Worship-16B-13thTo15thCentury

Adding To and Taking From Perfection

13th to 15th Century (cont.)

CZECH TRANSLATION OF THE BIBLE:� About this time, John Huss translated the Bible into the language of his people.� Actually he revised earlier Czech versions and modernized the antiquated language.

�� SLAVONIC TRANSLATION OF THE BIBLE:� In 1499, Gennadius gathered together translations of various books of the Bible into one volume.� They had all been translated from the Hebrew, Greek and Latin.

Sixteenth Century

�� Because of the edict of King Edward III of England a century earlier, persecution of Lollards, followers of Wyclif, continued.� In 1506 William Tilfrey was burned at the stake at Amersham, and Father Roberts with just an accusation was burned at buckingham.� In 1507 Thomas Norris was burned for telling others of the Gospel.

�� In 1508, Lawrence Guale was burned at Salisbury for denying the real presence of Jesus in the bread and wine.� A pious woman at Chippen Sudburne was burned.� In 1511, William Succling and John Bannister were burned in Smithfield.� In 1517 John Brown at Ashford was burned, first his feet to the bone, then the rest of him.� Richard Hunn was killed in "Lollard's Tower" in the palace of Lambeth.

�� Pope Julius II had his own armies which he often personally led into France or Spain to retake lands formerly owned by the church.� He also sponsored Michelangelo and laid the cornerstone for the new St. Peter's cathedral.� In 1509 he marched on Venice and then northern Italy where the French were.

�� His successor was Leo X had been made an archbishop at 8, a cardinal at 13, and held 27 different church offices before he was 13.� He appointed cardinals as young as age 7.� He and his cardinals vied with royalty throughout Europe for the luxury of their palaces and possessions.

�� In 1516, Dutchman Desiderius Erasmus, after spending years studying the writings of the apostles and early church fathers, printed for popular access a parallel New Testament in Greek and Latin.� He dedicated it to Pope Leo X.

�� However, later Erasmus challenged the superstition of saints' relics, pilgrimages, and empty rituals.� Although he believed in quiet study of the Scripture, he never broke from the Roman Church.

�� By now, most of the clergy were taking their pay, but not showing up for work.� Some even held more than one position and got paid for all of them.� Many of the upper clergy were just sons of noblemen who needed a job, so were made bishop.� Many of the parish priests were simply peasants who were willing to work for a penance even though they could not read enough Latin to do a complete Mass.� In Germany, only about seven percent of the parishes had a resident priest.

�� In 1517, Pope Leo X needed more money to build St. Peter's basilica in Rome and the German archbishop needed enough money to repay himself for what it cost to buy his position.� The two agreed on a special papal indulgence that would give the purchaser complete forgiveness of sins.�

�� Martin Luther posted ninety-five theses on the castle church door in Wittenberg, the university bulletin board, challenging primarily the Roman Church's entire system of salvation.� He also admitted that some of John Huss' views were correct.

�� In 1520, Pope Leo condemned 41 Lutheran errors and condemned Luther as a heretic.�

�� Luther kept emphasizing the priesthood of all believers, and wrote:

�� "The Babylonian Captivity of the Church," wherein he attacked the seven sacraments of the Catholic Church, declaring there were only two sacraments - baptism and the Lord's Supper.� He also preached and wrote that, even though "faith without works is dead," quoting Jesus' brother James, we are "saved by grace", quoting the apostle Paul.

�� When Luther was pressured by Emperor Charles V of Germany to recant, he said his views were faithful to the Holy Scriptures and he would not recant.� However, Prince Frederick of Saxony supported and protected him.� Living relatively quiet, he ended his celibacy in 1525 and married a former nun, Katie.� They had six children.

�� Gradually the Scandinavian kings of Denmark, Sweden and Norway adopted Luther's positions, as well as many German princes.� In 1529, when Emperor Charles in Germany tried to remove religious privileges of those agreeing with Luther, they protested.� Thus began the term PROTESTANT.

�� ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF THE BIBLE:� In 1522, William Tyndale began releasing his translation of the Bible from the original Greek rather than the Latin as his English predecessors had done.� He did all of the New Testament.� Part of the Old Testament he never finished.� He released the entire New Testament in 1526.�

�� Under the century-old edict of the King of England, more Lollards ~ followers of Wyclif ~ were persecuted.� In 1518 John Stilincen was burned at the stake in Smithfield.� In 1519, Thomas Mann was burned at London, Robert Celin for speaking against image worship and pilgrimages was also burned.� Also, James Brewster of Colchester was burned, Christopher was burned at Newbury were burned that same year.� Then Robert Silks of Coventry was burned alive.

