Canterbury/thomas becket/anglicansime/Via Francigena/Reforme au 16ieme

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Historical Context

The English Reformation is a combination of a series of events during the 16th century and also the 15th century, associated to the Protestant Reformation and the rise of Humanism passing by the Renaissance and a very particular Europe that we have never seen before. It is in fact, the beginning of the Modern Times.

First, there are two majors events that brought humanity in front of this new era.

In 1453, the Byzantin empire fell. The Turcs had taken the city of Constantinople and the intellectuels and scholars were chased by the invaders. They found shelter in Italy and with them they had brought a piece of the antique Greek and Latine past. That is how the Renaissance arrived in Italy and afterwards in Europe.

Then in 1492, Christopher Colombus discovered the “New world” and new sea ways slowly opened ( Magellan, Vasco da gama). But what is interesting in that. It's to understand what lays in the head of the population. They realised the world was huge, unknown and completly different from the conception they had of it. Copernic proved and forced the system to admit that the Earth was not at the center of the Universe.

The consequence that concern us here is the Renaissance that leads to the beginning of Humanism.

The current bonds back to some Greco-Roman civilisation legacy ( because of the scholars who refuged in Italy). By that act, the intellectuels developped the will of knowing and started believing that the mind abilities were unlimited and the quest of knowledge essential.

It aims also on education and new ways to approachs the knowledges and new ideas among scholars.

We begun to hear about, free will, open-mindness, tolerance, the seek of truth, rationality and aboves all, the concept of Humanity. It is the fact of judging and identifying with common values and universel morality. Existencial questions brought by the consciousness of the individual and also the understanding of being had taken more importance.Exacly like for the scholars of Antiquity.

This is Humanity and a revolution.

A revolution because the dailystate of mind of the common Christians at the end of the 15th century was the fear of death and the anguish of eternal damnation. It explains the devotion of the people.

We had more and more faithfuls to the cult of Marie the mother of Jesus, and the cult of the Saints, and also for the relics (Frederic the wise, the protector of Martin Luther owned 17 443 relics to spare 128 000 years of purgatory before heaven) and especially funerals ones. This also explains the witch hunts and there trials.

The paranoia of the devil had taken over the logic in the justice. Every crime was a good occasion to accuse of witchcraft. Other skins colors were considered as creation of the devil, like for the decision of Rome about the native population of the America. The rise of processions, pilgrimages, and exorcisms were huge at these periods. And of course, the only institution with answers and influence on those subject was the Clergy.

All those things is a manipulation of that Clergy to make money and gain authority. To reduces the time spend in the purgatory or to escape from hell, everyone was paying indulgence to them while they publicly abuse from the wealth acquired thanks to the faithful, and also publicly lives in concubinage.

The Pope’s political power followed from his spiritual power over Catholic rulers, which was everyone in Europe at that time. He was like the only authority superior to a king and that grants a kind of immunity to the Clergy even if they were abusing publicly the system.

With this historical context we can pull out two of the main factors of the Reform. The abuses of the Clergy and the new ways of thinkings brought by Humanism.

The roots of the Reformation and the pionneers

Three men are recognized by the Protestant historian as the pionneers of the Reformation. Jan Hus, a Czech burned for his heretic ideas that were just speaking about the abuses of the Clergy.

Valdo a translator of the Bible who preaches the holy writings.

John Wyclif

John Wyclif is the third (1331-1384), a english theologist and warden of Canterburry under the Arcbishop of Canterbury Simon Islip in the 14th century. He is the most ancient precursor of the English Reformation. His writings were inspired by the traduction of the Gospel, he said that:

“ The real Church is the Church of the Christians. The Pope leads but he is not more saint than an other Christian because only God is above.”

The affirmation of John Wyclif directly comes from the Gospel but It calls into question all the Clergy's hierarchy. He thinks that the only proof of faith is in the holy writings and that the Church may help in the interpretation but does not keep the holy truth.[pic 1]

Afterwards, Guillaume de Courtenay became Arcbishop of Canterburry and immediately sentenced John to death. His partisan were chased and the writings were forbiden. John's ideas had not succes beyond England.

Erasmus

“Erasmus was laying the egg that Luther hatched.” said a historian of Oxford Univeristy.

Erasmus (1446-1536) was probably the brainiest person alive at the time.

For 1000 years the Church in the West had neither Greek manuscripts, or the ability to read them. They depended on a Latin translation from the 4th century called the Vulgate or Common Bible. This was a Roman Catholic translation and it contained a number of important errors he did not noticed.

Erasmus was a lucky genius by finding and publishing a Greek New Testament. Scholars were not content to have books of second-hand, they wanted to go back to the originals as the spirit of the context wanted to. But at least, they were interested in Erasmus work which brought them back to a very close version of the original.

He could see that the Catholic Church was corrupted. He explained this in his writings. But he never wanted to break with the church. He wanted the church to puts its affairs in order by publishing a printed copy of the New Testament in Greek, which for the first time put the New testament back to the original language into the hands of many scholars. He wanted people to