Ignatius Loyola and the Catholic Reformation

in this lecture we're looking at the Catholic Reformation and the changes in the evolution to what it means to be Catholic as a result of the Reformation and it needs to be pointed out of course that when you talk about the Reformation we tend to be long on Protestantism and lean on Catholicism and that's a bit unfair and it actually puts Protestants frankly at a disadvantage because they tend to treat Catholicism in the modern world as if all it is is a regurgitation of medieval styles and practices and applications of Catholic theology and Catholic theology of course has changed and adapted over the years it's addressed new concerns it's gone through periods of revival and renewal as well as new controversies and crises throughout its history in the 20th century of course the big move within Catholicism was vatican ii and the changes to catholicism they're not least of which would be things like preaching in the vernacular or in the common language the use of the vernacular as well for the liturgy not having to reside solely in the latin vulgate which no one speaks anymore but that's the modern world what about the post-reformation world well to begin we have to get some vocabulary down because it's going to help us understand it in a bygone era just about a generation ago in fact and all before that historians tended to call this phase that I'm going to be discussing this lecture the counter-reformation in that name was eventually abandoned by at least the majority of historians though anyone who picks up a stray history book on the church's history or even at the popular level it is still at least relatively common to hear the phrase counter-reformation well why did we abandon that name simply put it has a bit of an edge to it the word counter it makes it sound as if the existence and the ongoing evolution of Catholic practice and teaching and it's understanding of itself after the Reformation was only a counter movement to the Reformation itself one of the things we talk about a lot in history is the fact that Luther and the Reformers of course were what we call external reformers they were within the church to begin with but as a result of the Reformation they left the church and founded Protestant denominations of all different varieties meaning that they are external to the Catholic Church but that doesn't deny the fact which shouldn't deny the fact that there were internal reformers who remained within the Catholic fold in other words Luther and Calvin and others were not the only ones who cited problems and wanted change what distinguishes them from the internal reformers is they left and those who were internal reformer stayed you can actually get a bit of this tension with both Luther and Calvin in Luther's life there's actually a very painful experience a painful episode where the men who had mentored him you might say during his college days his old professors back at the University of Erfurt the men who had inspired him to join the Augustinian order when Luther sparks the Reformation and really digs in and refuses to recant or to bow the knee these men these very personal friends of his eventually abandon him and not abandon the sense of being disloyal rather they felt that Luther had been disloyal to them and their teachings of him during his days there in the university Luther eventually has to resolve himself the fact that those who were former friends or mentors could no longer be this in Calvin's case it was colleagues friends fellow students you might say from his days as a humanist there in France particularly in the city of Paris Calvin throughout his life is an exile when he's down into the Swiss regions even though his name is virtually synonymous with the french-speaking Swiss side down in Geneva Calvin all of his life by his enemies in Geneva was called that Frenchman he was in exile he had left all of his and can all the people who were his closest allies by and large not all of them some had come with him but he left a great deal of relationships behind in Calvin eventually does right against what he calls the nikah two mites a name that refers to those who he believes are true gospel believers but who are unwilling to leave the church he alleges at times either for comfort or out of fear and he repeatedly calls on them to leave and frequently in most cases they do not so the counter-reformation is a bad name or an experience that is probably more visceral and personal throughout the context of the early Reformation what we have now come to call this is as the title of this lecture indicates the Catholic Reformation the Reformation that is germane to the Catholic Church it certainly has some negative or some interactive moments with Protestantism as we'll see here in a moment but it's not entirely sort of wrapped up in this anti Protestantism that evolves to make it a quote Counter Reformation only you might say that the Catholic Reformation is both places where the Catholic Church is taking care of its own house and in terms of the Counter Reformation places where it is reacting positively or negatively with Protestantism so Catholicism is both and not somehow rejection this idea that things don't change in the light of Protestantism one of the things though that we have to really get our arms around is both what we call conciliar movement within Catholicism during this day when conciliar dis means what evolves or what emerges from a council what are the changes made at the official level for the Catholic Church and then at the end of this lecture we're going to look at the Jesuits the personal part the personal side of the Catholic Reformation as you see arise this new order the serious order of a monastic movement that is designed