�� Meanwhile, in Switzerland in 1517, Ulrich Zwingli, a priest who had difficulty keeping his celibate vows, began studying the scriptures more and more.�

��� Zwingli began expository preaching, meaning that he chose a topic and exposed all the facts on it he could from the scriptures.� He realized the church of the New Testament was not the church of his day.� The following year he attacked a local papal indulgence seller.� At this time he also learned of Luther and his beliefs.

�� Challenged by the orthodox Roman Catholics, Zwingli took the matter to the town council of Zurich.� They agreed to let him continue to preach the gospel and the scriptures.� His teachings were so strong that the last Catholic Mass was held in Zurich in 1525.� Protestant communion services took their place, but four times a year.

�� FRENCH TRANSLATION OF THE BIBLE:� In 1523, Jacques Lefevre translated the New Testament from Latin to the language of the common people.� In 1530 he released the Old Testament.� He was Catholic.

�� In 1524 in France, John Clark, an Albigense, nailed an announcement to the church door calling the pope Antichrist.� As a result he was repeatedly whipped and then branded on the forehead.� Going to another city, he destroyed some images, for which he had his right and nose cut off.� During further torture he sang the 150th Psalm forbidding idolatry.� Then he was thrown into a fire and burned.

�� Another French Albigense from Malda said that Mass was a denial of the death and passion of Christ and was burned by slow fire.� John de Cadurco who also preached reformation in the church, was also burned at the stake.

�� To escape persecution in France, many Waldense Protestants fled to Italy and settled in the valleys of Piedmont.� But they refused to make offerings for the dead in purgatory, did not go to Mass, did not confess their sins to the priest.� Thus, the persecution began there.

�� At Turin, one man had his bowels taken out and put in a basin for him to look at until he died.� At Revel, Catelin Girard was burned at the stake, but not before he declared, "When it is in the power of a man to eat and digest this solid stone, the religion for which I am about to suffer shall have an end, and not before." [5]

�� After a brief period of peace, another persecution arose in the same area when the Waldenses decided to preach the Gospel in public.� Those captured were either skinned or burned alive.

�� GERMAN TRANSLATION OF THE BIBLE:� Martin Luther translated the New Testament from the original Greek and published it in 1526.� In 1534 he translated the Old Testament from the original Hebrew.

�� In 1526, Felix Mantz was thrown into prison in Switzerland for his beliefs in baptism.� On January 5, 1527, he was taken onto a boat, bound, and thrown into a river and drowned.� A hymn he wrote while awaiting his fate is in part as follows:

With rapture I will sing,

Grateful to God for breath,

The strong, almighty King

Who saves my soul from death....

�� Michael Sattler, was imprisoned in Strasburg, Switzerland, May 21, 1527.� His tongue was torn out, his body tortured with hot tongs, then he was burned to death.� But before his death, he penned this hymn:

Of such a man fear not the will,

The body only he can kill.

�� That same year in Munich, Germany, George Wagner was sentenced to be burned at the stake for his beliefs in baptism.� Before his execution, he wrote this hymn:

We praise our Father, God;

To him hosannas bring.

�� Carius Binder, who had been baptized and identified himself with the "Brethren," wrote this:

With all our hearts we thank thee,

Thou holy one and true.

�� Then on October 25, he and 38 others who believed in baptism were shut up in a house that was set on fire, and they all perished in the flames.

�� Leonhart Schiemer was baptized, then preached in Austria and Bavaria.� He penned this hymn:

Thine holy place they have destroyed

Thine altars overthrown,

And reaching forth their bloody hands,

Have foully slain thine own.

And we alone, thy little flock.

The few who still remain,

Are exiles wandering through the land,

In sorrow and in pain.

We wander in the forests dark,

With dogs upon our track;

And like the captive, silent lamb

Men bring us, prisoners, back.

They point to us amid the throng,

And with their taunts offend;

And long to let the sharpened axe

On heretics descend.

�� In Tyrol, Bavaria, he was arrested and sentenced to death.� On January 14, 1528, he was beheaded and burned.

