Chapter 30: The Alternate Stream. Not all medieval reform movements focused on the Gospel of the Kingdom. Alongside the Kingdom stream, there flowed a different stream: the stream of the Augustinian reformers. At first glance, it would seem that no movement tied to Augustine could be a true reform movement. After all, he was the apologist for the whole Constantinian hybrid, and that is correct. But the Church in Augustine's day had been part of the hybrid for less than a century.
As the years passed, the Church grew even further from Jesus' teaching. Veneration of icons, Mary, and the saints was just beginning in Augustine's day. In his day, there were no papal indulgences and no cardinals. The people of the congregation were allowed to drink of the cup in communion. So returning to the Christianity of Augustine's day was in itself a major reform. Yet, it was still within the Constantinian hybrid. It was by no means a return to the Gospel of the Kingdom.
Although they had many points in common, Augustinian reform movements differed significantly from Kingdom movements in the following ways: 1. Acceptance of the Constantinian Hybrid. To begin with, all Augustinian reformers accepted the Constantinian hybrid. They had no objection to the union of Church and state. In fact, they invariably sought to accomplish their reforms through the power of the state. 2. Rejection of Nonresistance.
Since they accepted the union of Church and state, Augustinian reformers did not object to use of the sword. They all recognized that the sword was necessary for the operation and preservation of the state. And since the state was joined to the Church, the Church should not object to its members participating in war, capital punishments, and torture. 3. Rejection of Other Kingdom Teachings. Augustinian movements nearly always took the same form.
New Testament theology, supposed, passed over Old Testament morals and lifestyle. Augustine reformers taught that Jesus' Kingdom teachings on wealth and oaths did not need to be followed literally. They usually said little about separation from the world. Nevertheless, to their credit, Augustinian reformers usually attacked the additions that the Roman Church had made to the Gospel after the time of Augustine. However, they invariably accepted most of the changes made before the death of Augustine. 4.
Emphasis on Theology Over Lifestyle. Another difference between Augustinian movements and Kingdom movements was that Augustinian movements typically focused on theology as the essence of Christianity. In contrast, Kingdom movements focused on lifestyle, not theology. Furthermore, the theology that Augustinian reformers focused on was the theology of Augustine. These reformers usually talked about the ultimate authority of Scripture. However, in practice, it was always the Scriptures as interpreted by Augustine.
Not surprisingly, virtually all Augustinian reformers taught absolute predestination as a major plank of their reform platform. 5. Education. Most Augustinian reformers were university-educated men. In fact, these reform movements usually could boast at least one major university that served as a strong ally. In contrast, most of the Kingdom movements were started by laymen, and they usually had no support from the universities. Perhaps the foremost Augustinian reformer of the Middle Ages was John Wycliffe.
He served as a professor of philosophy and divinity at Oxford University in 14th-century England. Wycliffe was popular in the English academic circles of his day, and he had the support of the English royal courts. Like the Augustinian reformers, who would follow him, Wycliffe taught against most of the developments in the Catholic Church after the time of Augustine: the doctrine of transubstantiation, the veneration or worship of relics, icons, and saints, and the granting of indulgences.
Wycliffe also rejected the exalted claims of the Pope. In fact, he called the Roman Church "Satan's synagogue," and he said that the Pope was the Antichrist. Wycliffe correctly saw that Peter and Clement, together with the other helpers in the faith, were not popes, but God's helpers in the work of building up the Church of our Lord Jesus Christ. Wycliffe wanted the national church in England to be independent of the Pope.
He denounced all religious orders in the strongest language, even going so far as to say that nobody could be a true Christian who belonged to one. In his writings, Wycliffe fiercely attacked the wealth of the Catholic Church. In fact, he taught that neither clerics nor the Church should own any property at all. However, Wycliffe was not ready to embrace the full teachings of Jesus against accumulating treasures on earth. He had no problem with kings and the nobility storing up treasures on earth.
He just didn't want the Church to do it. Wycliffe even said that if the Church would not hand over its vast properties to the crown, then the crown should forcibly take them. This, in fact, is precisely what Henry VIII did about 150 years after Wycliffe's death. Like other Augustinian reformers, Wycliffe totally accepted the Constantinian hybrid. The only part of it he objected to was the phony donation of Constantine that I previously mentioned. In Wycliffe's day, this document was still accepted as genuine.
Since Wycliffe believed the state was the twin part of the Church, he taught that a secular lord must live in a state of righteousness. He said, "Nobody in mortal sin is lord of anything." In other words, if a ruler is living in mortal sin, he automatically loses his office of rulership, and his subjects no longer have to obey him. This, of course, is directly contrary to what the New Testament teaches.
