01-13-2007, 02:53 AM
Various side-currents and independence movements within history of christianism, and how they were dealt with by the Church...
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><span style='color:red'>Cathars</span>
The term "Cathars" derives from the Greek word Katheroi and means "Pure Ones". The Cathars professed a theological dualism in which two coequal divine principles, one good and one evil, struggled against each other from eternity. They believed all matter to be evil because it was created by Satan, the principle of evil. The soul, which has its origins in the realm of the good God, is trapped within the material body. Much of the Old Testament was viewed with suspicion or even discarded. The doctrine of <b>the incarnation was rejected. Instead Jesus was regarded as an angel whose sufferings and death were only apparent.</b>
The origins of the Cathar movement lie in the missionary work of the Bogomils, a dualistic sect that emerged in south eastern Europe in the 11th century. During the 12th century the doctrines of the Bogomils were brought to western Europe by missionaries and soldiers returning from the second crusade (1147-49). In about 1150 the first Cathar bishopric was established in France. A few years later two more bishoprics were set up in the regions of Albi and Lombardy. By the end of the 12th century the Cathars had eleven bishoprics - five in France and six in Italy.
Such was the perceived threat posed by Cathar doctrine to the mainstream church that in 1209 Pope Innocent III proclaimed a crusade against the Cathars. There followed twenty years of ruinous warfare, during which cities and provinces throughout the south of France were devastated. In one of the worst episodes of the war almost the entire population of Toulouse, both Cathar and Catholic, were massacred. Resistance continued until 1243 when the Cathar fortress of Montsegur in the Pyrenees was captured and destroyed. <b>Those who refused to renounce their beliefs were often tortured or put to death by fire.</b> In spite of continued persecution the Cathar movement continued through the 14th century, disappearing in the 15th century.
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<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><span style='color:red'>Lollards</span>
The doctrines of the Lollards were inspired by the teachings of John Wycliffe (ca. 1325-1384), an Oxford theologian whose vies anticipated many of the developments of the Reformation. Wycliff argued that the Bible was the standard of faith for Christians. The head of the church is Christ, not the pope whom he denounced as Antichrist.
The term Lollard derives from the middle Dutch word lollaert (meaning mumbler) and was applied by Wycliffe's opponents to his followers. Because of his anti-clerical views Wycliffe was forced to retire from Oxford in 1378 and his immediate supporters were rooted out and punished. The movement, however, spread well beyond Oxford. The early rapid spread of Lollard teaching was halted when Henry IV came to the throne in 1399.<b> Two years after his accession an anti-heretic statute was passed, De haeretico comburendo, under which a number of Lollards were put to death by fire. </b>In 1414 the Lollards rebelled against the crown, only to be defeated and driven underground. No contemporary adherents.
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<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><span style='color:red'>Hussites</span>
The Hussites followed and developed the teachings of John Huss, a theologian at the University of Prague who came under the influence of John Wycliffe's writings. Huss taught that the true church consists of those predestined to salvation; that Christ, not the Pope, is the head of the church; and that the Bible alone provides the laws on which church life should be governed. Huss' followers broke with the Roman Catholic Church by using a Czech liturgy and by distributing both the eucharistic bread and wine to the laity. (It was the practice of the Roman Catholic Church to administer bread alone to the laity.)
Because of his open support for Wycliffe, Huss was summoned to appear at the Council of Constance in 1414. <b>Although promised safe conduct, Huss was condemned as a heretic and on 6 July 1415 was put to death by fire.</b>From 1420 the Roman Catholic Church launched a series of unsuccessful crusades against the Hussites. Peace negotiations began in 1431 which granted communion in both kinds to the laity. This was accepted by the Utraquists but not by the Taborites. The Utraquists and Catholics united and defeated the Taborites at the battle of Lipany in 1434, thus ending any further Taborite influence. A peace treaty signed in 1436 ensured the Utraquists their own independent Catholic church. The Church of the Utraquist Hussites survived until 1620 when it was absorbed into the Roman Catholic Church.
