WHAT HAPPENED IN THE WEST BEFORE LUTHER?

THE REFORMATION DID NOT BEGIN IN A VACUUM

October 31, 1517.

Martin Luther.

Ninety-Five Theses.

Those names and that date are often used to begin the story of the Protestant Reformation.

But if we begin there, we begin too late.

Luther did not wake up one morning and announce:

“I THINK I’LL START PROTESTANTISM.”

He was a Roman Catholic.

He was a monk.

He was a priest.

He was a professor of theology.

And the Western church he knew had already been developing for more than a thousand years.

So before we meet Luther, we need to understand the church he inherited.

1. AFTER EAST AND WEST SEPARATED, THE WEST KEPT DEVELOPING

In our previous section, we followed the growing separation between Eastern and Western Christianity.

Eastern Orthodoxy continued with its patriarchs, bishops, synods, liturgy, and understanding of Holy Tradition.

In Western Europe, Rome became increasingly central.

The bishop of Rome was no longer simply one important bishop among many.

The papacy had become a powerful religious institution.

At times, it was also a major political institution.

The Western church Luther inherited was therefore organized very differently from the local churches we first encounter in Acts.

But that development had taken place over centuries.

TO UNDERSTAND LUTHER’S WORLD, WE MUST FIRST UNDERSTAND WHAT THE WESTERN CHURCH HAD BECOME.

2. THE CHURCH WAS PART OF ALMOST EVERYTHING

For the average person in medieval Western Europe, the church was not something you simply attended on Sunday.

It touched nearly every part of life.

BIRTH.

BAPTISM.

MARRIAGE.

CONFESSION.

THE LORD’S SUPPER.

DEATH.

BURIAL.

Kings and rulers dealt with bishops and popes.

Monasteries owned land.

Bishops could possess political power.

Church institutions operated schools, hospitals, charities, and monasteries.

The church preserved learning and manuscripts.

It cared for the poor.

It sent missionaries.

It built magnificent churches.

So we should not tell the story as though the medieval Western church did nothing except collect money and exercise power.

That would be unfair.

There was genuine faith.

There was sacrifice.

There was charity.

There was scholarship.

There were Christians sincerely trying to serve God.

But there were also serious problems.

3. THE PAPACY HAD BECOME VERY POWERFUL

We have already followed that development.

By the Middle Ages, popes made claims of authority far beyond the responsibilities described for local elders in the New Testament.

Popes became involved with:

KINGS.

EMPERORS.

TERRITORIES.

WARS.

APPOINTMENTS.

POLITICAL ALLIANCES.

Church and state were deeply entangled.

At times, popes challenged kings.

At other times, kings attempted to control popes.

The question was no longer merely:

WHO SHOULD SHEPHERD A LOCAL CONGREGATION?

It could become:

WHO HAS AUTHORITY OVER CHRISTIAN EUROPE?

That is the world into which Luther was born.

4. THE CLERGY HAD BECOME A DISTINCT CLASS

The Western church had developed a large clerical structure.

There were:

DEACONS.

PRIESTS.

BISHOPS.

ARCHBISHOPS.

CARDINALS.

THE POPE.

These titles did not all represent separate sacramental orders. For example, a cardinal was a senior church official whose title did not constitute an additional order above bishop.

But the overall structure was extensive.

Ordinary Christians were generally called:

THE LAITY.

That created a strong distinction between ordained clergy and other church members.

The clergy administered the sacraments.

The church exercised considerable influence over access to those sacraments.

And the sacraments were understood as essential parts of Christian life.

That gave church officials enormous spiritual influence.

THE ORGANIZATION OF THE CHURCH AND THE SPIRITUAL LIFE OF ITS MEMBERS HAD BECOME CLOSELY CONNECTED.

5. THE SACRAMENTAL SYSTEM HAD BECOME HIGHLY DEVELOPED

By Luther’s time, the Western church recognized seven sacraments:

BAPTISM.

CONFIRMATION.

THE EUCHARIST.

PENANCE.

ANOINTING OF THE SICK.

