The German Augustinian priest, Martin Luther, is
considered to have started the Protestant Reformation on 31st October 1517 AD
when he allegedly nailed the 95 Theses on Indulgences on the door of All Saints
Church in Wittenberg, protesting against abuses in the Church which were
serious and many at that time. Events
progressed in a way that nobody could have foreseen and within twenty years the
Church in the West was torn apart. It
was certainly far from what Martin Luther had in mind when he first made his
stand.
Back in 1517 AD the papacy did not feature large in
the lives of most Christians. It had a
much lower profile in the first 1,500 years of Christianity than it has
today. Most Christians would not have
known the name of the Pope. It might
have been mentioned in the Mass but that prayer was said silently and in
Latin. Sermons on the feast of Saints
Peter and Paul might in passing say a word about ‘the vicar of Peter’ as he
then tended to be called. Sermons in any
case for much of the Church’s history were not a regular feature of the Mass,
especially in the countryside which is where most people lived.
During the Middle Ages catechetical instruction
consisted of learning the Creed, basic prayers, the Ten Commandments and the
seven capital sins, perhaps along with the Beatitudes and works of mercy. We know from the early printed Catechisms
that were in use and where the papacy hardly gets a mention. Is it mentioned in the Apostles Creed or the
Nicene Creed? In answer to the question:
‘What is the Church?’ the catechism states simply: ‘The Congregation of
Christian faithful, governed and illumined by God our Lord.’ The great theologian of the Middle Ages was
St Thomas Aquinas who wrote many volumes, systematically setting out the
theological teachings of the Church and he barely mentions the papacy.
Most Catholics today, anywhere in the world, know
that Pope Francis ‘runs the Church’.
That means, among other things, that he appoints their bishops whom most
Catholics regard as ‘the Pope’s representative’. Recent Popes always seem to be in the
news. Innocent III, who became Pope
around the year 1200 AD, is the first Pope to call himself ‘the Vicar of
Christ.’ Before that the Pope was only
the ‘Vicar of Peter’ but the title ‘Vicar of Christ’ stuck and is today much
better known than the more venerable ‘Servant of the servants of God.’
We know, of course, that from the earliest
centuries the bishop of Rome held a position of special respect. But for the first thousand years they
exercised their ministry in a much more subdued way. The increased speed of communication,
especially the invention of printing in the 15th century, not to mention the
humble telephone, changed peoples’ lives drastically and the papacy itself
changed over the centuries – and not always for the better.
In the first millennium the popes defined no
doctrines, they wrote no encyclicals, they did not appoint bishops nor did they
summon the bishops to Rome as they later did – and still do – to report on the
state of their dioceses. They did not
convoke General Councils of the Church or preside at them. Their role in the first eight councils of the
Church – all held in the East – was not very significant. Some of the Popes of course had a broad
vision of their responsibilities and dealt on weighty matters with the leaders
of society. For the main part, however,
they concentrated on local issues and officiated at the solemn liturgies at the
great basilicas in Rome.
The decisive turn that led to a much higher papal
profile came about in the second half of the 11th century with the election of
Pope Gregory VII. Startlingly new
demands for submission to papal decisions were advanced. It was now claimed that Popes had the right
to depose emperors! Relations between
the Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV and Pope Gregory VII were pretty torrid, a
situation that was replicated in succeeding reigns. Popes became addicted to power and
Christianity and power do not mix.
Luther came on the scene when the papacy was going
through a particularly bad patch. His
challenge to the scandals of the Church was epitomised in the 95 theses on
indulgences. Indulgences were widely
granted as a means of raising money for the Church. It was especially big business 500 years ago
in 1517 AD when the papacy needed huge funds to build the new basilica of St
Peter’s. Once his questioning started
much else was rejected. As well as papal
primacy, Catholic teaching on the Eucharist and other Sacraments came under
attack. Printing – a new trade –
transformed Luther’s rebellion into an unstoppable force and in little more
than a century most of Northern Europe was Protestant.
