Leonor de Cisneros

In the mid-16^th century, the Reformation took root in Spain for a short time.  The flame burned hot and many came to faith.  Among the converted were a young couple: Leonor de Cisneros and her lawyer husband Antonio Herrezuelo.  They became members of a secret underground congregation in their home city of Toro.

In 1559, the entire congregation of 70 worshipers was arrested and interrogated as part of the Spanish Inquisition.  Congregants were separated, including Leonor from her husband.  Torture and intense pressure to return to Roman Catholicism enticed many in the congregation to recant their ‘Lutheran’ beliefs and take steps to return to Roman Catholicism.  Leonor was told that her husband recanted and was waiting for her.  Under this pressure, she did and was sentenced to three years of reeducation in a convent.

The burnings of heretics during this dreadful time were public and well-choreographed.  Those who had refused to recant were dressed a certain way to indicate their intractability.  Those who had recanted were dressed another way.  Those condemned to die were given a final opportunity to recant their beliefs and receive the benefit of being strangled prior to being burned alive.  On October 8^th, 1559, Leonor was ushered outside her prison cell and, watching the parade of those who had refused to recant, was horrified to discover her captors had lied to her about her husband.  She saw him in the clothing of one about to be burnt.  Having a metal gag in his mouth he could not speak but she recalled the look he gave her to be worse than any rebuke.

Leonor witnessed her husband’s faithfulness through the flames and immediately repented.  Returning to confinement, she openly witnessed to the other prisoners and unashamedly spoke against the teachings the Roman Catholics continued to try to indoctrinate her with.  After nearly nine years, she was finally judged a ‘relapsed incorrigible heretic’ and was sentenced to death by the flame.  On that day, she walked calmly to the pyre, thankful to God that she had another opportunity to bear witness to the faith she had once denied.

 

https://leben.us/leonor-de-cisneros-profile-faith/

https://www.executedtoday.com/2016/09/26/1568-leonor-de-cisneros-chastised-wife/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonor_de_Cisneros

 

Reformation Day

Reformation Day

In the Christian world, October 31st has a meaning much more significant than Halloween.  It was on October 31st, 1517, that Martin Luther posted his 95 theses on the church door at Wittenberg, Germany, sparking the Reformation.  Historically, many factors were in motion.  The printing press was just then coming into its own as a way to reach the masses.  The corruption of the Catholic church, including the sale of indulgences, ecclesiastical abuse, and the thought among high members of the clergy that a person could literally buy their way into Heaven was widespread and obvious.  Germany was coming into its own as a nation.  Political circumstances existed which kept Catholic officials from prosecuting Luther before the spark could be fanned into a flame.  In short, the time was right for Reformation.

Martin Luther had been struggling with some of the taught doctrines of the church, especially the sale of indulgences.  An ‘indulgence’ was the teaching that an offering of money given by a penitent person could save an individual from some or all of his time in Purgatory.  An envoy from the Papacy named Johann Tetzel had a display of religious relics scheduled for November 1st, 1517, in Wittenberg, in an effort to raise more money - ultimately destined for the building of St Peter’s Basilica in Rome.  Tetzel was a salesman, penning catchy jingles like: “the cross of the seller of indulgences has as much power as the cross of Christ,” and “when the coin in the coffer rings, the soul from purgatory springs.”  These practices roused the righteous wrath of the upstart Friar who penned the famed ‘95 Theses’ as an effort to drive debate on whether this practice, and others he found objectionable, should truly be practiced in the Church. “If the Pope can grant dispensation from sins,” Luther argued, “why, then, does he not grant that dispensation as an act of charity - even without a forced monetary contribution?”

Martin Luther intended to reform the Church from within - nailing his questions to the door of the church was a common way for a scholar to initiate debate on a topic.  It was only when his theses were translated from Latin into German and published for the masses to see that the drive for separation from Roman Catholicism took place.  Luther’s teaching of salvation by grace, through faith in Christ, was readily accepted by the masses.  They seem to have been looking for a central figure to rally around who could give an educated voice to the objections many observed within their local churches.

Martin Luther was a driven man, who could be very coarse and impolitely blunt in expressing his opinion.  He was known to be vulgar at times, but was the blunt object needed to make a break from the excesses and error into which the Catholic church of the day had fallen.

Gonzalez, Justo L, The Story of Christianity, Vol 2, Harper Collins Publishing, 1985.

https://www.luther.de/en/95thesen.html

https://www.ligonier.org/blog/what-is-reformation-day/

Martin Luther - Part 1

Martin Luther – Part 1

Martin Luther, born in the late 15th Century, was the son of a copper miner. His father was climbing the ladder of the scant middle class in Germany. Martin showed great academic promise, so his father made arrangements to send him to law school – which would solidify the financial state of Martin, as well as his parents, for the future. He began legal school at age 14, earning his baccalaureate and master’s degrees in the shortest time allowed by the university.