HOLY ORDERS.

MATRIMONY.

Some of these clearly had strong connections with New Testament practices.

Baptism certainly did.

The Lord’s Supper certainly did.

Marriage certainly did.

Prayer and care for the sick certainly did.

But our question must be more specific.

DID THE APOSTLES ESTABLISH A SYSTEM OF SEVEN SACRAMENTS?

That is different from asking whether some of the individual practices appear in Scripture.

The medieval church understood the sacraments within a developed theological and ecclesiastical system.

We need to distinguish the New Testament practices from the later explanations and institutional arrangements associated with them.

6. CONFESSION AND PENANCE WERE IMPORTANT

Sin after baptism created serious questions in the developing church.

How was a Christian who sinned restored?

What did repentance require?

How should the church respond?

Over time, a penitential system developed.

Confession to a priest became important.

Absolution became associated with priestly ministry.

Acts of penance or satisfaction could be prescribed.

And eventually another practice became increasingly important:

INDULGENCES.

We need to understand that word because indulgences would help bring Luther into open controversy.

7. WHAT WAS AN INDULGENCE?

We need to be careful here.

An indulgence was not officially supposed to mean:

“PAY MONEY AND GOD WILL FORGIVE YOUR SINS.”

That is too simple.

Within medieval Catholic theology, the guilt of sin and the temporal punishment associated with sin were distinguished.

The sinner repented and confessed.

The guilt of sin could be forgiven through absolution.

But temporal punishment could remain.

An indulgence concerned the remission of that temporal punishment under the conditions recognized by the church.

It was not, in official Catholic teaching, permission to commit future sins or a substitute for repentance.

But the teaching became connected with another subject:

PURGATORY.

8. WHAT WAS PURGATORY?

Western Christianity developed the teaching that some who died in God’s grace still required purification before entering the fullness of heaven.

That purification came to be called:

PURGATORY.

Catholic theology did not describe purgatory as a second opportunity for those who died outside God’s grace.

It concerned those understood to be destined for heaven but still requiring purification.

This raises a question for our study.

WHAT DOES THE NEW TESTAMENT TEACH ABOUT THE CONDITION OF THOSE WHO DIE IN CHRIST?

And:

DOES IT TEACH A PROCESS OF PURIFICATION AFTER DEATH?

Catholic theologians have appealed to several biblical passages and to church tradition in support of purgatory.

Those arguments deserve examination.

But for now, we need to understand why indulgences mattered.

If temporal punishment could extend beyond death, and if the church possessed authority concerning that punishment, then an indulgence could become extremely important to an ordinary Christian.

Especially someone who feared for a loved one who had died.

9. MONEY ENTERED THE PICTURE

Indulgences had a longer and more complicated history than simply selling pieces of paper.

But abuses developed.

By Luther’s time, indulgence preaching had become associated with raising money.

In the controversy that provoked Luther, money collected through an indulgence campaign was connected with financing the rebuilding of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome and with financial obligations associated with Archbishop Albert of Mainz.

That created a troubling combination:

FEAR OF PUNISHMENT AFTER DEATH.

CHURCH AUTHORITY.

MONEY.

Johann Tetzel became one of the best-known indulgence preachers associated with the controversy.

Luther believed the preaching surrounding indulgences was giving people false confidence about repentance, forgiveness, and salvation.

That became the immediate issue behind his Ninety-Five Theses.

But we should not assume that every indulgence preacher taught exactly the same thing or that every Catholic theologian defended every fundraising practice.

THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN OFFICIAL TEACHING AND THE WAY A PRACTICE WAS PRESENTED TO ORDINARY PEOPLE MATTERS.

10. BUT INDULGENCES WERE NOT THE WHOLE REFORMATION

This is very important.

If we say:

“LUTHER OBJECTED TO SELLING INDULGENCES, AND THEREFORE PROTESTANTISM BEGAN,”

we miss most of the story.

The indulgence controversy opened a much larger door.

Soon questions arose about:

THE AUTHORITY OF THE POPE.

