C
Crumpy
Guest
I’d recommend this link to a Catholic viewpoint of the life and work of Martin Luther.
newadvent.org/cathen/09438b.htm
It takes a while to get through it, but it’s worth the time to understand how the Reformation started and to understand who Luther was.
If I read the article correctly, it seems that Luther’s break with the Catholic Church was complete when he refused to be scrutinized by the Council of Trent.
He was aware of the powderkeg that he exploded with his movement against the Catholic Church. He apparently called some of his fellow reformers “devils.”
But, the relevence to this forum is the list of reforms that he initiated way back in the 1530’s. It sounds a lot like the very reforms of the liturgy by the Church since Vatican II. The list of reforms back then is, in fact, eerily like the modern changes.
Among the changes he made: he dismissed the priesthood as a sacrament, and allowed lay people to preach. The entire Sunday service (it was no longer the Mass) was in the local language (German, of course, where he lived).
And, he actually approved of a man marrying two women (he said, what was permitted in the Old Testament is not contradicted by the New Testament).
A lot of the questions from protestants in these forums will be seen to come straight out Luther’s writings.
The Catholic Church had a counter-reformation, which I would submit, is very active today, in view of all the doctrinal and liturgical attacks on the Church that we still see today.
I haven’t looked at the Catechism from that point of view, but I’d say that it must be the most modern and official handbook of the counter-reformation. I don’t know if there is a modern popular account of the counter-reformation.
newadvent.org/cathen/09438b.htm
It takes a while to get through it, but it’s worth the time to understand how the Reformation started and to understand who Luther was.
If I read the article correctly, it seems that Luther’s break with the Catholic Church was complete when he refused to be scrutinized by the Council of Trent.
He was aware of the powderkeg that he exploded with his movement against the Catholic Church. He apparently called some of his fellow reformers “devils.”
But, the relevence to this forum is the list of reforms that he initiated way back in the 1530’s. It sounds a lot like the very reforms of the liturgy by the Church since Vatican II. The list of reforms back then is, in fact, eerily like the modern changes.
Among the changes he made: he dismissed the priesthood as a sacrament, and allowed lay people to preach. The entire Sunday service (it was no longer the Mass) was in the local language (German, of course, where he lived).
And, he actually approved of a man marrying two women (he said, what was permitted in the Old Testament is not contradicted by the New Testament).
A lot of the questions from protestants in these forums will be seen to come straight out Luther’s writings.
The Catholic Church had a counter-reformation, which I would submit, is very active today, in view of all the doctrinal and liturgical attacks on the Church that we still see today.
I haven’t looked at the Catechism from that point of view, but I’d say that it must be the most modern and official handbook of the counter-reformation. I don’t know if there is a modern popular account of the counter-reformation.