Purgatory During the Protestant Reformation
All Souls Day, November 2nd, does anyone really understand why it is a holy day or is it just another meaningless holiday Catholics are asked to attend church? All Souls Day is a day that the Catholic Church has set aside to help pray for all the souls not yet joined with god. During this day, people are asked to pray for all of the departed who have passed on and are now in purgatory working very hard to have the privilege of joining to god.
Purgatory has been an important aspect of organized religion from the early days of the church until now, but never more controversial then during the time of the protestant reformation.
The following pages examine the belief of purgatory during the protestant reformation. First they will explain the history of catholic and protestant belief. Then they will present the actual doctrine itself, showing both catholic and protestant views. Finally, they will show how these beliefs have held up over the years, how they have changed and how they are still similar.
Before talking about purgatory, the subject of why there are two beliefs needs to be addressed. The Catholic and Protestant churches have two different views on purgatory. These views, actually, are one of the reasons the two churches split in the first. Martin Luther, an Augustinian monk was not happy with the state of the catholic church at that time. So, in 1517, Pope Leo X, in order to raise money to build St. Peter's Basilica, offered indulgences for sale to the people. Indulgences offered partial remission of the penalty for sins to anyone who made donations of money. Luther believed that this should not happen. On Oct. 31, 1517, Luther nailed a list ...
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... is taken to mean that hell and purgatory have the same punishment but in hell a person is there for all of eternity and in purgatory that person is there only as long as it takes to have his soul cleansed. Indulgences are meant to shorten this time. They cannot be used for anything else. Someone cannot just buy their way into heaven; they have to go through the same cleansing process of purgatory.
There are two kinds of indulgences. There are partial indulgences and plenary indulgences. Mostly the difference is the amount of time that is decreased by the indulgence. A partial indulgence takes off the time for one minor sin. A plenary indulgence takes off more time. This indulgence takes off a more serious sin or a few minor ones. The difference in price however is immense. This was just another reason that Martin Luther was displeased with the church.
During the religious upheavals of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, one group of radical Protestants was known as Puritans because they wanted to “purify” the established Church of England. Essentially, their program called for a more complete protestantization of the national church, particularly insofar as church responsibility for individual conduct was concerned. Their reformist ideas threatened to divide the people and to undermine royal authorit...
The Protestant Reformation was a period of time (1500-1700) where there became a change in Western Christendom. This reformation was caused by the resentment from the people because the Catholic Church abusing their powers for political and economic advances. In this time the church was selling pardons for sin and indulgences to forgive sins, decrease days spent in purgatory and save the dead from damnation. The reformation was when people became more aware with the back hand dealings with the church and men like Martin Luther and John Calvin created their own churches to what they believed was not corrupt unlike the church. Unfortunately there many consequences as far at the Roman Catholic church attempting to bring people back to the church,
The church and Christian beliefs had a very large impact on the Puritan religion and lifestyle. According to discovery education, “Church was the cornerstone of the mainly Puritan society of the 17th century.”( Douglas 4). Puritan laws were intensively rigid and people in society were expected to follow a moral strict code. And because of Puritans and their strict moral codes, any act that was considered to go against this code was considered a sin and deserved to be punished. In Puritan theology, God h...
In 1534, King Henry VIII formally instigated the English Reformation. He therefore passed the Act of Supremacy, which outlawed the Catholic Church and made him “the only supreme head on earth of the Church of England” (Roark, 68). Puritans were looking for a more Protestant church and received what they wanted. Along with it, came the King’s total control over the Church. This is what the Puritans didn’t want. Puritans believed that ordinary Christians, not a church hierarchy, should control religious life. They wanted a distinct line between government and the Church of England. Puritans also wanted to eliminate the customs of Catholic worship and instead focus on an individual’s relationship with God developed through Bible study, prayer, and introspection (Roark, 68).
Another time that Puritanism is shown is in Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God by Jonathan Edwards. Edwards explains what happens in Gods hands, he give a strong image to God’s power over everyone. The slightest error or bad action can send you falling into the fire filled pit/hell. Edwards describes, “The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider, or some loathsome insect, over the fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked” This strong fear of God, and fear instilled actions and beliefs, was very prevalent among
During Luther’s early life he faced a severe inner crisis. When he sinned he looked for comfort in confession and followed the penance, the fasting, prayer and observances that the church directed him. But, he found no peace of mind and worried about his salvation. But reading St. Paul’s letters he came to believe that salvation came though faith in Christ. Faith is a free gift, he discovered, it cannot be earned. His studies led him to a conclusion that, “Christ was the only mediator between God and a man and that forgiveness of sin and salvation are given by god’s grace alone” (Martin Luther, 01). Historians agree that, “this approach to theology led to a clash between Luther and the Church officials, precipitating the dramatic events of Reformation”.
For the Inferno personality Quiz, I got level 1, which is Purgatory. The quiz explains that I have “escaped damnation made it to Purgatory, a place where the dew of repentance washes off the stain of sin and girds the spirit with humility. Through contrition, confession, and satisfaction by works of righteousness, you must make your way up the mountain. As the sins are cleansed from your soul, you will be illuminated by the Sun of Divine Grace, and you will join other souls, smiling and happy, upon the summit of this mountain. Before long you will know the joys of Paradise as you ascend to the ethereal realm of Heaven.”
