We were introduced to the life and times of Martin Luther with a she-banga-bang! We had muddled through his biography, titled Luther: Man Between God and the Devil by Heiko A. Oberman, the previous week in Paris and prepared our book report sleepily on a few late nights. The main consensus for the book seemed to be that it was confusing and focused on too many aspects of Luther’s life that were rather extraneous.
We have to admit though, that Dr. Smith’s syllabus had us all on high-alert. Just imagine reading this before meeting the teacher:
"Students are expected to be respectful toward the professor and their classmates. The amount of tuition one has paid for the class does not alter this expectation; no single student has proprietary ownership of the class, but the course as a whole and the classroom in particular are under the exclusive custody of the professor. The following behaviors, therefore, are not tolerated: sleeping in class, engaging in personal conversations, passing notes, walking around the classroom, and leaving the classroom for any period of time without prior consent of the instructor. Infractions in any of these areas will result in a variety of penalties – including but not limited to a verbal warning, which might be deeply embarrassing, dismissal from class for the day, a reduction in class participation grade, or a particular assignment given as punishment – to be administered at the professor’s discretion."
Not that we were used to sleeping in the classroom (... much), but still, this had us a bit on edge, understandably so. However, we quickly realized we had nothing to worry about. We mentioned our concerns to Coach and he mentioned that Dr. Smith had to prepare for the worst and seem as overbearing as possible, because it would be much easier to move from cracking down to easing up than the other way around. We understood and (tried) not to give him any reason crack down ;) I think we were successful... he said we were one of his favorite classes, so we were happy.
He was an awesome professor, loved his subject matter, loved teaching it, and loved sharing his insights and vast knowledge of history with us. One thing that particularly stood out to us was his dedication to writing all his class notes by hand either on the whiteboard or, in some classrooms, a giant notepad. He told us at the start that he didn’t like using electronic media, like powerpoint presentations, in his class because he felt that it was too visually over-stimulating. Jeanette and I both loved that, and totally admired how he could hand-write on the board, keep talking, know what he was going to write next, and stay on track. Powerpoint presentations are a lot of work, we don’t discredit that at all (because we’ve had to do them before as well!), but that is all pre-prepared, and takes the work out of knowing where you’re going in the presentation. Hand-writing everything as you go, however, means you have to know where you’re going, either in your head or on a separate outline. Either of which we admired the foresight of.
Our first day in the classroom, we learned about the major historical turning points and leaders of the Reformation. Doctor Smith took us from some very early church leaders, such as Augustine, Charlemagne, and several church councils down to Martin Luther, John Wycliffe, Jan Huss. We started out studying Augustine vs. Pelagius, Aquinas whose beliefs spurred the Augustinian monasteries, and several discussions about purgatory which was a very relevant issue in those times. We were introduced to Luther on the second day and dove into his character and life story the following day. His contemporaries, who began the first generation of Reformers, included Karlstadt, Munzter and Zwingli.
Luther was born in 1481; he attended four different schools and eventually achieved a Master’s degree. His father wanted him to pursue an ambitious career, but was sorely disappointed when his son instead moved to an Augustinian monastery in Erfurt following a scary encounter with God in a lightning storm. About ten years later, Luther began a strong questioning of his faith, studying the scriptures intently, and ultimately crafting the extremely controversial 95 Theses.
Contrary to popular belief, Luther was not advocating a separation from the Catholic church, but rather pointing out discrepancies he believed needed to be changed between the practice of the church (mainly regarding the practice of indulgences) and the doctrines presented in the Bible. Also contrary to popular belief, Luther did not post the list angrily on the town church door, instead he put them into common circulation within the town’s educated society for discussion. Someone from that circle then sent a copy of the list to a bishop, who eventually sent it to Rome to be “dealt” with by the Pope. He didn’t directly deal with it, but attacked Luther for having the audacity to interpret the Bible differently than the Pope himself, or for questioning official doctrine of the church. This started a chain of events that was to last almost Luther’s entire life, a virtual tug-of-war with the Roman Catholic Church. The church may have carried out its “punishments” on Luther to try and eradicate his opinions, but they have obviously lived through the centuries and had great influence on modern Christianity.