THE AUTHORITY OF COUNCILS.

THE AUTHORITY OF SCRIPTURE.

JUSTIFICATION.

FAITH.

GRACE.

GOOD WORKS.

THE PRIESTHOOD.

THE SACRAMENTS.

THE NATURE OF THE CHURCH ITSELF.

The argument would eventually reach much deeper than money.

11. ANOTHER QUESTION WAS ACCESS TO SCRIPTURE

The Bible certainly existed before Luther.

Monks copied Scripture for centuries.

Scholars studied it.

The church read Scripture in worship.

Vernacular translations and biblical material existed before Luther.

So we should not repeat the claim:

“NOBODY HAD A BIBLE UNTIL LUTHER.”

That is not true.

But access was nothing like it is today.

Books copied by hand were expensive.

Literacy was limited.

In Western worship and scholarship, Latin was enormously important.

Many ordinary people did not understand Latin.

Some biblical teaching reached them through preaching, art, drama, and other forms of instruction.

But the ability to own and read a complete Bible in one’s own language was limited.

Then something happened that changed communication dramatically.

12. THE PRINTING PRESS CHANGED THE WORLD

During the fifteenth century, printing with movable type transformed Europe.

Books could now be reproduced far faster and more cheaply than hand copying allowed.

Ideas could spread.

Pamphlets could spread.

Arguments could spread.

And Scripture could spread.

This would become enormously important to Luther.

Earlier reformers had not possessed the same printing and distribution networks that existed in the sixteenth century.

Luther’s writings could be reproduced and distributed far beyond Wittenberg.

The Reformation would become not only a theological event.

It would also become:

A PRINTING-PRESS EVENT.

But printing did not decide which ideas were true.

It made those ideas easier to distribute.

Readers still had to examine the arguments.

13. LUTHER WAS NOT THE FIRST PERSON TO CALL FOR REFORM

This is another important correction.

Long before Luther, Christians had criticized corruption and called for reform.

John Wycliffe in England challenged important church teachings and emphasized the authority of Scripture.

Jan Hus in Bohemia also challenged abuses and questions of church authority.

Hus was condemned and burned in 1415.

There were other reform movements as well.

So Luther did not invent dissatisfaction with the medieval Western church.

He entered a story already underway.

And not every earlier reformer held the same beliefs Luther would later teach.

We should study each person in his own historical setting rather than treat everyone who criticized Rome as though he were already a sixteenth-century Protestant.

14. THERE WERE ALSO REFORMERS WITHIN THE CHURCH

Not everyone who saw corruption wanted to separate from the Western church.

Many wanted to reform it.

Monastic movements repeatedly arose calling Christians back to discipline and holiness.

Church leaders themselves sometimes condemned abuses.

Councils attempted reforms.

Ordinary priests and believers could be deeply devoted to Christ.

That matters.

The Reformation cannot fairly be told as:

GOOD PROTESTANTS AGAINST BAD CATHOLICS.

History was far more complicated.

The question we are studying is not:

WHO HAD ALL THE GOOD PEOPLE?

It is:

WHAT HAD HAPPENED TO THE CHURCH’S TEACHING AND AUTHORITY?

And how did Christians attempt to address the problems they believed they saw?

15. THEN THERE WAS THE QUESTION OF SALVATION

This became deeply personal for Martin Luther.

How can a sinner stand righteous before God?

What role belongs to:

GRACE?

FAITH?

WORKS?

SACRAMENTS?

PENANCE?

THE CHURCH?

Paul wrote:

“The just shall live by faith.”

— Romans 1:17, KJV

And:

“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God.”

— Ephesians 2:8, KJV

But James wrote:

“Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only.”

— James 2:24, KJV

Those passages would become part of enormous debates.

And once again, our method matters.

We should not begin with Luther’s answer.

Nor with Rome’s answer.

We need to ask:

WHAT DID PAUL MEAN?

WHAT DID JAMES MEAN?

AND ARE THEY ADDRESSING THE SAME QUESTION IN THE SAME WAY?

That will become important later.