�� In 1526, Hans Schlaffer in Germany had discontinued his priesthood and been baptized by immersion.� He then preached to others his opposition to infant baptism saying it was never commanded in the scriptures.� The following year he was arrested.� He penned this hymn:

But Jesus Christ has died, and satisfied

The guilt that was mine own.

�� Early the following year he and 20 others of like faith were beheaded at Schwatz.

� John Leopold, a tailor in Augsburg, was arrested for his beliefs in baptism.� He wrote this hymn:

My God, thee will I praise

When my last hour shall come,

And then my voice I'll raise

Within the heavenly home.

O Lord, most merciful and king,

Now strengthen my weak faith,

And give me peace of mind.

�� On April 25, 1528, he was executed for his beliefs.

�� Hans Hut was baptized in Augsburg, Germany, and associated with the Brethren.� He preached in Silesia, Moravia and Austria.� He was imprisoned in Augsburg and there wrote this hymn:

He points us to his holy word,

His Testament, in which the Lord

Appears our nature wearing....

Beneath his feet grim death hath trod,

With truth himself arraying,

His mighty power displaying,

And all our fears allaying.

�� King James V of Scotland died, leaving a six-month-old daughter, Mary, Queen of Scots.� While a child, the Catholics ruled, so Mary had been raised Catholic.�

�� Patrick Hamilton announced before the archbishop of St. Andrews that he disapproved of pilgrimages, purgatory, prayers to saints and for the dead.� Even while being burned at the stake, friars called out, "Turn, thou heretic; call upon our Lady."� He replied to one of them, "Wicked man, God forgive thee."� In February 1528, he became Scotland's first Protestant martyr.� A monk, Henry Forest, was murdered because he thought this was too harsh.

�� DANISH TRANSLATION OF THE BIBLE:� Christiern Pedersen translated the New Testament from two different Latin versions and Luther's German version into the language of his people.

�� SWISS TRANSLATION OF THE BIBLE:� Put together by Huldreich Zwingli, it was called the Zurcher Bibel.� The New Testament was translated into the language of the common people from Luther's German translation in 1529.� Later the Old Testament was completed.

�� In 1529 a Protestant preacher was executed and war threatened between the Protestants and Catholics.� That same year, Luther and Zwingli met and agreed on all of their beliefs except the Lord's Supper.� Luther continued to insist the bread and wine became Jesus' physical body, while Zwingli said it was just a memorial.� In 1531 war did break out between the Catholics and Protestants, and Zwingli with his troops were killed.

�� Ludwig Hetzer was baptized in 1523 and preached in various locations until exiled, so moved on.� He also translated the Old Testament into German.� Among several hymns written by him was

Fret not thyself, O pious heart,

Though evil men surround thee.

�� Finally in Bischolszell, Switzerland, he was arrested and sentenced to death.� On February 3, 1529, he was beheaded.

�� George Blaurock, a former monk, was baptized in 1525 and associated with the Brethren.� Amidst his preaching, he wrote this hymn:

Daily renew us and make us steadfast in persecution.

Leave us not, thy children, from now on to the end.

Extend to us thy fatherly hand, that we may finish our course.

�� In Tyrol, Switzerland, he was arrested, and burned at the stake in 1529.

�� In reaction to the martyrdoms, that year, Urich Zwigli, a great Christian reform leader of Switzerland, wrote this hymn:

Lord, we cry to you for help.� Only you can heal our pain.

Out of deep distress we call.� Help us, Lord, send peace again.

�� These martyrdoms did not go unnoticed in Germany.� At that time, Martin Luther wrote this hymn, trying to give courage:

A mighty fortress is our God, a Bulwark never failing;

Our helper He, amid the flood of mortal ills prevailing.

For still our ancient foe doth seek to work us woe;

His craft and power are great, and armed with cruel hate,

On earth is not his equal.

And tho this world, with evil filled, Should threaten to undo us;

We will not fear, God hath willed His truth to triumph thru us.

Let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also;

The body they may kill: God's truth abideth still,

His kingdom is forever!

�� In 1530, this hymn appeared among the Bohemian Brethren:

Now God be with us, for the night is closing;

The light and darkness are of His disposing,

And 'neath His shadow here to rest, we yield us,

For He will shield us.

�� But still the persecutions continued by the mainline Roman church.� In 1531, Martin Maler and six others were arrested in Schwabia, Germany, for preaching the Word, especially about baptism.� While there, Maler wrote this hymn:

In deep distress I cry to thee;

My prayer, O God, attend.

