The cave dwellings of Turkish monks. They might as well be on the moon.
Photograph from www.worldofstock.com
Anyone who did or said anything against the Catholic Church would be called a heretic. The medieval heretic who survived his punishment would, after his release, wear a cross on each side of the chest of his clothing.
Early on began the process of amalgamation with Greek and Oriental philosophies. The following are some of the Christian sects:
Gnostics: matter is evil, the Savior only a phantom, salvation by inner mystic enlightenment.
Manichaeism: Persian Dualism
Montanism: continual super-natural ministry of the Holy Spirit
Monarchianism: Father, Son and Holy Spirit same person
Arianism: opposed Trinitarian view of the Almighty
Appollinarianism: denied human nature of Savior
Nestorianism: two natures of the Savior
Eutychianism: the Savior's two natures united into one
Monophysites: the Savior had only one nature
From the 2nd to the 6th centuries these and other "isms" caused great turmoil
Ecumenical Councils:
Nicaea 325 AD: Condemned Arianism
Constantinople 381: Called to settle Appollinarianism
Ephesus 431: called to settle the Nestorian Controversy
Chalcedon 451: Called to settle the Eutychian Controversy
Constantinople 553: To settle Monophysites Controversy
Constantinople 680: Doctrine of Two Wills in Christ
Nicaea 787: Sanctioned Image Worship
Constantinople 869: Final Schism between East and West. This was the last Ecumenical. The rest are Roman only
Rome: 1123; 1139; 1179; 1215; Lyons 1245; Lyons 1274
Vienne 1311: Suppressed the Templars
Constance 1414-18: To heal Papal Schism. Burned John Huss to death
Basel 1431-49; Rome 1512-18
Trent 1545-63: To counteract the Reformation
Vatican 1869-70: Declared the Infallibility of the pope
Monasticism:
A reaction against the worldliness of the church, and in part, perhaps, a by-product of Gnosticism, which taught that matter is evil. The movement started in Egypt with Anthony (250-350 AD) who sold his property, retired to the desert and lived in solitude. Multitudes followed his example. They were called “Anchorites”. The idea was to attain everlasting life by escaping from the world and mortifying the flesh in ascetic practices.
This movement spread to Palestine, Syria, Asia Minor and Europe. In the East each lived in his own cave or hut or on his pillar. In Europe they lived in communities called Monasteries, dividing their time between work and religious exercises. They became very numerous, and there arose many orders of monks and nuns.
The Monasteries of Europe did the best work of the church of the Middle Ages in Christian philanthropy, literature, education and agriculture. But when they grew rich they became grossly immoral. In the Reformation in Protestant countries they soon disappeared and are dying out in Catholic countries.
[While the Catholic Church insisted that it was weeding out heretics with the Inquisition, the truth is that the popes and the Catholic hierarchy were the most egregious heretics of all who opposed Truth, highlighted with the Papal Bull “Unam Sanctum” (1302) which declared the superiority of the papacy over all other authorities, and the Vatican’s declaration (1869-70) of the Infallibility of the pope.]
There were also opponents of the Catholic Church, people who sought a better faith before the Protestant Reformation:
Petrobusians: founded by Peter de Bruys, a pupil of Abelard, 1110, in France, rejected Mass, held that Communion was a Memorial and that ministers should marry.
Arnold of Brescia: 1155, pupil of Abelard, preached that Church should be without property, that civil government belongs to the Laity, that Rome should be free from Papal control. Was hanged at request of Pope Adrian IV.
Albigenses or Cathari: In Southern France, Northern Spain, and Northern Italy. Preached against the immoralities of the priesthood, pilgrimages, worship of saints and images; completely rejected the clergy and its claims; criticized church conditions opposed the claims of the Church of Rome; made great use of the Scriptures; lived self denying lives and had great zeal for moral purity. By 1167 they embraced possibly a majority of the population of Southern France; by 1200 very numerous in North Italy. In 1208 a crusade was ordered by Pope Innocent III; a bloody war of extermination followed; scarcely paralleled in history; town after town was put to the sword and the inhabitants murdered without distinction of age or sex; in 1229 the Inquisition was established and within a hundred years the Albigenses were utterly rooted out.
Waldenses: South France and North Italy. Similar to Albigenses, but not identical. Waldo, a rich merchant of Lyons, South France, 1176, gave his property to the poor and went about preaching; opposed clerical usurpation and profligacy; denied the exclusive right of the clergy to teach the Gospel; rejected masses, prayers for the dead and purgatory; taught the Bible as the sole rule of belief and life; their preaching kindled a great desire among the people to read the Bible. They were gradually repressed by the Inquisition except in the Alpine Valleys southwest of Turin where they are still found, the only medieval sect still surviving, a story of heroic endurance and persecutions. Now the leading Protestant body in Italy.
Petrarch: 1304-74: a great leader of the Renaissance who spoke of Avignon, the Papal Residence as “a sink of hell”.
John Wyclif: (1324-1384) A teacher at Oxford, England. Preached against the spiritual domination of the priesthood, the authority of the pope; opposed the existence of popes, cardinals, patriarchs, monks; attacked transubstantiation, and auricular confession. Advocated the people’s right to read the Bible. Translated it into English language. His followers were called Lollards.
John Huss: (1369-1415) Rector of the University of Prague, Bohemia. He was a student of Wyclif, whose writings had penetrated Bohemia. He became a fearless preacher; attacked the vices of the clergy and the corruptions of the church; with impassioned vehemence condemned the sale of indulgences; rejected purgatory, worship of saints and worship in a foreign language; exalted the Scriptures above the dogmas and ordinances of the church. He was burned alive at the stake, and his followers, a large part of the Bohemian population, were almost extirpated by a crusade ordered by the Pope.
Savonarola: (1452-1498) Florence, Italy. Preached, like a Hebrew prophet, to vast crowds who thronged his cathedral, against the sensuality and sin of the city, and against Papal vice. The penitent city reformed. But Pope Alexander VI sought in every way to silence the righteous preacher; even tried to bribe his with a cardinal’s hat; but in vain. He was hanged and burned in the great square in Florence 19 years before Luther posted his 95 theses.
Anabaptists: appeared through the Middle Ages, in various European countries, under different names, in independent groups, representing a variety of doctrines, but usually strongly Anti-Clerical, rejecting Infant Baptism, devoted to the Scriptures, and standing for Absolute Separation of Church and State; very numerous in Germany, Holland, and Switzerland at the time of the Reformation, perpetuating ideas that had come down from proceeding generations; as a rule, a quiet and genuinely pious people, but bitterly persecuted, especially in the Netherlands.
Erasmus: 1466-1536: greatest scholar and most popular author of the Reformation. His great ambition was to free men from false ideas about religion; and thought the best way to do it was to return to the Scriptures. His Greek New Testament gave translators an accurate text to work with. A relentless critic of the Roman Catholic Church; delighted especially to ridicule “unholy men in holy orders”. Greatly helped the Reformation, but never joined it.