A GODLY WOMAN
Of all the people who suffered for Christ and His truth, I know of none so admirable as the godly woman put to death in Chipping Sodbury about this time. Her constancy was glorious to behold, especially when contrasted with the character of the chancellor who condemned her, one Dr. Whittenham.
When she was condemned for heresy and brought to the place of execution, a great crowd of people gathered, including Dr. Whittenham. This faithful woman persisted in her truthful testimony to the end, committing her cause to the Lord and refusing no pain to keep her conscience clear. Her suffering finally over, the people began to disperse to their homes.
Meanwhile, as the church was slaughtering this innocent lamb just outside the town, a butcher in town was preparing to slay a bull. Having tied him to the ropes, the butcher attempted to hit the bull on the head and kill him, but he msised his killing blow — not being as skilled at killing as the church’s persecutors. The bull, somewhat put out at being hit, broke loose as the people returned from the execution, scatting the townspeople but harming no one until he came to Dr. Whittenham, whom he immediately gored through and killed to everyone’s wonder.
JOHN BROWNE
John Browne ran into trouble with the church by sitting too close to a priest on a public barge in 1517.
“Do you know who I am?” the priest demanded, “You’re sitting on my clothing!”
“No, sir,” replied Browne, “I don’t know who you are.”
“I’m a priest.”
“Oh. Are you a parson? a vicar? or a lady’s chaplain?”
“No, I’m a soul priest,” the man replied. “I sing for a soul.”
“Do you? That’s wonderful!” Browne exclaimed. “But where do you find this soul when you go to Mass?”
“I don’t know.”
“Ah. And when the mass is done, where do you leave this soul?” continued Browne.
“I don’t know.”
“But if you don’t know where to find or leave this soul, how can you save it?”
“Get out of here!” the priest yelled. “You’re a heretic, and I’ll get even with you!”
As soon as he left the barge, this priest went directly to Archbishop Warham. Three days later John Browne was taken from his home and imprisoned in Canterbury, where he remained from Low Sunday until the Friday before Low Sunday, without his family knowing where he was.
The night before he was to be burned as a heretic, Browne was locked in the stocks at Ashford, Kent, where he lived, and found by his wife, who stayed by his side all night listening to his story. Browne showed her his feet, which had been burned to the bones with hot coals by bishops Warham and Fisher, “to make me deny my Lord, which I will never do. Please, Elizabeth,” Browne continued, “do as you have done in the past and bring the children up virtuously in the fear of God.”
The next day Browne was burned at the stake, saying, “Into Thy hands I commend my spirit. You have redeemed me, O Lord of Truth.”
1520-1521
As the light of the gospel began to appear and its number of supporters grew, the bishops became more vehement in their persecutions, causing much suffering in the land. Especially affected were the areas of Buckinghamshire, Amersham, Uxbridge, Henley, and Newbury in the diocese of London, as well as areas in Essex, Coulcester, Suffolk, and Norfolk.
It must be understood that this move toward reformation began before the name of Luther was even known. England had always had godly people who were dedicated to the Word of God, sitting up all night reading and hearing and going to great expense to purchase the few books that were available in their tongue. Some would pay as much as a load of hay for a few translated chapters of St. James or St. Paul. Considering the scarcity of books and teachers, it’s amazing how the Word of Truth spread as far as it did, neighbor teaching neighbor, sharing books and truth and so passing on the knowledge of God.
There were four main areas in which these early reformers disagreed with the church of Rome:
They denied the value of pilgrimages.
They refused to worship the saints.
They insisted on reading scripture for themselves.
They did not believe the physical body of Christ was present in the sacramental bread.
These were simple, honest people who studied and spoke openly of their beliefs, so it was easy for church examiners to trap them into heretical statements they barely understood and make them implicate others who studied God’s Word with them.
In the diocese of Lincoln, Bishop John Longland renewed the old persecution by bringing in one or two men who had previously recanted and reexaminging them. These implicated others, until a great number of people were brought before the bishop for the crime of assembling together to read the scriptures. Those who were found to have relapse were burned; the rest were so burdened with penance that they either died from grief or survived in shame.
King Henry VIII made the bishop of Lincoln’s task even easier by ordering all his secular legal authorities to give the bishop any aid and assistance he needed. Now both the law of the land and law of the church were against any who studied the scriptures and upheld the truth.