�� He was put on the rack and refused to recant.� Thereupon he was executed.

�� Englishman, William Tyndale, tried to publish the New Testament into the common English of the people, but the Catholic Bishop of London refused to allow it.� So he went to the Continent where he printed his first edition in 1526.� He spent the next decade trying to get his Bible to as many people as possible.� But he was finally arrested and burned at the stake in Brussels, Belgium, October 1536.

�� In 1531 King Henry VIII, through an act of Parliament, officially separated England from the Church in Rome.� Now, as head of the church, he could annul his 15-year marriage to his brother's widow, claiming it had been incestuous because she was his sister-in-law.� Besides, Catherine only gave him one daughter, Mary.� He then married again, and Anne Boleyn bore him a girl, Elizabeth.

�� King Henry stopped all payments of money to the church at Rome and took them himself, and appointed all bishops.� In 1535, anyone who disagreed was executed.� The following year, frustrated that he still did not have a son, he drummed up charges of adultery on his current wife, had her executed, and married Jane Seymour who gave him a son, Edward.

�� The year after he permitted William Tyndale to be executed, he allowed an English translation of the Bible be openly available to the people.� By 1541 every parish was ordered to have an English Bible available for people to read.� Through the years as he changed his theological thinking, those who believed the opposite were executed.

�� DUTCH TRANSLATION OF THE BIBLE:� In 1532 Luther's German Bible was translated into Dutch.

�� ITALIAN TRANSLATION OF THE BIBLE:� That same year, Antonio Brucioli translated the Bible into the language of the common people, using Erasmus' Latin version for the New Testament, and Pagninus' Latin version for the Old Testament.

�� HUNGARIAN TRANSLATION OF THE BIBLE:� In 1533, the Pauline Epistles were translated from the Latin into the language of the common people.

�� GERMAN TRANSLATION OF THE BIBLE:� In 1534 J. Dietenberger translated the Bible into the language of the people from the Latin.� He also used Emser's New Testament and Luther's Old Testament.� He was a Catholic.�

�� FRENCH TRANSLATION OF THE BIBLE:� In 1534, Olivetan translated the Bible into the language of his people from the Hebrew, Erasmus' Latin version, and Lefevre's New Testament.

�� FRENCH TRANSLATION OF THE BIBLE:� In 1535, Olivetan translated the Bible into the language of his people from the Hebrew, Latin, and Lefevre's New Testament in French.

�� ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF THE BIBLE:� That same year, Miles Coverdale translated the Bible into the language of the common people.� Although German, he was hired by a German Lutheran merchant to do so because he did business in English.� Copies of it were installed in many churches in England, and Queen Anne Boleyn had one in her chamber.

�� ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF THE BIBLE:� Two years later in 1537, this Bible authorized by English monarchy, was a translation of Munster's Latin version of 1535 in the Old Testament and Erasmus' Latin version in the New Testament, the Swiss-German Zurich Bible, Luther's German Bible, and Tyndale's English version.� Also much of it was lifted out of Coverdale's Bible.� It became the direct ancestor of the Authorized Version, also known as the King James Version.

�� ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF THE BIBLE:� In 1539, The Great Bible was translated into English and later edited by Coverdale.� By royal injunction it was to be installed in every church.� It was printed in Paris and nearly finished when the French inquisition intervened.� Coverdale and his publisher fled with the types and printed sheets, and completed the printing in London in April 1539.

�� WALDENSES TRANSLATION OF THE BIBLE:� Although the Waldenses had had the New Testament and part of the Old printed in their language, they wanted the complete Bible.� They furnished a Swiss printer with the entire Old and New Testament who accommodated them.

�� The Waldenses, the most powerful of the "heretics" to refused to cooperate with the mainline Roman church, drew more and more converts, especially now with more translations of the Bible in the hands of the common people.�

��� When further threatened by the pope, the Waldenses sent a message which in part said that they valued the King of kings, Jesus, who reigns in heaven, more than any earthly ruler, and their souls were more precious than their bodies.

�� Thereupon a minister, Jeffery Varnagle, was burned at the stake.� Others were hanged, drowned, stabbed, pierced, thrown off cliffs, burned, crucified upside down, threw to mad dogs, or racked them to death.� Those who could, escaped to the caves in the Alps.

