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