The Development of Doctrine from the Early Middle Ages to the Reformation (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1901. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER II Eeign Of Scholasticism, Thirteenth Century During this period the Papal power and the Scholastic theology reached their zenith. The spirit of the age is embodied in three persons-- Pope Innocent in., Francis of Assisi, and Thomas Aquinas. Francis is the redeeming feature of the period, but his work does not belong to our subject. He was a great popular evangelist and religious reformer; and if he had not been captured by the church authorities and made head of a new order, he might have anticipated or rendered unnecessary the Eeformation of two centuries later. As it was, the influence he exerted for good was great and lasting. His ideal for himself and all Christians was the poverty of Christ. He himself fulfilled his ideal, and led others to do so. He made much also of Christ's human life, and was indirectly the occasion of Bonaventura and Ludolf of Saxony writing their famous Lives of Christ. Great changes took place in regard to the sacrament of penance. The stress was laid on confession to the priest, instead of on inward contrition. Private confession took the place of public for all sins. The indicative form of absolution (" I absolve thee ") took the place of the old precatory form. Papal indulgences took the place of satisfaction by works. Belief in indulgences was made a test of orthodoxy. The Constance Council directed that heretics should be asked whether they believed that the Pope could grant indulgences for reasonable causes. At the Fourth Lateran Council, 1215, Innocent in. decreed the following: "Let every believer of either sex, who has reached years of discretion, alone faithfully confess all his sins at least once a year to his own priest, and carefully perform to his utmost the penance enjoined him, reverently receiving t...