Souls residing in Purgatory receive punishments despite the fact that this level is not considered part of Hell. As Dante and his guide, Virgil, enter Ante-Inferno (also known as Purgatory), Virgil explains to him that this is where the souls of those who did not take a side between God and Satan or did not do anything during their lifetime that would determine whether they would go to Hell or Heaven (III. 30-37). The punishment that the souls in Purgatory must face is being bitten by insects and weeping for the rest of eternity, which is unreasonable seeing that Purgatory, according to the Catholic Church, is a place intended for people who need to be cleansed of their sins before entering Heaven (“Catholicism and Purgatory”). The Catholic Church’s definition of Purgatory implies that the souls here have not done anything honorable enough to earn a place in Heaven nor have they done anything so wrong as to deserve being put in Hell. Because Purgatory is neither Heaven nor Hell, it does not make sense for the souls kept here to receive a punishment like the sinners in Hell do.
...e that existed because of the Puritan belief in total depravity. The conflict between the sinful self and the redeemed self originated from the condition that, according to Puritans, humans, who are stricken with original sin because of Adam’s fall, must always keep an awareness of their depraved status in the forefront of their thoughts. Such a belief led to a serious internal, psychological struggle that would only come to an end in death. While the Puritans could never be assured of receiving God’s grace, they believed that if they maintained the struggle between their dual self in this life, when they died, they might be chosen to receive grace and thus attain salvation.
As an impending threat, His hand lay on the floodgate as their guilt built until they got overwhelmed with feelings of remorse. With the Indians terrorizing the Puritans, the image of God standing in Heaven with His bow bent and “the arrow made ready on the string” waiting to deliver “justice … at [their hearts]” terrified them into repenting for the sins they have committed (41). The warning of a “great furnace of wrath”, “full of fire” and darkness scared the Puritans into confession, self-discipline, and compliance with God. Finally, Puritans believed is that mankind is innately bad and has the natural born tendency to sin. The intimidating thought that nothing lay between humans and hell “but the air” frightened the Puritans into believing in their wickedness as human beings (Edwards 41). The iniquity of human nature made them feel “heavy as lead” because their sins weighed them down and taxed their strength and faith (41). The wrath that rest before them petrified all Puritans into believing that if they ceased prayer they got tossed into a “bottomless pit” of darkness
...the way down to the traitors were Satan himself dwells. It continually gets more serious. In Purgatory, the climb is aggressive and difficult in the beginning, working your way up the mountain you find the journey gradually getting easier. This depiction of what the whole scheme of things was a completely forging idea, but makes sense. After leaving Satan and Hell we find that some of the sins that are punished in hell are also punished in the first stages of Purgatory. The difference in why some individuals made it and others didn’t is all in the repentance and recognition of God in their lives. This is the basic message I got from these books, when in fact we all stray from the narrow path, we must never hesitate to seek forgiveness and to inline our lives with the ways of God, for we know not the day nor the hour when our souls will be called to the next life.
The Reformation was a decisive period in the history not only for the Catholic Church, but also for the entire world. The causes of this tumultuous point in history did not burst on the scene all at once, but slowly gained momentum like a boil that slowly festers through time before it finally bursts open. The Reformation of the Church was inevitable because of the abuses which the Church was suffering during this period. At the time of the Reformation, a segment of the Church had drifted away from its mission to bring Christ and salvation to the world. Throughout the Middle Ages, the Church had gradually become weaker because of abusive leadership, philosophical heresy, and a renewal of a form of the Pelagian heresy.
It is thought that those who goin through Purgatory are chosen by God to join him in Heaven. The concept of purgatory is unique in the sense that it differs from other Christian beliefs on the afterlife and cleansing periods before entering into heaven. Purgatory is a belief linked with the Roman, and Anglo-Catholic churches, and holds a very significant role in their religious practices. Most notable, there are specific prayers said during services specifically for those who are believed to be in purgatory. Prayers like "Prayer to Our Suffering Savior for the Holy Souls in Purgatory" are important to the faith, and demonstrate the importance of this belief in the Catholic religion. The Purpose of the Afterlife for the Living The existence of life after death has been theorized many times. Humans are curious and search for an explanation in an attempt to understand aspects of living and dying that remain a mystery. The afterlife has many variations all with varying purposes. It is typically explained as a place of reward, punishment, rebirth, worship, or a place of peace for the deceased. The existence of the afterlife remains unknown as well as its actual
Martin Luther’s witnessing of the sale of indulgences changed him. The idea that a piece of paper signed by the Pope could justify the sins of the living was enough to infuriate him. But the claim was that an indulgence could also free someone from purgatory. Martin Luther dug deeper than the original Augustinian view “impelled by the urgent problem of indulgences.” The Bib...
One way in which death can be viewed comes across the Catholic religion. The Catholic believers look life after death in a prospective of three different worlds, such as Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise according to the deeds committed during life. If a person during his or her lifetime committed any sins, this person’s next world will be the Hell. The traditional view in which people refer to hell can be found in the book written by Dante Alighieri, “La Divina Commedia”. The book states that the formation of Hell was given by the crash of Lucifer (the angel that wanted to be better than God) from the sky onto the earth. Crashing on the Earth in Jerusalem, his head formed an upside down cone inside the Earth. This is where is located the Hell. In the Hell, people pay for their sins with different penitences (12-13). For instance, a person that committed homicide will freeze in a lake frozen by the breath of Satan (XXXIV canto). If a person during his or her life commits any sins but asks for forgiveness, then he or she will go to the Purgatory. The purgatory is represented by an island with a mountain (23). One source states that “Purgatory is very similar to Hell; the main difference is that one will eventually be released from torture. The souls that go in the Purgatory are tortured with fire. These souls remain in purgatory until they become sufficiently purified to enter heaven”(2). For example, if a soul in the purgatory asks for forgiveness and pays the punition with some tests, the soul will be released and moved immediately to Heaven (2).