One thing that really surprised me when I began studying church history was learning about the Reformatory Councils of the 15th century.(taught well here by the great Philip Schaff https://ccel.org/ccel/schaff/hcc6/hcc6.iii.iii.iv.html) The church had been crying out for reformation for over 100 years when Luther appeared. The real question is why did previous attempts at reform fail so ignominiously? For myself, I think that the answer is that they didn't strike deep enough. They wanted to get rid of scandal and abuse but didn't want their apple carts turned over. It would take a mad monk nailing things to church doors and an exile whose only home was Grace and only loyalty Truth to strike at the roots of the problem.
That's not a bad insight, Jon. Reformation, properly speaking, necessitates upsetting the fruit basket, as it were, which was a pretty daunting notion when the proverbial fruit basket is the institution known as the Medieval Roman Catholic Church.
One thing that really surprised me when I began studying church history was learning about the Reformatory Councils of the 15th century.(taught well here by the great Philip Schaff https://ccel.org/ccel/schaff/hcc6/hcc6.iii.iii.iv.html) The church had been crying out for reformation for over 100 years when Luther appeared. The real question is why did previous attempts at reform fail so ignominiously? For myself, I think that the answer is that they didn't strike deep enough. They wanted to get rid of scandal and abuse but didn't want their apple carts turned over. It would take a mad monk nailing things to church doors and an exile whose only home was Grace and only loyalty Truth to strike at the roots of the problem.
That's not a bad insight, Jon. Reformation, properly speaking, necessitates upsetting the fruit basket, as it were, which was a pretty daunting notion when the proverbial fruit basket is the institution known as the Medieval Roman Catholic Church.