Room 3 - Reformation

Post date: Sep 15, 2011 4:5:29 AM

The Reformation Room covers a period of time from roughly the 1300s to the early 1700s.  Our attention is first called to the tables of books set out along one wall of the display.  A large display of a page of an ancient Greek Codex asks, "Can You Read This?"  It is difficult for an average Greek scholar to read.  There are no breaks between words or punctuation marks, and all the words are in capital (uncial) letters. 

There are samples of Hebrew and Greek texts and even a hand-written translation by one of the children from the church.  We read that this kind of translation activity would have gotten you killed before the Reformation.  It was a dark time, when there was little access to the Scriptures, even by the priests.

The Bible was available only at great expense and only in Hebrew (Old Testament), in Greek and in the Latin Vulgate. Translations had been made into Syriac, Coptic, Gothic, Georgian, Ethiopic and Armenian during the second through fifth centuries, but that wouldn't help most of us either.

But there were men who longed to bring the words of God to the languages of the people. Some had translated portions of the Bible into common European languages. The first translations into French, Polish, Italian and Spanish appeared in the 12th and 13th centuries. Some evidence even points to a Dutch translation as early as the 10th century.

Church leaders thought and taught that it was dangerous for ordinary people to read the Scriptures without the benefit of clergy.  Translation was a dangerous business.  In some countries it was a capital offense.

The display tells us about Wycliffe and Tyndale, among others. John Wycliffe and his associates completed the monumental task of translating the first complete Bible into English in about 1382.  His translation was based on the Latin Vulgate, as he and his colleagues knew no Hebrew or Greek.

His hand-copied Bibles were circulated widely and eagerly read, but he was brought to trial several times in church courts.  His powerful and influential friends protected him. He died a natural death in 1384 at about the age of 55.  He is called the 'morning star of the Reformation.'

In 1408, nearly a quarter of a century after Wycliffe's death, a synod of clergy at Oxford formally outlawed the reading of his or any English translation of Scripture under penalty of excommunication.  England now had a Bible - but it was a forbidden one. The Council of Constance condemned Wycliffe in 1415, ordering his body to be exhumed and burned.

Tyndale came along in this more-dangerous, later era.  In May 1535, he was betrayed, kidnapped and imprisoned by papal agents at Vilvorde Castle near Brussels. After about 15 months' imprisonment, he was tried for heresy and condemned to death. A decade earlier they had burned the translation; now they resolved to burn the translator.

Tyndale went boldly to the stake, still defending his belief that Englishmen should have a Bible in their own language.  On 6th October 1536, he was tied to a post and strangled after which his body was burned to ashes.  He died bravely, crying out with a loud voice,

"Lord, open the king of England's eyes!"

Tyndale's prayer was being fulfilled even then.  King Henry VIII broke with Rome and ordered that an English Bible be placed in every church of the realm and be available to all - a Bible, ironically, that was partly Tyndale's own.

But Henry's Anglican Church was as possessive as the Medieval church had been.  This later led to field preachers and men like Donald Cargill in Scotland.

The real fuse reformation was lit when a German monk and professor, Martin Luther, became outraged at the abuses of his mother church. He nailed a challenge to debate these issues on the church door. No one might have noticed then, but within the week, copies of his theses would be discussed throughout the surrounding regions; and within a decade, Europe itself was shaken by his simple act.

We read about the Covanenters in Scottland and the reformations of Zwinglie in another area, but the map tells us that it is time to get our board stamped and move on to the Church Fathers Room.