Christianity began as a simple faith with all believers brothers and sisters in Christ. Growth brought a hierarchy of priests and prelates to formulate doctrine and govern the churches. This hierarchy soon focused more on power and pelf than spirituality. In the Eleventh Century the Roman bishop’s claim to supremacy over all clergy and communicants drove away Eastern Christendom. By the Sixteenth Century the hierarchy’s corruption, venality, immorality and unBiblical doctrines led to The Reformation: The Inquisition and campaigns against “heretics” slaughtered hundreds of thousands of God-fearing men, women and children. And even today its demand for conformity to unScriptural dogmas in alienating millions.
The Author has had poetry, articles and 11 plays published; seven plays were produced at theaters in New York and other venues around the country. He has produced/directed a 94-minute film from one of his plays, has worked at United Press, Popular Mechanics magazine, and spent 25 years writing advertising at such agencies as J. Walter Thompson, BBDO, Grey Advertising and Young & Rubicam. A fascination with history and religion, especially the rise and development of the Christian Church, led to his writing this book.
If The Inquisition was the most despicable and cruel period in the history of the Roman Catholic Church, The Reformation was the most revolutionary, divisive, yet beneficial event in Western Christendom. The Inquisition brought death, torment and ruination to hundreds of thousands of Christians, Jews and Moors and exile to other hundreds of thousands. The Reformation freed millions of Christians from the strangling embrace of the Roman Catholic Church so they could follow in the footsteps of Christ according to their own consciences without the unBiblical dictates of a church hierarchy that was growing more grasping and dissolute with each generation.
However, the title The Reformation may be a misnomer. The original intention was to reform the church. But when that failed it turned into The Revocation of the Roman Catholic Church. Unable to affect any positive change, the protestors broke away from the dictatorial hierarchy to form their own sects with their own churches and clergy. Eventually those sects became the Protestant denominations we know today—Lutheran, Dutch Reformed, Presbyterian, Baptist, Anabaptist, Methodist, Anglican, Episcopalian, Quaker, Mennonite, Mormon, and a host of others. This was the ultimate schism in Western Christendom. But schisms had occurred before. In the Eleventh Century, Eastern Christendom had separated over points of doctrine and the antipathy built up over the Roman bishop’s insistence on his supremacy over all other prelates. The patriarch and emperor in Constantinople considered this arrogant presumption intolerable and refused to accede to such a bold bid for power over the entire Christian Church.
Schisms had also occurred when dissenting sects like the Albigensians, Waldensians, Huguenots, Hussites, Cathari and numerous others critical of Rome’s corruption and vice formed their own congregations to get back to the basics of Christianity found in the New Testament. Although they were devout Christians, the fact that they dissented and refused to follow Rome’s dictates drew the label of “heretics” and the severe punishment that entailed. Hundreds of thousands were slain, maimed for life or branded with a stigma that turned them into pariahs. (One wonders if the real “heresy” for which they were punished was deserting the church and refusing to continue to finance its corruption.) Schisms had also occurred when two, and for a brief period three, pontiffs reigned simultaneously. Those two- and three-headed papacies became a scandal in Western Christendom and a source of amused amazement in the rest of the world. How could multiple popes rule any part of Christendom when they excommunicated and deposed each other and acted like bickering fishwives?
So on October 31, 1517, when Martin Luther, a lowly Augustinian monk and teacher, nailed his 95 theses to the door of the church of Prince Albert of Hohenzollern, the Roman hierarchy considered it merely another “heretical” challenge to be dealt with like all the previous dissents.
When this challenge mushroomed into a full-blown rebellion, the church fathers had no idea of what was happening. They never grasped the magnitude of the revulsion towards Rome that had built up over the centuries. Nor did they recognize the rising intelligence and literacy of nobles and common folks so they could read the Bible and understand the logic of this Augustinian monk. A major revolution was brewing, and the church prelates treated it as a minor eruption that would blow over, given time and the proper harsh handling of the instigator.
Such a nonchalant attitude towards fundamental differences could only bring a powerful reaction. That reaction was The Reformation, which turned into The Revocation when entire countries and principalities turned their backs on the Roman Catholic Church to follow their own paths free of all the stumbling blocks that had arisen in their former faith.
What could possibly create such a rebellion? The church hierarchy had no one to blame but themselves. The rot had begun at the top and had filtered down to the very foundations. True, there were still many devout friars and nuns, numerous priests devoted to the spiritual welfare of their parishioners. Some bishops remained faithful to their calling and worked diligently for the benefit of their dioceses. And a few Cardinals still retained enough dignity and righteous indignation to reject the usual bribery when electing popes.
But the all-pervading atmosphere of corruption had seeped throughout Europe and filled every nose with the stench of evil. Popes were no longer considered Vicars of Christ but Vicars of the Devil. The College of Cardinals was viewed as a conclave of simoniacs interested only in themselves—not the faith.
The Inquisition had raised doubts about the church’s doctrines. People who considered themselves devout Catholics viewed the heresies with trepidation. They hated the burnings, tortures, imprisonments and confiscations. Even the heresies raised questions. Who had never worn a white shirt on Sunday? Or trimmed excess fat off meat? Who had never inadvertently broken Lent? Or failed to attend Mass on a Holy Day of obligation? Who had never questioned transubstantiation? Or doubted the validity of the rites and rituals performed by sinful priests and bishops? Or wondered how the followers of Peter, who called themselves Vicars of God, could live such lascivious, venal, hedonistic, and even murderous lives?
The Inquisition had also raised questions of legality. The accused never saw their accusers; in innumerable cases the charges were brought to eliminate a creditor or enemy. The accused was also at the complete mercy of the court. He or she could be tortured to the brink of death to obtain a confession. How many confessed just to end the torture only to realize later that they faced the stake and slow immolation?
And was the crusade against the Albigensians justified? They were God-fearing people leading good Christian lives, noted for their charity to the poor and other unfortunates. So they chose their own clergy. Was that a heresy? Yes, in the eyes of the church. So they followed their own beliefs based on Scripture. Was that heresy? Indeed, said the church hierarchy. And that crusade slaughtered tens of thousands of Christian folks—men, women and children—because they did not quite follow the letter of canon law laid down by corrupt and self-serving Church Fathers.