Church History, Volume 2 (of 3)Kurtz, J. H. (Johann Heinrich)
History
Church History, Volume 2 (of 3)
Kurtz, J. H. (Johann Heinrich)
Church history
In the second edition of A.D. 1519, one of
these introductory sections, _Ratio veræ theologiæ_, appeared
in a greatly extended form; and from A.D. 1522 it was issued
separately, and passed through several editions. Scarcely less
important were his paraphrases of all the biblical books except
the Apocalypse, begun in A.D. 1517. He did much service too
by his editions of the Fathers. On his polemic with Luther
see § 125, 3. His _Ecclesiastes s. concionator evangelicus_
of A.D. 1535 is a treatise on homiletics admirable of its kind.
In his “Praise of Folly” (Ἐγκώμιον μωρίας, _s. Laus stultitiæ_)
of A.D. 1511, dedicated to his friend Sir Thomas More, he
overwhelms with ridicule the schoolmen, as well as the monks
and the clergy; and in his “Colloquies” of A.D. 1518, by which
he hoped to make boys _latiniores et meliores_, he let no
opportunity pass of reproaching the monks, the clergy, and
the forms of worship which he regarded as superstitious. Also
his _Adagia_ of A.D. 1500 had afforded him abundant scope for
the same sort of thing. A piety of the purest and noblest type,
derived from the schools of the Brothers of the Common Life, and
from intercourse with Colet, breathes through his _Enchiridion
militis christiani_ of A.D. 1502.[358]--Continuation § 123, 3.
§ 120.7. =Humanism in England.=--In England we meet with two
men in the end of the 15th century, closely related to Erasmus,
of supreme influence as humanists in urging the claims of reform
within the Catholic church. =John Colet= in A.D. 1496 returned
to England after a long sojourn in Italy, where he had obtained,
not only humanistic culture, but also, through contact with
Savonarola and Mirandola, a powerful religious impulse. He then
began, at Oxford, his lectures on the Pauline epistles, in which
he abandoned the scholastic method and returned to the study
of Scripture and the Fathers. There, in A.D. 1498, he attached
himself closely to Erasmus and to young Thomas More, who was
studying in that place. In A.D. 1505 Colet was made doctor and
Dean of St. Paul’s, in which position he expounded with great
success whole biblical books and large portions of others in his
sermons. After his father’s death in A.D. 1510, he applied his
great wealth to the founding of a grammar school at St. Paul’s
for the instruction of more than 150 boys in classical, biblical,
and patristic literature. A convocation of English bishops in
A.D. 1512, to devise means for rooting out heresy (§ 119, 1),
gave him the opportunity in his opening sermon to speak plainly
to the assembled bishops. He told them that reform of their
own order was the best way to protect the church against the
incursion of heretics. This aroused the bitter wrath of the old,
bigoted Bishop Fitzjames of London, who disliked him exceedingly
on account of his reforming tendencies and his pastoral and
educational activity.
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