�� Also in 1534 in Edinburgh, Scotland, David Stratton and Norman Gourlay were burned at the stake.� A former dean of the Roman Church, Thomas Forret, was also burned.� Also burned to death were Killor and Beverage, a priest named Duncan Simson, and Robert Forrester.

�� About this time, Pope Paul III ascended the church throne and ordered the Waldenses persecuted anew.� The following hymns (in part) appeared in the Genevan Psalter.

Out of the depths I cry, Lord.� O Lord, please hear my call.

Let your ears be attentive; I beg for mercy, Lord.

O Lord, the enemy pursues me;

My life lies broken where I've fallen.

Let God arise and by his might

Put all his enemies to flight

With shame and consternation.

For when the Lord God shall appear,

he will consume, afar and near,

With fire and desolation.

�� In 1539 in Scotland, the archbishop condemned Jerome Russell and Alexander Kennedy (who was 18 years old) to be burned alive.� On the way to their execution, Russell said, "The pain that we are to suffer is short, and shall be light; but our joy and consolation shall never have end....Death cannot hurt us, for it is already destroyed by Him, for whose sake we are now going to suffer."

�� BETWEEN 1540 AND 1570, NEARLY ONE MILLION PROTESTANTS WERE PUT TO DEATH IN THE POPE'S WAR FOR THE EXTERMINATION OF THE WALDENSES.

�� One of their first was Bartholomew Hector, a bookseller of Turin, Italy, who was burned at the stake.

�� And in 1540, a man named Kugelmann wrote this hymn:

Do not be silent, Lord God;

The wicked speak against my life....

You see, my Lord, how fearful, how spent I am,

Like mere debris.� Tormentors mock my frailty.

�� HUNGARIAN TRANSLATION OF THE BIBLE:� In 1541, J. Erdosi translated the New Testament from the original Greek into the language of the common people.

�� Some Protestant Waldenses escaped to Venice, Italy, which, for some time, had left them alone in peace.� But in 1542, persecution began there too.�

�� This hymn appeared in the Genevan Psalter that year:

Pain and distress o'erwhelm me, I cry all night for mercy,

My bed is wet with tears, my eyes can weep no longer;

My enemies seem stronger, my awful foes and fears.

�� Anthony Ricetti was sentenced to be drowned.� His son begged him to become a Catholic instead, but his father replied, "A good Christian is bound to relinquish not only good and children, but life itself, for the glory of his Redeemer: therefore I am resolved to sacrifice everything in this transitory world, for the sake of salvation in a world that will last to eternity" (Fox's Book of Martyrs, pg. 101).� The hierarchy offered to pay off the mortgage on his estate if he became Catholic, but he still refused.� A few days later he was executed.

�� Francis Spinola had written against claiming the bread and wine of the Lord's Supper were the actual body and blood of Christ.� He was imprisoned and executed.� "He went to meet death with the utmost serenity, seemed to wish for dissolution, and declaring that the prolongation of his life did but tend to retard that real happiness which could only be expected in the world to come."

�� Wolfgang Scuch, John Huglin, both ministers, and Leonard Keyser, a student, were burned at the stake.� George Carpenter, a Bavarian, was hanged (Fox's Book of Martyrs, pg. 102).

�� SPANISH TRANSLATION OF THE BIBLE:� In 1543, Enzinas Dryander translated the New Testament from the original Greek in the common language of his people.

�� About that same time, persecution arose in the Netherlands.� The widow Wendelinuta was imprisoned.� When a friend visited to tell her to at least keep her beliefs a secret, she replied, "You know not what you say; for with the heart we believe to righteousness, but with the tongue confession is made unto salvation."� Soon after she was strangled and burned at the stake.

�� Two Protestant ministers were burned at Colen.� Nicholas in Antwerp was tied in a sack and drowned.� Pistorius was burned at the stake.� Seventeen Protestants, including their minister, were beheaded in another Dutch village.

�� George Scherter, a minister of Salzburg, was beheaded and then burned.� Percinal in Louviana was murdered in prison.� Justus Insparg was beheaded for having Luther's sermons in his possession.

�� Giles Tilleman of Brussels was imprisoned and turned down a chance to escape in order to save punishment of his guards.� When led to the stake he requested that most of the firewood be given to the poor.� "A small quantity will suffice to consume me."

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BIBLIOGRAPHY:� Same as previous chapter

Endnotes for This Page

[5].� Fox, pg. 94

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