MARTIN LUTHER
Martin Luther, born in Eileben, Saxony, in 1483, was sent to the University of Erfurt. There he entered the monastery of Augustinians and met an old man of his order with whom he discussed many things, especially the remission of sins.
Here he learned the full meaning of Paul’s statement “We are justified by faith.” Through his readings of the prophets and apostles and the exercise of faith in prayer, Luther came to believe the truth of Paul’s statement and realized the error of what was being taught by the church’s schoolmen. In his four years at Erfurt, Luther also read Augustine, Gabriel, Cameracensis, Oceam, Aquinas, Scotus, and Gerson, preferring Augustine above the others.
In 1508, at the age of twenty-six, Luther began teaching and preaching at the University of Whittenberg, impressing many educated men with his scholarship. Three years later he traveled to Rome about a disagreement among the monks and was granted his doctorate at the expense of the Duke of Saxony on his return. Luther soon began to compare the Epistle to the Romans and the Psalms, showing people the difference between the law and the gospel. He also argued against the error that said men could earn remission of their sins through works, leading his listeners and readers to God’s remission of sins, through love of Jesus, not through indulgences or pilgrimages.
All this time, Luther changed nothing in the ceremonies, carefully observing the rules of his order. The only way he differed from other priests was in stressing the role of faith in the remission of sins.
In 1516, Pope Leo X began selling pardons, by which he gained a large amount of money from people who were eager to save the souls of their loved ones. His collectors assured the people that for every ten shillings they gave, one specified soul would be delivered from the pains of purgatory. The pope’s collector in Germany was a Dominican frair named Tetzel.
On September 30, 1517, Luther put his objections to this practice on the temple adjoining the castle of Wittenberg. Tetzel immediately called him a heretic, burning his objections and his sermons on indulgences. Luther replied thta he was not totally against indulgences but preferred they be used in moderation. Soon Maximilian (the German emperor), Charles (the king of Spain), and the pope contacted Duke Frederick of Saxony and asked him to silence Luther. The duke conferred with many educated men on the problem, including Erasmus, who supported Luther but urged a little more moderation in his writing and preaching. Duke Frederick communicated his concern to Luther but took no action to silence him. The argument continued, but in 1518, Luther wrote to the pope, totally submitting himself to his authority.
On August 7, 1518, Luther was ordered to appear before the pope in Rome. The University of Wittenberg adn Duke Frederick immediately sent letters back to the pope requesting that Cardinal Cajetan in Augusburg hear Luther. The pope told Cajetan to call Luther before him in Augsburg and bring him to Rome by force, if necessary.
Early in October, Luther traveled to Augsburg at the request of the cardinal, waiting there three days to receive a promise of safe conduct from the emperor. When Luther came before him, Cajetan rather gently demanded three things of him:
That he repent and revoke his errors.
That he promise not to revert back to them.
That he not do anything that would trouble the church.
When Luther asked exactly where he had erred, the carinal showed him Clement’s papal bull on indulgences and maintained that faith isn’t necessary to someone who receives the sacrament.
In his written reply to the cardinal, Luther stated that the pope was to be obeyed as long as what he says agrees with the scriptures, but that the pope may make mistakes, and any faithful Christian has the right to disagree with him if he is using better reason or better authority for his opinions. He also stated that no one is righteous and that a person receiving the sacrament must believe.
The cardinal told Luther to go away until he was ready to repent. Luther waited for three days in Augsburg then sent a message to the cardinal that he would keep silent on the pardons if his enemies would do the same. He asked that every other point of conflict be referred to the pope for his decision. After three more days of waiting, Luther left Augsburg; but before he went, he sent a letter of explanation to the cardinal, along with an appeal to the pope, which he had published before leaving town.
In January 1519, Emperor Maximilian died. In October 1520, he was succeeded by Charles, king of Spain, who received the crown through the efforts of Duke Frederick. In November of that year, two cardinals arrived from Pope Leo to see Frederick and make two demands of him: that all Luther’s books be burned and that Luther either be killed or sent to Rome. Frederick refused, asking for permission to carry on an investigation by educated men, which would determine if Luther was actually in error. If he were proved wrong and refused to recant, Frederick would no longer protect Luther; until then, he would.
In 1521, Luther attended the Diet of Worms at the request of the emperor and with his assurance of safe conduct. The fourth day after he arrived, he was ordered to appear before the emperor and other nobles of the German state, which he did. Told to keep silent until he was asked to speak, Luther was presented with two questions:
Were the books gathered there his?