to usher the Catholic Church into the modern world well first of all the council side of things the conciliar side of things all from the very early days with the Protestant Reformation Luther and others called repeatedly for a church council to meet and to rule officially on things like the doctrine of justification and we shouldn't be cynical about this in the early days Luther believed at least at some level certainly up until his trial at the diet of forms that things could be restored that though he was being accused of things and being harassed and harangue and attacked by all manner of different Catholics that in the end a council could solve the problem if you got enough of the best minds together to weigh in on the issues the problem though is that the church had just emerged just prior to the Reformation frankly from what we know as the great papal schism the moment in the Middle Ages particularly the fourteenth century where you have not one not two but at times three popes claiming to be the head of the church and emerging out of that schism there was a movement that we call big sea conciliar ism which is a short-lived view within the catholic church that a council is above a pope that if a council comes together they can kind of keep the house in order and that the Pope can more or less answer to the collective body you might say of a council now that idea is rejected you have to know this sometimes Protestants scratch their head who's really in charge here a council or the Pope well in the official teachings of the Catholic Church it's more of a collaborative unison but no one will say that a council is above a pope there are all kinds of councils that meet and make decisions and the Pope eventually may not ratify these things and so that was just a meeting of people that really didn't decide anything keep that in mind by the way whenever you see joint declarations between Protestants and Catholics there was a famous couple of moments like evangelicals and Catholics together during the end of the 20th century where you have Catholic Cardinals of all things and other Catholic theologians meeting with Protestants and they issued declarations about what they believe and a lot of people lost their mind or applauded vociferously that this was some great move well the problem is is the men the Catholics sitting on that council or on that meeting and there are lots of others besides ECT have no right to decide what the Catholic teaching is or is not rather when you come to a council a council is supposed to come together make some formal declarations in the Pope if he ratifies it therefore blesses the council and that is why in official Catholic teachings a councils decisions sometimes appear to have the same weight as papal Proclamation when that is the case as in the case of say Vatican 2 or Vatican law nor any of the council's official Catholic teaching is that it's because the Pope has also ratified and approved of the decisions made there well coming out of conciliar ISM with all these calls for a council in the early days of the Reformation the Pope was not about to allow a council to meet to decide this very thorny and knotty problems of the issues of salvation mainly though for fear that this would again open the door to conciliar ISM to the Pope dug in he refused however in 1545 finally again just a year before Luther dies there convened the first session of what we know today as the Council of Trent now the Council of Trent is officially on the books said to have met from 1545 to 1563 this is a bit overstated got to be careful here the council met in three successive stages at times only for a matter of months or a year sometimes for a few years and for various reasons the council has two you might say be called off and from that only the decisions made it say phase 1 or issued at that time and then a successive phase will meet etc well there are three phases within the Council of Trent from 1545 to 1563 and we'll go through these in order and just talk about the general tone and some of the things that are being decided here the first two phases just to kind of give you a grid are more germane to the issues in the controversies of Protestantism in this sense that old word of the counter-reformation is more in effect these are at times attempts by some to be conciliatory to Protestantism particular to Lutheranism though in the end on almost every point they reject the Protestant message the first phase meets from 15 45 to 15 47 this council was really leveraged by Charles v himself that long-lived Emperor from the Holy Roman Empire who seems to be everywhere in the Reformation and affecting all kinds of things in this case he actually he might say demands though he probably wouldn't have said he demanded but it really urge the Pope to finally call a council and put things to right well this council meets again this from 15 45 to 1547 and the decisions made here are mostly doctrinal the three main ones they cover and it's more complex in this of course in the course of the two years but the three main issues that are often cited as the most important things from this phase are a decree on the doctrine of justification a ratification about the use of the Vulgate and the role of tradition in catholic theology in some of these cases these are re affirmations of longstanding traditions or principles within the medieval world in the case of justification though which is the first one we'll talk about this is the first you might say official declaration about the catholic view of salvation that's actually quite striking the fact that for 1,400 years since the time of the Apostles there had not been a council to decide justification that very core principle sometimes strikes people as a bit strange but