The first of the “punishments” was excommunication in 1520. However, does this stop Luther? Of course not. He burns the official decree, sent to him from Rome, essentially throwing his fist at the Pope’s face. Maybe not such a good move, but we learned that was just his style. April 1521 he was summoned to Worms to have a type of trial concerning his beliefs, which he (mistakenly) believed would be his chance at defense. He would clear up this misunderstanding by telling them how he didn’t mean to cause such an uproar, he only wanted to point out some things his own Bible reading had revealed to him. But unfortunately, the council was not in a listening mood. They asked him two questions. Quick and to the point. 1) Are these your books? and 2) Do you recant? He asked for some time to think about what to say and was giving a day or two. When he returned, he calmly stated that they were his books. And went on to explain that though he perhaps had used language angering to the church authorities, and perhaps it wasn’t the most Christian way to share his opinion. However, he insisted there was nothing against the Bible in his books, and therefore, he ended with: Here I stand, I cannot do otherwise, so help me God.
He very soon had a price on his head, one worthy of a good disguise. A very wealthy friend, John Frederick, “kidnapped” and hid him in a magnificent castle (which there will be photos of later) and gave him the name Knight George as an alternate identity. He didn’t waste any time enjoying the view though, and took advantage of the solitude and interpreted the New Testament from the Erasmus's Greek New Testament into the common German of the day, which continues to be a very accurate version of the German Bible. That might seem an appropriate project for a few years, but no, he took eleven weeks. Workaholic? We ended that week of class by learning Luther’s main beliefs of the faith.
Ulrich Zwingli was born in 1484 and was educated very well, ending his studies with a masters degree in 1506. In 1518 he became a Leupriester (translated as “People’s Priest”) in the Grossmunster (the Great Church) of Zurich. Believing hypocrisy was one of the worst sins, he didn’t try to hide the fact that he was a womanizer. He highly advocated clerical marriage and led the way to it being an acceptable practice, eventually choosing one woman to be his wife. Later, in July of 1522, Zwingli and 10 other priests petitioned a church authority for the right to marry and were turned down with the comment “Stop being so reformational.” In January 1519, he started a sermon series exposition of Matthew, which drew great criticism from the church leaders because he was bringing the Bible down to the level of the common parishioners. January of 1523, the first disputation of Zurich occurred, which placed much more power in the hands of the city council rather than with the church authorities. He died in 1531 in the battle of Kappel, after lying injured on the ground and refusing to confess his sins to a priest. His body was quartered and burned, the usual treatment for people convicted of treason.
Our next few days of class happened on the road across Germany.
John (Jean) Calvin started in the second generation of the reformation, known for its reflectivity. He was born in Noyon, France in a cathedral city.
He was never ordained and his father, Gerard, was a bishop in the church clerical system, offering him a wealthy background and upbringing. His father sent him to several schools in the hope he would become an ordained priest. Instead, he earned his masters degree from the College de Montaigu. During his schooling, Calvin’s father had a falling out with the church. As a result of the falling out (we can assume), Calvin changed his degree to Civil Law at the University of Orleans, earning it in 1533. Sometime between 1533 and 34, he was converted to a reformation faith and dedicated himself to a life of quiet scholarly study. Soon after, he was going through Geneva heading for Straussburg, known as a safe location for reformers. He ended up staying in Geneva for several years. After several moves, he led the Genevens to live more Christianly, banning the Catholic ritualism so prevalent in their culture and going so far as to punish those that did not attend Sunday services. He did not advocate violence to force belief, but he did advocate forcing people to at least listen to the word of God.
In summary, Luther focused on the word of God in a believer’s life, while Calvin focused on the spirit of God in the believer’s life.
Our last day, we did a basic overview of the English reformation, including William Tyndale and Miles Coverdale (he translated the Old Testament in English, complementing Tyndale’s English New Testament). This portion of the study centered on the divorce of King Henry VIII and the development of the Anglican church. John Knox brought Clavinism to the Scottish people, calling Calvin’s way of thinking the “perfect school of Christ.” The council of Trent was the bookend to the reformation, up to then there was hope that there would be reconciliation between Catholics and the Protestants.
