Outlines of Ecclesiastical HistoryRoberts, B. H. (Brigham Henry)
Religion
Outlines of Ecclesiastical History
Roberts, B. H. (Brigham Henry)
Church history; Latter Day Saint churches -- History
10. The people also were tired of the dominion asserted over
their minds by the papal authority, and were only too glad to escape
from that thraldom under any pretext whatsoever. The preceding century
had brought a great intellectual awakening to Europe, and men were no
longer content to have questions of fact and belief decided by the
authority of the church. (See note 2, end of section.) They insisted
that human reason and individual judgment had a right to investigate
and to be satisfied on these questions; and the securing of that
freedom was not only the leading principle of the sixteenth century
revolution, but its greatest achievement. (See note 3, end of section.)
11. Revolution, not Reformation.--It is absurd to say that
the revolution of the sixteenth century was a reformation, if by
that it is meant that it re-established the primitive doctrines of
Christianity, purified the morals of the people, or gave birth to a
better ecclesiastical government. It did no such thing. The Reformers
declaimed against some of the abuses of the Catholic church, such
as denying the sacramental cup to the laity, the celibacy of the
clergy, the absurdities of the mass, fasts and ceremonies of human
invention, the whole system of monkery, and the great usurpation of
authority by the church; and consequently did not include any of
these abuses--except perhaps the last--in the system of religion they
founded. Still their doctrines led them into serious errors and great
disorders.
12. Private Interpretation of the Bible and its Effects.--The
evils that arose from the doctrine of justification by faith alone, we
have already noticed.[37] The disorders that grew out of the doctrine
of private interpretation of scripture is yet to be considered. When
Luther refused to longer recognize the authority of the church in
matters of doctrine, he still was aware that men would need some
authority to decide controversies that would arise, consequently he
held up the Bible as the final arbiter of all questions touching
faith and morals. But the Bible had to be construed, its meaning made
plain, and as each one was left to explain it in his own way, the
utmost confusion prevailed. On the great fundamental principle of the
Protestants--justification by faith alone--Osiander, a Lutheran, says:
There are twenty several opinions, all drawn from scriptures,
and held by different members of the Augsburg, or Lutheran
Confession.[38]
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