it doesn't mean that everyone was the sort of willy-nilly believing whatever they want as we saw with Luther there was a majority opinion about the role of works and the Christian life but no one had come together and said okay this is justification and this is sanctification and here's works etc a lot of it was because there had not yet been a major controversy to spark this that in contrast with the early church where there were christological controversies or Trinitarian controversies that did need to be decided pretty aggressively well now that the protestant message has arisen now there have been protestant churches broken off the catholic church needed to decide based on this controversy when the language used here the first phase of the council of trent is that you are justified they say by quote faith working itself out in love now again a lot of new students have come to this and they say alright that sounds fine that sounds very protestant in fact and i think that just goes to show the lack of real depth of clarity as to what justification is the key words here are work and love you see because in the medieval tradition works of love were you might say synonymous with works of penance for the sake of accruing merit it would probably be anachronistic or overly simplistic to say that what the catholic church's is affirming here is that it's faith and works that saves you but it should also be pointed out that luther never actually says that anyone in the Catholic Church teaches faith plus works . that's actually not the Catholic teaching rather but Luther argues is that the Catholic teachings amount to faith and works combined and you really see this complexity here on display with this doctrine here of justified by faith working in love coming out of the more Augustinian tradition there have been a long-standing belief rightly so that the object of your love draws you towards it and changes you to be more like it and Agustin and his followers in the Middle Ages always knew that when God is our supreme love when we are drawn towards him that relational drawing changes us to be more like him of course the problem though again for Luther and for the Reformers is that from the high middle ages on and particularly in the latter middle ages this idea of being drawn towards in this change this renovation of who we are in relationship to God had developed into again a very concrete transactional view of merit there's all this talk about what you need to do to pay back the debt of your sin in some ways it's at least analogically the same or least in parallel somewhat to the original Augustinian position but it had developed and deepened so much and it had come to rest so much on the conversation of merit and the Christian life and penance that in the end Luther will say this really does amount to justification by faith and works not justification by works that's full pelagianism the church had already rejected that but Luther is saying is through some sneaky backdoor way and Luther says is about everybody we always end up saying I get in by faith but I have to stay in by works if anything that's what Luther is more concerned about no one is going to be so bold as to say well what we're going to believe is that we have to earn our salvation no one says that rather they start with faith they start with God's grace and then they say but that but is the important one but works of love have to follow so in a manner of speaking the council Trent here is very strong against the Lutheran and the Protestant understanding of salvation by faith you might say that the Catholic Church embraces salvation by faith but the key word that they will reject is by faith alone again the Protestants believe that there are works of love that are part and parcel to the Christian life they've read the book of James as I put it that way they know exactly what is required to the Christian life in terms of the change that God is going to work in us the important thing here though is they reject the idea that we are justified by that they will say no we are justified by Christ's work only any change any renovation or heart is a result of the spirits activity in us once we are children of the king it is not something that can be revoked where we get you might say removed from the family of God sin and stumbling and all these things are disciplines that God gives to us as children but they are not the ground of our justification rather they are part of the Christian life thereafter so that's one secondly this phase talks about the Vulgate and it again reaffirms this idea that the Vulgate which is is the fifth century translation of the Bible into Latin by Saint Jerome well the vulgar tin drums day was just fine a lot of people spoke Latin it would not be unlike Anu let's say English translation of the Bible today in a manner of speaking a lot of people scratch their head about this why would the church say that the volga is the only text is this some sort of KJV only type of opinion from the Catholic Church the answer is no the proclamation here is not that only Christians can read the Vulgate per se the reality is is the Catholic Church has always had vernacular translations they still do today even those who are very Pro vulgate still use vernacular translations to help them understand it rather what the proclamation here entails is that the only official text that can be argued over let's say doctrinally in the context of a council maybe is the fo'get itself they of course know the Bible is written in Greek and Hebrew they knew the complexity of interpretation but in many ways this doubling down on the Folgate is a signal of how much they appreciate the complexity of interpretation what they're saying here is basically don't bring in a