During his time at law school, Martin began to have doubts about his spiritual state, and took a leave of absence from doctoral school in 1505 (at age 21) to discuss this with family and friends. On his ride home, he was caught in a lightning storm and a bolt of lightning hit very close to where he was. In fear he cried out, “Help me, Saint Anne! I will become a monk!” Saint Anne was very familiar to him, as she was the patron saint of miners.

Martin kept his word, and entered the strictest Augustinian monastery he could find, after giving away all his possessions. He was an impeccable student and was very observant. He did not just endure, but he earnestly pursued the prayer, fasts, and ascetic practices such as going without sleep, enduring cold without a blanket, and self-flagellation. He later remarked, “If anyone could have earned Heaven by the life of a monk, it was I.” He was instructed to undertake the study of theology and quickly rose to become one of the Order’s teachers.

As Martin continued to study, he became more fearful of God, and had continued doubts of his own salvation. His teachers taught that God demanded absolute righteousness (“Be perfect, even as your Father in Heaven is perfect…”). If you weren’t perfect, you had to repent in a contrite manner, not for the selfish purpose of saving yourself. This requirement for perfect contrition plagued him, because he knew his own works were purely selfish, the desire to save his own skin.

Luther was drawn to Romans 1:17 (which later became the ‘text of the Reformation’), “…the righteous shall live by faith.” Luther knew deep down that he was not righteous, therefore he could not live by faith. Luther, with all his piety, knew his incredible works did him no good. He confessed his doubts to his superior in the Order, and was even told to go out and commit a ‘real’ sin. “You want to be without sin, but you don’t have any real sins anyway…the you must not inflate your halting, artificial sins out of proportion!” Martin’s conscience would not permit this, “Yet my conscience would never give me assurance, but I was always doubting and said ‘You did not perform that correctly. You were not contrite enough. You left that out of your confession.’ “

As he continued to meditate on and study Romans 1:17, he later stated about this: “I was seized with the conviction that I must understand Paul’s letter to the Romans…but to that one moment one phrase in Chapter 1 stood in my way. I hated the idea, “in it the righteousness of God is revealed.” …I hated the righteous God who punishes sinners… At last, meditating day and night and by the mercy of God, I began to understand that the righteousness of God is that through which the righteous live by a gift from God, namely by faith…Here I felt as if I were entirely born again and had entered paradise itself through gates that had been flung open.”

In 1517, Pope Leo X sent his aide, Johannes Tetzel, on a fund-raising journey. Tetzel offered the sale of indulgences – monetary contributions to limit the stay in purgatory for deceased loved ones. Tetzel preached on emotion, and usually ended his pitch with a catchy jingle, “When the coin in the coffer rings, the soul from Purgatory springs!” This money was used to fund church projects, primarily the vast renovation of St Peter’s Basilica.

Martin Luther was very bothered by the sale of indulgences, in addition to his other struggles. He posted a list of 95 questions, the famous “95 theses” on the door of the church at Wittenburg on All Saints’ Eve. They were written in Latin, and were meant to be a formal introduction to debate on the sale of indulgences and a few other points Luther questioned.

Enter “mass media”. An individual unknown to history made a copy of Luther’s theses, translated them into German, and within two weeks, they were spread across Germany. Martin’s questions proved to be a flashpoint that allowed many individuals to question what they instinctively know to be wrong. By Spring of 1518, Luther was called to Heidelberg to debate the underlying theological issues. The flashpoint issue quickly moved from indulgences to the authority of the church: Did the Pope have the right to issue indulgences?

A number of public debates ensued, and Martin wrote prolifically to buttress his views. Eventually, his opponents were forbidden from debating with him – unless it was on the subject of church and Papal authority. Growing increasingly frustrated, Luther declared “A simple layman armed with the Scriptures” was superior to both Pope and church councils which did not have them. Pope Leo X issued a Papal bull threatening excommunication for Martin and anyone who followed his teachings. Luther publicly burned this, along with a copy of Canon Law. Luther’s writings urges rulers to take the reform of the church into their own hands; reduced the seven Catholic Sacraments to three (baptism, the Lord’s Supper, and penance), then instructed Christians that they were free from the Law of the church, while they were bound in love to their neighbors.

