, namely the principle that every believer belonged to the priesthood and had direct access to God. This was exactly what Wycliffe had been arguing in his doctrine of the dominion of grace. The Protestant Reformation would aim to reform the Church through directly questioning the authority of the Pope, and giving the lay believers permission to approach God directly as well as to preach the gospel to others, which would also directly relate to the issue of lay access to Scripture. Wycliffe had already begun to respond to this when he began producing his English translation of the Bible with his group of Oxford scholars.

However, for many years, even after Wycliffe and Hus, the church controlled the translation and lay access to Scripture before the Protestant Reformation. The church historian Philip Schaff notes, “Archbishop Berthold, of Mainz, in an edict of January 4th, 1486, threatened with excommunication all who ventured to translate and circulate translations of sacred books, especially the Bible, without his permission.”[8] And it is here again that we recognize the need for one of the three great theological principals of the Protestant Reformation already recognized by Wycliffe: the principle that Scripture belongs in the hands of every believer. This would be one of the early tasks of the Protestant Reformation: translating and distributing the Bible in German, namely Luther’s Bible, which would become a formative resource for lay believers during the Reformation era. For Luther, the Word of God held supreme authority, even over the Church, as he argued that Scripture gives a more trustworthy witness to the gospel than the pope’s corrupt church, and Christian traditions, the Bible therefore has authority over the pope, church, and tradition.[9] As well, Luther thought that the Word must be preached and not simply read in private and that there is no other Word of God but the Scriptures as Mark Thompson notes:

However, alongside such bold statements about the oral character of the Word of God and the particular efficacy of public preaching in contrast to simply reading privately, Luther continued to speak of the Scriptures as the Word of God…in the midst of the controversy with Rome he wrote Against the Spiritual Estate of the Pope and the Bishops Falsely So Called in which he insisted, ‘we have no other word than Scripture (Nu haben wyr keyn wort denn die schrifft). That is why all the wicked should be reproved with it…Furthermore, I ask whether or not St. Paul’s word and order are derived from God’s word and order? I think that the pope himself, with all his devils, even though he suppresses every word of God, cannot deny that St. Paul’s word is God’s word and that his order is the order of the Holy Spirit.’[10]

We see clearly that there was a need to respond to the corruption in the church in several ways, namely in the way that papal authority had grown in an unhealthy manner, and in the treatment of lay access to the Bible in the common languages of the people. While all of this influenced the response of the Protestant Reformation, there was yet one more critical issue that truly served as the spark that lit the flames of the Protestant Reformation, and that is the sale and use of indulgences.

The Sale of Indulgences

As the 16th century dawned, the construction of St. Peter’s Dome began and was funded by the sale of indulgences. The sale of indulgences is what sparked the protest of the Reformation, and what ultimately would lead to the great split in the Western Church as Catholics and Protestants would go their separate ways after the Reformation. The practice of selling indulgences arose in England under Archbishop Theodore of Canterbury in 609 A.D., and according to Philp Schaff, was used by popes during and after the Crusades as a means to increase their power, and was premised on the sacrament of penance, which included the sinner bearing temporal punishment, either in this life or in purgatory. These punishments are under the control of the church, specifically the pope as its legitimate head, while works of supererogation, performed by Christ and by the saints, constitute the treasury from which the pope, the treasurer, can dispense indulgences for money.[11] The belief was that even though God alone could forgive sins completely and eternally, the sinner must repent and, in some form, pay for their sins. However, if one purchased an indulgence, they could be spared from punishment in this life and in purgatory, and would be promised entrance into heaven. It was no wonder that some would question this teaching and ask which of the two God loved more, justice or money?

Under corrupt papal power held by Julius II and Pope Leo X, the rebuilding of St. Peter’s Church provided the opportunity for selling indulgences in order to fund the building program. Johann Tetzel was a primary preacher and seller of indulgences and he is the primary character who provoked Luther to respond in protest, even though Tetzel himself was neither named in Luther’s Ninety-Five Theses, nor the cause, he along with his fervent preaching and pedaling indulgences was certainly what lit the fire of the Reformation. Schaff says,

He was received like a messenger from heaven. Priests, monks, and magistrates, men and women, old and young, marched in solemn procession with songs, flags, and candles under the ringing of bells to meet him…the papal bull on a velvet cushion was placed on the high alter, a red cross with a silken banner bearing papal arms was erected before it, and a large iron chest was put beneath the cross for the indulgence money…The preachers by daily sermons, hymns, and processions, urged the people, with great extravagant laudations of the Pope’s bull, to purchase letters of indulgence for their own benefit, and at the same time played upon their sympathies for departed relatives and friends whom they might release from their sufferings in purgatory ‘as soon as the penny tinkles in the box.’[12]

Tetzel, under the authority of the Pope, was busy raising money through selling indulgences, preying upon people who trusted in the Church and the Pope. This was the context in which the Protestant Reformation began. Any who would look to the corrupt practices of the medieval church, must also recognize that there were faithful witnesses to the true gospel message who were also willing to stand against this power and corruption. The leading witness was a German monk named Martin Luther who was born in 1483, who in 1517 posted his famous invitation to theological debate, which would quickly turn into the seed of the Protestant Reformation.

