Penitence, Preaching and the Coming of the Reformation

Anne T. Thayer

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781351912310
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: World History
• Index: History

Why did the Reformation take root in some places and not others? Although many factors were involved, the varying character of penitential preaching across Europe in the decades prior to the Reformation was an especially important contributor to the subsequent receptivity of evangelical ideas. In this book, several collections of model sermons are studied to provide an overview of late medieval teaching on penitence. What emerges is a pattern of differing emphases in different geographical locations, with the characteristic emphases of the penitential message in each region suggesting how such teaching prepared the ground for both the appeal and the reputation of Luther's message. People heard and interpreted the new theology using the late medieval penitential understandings and expectations they had been taught. The variety of teaching found in the Church left different regions vulnerable or resistant to evangelical critiques and alternatives. Despite current academic claims that the establishment of the Reformation cannot have resulted from lay religious understanding, this study offers evidence that theological ideas did reach beyond religious elites to promote a degree of popular support for the Reformation.

Chapter One
Penitence and Preaching on the Eve of the Reformation

For western Europe, the end of the Middle Ages brought increasing diversification and complexity in many areas of life. This was particularly true in the area of religion. The late medieval Church offered a considerable degree of flexibility and tolerance; a fascinating combination of seriousness, diversity, and restlessness characterized religious expression. The schools of theology taught an acknowledged spectrum of doctrine. Tradition was respected while being used as a tool for creative thinking. Largely as a consequence of the Great Schism, the international institution of the papacy was becoming relatively less important, and activity on the regional (or national) and local levels relatively more important. While there were skeptics, many people had a profoundly religious understanding of the nature of the world and of humanity's place in it, and took their religious obligations seriously. Increased religious participation by the laity was one of the hallmarks of the day. New forms of religious devotion and practice such as the Devotio moderna were being tried. Religious orders continued to be an important part of the Church, but many were changing as Observant movements sought to return to a perceived earlier rigor.

In addition to being a rich and fascinating time on its own terms, the later Middle Ages compels the attention of historians as the cradle for the upheavals of the Reformation. In the midst of the diversity of the late medieval Church, there was pressure for change. Theology and practice incorporated developments that had once suited contemporary situations, but now needed much interpretive work to make them applicable. Lay experience was exerting increasing pressure on the religious status quo. Calls for reform in 'head and members' were regularly heard. The Renaissance provided new texts for consideration as well as giving old sources new voices. Although with the Reformation, the bands of tolerated opinion would narrow (and even Catholic orthodoxy would be more narrowly defined), the Reformation too was characterized by diversity. Not only did a number of Protestant traditions quickly emerge, but the penetration of evangelical ideas and the institutionalization of religious change met with different levels of success in different regions of Europe.

The relationship between late medieval and Reformation religion has been characterized in different ways. Indeed as Richard Kieckhefer has observed,

This variety of interpretations underscores the crucial role of the late Middle Ages as an exceptionally controversial, complex, and exciting period, an era for which we have an unprecedented variety and abundance of materials, and which perhaps in part for that reason remains open to unusually diverse readings.¹

Perhaps the most traditional reading presents the late medieval Church as being in a state of decay and the Reformation as a revival. This reflects the way the Protestant reformers themselves saw it and this picture of the late medieval Church owes much to them.² A related portrayal shows the late medieval Church in a state of decline from its glory days in the high Middle Ages with the Reformation as the resultant debacle.³ Starting from very different assumptions, other historians present Europeans as barely Christianized until the major educational and conversion efforts of the Reformation or even later.⁴ Each of these characterizations has been criticized for not being adequately fair to the self-perception of late medieval Christians.⁵ Historians who take a less critical stance toward late medieval Christianity tend to focus on processes of growth and development within the Church. Here the Reformation may be seen either as a continuous extension of trends in lay piety,⁶ such as increasing lay participation, or as an instance of discontinuous growth, offering quite a different approach to the Christian faith,⁷ or both. This final view has the advantage of accommodating the complexity that generally characterizes history; it is adaptable to the different configurations of tradition and innovation arising in diverse places. The Reformation reveals both continuities and discontinuities with the late medieval past; it was both a culmination and a transcendence of medieval religious history.⁸

Why did the Reformation take root in some places and not in others? Why in Germany but not in Italy? Why did France have such a difficult time reaching a religious settlement in the sixteenth century? Such questions have intrigued scholars for centuries. It is clear that in every location, a multiplicity of factors contributed to the actual process of religious change, and that these factors are to be variously evaluated according to the situation. Political considerations played a particularly important role.⁹ Less tangible factors, such as civic mentality¹⁰ and the desire for increased personal autonomy,¹¹ were also influential. Recent books such as Euan Cameron's The European Reformation (1991), Bob Scribner, Roy Porter and Mikulás Teich's The Reformation in National Context (1994), and Carter Lindberg's The European Reformations (1996), have been devoted to showing the complexity of the issue and the necessity for a contextual approach. Many excellent local and regional studies highlight the process of the Reformation in particular places.¹²

But religion must take pride of place as it played a central role in the debates, power struggles and social changes everywhere. And the theological foundations from which, and the religious milieux in which, the Reformation proceeded were those of late medieval Europe. While a great deal of scholarship has focused on the intellectuals and theologians who formed the theological traditions of the later Middle Ages, much less work has been done on how religious ideas were communicated to the laity and how these ideas shaped the religious experience of ordinary parish Christians. To understand the lay religious situation of late medieval Europe, we do well to look at teaching designed for and delivered to the laity. Popular model sermon collections reveal the key ideas and expectations which the laity were likely to hear from their priests and itinerant mendicants. I aim here to elucidate this teaching on the pervasive and crucial topic of penitence and to suggest how the diversity in such teaching helped to prepare the ground for both the appeal and the repudiation of Luther's message in the sixteenth century.

