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Reformation Redux?
Korey D. Maas on Taking Heed of the Parallels Between the Crises of Yesterday & Today
In the aftermath of what has come to be called the "summer of shame" for the Catholic Church, commentators have increasingly referred to the scandal of sexual abuse and its cover-up as "the biggest crisis since the Reformation," leaving the church "at its most unstable moment since the Reformation." Whether this is entirely true or not, the perception has led at least one Catholic pundit to admit that, "for the first time, I understand how the Reformation happened."
Others, however, insist that "this is not like the Protestant Reformation; it's not," and that "you don't hear that from too many historians of the Reformation." But some historians of the Reformation, including this one, believe there is a sense in which the controversies of the Protestant Reformation might illuminate those of the Francis pontificate (and vice versa), but that the manner in which they do so is easily obscured if the focus remains solely on the abuse scandal. The reason, as Ross Douthat has noted, is that "the church's doctrinal conflict and its sex abuse scandal [are] converging in a single destabilizing crisis."
It is, nonetheless, worth beginning with the moral scandal by way of context. Indeed, it is those concerned that its implications are being exaggerated who most frequently draw attention to the sordid activities of pre-Reformation Rome, not least those of her "Renaissance popes." That the gates of hell did not prevail against the church even when headed by Alexander VI or Julius II is meant to provide some comfort amid ongoing revelations of moral turpitude throughout the current hierarchy. And of course it might do so, but only by drawing explicit attention to the historical parallels.
Abuse of Power & Privilege
There were, of course, influential and orthodox Catholics even in the sixteenth century who protested the corruptions all too evident within the church and sought her reform. Among them, for example, were those commissioned by Pope Paul III to identify the disease and suggest its cure. Their pointedly honest report of 1537, Advice Concerning the Reform of the Church, was quietly set aside (and subsequently placed on the Index of Prohibited Books). The American bishops meeting in Baltimore last November, whose own proposed remedies were unceremoniously rebuffed by the Vatican, might be consoled with the reminder that there's nothing new under the sun (and that the Index is no longer operative).
Whether or not Paul III's advisors deemed their report's suppression an instance of self-protective "clericalism," those today who identify this as the most problematic root of the contemporary crisis might recall that anti-clericalism was at least one of the many factors making the Protestant Reformation possible. Not that those advocating reform, whether Catholic or Protestant, objected to the clerical office itself; most were simply critical of the manner in which the men inhabiting that office so casually abused its power and privilege. If that power and privilege allowed clergy to resist calls for reform, they suggested, it might become necessary for the laity—and perhaps especially those holding the alternative but also divinely ordained power of the temporal sword—to act for the good of both the church and society.
Contemporary Catholics who identify the laity as key to resolving the long-running abuse crisis might therefore begin to understand Martin Luther's emphasis on the "priesthood of all believers" (even if he never used that precise phrase). Those who applaud and even encourage state grand jury investigations might similarly understand why Luther entertained the idea of princes intervening as "emergency bishops."
Widespread Doctrinal Confusion
But of course, the Reformation was never only, or even primarily, about clerical immorality. From the beginning, the controversies revolved around questions of theology. And some doctrinal questions were particularly acute on account of the widespread confusions and contentions of the late medieval era, which historians describe as one of "endemic doctrinal plurality," with a "lack of theological clarity." Recognizing that this was the context out of which the Reformation grew, the faithful might have even greater reason for concern about the confusions created already in Francis's short pontificate. This is the case not least because the source of recent confusions lies not only in a number of the pope's unguarded and informal remarks. Francis's more controversial judgments—about God willing religious pluralism, the impermissibility of capital punishment, or the possibility of communion for the divorced and remarried—are enshrined in official documents in which he ostensibly speaks for the church.
Moreover, such statements have provoked controversy not merely because they contribute to the confusion that might understandably exist in the absence of previous pronouncements. This was the sort of confusion that often reigned in the late Middle Ages, before the Council of Trent formally pronounced, for example, against Gabriel Biel's understanding of justification in favor of Thomas Aquinas's, or against Jerome's understanding of the canon in favor of Augustine's. The contentions of recent years arise instead from the belief that Francis and others are giving official sanction to wholly novel teachings—not merely doctrines the church has not previously proposed, but even those she has clearly and consistently spoken against.
Korey D. Maas is an associate professor of history at Hillsdale College in Hillsdale, Michigan.
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