bunch of new maybe Protestant translations of the Scriptures which have we might say theological axes to grind you see they had read the Protestant translation to the Bible they knew that at the translational level there were all kinds of words and choices and reapplications of verses subtly so but ones that could confuse take for example the Tyndale Bible when he got to the word ekklesia in the Greek he did not translate that word to mean the church so any place Paul let's say is referring to the church or the ekklesia Tindall very famously always translated that word or nearly always to be congregation the Catholic Church knows this they know of other places at other fights like this or Protestants are choosing alternative translational words you might say in order to express what they believe the Scriptures are teaching in the case of Tyndale he doesn't want anyone to confuse that what Paul is talking about is the Catholic Church so he uses the word congregation so when the Council of Trent decides that they're going to only use the flow get what they mean there is it's going to be the only official text they're not going to say it's inspired they don't really go there they don't believe that Jerome's Latin translation is somehow descended from on high rather what they're saying is we will control the interpretation and we're going to control it at the level of what text we're going to use whenever we have a debate lastly tradition tradition is one of those issues that often gets a Protestant world in a bit of hot water Protestants in the modern world particularly after the Great Awakening movements have made us more let's say revival istic have tended to believe that Protestants don't believe in tradition at all the unfortunate fact is that is entirely false it's that line of thinking that gets evangelicals in particular into trouble when they start saying things like well we don't have any creeds or confessions we just have the Bible we don't have any tradition we don't follow any tradition at all no matter what denomination we happen to be a part of typically when people say that what they're missing is the fact that they have a tradition they're just assuming that they don't have a tradition the better way to look at this is the Catholic understanding of tradition you might say is tradition with the capital T where as Protestants affirm tradition with a lowercase T now this is just my way of explaining the difference in the Protestant edition they believe in tradition Protestants by and large with a couple of exceptions in the Reformation in the 16th century embraced traditional elements of say the liturgical year they kept Easter they didn't throw that out they kept Christmas they kept all kinds of things maybe they paired it down from the Middle Ages but they didn't throw out the calendar they also knew and Calvin talks about this and looser talks about this there are all kinds of things that have arisen in the context of the church's history that are to be embraced not on the level of the Bible but as good and necessary consequences of the role of the church's history the Creed's are a great example every single Protestant believes that the ancient Creed's are a normative grammar for how we're going to describe God in the person of Jesus Christ we're not going to be Aryan we're not going to be Gnostic we're going to reject these alternative views of how to read the scriptures none of them would say that the Creed's are part of that Catholic tradition big t thing and therefore to throw them out rather for Protestants they have a tradition they just you might say hold it lightly they're always willing to spot abuses in the use of tradition and work against that either through reform or at times through rejecting things that had been good but because of idolatry had become or will become this is an ongoing reality and Protestant life things that we need to be more careful with in the Catholic Church stemming from this first phase of the Council of Trent tradition with a big t means more that when you have a tradition that arises within the church and if that tradition is embraced or affirmed at the council and then at the papal level that these become they wouldn't say equal as Scripture but they become an equal guide and an equal grounding on the practice of the Christian life so take the liturgical year again as I said Protestants are not all that opposed to it they're opposed to some of it if it becomes sort of this idolatrous imposition of historical practices that are seen to be the only way all Christians ought to live period Protestants will reject that but they'll be ok with others just see the debates that go on even today about for example Lent the question of well that's some human history etc that's a Protestant fight in the Catholic Church if Flint has arisen let's say or other parts of the Christian calendar or other parts of doctrine or expression maybe the doctrines of Mary or of the rosary or of other practices that are very germane to the Catholic Church if these have become embraced and then accepted at all levels then they become Protestants would say equal the scripture but the Catholic understanding of it is these are the authoritative interpretations of how we ought to live again the Catholic move here is to say the interpretation of the Bible is a challenge and therefore to stand tall only in the Bible means that you're avoiding some of the good and necessary interpretive challenges only the church can decide for you so that's phase one 15:45 to 1547 the second phase is much shorter it's 1551 to 1552 it this council and you'll remember from a previous lecture this is about the time when we're going to have the treaty of Passau and the Peace of Augsburg this is a time when there