Roots of Reformation

106 Pages·2012·4.864 MB·English

by  Karl Adam

Roots
n
r
ofthe .
Reformation
Adam
By Karl
Translated by Cecily Hastings
This edition ofKarl Adam's Roots ofthe
Reformation is dedicated to men and woman
who have placed their faith in Jesus Christ and
dedicated their own lives to the service oftruth
at whatever cost, following in the footsteps of
such great Christian witnesses as Barnabas the
Apostle, Edmund Campion, Issac Jogues,
and Francis de Sales.
Coming Home Resources
PO Box 8290
OH
Zanesville, 43702
877-455-3208
Coming Home Resources is a registered trademark
ofthe Coming Home Network, Inc.
©
2000, 2004, 2005 by CHResources
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States ofAmerica
ISBN 0-9702621-0-8
05 06 07 08 09 76 543
1
Contents
Introduction / 7
Author's Foreword / 9
Chapter
1
Weakness in the Church / 1
Chapter
II
Luther 27
/
Chapter
III
The Central Question Today / 65
Epilogue
The Roots ofthe Reformation FiftyYears Later / 77
AppendixA
Historical Figures / 85
Appendix B
Historical Footnotes / 93
Appendix C
Further Reading Materials / 105
D
Appendix
What is The Coming Home Network? / 107
Introduction
The main reason the Coming Home Network decided to
republish this wonderful little book by Professor Karl Adam is
that I wished that someone had given it to me years ago when
I was a young Lutheran or later when I was a Protestant pas-
tor. Like most Protestants, I understood the Reformation from
only one perspective. I had never trulyconsidered, nor listened
to, the Catholic side because I had never read anything about
the Catholic Church written by a faithful Catholic.
What actually led to the decisions that divided a fifteen
hundred year old unified though suffering Church into, ini-
tially, dozens of fragments? Why did this happen, and what
does this continued fragmentation mean? Should it continue
to exist, and how can you and I reconcile these issues today?
Too often books on the Reformation are unapologeti-
cally polemical, biased to one side or the other. The beauty of
Professor Adam's approach is that his historically sensitive and
accurate analysis ofthe causes ofthe Reformation stands as a
valid and sometimes unsettling challenge to the presupposi-
tions ofProtestants and Catholics alike.
In 1947, Karl Adam gave a series of lectures which were
later compiled into his 1951 book, One and Holy, published
originallyin GermanybyPatmosVerlagin Dusseldorf. Because
itwas sowell received by Catholics and Protestants alike, itwas
then translated into English by Cecily Hastings and published
by Sheed & Ward in NewYork. Five years later Sheed & Ward
published The Roots ofthe Reformation, an edited and smaller
version of One and Holy. Recognizing that this out-of-print
Roots ofthe Reformation
book has far from out-lived its usefulness, the Coming Home
Network republished it, adding extensive biographical and his-
torical endnotes to make it more accessible and useful to the
modern reader. The result is the current edition now in your
hands. For your convenience the following format has been
implemented:
The symbol Y represents Karl Adam's original footnotes,
which are found at the bottom of the page on which it
appears.
The asterisk (*) follows the names ofpersons for whom a
paragraph ofinformation can be found in AppendixA (histor-
ical figures). A page number within parenthesis (p.l) appears
at the end ofeach biographical paragraph, referring the reader
back to the page on which the person's name was mentioned.
A superscript number (1,2>3•••etc) followingvarious historical
references made in the text directs the reader to Appendix B
(Historical Endnotes) where further explanation or clarifica-
tion can be found.
All textwithin brackets was inserted bythe CHNetwork,
[ ]
to explain, for example, the meaning ofLatin terms.
I encourage you to read this book with an open mind and
a prayerful heart, and ifyou do, I guarantee that it will lead
you to a deeper understanding of your own faith heritage, if
not a challenge to it. Ofcourse, it is the hope ofthe Coming
Home Network that this book will lead you to a closer walk
with Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, and a more complete
acceptance ofthe fullness ofthe Faith He gave His Apostles.
Marcus Grodi
President, The ComingHome Network
.
Author's Foreword
The following lectures¥were delivered in 1947 to alarge
gathering of the Una Sancta movement at Stuttgart
and Karlsruhe. The ideas here advanced are often
closely related to those expressed by Johannes Hessen in his
stimulating work, Luther in Katholischer Sicht (Bonn, 1947).
I did not actually see his book until after I had given my
lectures. Hessen gives a philosophical and historical account
of the "phenomenon of Luther" and the possibility of an
ultimate understanding with the Lutheran Church. It is my
aim to provide this with a clear theological basis.
It cannot be doubted that at the present moment, under
the shattering impact oftwo worldwars, a bridge is being built
between Catholics and Lutherans, at least in the sense that the
unreality ofmere polemic is being abandoned, that Luther on
the one hand and the Papacy on the other are being seen in a
clearer and more friendly light, and that real efforts are being
made, by Christians everywhere, to bring about if not a unio
fidei [union offaith] at least a unio caritatis [union ofheart]
SinceLuthercanonlybeunderstoodagainstthebackground
ofthe ecclesiastical abuses ofthe late Middle Ages, I could not
avoid dealing with these abuses in detail. I have deliberately
taken myevidence exclusivelyfrom Catholic sources, especially
from Karl Bihlmeyer's history of the Church (the objectivity
and thoroughness ofwhich have made it the standard work on
the subject), and JosefLortz's brilliant and psychologically
This book is a large part of One and Holy, a translation of Una Sancta in
KatholischerSicht, published by PatmosVerlag, Dusseldort, Germany.
9
Roots ofthe Reformation
penetrating Reformation in Deutschland. In the light of recent
researches it should hardly be necessary to emphasize that these
abuses do not give the whole picture ofthe medieval Church.
Its darker aspects are relieved by so many bright lights that it
is not possible to take a pessimistic view ofit as a whole.
KARL ADAM
1951
10
Chapter One
Weakness in the Church
Avarice in Rome
Modern
historians are agreed that the roots of the
Reformation reach far back into the high Middle
Ages. The former monk of Cluny, Pope Gregory
VII [1073-1085], in his zeal for the liberty and reform of
the Church, so interpreted the papal claims formulated by
Augustine,* Pope Gregory the Great [Gregory I, 540-604] and
Pope Nicholas I [858-867] that right up into the late Middle
Ages they excited repeated resistance from the secular powers,
shook the prestige ofthe Papal See and so prepared the way for
Luther's Reformation. Gregory's Dictatus Papae,1 in which he
claimed for the Pope a direct authorityeven over secular affairs,
with the right to depose unworthy princes and release their
subjects from their oath ofallegiance, inspired papal policy all
through the Middle Ages.
This certainly added a corrosive bitterness and a devastat-
—
ing violence a violence which did not stop short ofthe Papal
—
See itself to the conflicts which in any event would have
been bitter enough between Regnum [rule] and Sacerdotium2
[sacred], the struggle between the Emperor Henry IV [1050-
1108] and the Pope over investitures,3 the battles with the
Hohenstaufen,4 Frederick Barbarossa* and Frederick II,* the
conflictswith Philip the Fair* ofFrance and LudwigofBavaria.
In Frederick IPs Manifesto of 1230 Pope Gregory IX [1227-
1241] is alreadybranded as "the great Dragon andAntichristof
the last days." In 1301 Philip the Fair had Pope BonifaceVIII's
[1294-1303] BuWAusculta6 publicly burned, and in 1303 had
the Pope himselftaken into custody as a "heretic, blasphemer
11