Would he recant them or stand on what he’d written?
Luther replied that the books were his work but asked for time to answer the second question. Brought back the next day, he said it was impossible to categorically defend what he’d written, since he knew he was a fallible man, but he would be willing to be shown where he had made any errors. Asked for a simple yes or no answer to the two questions, Luther said he would stand on what he’d written until proven wrong by the scriptures.
Unable to move him, the council sent Luther home under his safe-conduct pass. He was kept in hiding for a while but eventually returned to Wittenberg, where he died at the age of sixty-three after continuing to write and preach for an additional twenty-nine years.
ULRIC ZWINGLE
Ulricus Zuinglius moved to Zurich about 1519, living with the priests near the abbey, observing all their rites and ceremonies for two to three years, and instructing the people in scripture.
The same year, Pope Leo renewed his pardons throughout the world, but Zwingle opposed them, finding proof in the scriptures that they were wrong; he also opposed the other corruptions that were currently reigning in the church. Finally Hugo, the bishop of Constance, wrote to the senate of Zurich and the college of canons where Zwingle was living, complaining about him and warning everyone to beward of his teachings. Zwingle explained his faith before the senate of Zurich, which wrote back to the bishop in 1522, saying he should restrain the filthy and infamous lives of the priests and do nothing to hinder the liberty of the gospel.
Zwingle himself wrote to the whole Swiss nation. In his letter, he urged them not to oppose the advance of pure doctrine or bring trouble to any priests who had married. Since the Swiss custom was to allow priests their concubines, Zwingle urged them to allow them lawful marriages instead.
Zwingle continued teaching the Word of the Lord for several more years, the Dominican friars preaching against him, until Zwingle offered to debate with them. At this, the judges and senate of Zurich called all the priests in Zurich to a meeting on January 29, 1523, where everyone would be free to speak their minds. The bishop of Constance sent John Faber as his spokesman. At the close of the meeting, the senate of Zulrich declared that the gospel of Christ should be taught out of the Bible and the traditions of man should be abandoned.
Soon the bishop of Constance wrote to defend the Catholic Church; about June 13, the senate rejected his doctrine and ordered all Catholic images in the city burned. The following April, the city of Zurich suppressed the Catholic Mass, replacing it with the Lord’s Supper, the reading of the prophets, prayer, and preaching.
Only Zurich took part in this reformation, not the other twelve cities of Switzerland, who remained with the Catholic Church. In December 1527, a meeting was called in the town of Berne, where the two schools of religion were permitted to debate the issues freely. On the Protestant side were Zwingle, Oecolampadius, Bucer, Capito, and Blaurerus. The chief speaker for the Catholics was Conrad Tregerus, an Augustinian friar who tried to prove his points by sources other than the Bible, which was not allowed. Forced to stay within the Bible, Tregerus left the assembly. The arguments continued for nineteen days, with the end result that the city of Berne and those adjoining it abolished the Mass, altars, and images of the Catholic Church.
In 1531, the cantons of Zurich and Berne, the only two that had reformed their religion, were insulted by the other five cantons, which led to a war between them, When the five cantons refused to agree to a truce that would allow freedom of religion, Zurich and Berne cut off their roads, starving the cities and forcing them to attach Zurich. Zwingle died in an attempt to reinforce a cut-off garrison of soldiers. His body was mutilated and burned by the Catholic troops. He died at the age of forty-four.
WENDELMUTA
In the year 1527, a virtuous widow named Wendelmuta was martyred in Holland. Arrested for her Protestant beliefs, she was imprisoned in Werden Castle until she appeared before the general session of Holland. Several monks were appointed to convince her to recant, but she refused. She also refused the appeals of her family and friends, including a noble lady who was fond of her.
“Wendelmuta,” the lady said, “why don’t you be quiet and just believe in your heart?”
“You don’t know what you’re saying,” Wendelmuta replied. “It is written, ‘With the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.’”
On November 20, she was condemned as a heretic and ordered burned. Coming to the stake, Wendelmuta refused to kiss a cross a monk brought to her. She put a packet of gunpowder to her chest, gave her neck to be bound, and commended herself into God’s hands. Wendelmura closed her eyes and meekly bowed her head. The fire was then set, and she was burned to ashes.
(To be continued …)
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