Posted: 7/4/2018
Ninety Five Theses In The Year 1517
A large part of the world recently celebrated the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther’s reformation. The reformation most people in the West are fairly familiar with. However, the contrast between the Catholic Church and the Protestant Reformation is much more complicated than is widely believed. The stereotypes between both may not be correct.
The Protestant Reformation really did not happen in a vacuum or in total and pure isolation.
The Reformation From Within
I personally find the reformation that happened around the same time and even much earlier within the Roman Catholic Church a lot more fascinating.
Due to lack of time for more research, I will present here only bits and pieces.
Gerard Groote And His Brethren Of The Common Life
“Gerard Groote (October 1340 – 20 August 1384), ..., was a Dutch Roman Catholic deacon, who was a popular preacher and the founder of the Brethren of the Common Life. He was a key figure in the Devotio Moderna movement.” He studied in Aachen und an der Sorbonne in Paris.
“The bishop of Utrecht supported him warmly, and got him to preach against concubinage in the presence of the clergy assembled in synod. The impartiality of his censures, which he directed not only against the prevailing sins of the laity, but also against heresy, simony, avarice, and impurity among the secular and regular clergy, provoked the hostility of the clergy, and accusations of heterodoxy were brought against him.”
The majority of the Brethren were laymen who did not take monastic vows. They devoted themselves to doing charitable work, nursing the sick, studying and teaching the Scriptures, and copying religious and inspirational works. They founded a number of schools that became famous for their high standards of learning. Many famous men attended their schools, including Nicholas of Cusa, Thomas à Kempis, and Erasmus, all of whom studied at the Brethren's school at Deventer.
Devotio Moderna
“The Brethren's confraternity is the best known fruits of the "Devotio Moderna", (the Modern Devotion), an undogmatic form of piety which some historians have argued helped to pave the road for the Protestant Reformation. In the fifteenth century, the movement spread to southern and western Germany.”
“Devotio Moderna ... was a movement for religious reform, calling for apostolic renewal through the rediscovery of genuine pious practices such as humility, obedience, and simplicity of life. It began in the late fourteenth-century, largely through the work of Gerard Groote] and flourished in the Low Countries and Germany in the fifteenth century, but came to an end with the Protestant Reformation”
Thomas a Kempis The Imitation Of Christ
“The Imitation of Christ (Latin: De Imitatione Christi) by Thomas à Kempis is a Christian devotional book. It was first composed in Latin ca. 1418–1427. It is a handbook for spiritual life arising from the Devotio Moderna movement, of which Kempis was a member. The Imitation is perhaps the most widely read Christian devotional work next to the Bible, and is regarded as a devotional and religious classic. Its popularity was immediate, and it was printed 745 times before 1650. Apart from the Bible, no book had been translated into more languages than the Imitation of Christ at the time.”
Vita Christi By Ludolph Of Saxony
This famous book was completed by 1374 and first printed in 1474. It said that this book greatly inspired Ignatius of Loyola. Ludolph of Saxony is the author of a second, highly regarded boo, The Commentary upon the Psalms.
There is some speculation as to whether the Vita Christi influenced The Imitation of Christ.
Saint Ignatius Of Loyola And Spiritual Exercises
Ignatius of Loyola (1491 - 1556) was the founder of the Society of Jesus (ca. 1540, better known as Jesuits). I believe, that historians would argue that this man and the Jesuits were rather part of the so called Counter Reformation.
Well, Loyola’s miraculous transformation/conversion from a career in the military service to his lifelong devotion to religion began ca. 1521. While recovering from his war injuries in a hospital run by a religious order, he read the Vita Christi and was particularly struck by this book.
Shortly after recovering from his injuries, Loyola visited the Santa Maria de Montserrat abbey run by Benedictine monks, where he was introduced into teachings based on the Brothers of the Common Life, the promoters of the "devotio moderna".
The Roman Catholic Counter Reformation
Common history has us believe that it followed the Protestant Reformation. However, that appears to be a convenient, simplistic narrative in conflict with the facts.
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