is at least some move to try to bring certain balance between Lutheran and Catholic perspectives on things and for that reason here at this second Council there were a number of Lutheran visitors there to come as witnesses you might say or at least non-vocal participants during this council one is the man chemnitz one of the more important later Lutheran developers of Lutheran theology he's there he eventually writes a commentary on this Council of Trent here at the council Trent again because they're engaging with Lutheranism the main issue not the only issue the main issue on the table was the doctrine of transubstantiation now you'll recall of course that the Lutheran faith believes in a physical eating of physical presence of Christ the question here is can you believe merely in a physical presence of Christ or must you affirm the doctrine of transubstantiation in the Catholic sense now to be clear luther just simply believes that it is a mystery and that Christ is present physically the Catholic understanding of transubstantiation is a bit more of an application or an understanding as to how Christ is present the way to understand this the simplest way frankly is we're very used to the word transform transform ation is just underline that word form the form is the thing you see so if I were to transform I would change into the man that I am into some other shape some external form to Who I am a change count doctrine on the Lord's Supper does not believe that there is a trance formation of the elements if it were a transformation well the wafer would turn into bits of flesh and the wine mature literally visibly and even you might say olfactory the smell and the taste and everything would transform into blood they don't believe that the word is trans substance that trans substantial under by the word substance the substance of something is the core identity of it so the form of Who I am or what something is can change but the old Aristotelian way of looking at this is that the substance of something may not change take the case of me if I were to lose an arm my form the thing you see about me would be radically different I'd be a one-armed man but none of us would say that by having changed that form that the substance the essence of Who I am was a different thing I'd still be myself the doctrine of transubstantiation in the character another word says you don't see it you don't taste it but the essence of the bread and wine become the body and blood physically that's the core doctrine well at this council in phase 2 they reject the idea that you can simply affirm physical eating according to mystery and that to be Catholic to truly believe in the mass you have to affirm the doctrine of transubstantiation so in terms of any reconciliation on any level with Lutheranism this second phase comes to no avail lastly and thirdly the third phase of the Council of Trent from 1562 to 1563 is where you see some changes begin to happen where the Catholic Church is beginning to put its house in order according to its own terms now that it has come to the conclusion that there will be no reconciliation with Protestantism at any point that this council the doctrine of purgatory is reaffirmed notice it's not affirmed for the first time let's reaffirmed and after that there are a number of moral reforms and educational reforms that are put on the books that the Catholic Church hopes will us or the church into a new modern world that it will correct some of the abuses that were there from the Middle Ages and it will issue in some new things some renewed things even to really sort of galvanize what it means to be Catholic there a regulation for example about what can be called a relic there are all kinds of fake relics going about being touted as a piece of the true cross or a thorn from the crown of thorns and all these kinds of things and it was getting a bit ridiculous there was no regulations on this well this council puts regulations on it there were regulations about indulgences they were no longer to be sold for example how bishops were to be selected to their offices and how they were supposed to remain in their diocese and be good shepherds of the pastor's there there was also a call educationally for seminaries and schools and training centers to be funded all throughout the world as they knew it and by this point of course the new world is becoming increasingly a real focus for much of Europe now in terms of the context of Europe this call for a renewed sense of education and a new commitment to it was relatively underdeveloped it simply weren't the funds to really bolster this however if you cast your eye just across the american university landscape even today notice the significant number of catholic universities or universities that maybe were devoutly Catholic to begin with strictly Catholic that or more now broad highly respected institutions where students are Catholic or not Catholic war sometimes of no religion at all st. John's Notre Dame Gonzaga Loyola Catholic University in Washington DC these are just a few if you look at the real robust educational focus of in particular American Catholicism you'll see some of the collateral impact of this call from the Council of Trent the long history of American Catholic education really stems from this call to not let Protestantism be the only educational muscle throughout the known world so that's the Council of Trent now one last word before we move on to the Jesuits to this day we sometimes refer to something that we call tried endtime Catholicism and tried endtime Catholicism is a word that describes Catholicism from this point the Council of Trent frankly all the way down until the Second Vatican Council the Second Vatican Council is so important a shift in