In Spring of 1521, at the urging of the Pope, the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, held a “Diet” – a meeting – in the city of Worms. Martin Luther thought this to be another debate. He was awed to see Charles V himself, surrounded by his advisors and representatives of Rome, bishops, princes, and representatives of great cities. They were all standing around a table piled high with Luther’s writings. This was not to be a debate, but a judicial hearing. He was asked simply if those were his writings, and secondly if he would recant. Martin, taken aback, asked for a day to consider the matter.

The following day, Luther was again ushered into the great hall. He was asked the same questions, and he had a short prepared speech. He repeated it in Latin for the benefit of Emperor Charles V. Then the chief prosecutor demanded a simple answer, “Will you recant or not?” Luther replied, “Unless I can be instructed and convinced with evidence from the Holy Scriptures or with open, clear, and distinct grounds of reasoning…then I cannot and will not recant, because it is neither safe nor wise to act against conscience. Here I stand. I can do no other. May God help me. Amen.”

William Tyndale

William Tyndale, ca. 1491-1536

William Tyndale was born over 160 years after John Wycliffe, and was just a few years younger than Martin Luther. Tyndale was very intellectually gifted. He could read and speak seven languages well, in addition to Greek and Hebrew. Tyndale and Luther shared many ideals concerning the church’s need for Reformation based on the doctrine of justification by faith (Rom 1:17 “…the righteous shall live by faith…”).

One of the precursors to the Reformation was a book by Desiderius Erasmus – the first printed edition of the New Testament in its original Greek, as best as he could compile it. Erasmus’ work spawned a thirst for knowledge of Biblical languages around the Western World, including in Tyndale. It is generally understood by historians that it was Tyndale’s study of the Greek New Testament that awakened the desire in him to

share the good news of justification by faith, and faith alone.

Tyndale requested permission from the Bishop of London to translate the New Testament in English – a request that was promptly denied. Continued queries by Tyndale showed that there was no significant official of the Church in England who would welcome such an undertaking.

Tyndale, impassioned with his vision, fled England to some of the free cities of Europe. He certainly spent some time in the Lutheran city of Worms and, though no record of a visit exists, almost certainly met with Martin Luther during his time there.

It was from Worms, in 1525, that Tyndale’s first edition of the New Testament in English emerged. Counsellor to King Henry VIII, Sir Thomas More (“Lord Chancellor and pursuer of heretics”, author of Utopia, later martyred the year before Tyndale over his refusal to acknowledge Henry VIII as head of the Church of England and refusal to approve the annulment of Henry’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon) became the chief opponent of Tyndale and covertly purchased the books from the smuggler so as to burn them. More would have been dismayed to know that Tyndale was on the verge of financial trouble at that time, and the infusion of cash from More is what kept his work alive.

He is said to have claimed that “the plough-boy armed with the Scriptures” understands more of the Christian faith than the local priests.

Tyndale was forced into hiding as both More in England and the Catholics in Europe were hunting for him to charge him with heresy. He moved from safe house to safe house – and was so secretive that no record of where he stayed exists to this day. Even while on the run and engaged in his intellectual studies, he maintained the habit of service. According to John Foxe (Foxe’s Book of Martyrs) Tyndale made the practice of giving two days per week to ministry wherever he was, often visiting the poor or other English religious refugees. Other days were spent in writing, translating, and prayer.

Tyndale was betrayed by a confidant named Henry Phillips in the Spring of 1535. He was arrested near Brussels and languished in prison for about a year and a half. He was sentenced to be strangled and burned at the stake. Just prior to his execution, after refusing an opportunity to recant, Tyndale is said to have cried out the prayer, “Lord, open the King of England’s eyes.”

A brief report from an agent to Lord Cromwell two months later contains the statement, “They speak much of the patient suffering of Master Tyndale at the time of his execution.”

Was Tyndale’s prayer answered? Three years later, in 1539, the first ‘Authorized’ English translation was printed, the “Coverdale Bible.” A few other authorized translations were allowed, until King James I himself commissioned scholars to produce a Bible translation, with work beginning in 1604 and completing in 1611. While the King James translators could not give credit to someone convicted of heresy, the fact remains that over 80% of the 1611 King James Bible follows Tyndale’s translation almost identically.

William Tyndale produced the first English Bible to be produced on a printing press, the first English Bible to be based on the Hebrew and Greek text, and was the English counterpart to Martin Luther’s Reformation zeal. His insistence on the primacy of the Scriptures echoed that of John Wycliffe, his predecessor of over 150 years.


Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, John Foxe
http://www.christianitytoday.com/history/people/scholarsandscientists/william-tyndale.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/people/william_tyndale
http://www.tyndale.org/tyndale.htm