The Protestant Reformation & Luther’s 95 Theses

With all of this in mind, it is time to turn to perhaps the most central theme of the Protestant Reformation, the first great principle of the Reformation, justification by faith alone. This theme gave birth to the Protestant Reformation and was born out of Luther’s work which dealt directly with the sale and use of indulgences. The official title of this most famous work was Ninety-Five Theses on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences, summarized as simply Luther’s Ninety-Five Theses. Luther felt that the sale of indulgences was an abuse and exploitation of the people who were trusting the spiritual and religious leaders. This was what Luther so boldly responded to, and this was the cause that soon took on the powerful Catholic church, aiming finally at the authority of the Pope. For Luther, the selling of indulgences not only exploited the people, but it compromised the whole gospel message found in Scripture that says we are saved by faith in Christ alone! The practice of indulgences effectively turned the grace of God into something to be bought and sold without reference to true repentance and faith.

What began as an invitation to debate the sale and use of indulgences, quickly turned into Luther being excommunicated for questioning the authority of the Pope. Luther would be given several opportunities to recant his beliefs and to denounce his writings, but Luther stood by his conviction that Scripture was the final authority and there the gospel message of salvation was clearly defined as faith in Christ apart from any works man could produce. Luther’s stand became known as the Protestant Reformation, and the root of the word protestant means to protest, which is exactly what Luther led, a protest against the false teaching and abuse of the corrupt church leaders. This protest was neither needless nor unfounded. And precisely the fact that it was founded serves as evidence that the abuse of the Church leaders was in error and not to be equated with the expression of true Christian religion. Every person today who recoils at the abuse and exploitation found in the medieval church are justified in their response, and at the same time must recognize that the Protestant Reformation was the way in which true reform was brought to the church, calling these errors into account.

Even though Luther was excommunicated, he survived the trial at the Diet of Worms in 1521, and out of the Ninety-Five Theses emerged the central tenants of Luther’s theology, including the belief that humans are dead in their sin and are saved by trusting in God’s Word, which unites them to Christ. This meant that preaching the Word became a vital part of the Christian life in the Reformation, “The preacher had to proclaim first the law, to remind his hearers of how far short of God’s holiness they fell, and then the gospel, to the point them to the promise of salvation in Christ, who had done all things for them.”[13] What was clear was that the gospel message had been lost in the medieval church Luther protested against. It was for this reason that the Protestant Reformation was desperately needed in order to restore the most vital message the Church has been charged with preaching, that Christ died for sinners who cannot save themselves through good works, and salvation comes only through faith in Christ by the grace of God who has mercy on sinners. Sinners are justified by faith alone, the reformers argued.

Conclusion

It has been the aim of this paper to show that the history of the Church includes times when corruption and exploitation were the norm, when men used the spiritual and political influence of their office for personal gain, and when salvation was being commoditized. In showing this to be the case, it has also been the aim of this paper to show that one of the most significant splits in the Western Church was in response to this reality. Those who would use the past failures found in Church history as proof that there is no such thing as true religion must also face the reality that true Christianity must be measured by the teaching of Scripture, not the faithfulness of religious men. This truth is at the heart of the Reformation.

References

Bray, Gerald. "Late-Medieval Theology." In Reformation Theology: A Systematic Summary, 67-110. Wheaton: Crossway, 2017.

Gonzales, Justo L. The Story of Christianity: The Reformation to the Present Day. Vol. 2. New York: Harper One Publishers, 2010.

Gonzalez, Justo L. The Story of Christianity: The Early Church to the Dawn of the Reformation. New York: Haper One, 2010.

Shaff, Philip. History of the Church. Vol. 7. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 2006.

Shelly, Bruce L. Church History in PLain Language. Dallas: Word Publishing, 1995.

Thompson, Mark D. "Reformation Perspectives on Scripture: The Written Word of God." The Reformed Theological Review 57, no. 3 (December 1998): 105-120.

Trueman, Carl R., and Eunjin Kim. "The Reformers and Their Reformations." In Reformation Theology: A Systematic Approach, 111-141. Wheaton: Crossway, 2017.

Woodbridge, John D., and Framnk A. III James. Church History: From Pre-Reforamtion to the Present Day, The Rise and Growth of the Church in Its Cultural, Intellectual, and Political Context. Vol. 2. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2013.

[1] Gonzalez, Justo L. The Story of Christianity: The Early Church to the Dawn of the Reformation. New York: Haper One, 2010. p143-144.

[2] Woodbridge, John D., and Framnk A. III James. Church History: From Pre-Reforamtion to the Present Day, The Rise and Growth of the Church in Its Cultural, Intellectual, and Political Context. Vol. 2. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2013. p51.

[3] Shelly, Bruce L. Church History in PLain Language. Dallas: Word Publishing, 1995. p226-227.

[4] Ibid. Shelly, Bruce L. 1995. p230.

[5] Ibid. Shelly, Bruce L. 1995. p232.

[6] Ibid. Gonzalez, Justo L., 2010. p415.

[7] Bray, Gerald. "Late-Medieval Theology." In Reformation Theology: A Systematic Summary, 67-110. Wheaton: Crossway, 2017. p107.

[8] Shaff, Philip. History of the Church. Vol. 7. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 2006. p18.

[9] Gonzales, Justo L. The Story of Christianity: The Reformation to the Present Day. Vol. 2. New York: Harper One Publishers, 2010. p48.

[10] Thompson, Mark D. "Reformation Perspectives on Scripture: The Written Word of God." The Reformed Theological Review 57, no. 3 (December 1998): 105-120. p108.

[11] Ibid. Shaff, Philip. History of the Church. Vol. 7. p.147-148.

[12] Ibid. Shaff, Philip. History of the Church. Vol. 7. p.153.

[13] Trueman, Carl R., and Eunjin Kim. "The Reformers and Their Reformations." In Reformation Theology: A Systematic Approach, 111-141. Wheaton: Crossway, 2017. p114.