the way Catholicism views itself that everything after that is really you might say more Vatican than it is try dentine well what do we mean well the word tried in Tainan Latin is just the word for Trent the city with a Council of Trent met so when we say tried endtime Catholicism that kind of robust Latin Vulgate traditional Catholicism that is known throughout this entries what we mean is the Catholicism that is formed and reformed and shaped here at the Council of Trent okay that's the conciliar side what about the personal side well there arose shortly after the Reformation the Jesuits you really cannot under appreciate or speak to hyperbolically about the role of the Jesuits over the centuries you cans you got to be careful here there were other monastic traditions and other movements that are vital for the modern Catholic movement but the Jesuits are really at the forefront there are some that might equal the Jesuits but none surpass them how do the Jesuits come about well they come about from Ignatius of Loyola Ignatius of Loyola was from the basque family which is up in the northern part of Spain and he had been a soldier in 1521 though he was wounded he had a badly shattered leg after a battle and you can imagine no painkillers not really much of a plaster cast no opportunity for surgery you were really an invalid in bed waiting for a leg to heal certainly once it shatters well notice the date is well 1521 this is well after Luther has really kind of made his stand well Ignatius they're residing at Manresa up in the northern part of Spain begins to turn his attention to prayer the opportunity for becoming a soldier or remaining a soldier after a shattered leg was rather dim so he turns to his faith and Ignatius developed one of the more important articulations of the role of prayer or the practice of prayer that is read all the way until today even by Protestants he might call it mindful meditation or mindfulness tations of the Cross during the Easter season of the lent season the way you meditate actively on something not to simply waiting on a spiritual impulse first that really becomes a hallmark of the Jesuit spirituality well he starts to take on followers from this people here and begin to understand that man Ignatius is a man to follow around 1534 he has gathered around him men like Xavier another famous name that Levin shall become a university and a number of others about five more in 1534 and it grows from there now this is just a small group of lay Christians however within a number of years they take on monastic vows and they form a Jesuit Order in 1540 in fact Pope Paul the 3rd accepts the Jesuit Order as the newest you might say branch of monasticism and you'll note of course there's Franciscans Dominicans augustinians etc it's important to note by the way that all of these other orders in the monastic world usually had to wait a great deal of time before they would be accepted to be accepted in 1540 is incredibly fast and it does speak a bit to the need for some real devout I might say aggressive forms of monastic life to really offset the Protestant message in 1548 a number of years later the Spiritual Exercises as the book that encapsulates Ignatius is understanding a prayer would later be called is accepted as official Catholic teaching as one of the best books to understand Catholic prayer and to this day again the Spiritual Exercises are still in print and read widely all over the Jesuits well put simply the Jesuits become as one Catholic scholar called them the shock troops of the new Catholic understanding of itself particularly over against Protestantism they do all kinds of radical things they are radical missionaries for example they go all throughout South America they go as far out as China all over the place they are at the Pope's beck and call and they will go high and low at his command they were not going to be lazy and boring or committed to building houses and taking endowments they were on the move the other thing about the Jesuits though is again from an educational standpoint they become significantly important for the modern educational resurgence in Catholic theology the most important anti Protestant books and some of the most important purely Catholic teachings on things often over the centuries are written by Jesuits a lot of those Catholic universities that I mentioned often would be Jesuit founded or would have an overwhelming population of Jesuit scholars in their midst as the faculty the Jesuits in other words take on both the Catholic and as we said before the counter motifs here in the Reformation within the Catholic Church they're both those who are committed zealously to making Catholics better at being Catholic but when push comes to shove and depending on who we're talking about over the years there are plenty of Jesuits who will take up their arms metaphorically maybe with a pen or at times literally take up arms to go after the Protestant faith now they are met by Protestant people carrying arms just as well they're not the aggressors in every case but there are plenty of cases both good and bad of how the Jesuit Order in many ways personally embodies a new robust committed idea of what it means to be Roman Catholic

Channel: Ryan Reeves

Views: 266,240

Keywords: Roman Catholic Church (Organization Founder), Martin Luther (Founding Figure), Ignatius Of Loyola (Organization Founder), Counter-Reformation, Protestant Reformation (Event), Catholic Reformation, Society Of Jesus (Religious Order), The Bible (Religious Text), Council Of Trent (Organization), Protestantism (Religion), Ryan M. Reeves, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary (College/University)

Id: xHjVsNFE60U

Length: 37min 22sec (2242 seconds)

Published: Mon May 25 2015