Practically all the Roman emperors lived in mortal sin, but Paul said we were to submit ourselves to them, not overthrow them. Wycliffe's teaching laid the groundwork for armed revolution if the Christian body believed the king or any other lord was living in sin or belonged to the wrong church. Like Augustine, Wycliffe believed in absolute predestination. He taught that, before persons are ever born, they are already unalterably predestined to either eternal life or eternal damnation.
He said this is not a result of God's foreknowledge, but of His arbitrary decree. Wycliffe wrote, "I assert as a matter of faith that everything that will happen will happen of necessity. Thus, if Paul is foreknown as damned, he cannot truly repent." Unlike the Kingdom preachers in France and Italy, Wycliffe wanted to bring about reform through the power of the state. From the beginning, Wycliffe operated within the power circles of England, and the king and other nobles protected Wycliffe from the Pope.
In fact, Wycliffe's special protector was John of Gaunt, a duke who had enormous influence over the aged king Edward of England. The Catholic Church declared many of Wycliffe's propositions to be heretical. However, because of his powerful friends, Wycliffe managed to escape burning at the stake. He died a natural death in 1384. Nevertheless, about 50 years after his death, the Church had his body exhumed, burned to ashes, and dumped in a river.
Wycliffe's influence lived on in England through his disciples, who were called Lollards by the Catholics. Wycliffe had always argued the authority of Scripture over the authority of the Church. One of the great accomplishments of the Lollards was their translation of the first English Bible. Although this first English Bible is popularly credited today to Wycliffe himself, the actual translating was done by his disciples and friends. Initially, the Lollards included many persons of wealth and power in their ranks.
Still heavily influenced by the Constantinian hybrid, in 1394, the Lollards presented a pamphlet to the English Parliament asking it to reform the Church. Yet their proposed reforms are an interesting mixture of Augustinian and Kingdom teachings. They attacked priestly celibacy, holy water, prayers for the dead, pilgrimages to Rome, prayers and offerings to crosses and images, and confession to priests. They called for an end to the practice of the Pope or his bishops performing all ordinations in England.
They also attacked the practice of clergymen occupying both governmental and spiritual offices at the same time, saying, "To have the king and bishop in one person, prelate and judge in temporal causes, curate and officer in secular office, puts any kingdom beyond good rule." This conclusion is clearly true because the temporal and spiritual are two halves of the entire holy Church. And so he who has applied himself to one should not meddle with the other, for no one can serve two masters.
So like Wycliffe, the Lollards did not have a complete understanding of the Gospel of the Kingdom. They wanted secular and religious offices separated, but they still saw the secular and religious powers together constituting the entire holy Church. God's Kingdom was still married to the state. Nevertheless, after Wycliffe's death, the Lollards moved further from Augustinian theology and closer to the Kingdom Gospel.
For example, despite their imperfect understanding of the Kingdom, the Lollards could see that war was inconsistent with Christianity. Manslaughter in war, or by pretended law of justice for a temporal cause, without spiritual revelation, is expressly contrary to the New Testament, which indeed is the law of grace and full of mercies. This conclusion is openly proved by the examples of Christ's preaching here on earth, for He specially taught a man to love his enemies and to show them pity and not to slay them.
The reason is this: generally speaking, when men fight, love is forgotten after the first blow, and whoever dies without love goes down the straight road to hell. And beyond this, we know well that no clergyman can, by Scripture or lawful reason, remit the punishment of death for one mortal sin and not for another.
But the New Testament is the law of mercy, and it prohibits every kind of manslaughter, for the Gospel says, "It was said to them of old, 'Thou shall not kill.'" The Crusaders deserve ill thanks from the King of Peace, for it is by humility and patience that the faith is multiplied. Christ Jesus hates and threatens men who fight and kill, for He says, "He who smites with the sword shall perish by the sword." As might be guessed, Parliament did not institute these Lollard articles.
In fact, within a few decades, the crown and the Catholic Church united in an attempt to completely eradicate the Lollards. The Catholic powers hunted down the Lollards ruthlessly, and many of them were burned at the stake. Others recanted their doctrines when faced with torture and death. The survivors were driven underground. The Lollards continued to meet, but in secret. Their simple meetings emphasized Bible study and preaching of the Word.
After the Lollard movement lost the support of the king and nobility, it began to take on many of the characteristics of the medieval Kingdom movements. Their numbers were now almost exclusively made up of tradesmen, peasants, and the urban poor. The Catholic Church could never eradicate them, and so the Lollards were still around when the Reformation reached England. However, what the Catholic Church could not do, the Reformation did.
The surviving Lollards were drawn into the English Reformation and its Augustinian theology. After the time of Queen Mary (1553-1558), they lost their distinctive teachings and their separate identity.