16. THE QUESTION WOULD EVENTUALLY BECOME AUTHORITY

Suppose Luther disagreed with an indulgence preacher.

Who decided who was right?

Suppose he disagreed with a bishop.

Who decided?

Suppose he disagreed with the pope.

Who decided?

Suppose a church council had taught something.

Could a council be wrong?

Eventually, Luther’s controversy raised an enormous question:

WHAT IS THE FINAL STANDARD BY WHICH THE CHURCH ITSELF IS JUDGED?

Luther and his opponents would answer that question differently.

And the disagreement would shake Western Christianity.

17. NOTICE HOW THIS CONNECTS WITH EVERYTHING WE HAVE ALREADY STUDIED

Our story began with local elders.

Then we traced the emergence of bishops distinguished from presbyters.

Bishops gained wider authority.

Metropolitans developed.

Patriarchs developed.

Rome gained special prominence.

Papal claims increased.

The Western church developed an extensive religious structure.

Now, more than a thousand years after the apostles, someone inside that structure was going to ask:

CAN THE CHURCH ITSELF BE WRONG?

And if it can:

WHAT CORRECTS IT?

That is not a small question.

18. OUR METHOD MUST REMAIN THE SAME

It would be easy for a Protestant reader to cheer for Luther before we even hear him.

Don’t.

Luther’s claims require examination too.

It would be equally easy for a Catholic reader to dismiss Luther simply because he challenged church authorities.

Don’t.

A church institution’s claims also require examination.

We have one method for both:

PUT THE CLAIM BESIDE THE TEXT.

If Luther says it, test it.

If a pope says it, test it.

If a council says it, test it.

If an early church father says it, test it.

And eventually, when our own tradition says something:

TEST THAT TOO.

19. THEN CAME 1517

Martin Luther was a German monk, priest, and professor of theology.

He became deeply disturbed by the preaching and use of indulgences.

So he prepared a series of propositions for debate.

There were:

NINETY-FIVE.

Traditionally, Luther is said to have posted them on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg on October 31, 1517.

Whether the famous door-posting occurred exactly as later tradition pictured it is debated.

What is clear is that Luther circulated his theses and brought his concerns into the church controversy.

Printing helped them spread far beyond an academic discussion.

And the dispute developed in ways that Luther had not originally proposed in the theses themselves.

20. LUTHER HAD NOT YET BECOME “A PROTESTANT”

This is important.

When Luther wrote the Ninety-Five Theses, he was not announcing:

“I AM LEAVING THE ROMAN CHURCH.”

He was challenging what he believed were serious abuses.

Some of the theses still spoke respectfully of papal authority.

The later Luther should not be read backward into every sentence of the Luther of 1517.

His thinking developed as the controversy developed.

Questions about indulgences led to wider questions about purgatory, papal authority, councils, and Scripture.

The argument kept getting bigger.

And the word Protestant itself did not arise as the name of a movement in 1517. It became associated with supporters of the Reformation later, particularly following the protest at the Diet of Speyer in 1529.

We should let Luther’s own writings show us what he believed at each stage.

21. AND THAT IS WHERE OUR NEXT PAGE BEGINS

A monk questioned indulgences.

That could have remained a debate within the Western church.

It did not.

Why?

Because eventually the question became:

WHO HAS THE LAST WORD?

The pope?

A church council?

Church tradition?

Or Scripture?

In 1521, Luther’s conflict with church and imperial authorities culminated dramatically at the Diet of Worms, where he was required to answer for his writings.

But we should not jump there yet.

First, we need to read what started the controversy.

WHAT DID LUTHER ACTUALLY SAY IN THE NINETY-FIVE THESES?

And perhaps just as importantly:

WHAT DID HE NOT YET SAY?

That is where we go next.

TEXT B4 TRADITION

Read First. Conclude Later.

RETURN TO MAIN SERIES: ONE CHURCH, SO MANY DIVISIONS—WHAT HAPPENED?

NEXT STUDY: WHAT DID LUTHER ACTUALLY SAY IN THE NINETY-FIVE THESES?