Penitence and preaching

In the pursuit of eternal salvation, penitence was central to late medieval Catholicism and, as we shall see, a pervasive concern of popular preachers. The Church taught that sin needed to be acknowledged, forgiven and abandoned. God's restoring grace was available in the sacrament of penance, the penitential process designed to discipline, forgive and console sinners, as well as to restore broken community, discourage repeated bad behavior and cultivate virtue. Indeed, annual confession in conjunction with Easter communion was the chief ecclesiastical obligation of late medieval lay Christians. They were to ponder their sins with contrition, a deep voluntary sorrow for having offended God, confess them completely to a priest, who evaluated their severity and spoke the words of absolution, and subsequently perform any works of satisfaction the priest might assign. Satisfactions remaining at the time of death were to be completed in a more excruciating fashion in purgatory. The purchase of an indulgence could substitute for one's required satisfactions, and living Christians could speed souls through purgatory by means of alms, prayers and masses. Upon successful completion of the penitential process, the penitent joined the great company of saints in heaven, who had been supporting him or her with their intercessions all along.

Testifying to the pastoral importance of penitence in the later Middle Ages are the institutions and materials that accompanied it. Books were produced to tell confessors how to hear confessions, and to tell lay people how to prepare for and conduct themselves in confession. Visitation records show church officials seeking to ensure that confession was being properly conducted. Preachers tirelessly exhorted their hearers to penitence; model sermon collections gave penitence extensive coverage. Famous preachers traveled with confessors in their retinues to hear confessions and so bring people into the Church's systems of pastoral care. Less famous preachers usually heard confessions themselves. Basic religious instruction was associated with penitence as those coming to confession were asked to recite the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, the Ten Commandments and the Ave Maria. Literary and artistic works were produced to accompany the performance of penitential devotions. Penitential concerns lay behind pilgrimages, endowed masses, indulgences, new church construction and various forms of piety on behalf of the dead. The cult of the saints was infused with penitential inspiration as zealous penitence was taken as a sign of sanctity.

The importance of penitence in the religious culture of the day is also attested by the zeal with which penitential activities were often taken up by groups operating largely outside the normal channels of church ministry. Groups like the flagellants, Bianchi and penitential confraternities could generate popularity quite rapidly, attracting the participation of many, especially in response to crisis. Such groups in effect magnified the religious techniques and understandings that were widely accepted in the culture. Late medieval individuals, both recognized holy figures such as those discussed by Richard Kieckhefer,¹³ and others like Margery Kempe, also illuminate the pervasiveness of penitential concerns and the range of options for penitential practice offered to the laity as they took them to heart to a degree uncommon among their fellow Christians.

Not only did the late medieval Church and its faithful consider penitence vital in doctrine and practice, Luther and other Protestant reformers also identified it as a key feature of late medieval religion. Their response to it was central to their own theologies. It is well known that Luther found the burden of his sins intolerable and experienced increased anxiety, rather than consolation, as he went through the penitential process. The ferocity of 'the assault on the confessional'¹⁴ was fueled by a desire for certainty of salvation grounded in certainty of forgiveness. Forgiveness of sins remained in the forefront of the new theology of justification by faith. Hence teaching on penitence serves particularly well as a lens focusing the religious situations and changes in fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Europe.

Model sermon collections are an ideal source for investigating late medieval teachings on penitence; preaching was the 'mass media' of the day.¹⁵ Preachers held an important place in late medieval culture, significantly shaping its religious ideas, sensibilities and experiences. As members of the clergy, they spoke with spiritual authority as they defined sin, called people to repentance, articulated a theology of salvation, pronounced forgiveness and assigned satisfactions. Preachers also reflected their culture, having been formed by it, and they articulated what was going on around them. They entertained, persuaded, spread news, and shared late medieval life with the laity to whom they preached. Indeed, parish priests often had more in common with their parishioners than with their superiors.¹⁶ And, as we will see, preaching and penitence were natural companions in the late medieval Church; preachers preached penitence relentlessly. Sermons were more likely to be given and heard during the penitential season of Lent than at other times of the year. The well-known scholar of medieval sermons, J. B. Schneyer, has noted that in comparison with the preaching of the High Middle Ages, late medieval preaching produced more quadragesimale (Lenten) collections and showed increased attention to passion and penitence.¹⁷

Throughout this period, the Church officially encouraged improved quality and greater frequency in preaching. Local demand for sermons increased also. Preaching took place on at least two levels - the special event and the routine.¹⁸ Revivalist sermons were often prominent special events, popular and well attended.¹⁹ The arrival of a famous mendicant preacher such as Bernardino of Siena would draw huge crowds; business would stop while he preached. Florence and other cities enlarged the public space in front of their churches in order to accommodate the huge crowds drawn in for preaching.²⁰ Towns hired preachers to give special series of Lenten sermons, often competing with one another for particularly famous preachers.

In addition to spe...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Dedication
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• Preface
• 1 Penitence and Preaching on the Eve of the Reformation
• 2 Printed Model Sermon Collections
• 3 The Pervasiveness of Penitence
• 4 Rigorist, Moderate and Absolutionist Sermon Collections
• 5 Luther's Response to the Late Medieval Penitential Process
• 6 Penitence, Preaching and the Coming of the Reformation
• Appendix 1 Catalogues Surveyed: Incunabula and Early Printed Books
• Appendix 2 Methodological Notes
• Appendix 3 Estimated Numbers of Copies of Popular Sermon Collections
• Select Bibliography
• Index