Following the first world war a further reform movement emerged within the Catholic Church in the newly formed state of Czechoslovakia. In 1920 the Czechoslovak Hussite Church was formed by a group of priests whose demand for a Czech liturgy and the abolition of celibacy among priests had been rejected among Rome.
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<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>Waldenses</span>
Believing the Bible alone to be the sole source of authority for Christians, the Waldenses reject the Roman Catholic Mass, prayers for the dead, and the doctrine of purgatory as unbiblical. Instead of ordaining clergy, they encourage both men and women to preach and to commit themselves to a life of poverty and celibacy.
The founder of the Waldenses was Valdes, a wealthy 12th century merchant of Lyons, France. Inspired by the passage in the Gospel of Matthew in which Christ instructed a rich young man to sell all that he had for the good of the poor, Valdes gave away all of his possessions in order to adopt the life of a mendicant preacher.
As a layman Valdes was not authorised to preach by the church. His refusal to discontinue his preaching led him and his followers to be condemned as heretics and excommunicated at the Council of Verona in 1184. During the 13th century the Waldenses were persecuted by the Roman Catholic Church. A remnant survived in the Alpine valleys south west of Turin. Today the church has some 22,000 members in Italy and some 15,000 members in Uruguay
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<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><span style='color:red'>Jansenist Church of Holland</span>
Jansenist theology derives from the teaching of Cornelius Jansen (1585-1638), bishop of Ypres. In his most important work Augustinus, published posthumously in 1640, Jansen promulgated a theology based upon Augustine's doctrine of predestination.
From the outset, Jansenist doctrine was condemned by the Roman Catholic Church, particularly the Jesuits who opposed the extreme doctrine of predestination proclaimed in the Augustinus. Two years after its publication the Augustinus was condemned and proscribed by Pope Urban VIII.
Viewed by the French monarch, Louis XIV, as a threat to national unity, Port Royal was closed in 1709. With the encouragement of Louis XIV, Pope Clement XI condemned the Jansenist leader Pasquier Quesnel in 1713. Under Quesnel's leadership, the Jansenists left France for Holland. In 1723 they established their own independent church at Utrecht. Today the church has some 10,000 members.
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http://philtar.ucsm.ac.uk/encyclopedia/chr...west/index.html
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><span style='color:red'>Cathars</span>
The term "Cathars" derives from the Greek word Katheroi and means "Pure Ones". The Cathars professed a theological dualism in which two coequal divine principles, one good and one evil, struggled against each other from eternity. They believed all matter to be evil because it was created by Satan, the principle of evil. The soul, which has its origins in the realm of the good God, is trapped within the material body. Much of the Old Testament was viewed with suspicion or even discarded. The doctrine of <b>the incarnation was rejected. Instead Jesus was regarded as an angel whose sufferings and death were only apparent.</b>
The origins of the Cathar movement lie in the missionary work of the Bogomils, a dualistic sect that emerged in south eastern Europe in the 11th century. During the 12th century the doctrines of the Bogomils were brought to western Europe by missionaries and soldiers returning from the second crusade (1147-49). In about 1150 the first Cathar bishopric was established in France. A few years later two more bishoprics were set up in the regions of Albi and Lombardy. By the end of the 12th century the Cathars had eleven bishoprics - five in France and six in Italy.
Such was the perceived threat posed by Cathar doctrine to the mainstream church that in 1209 Pope Innocent III proclaimed a crusade against the Cathars. There followed twenty years of ruinous warfare, during which cities and provinces throughout the south of France were devastated. In one of the worst episodes of the war almost the entire population of Toulouse, both Cathar and Catholic, were massacred. Resistance continued until 1243 when the Cathar fortress of Montsegur in the Pyrenees was captured and destroyed. <b>Those who refused to renounce their beliefs were often tortured or put to death by fire.</b> In spite of continued persecution the Cathar movement continued through the 14th century, disappearing in the 15th century.
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<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><span style='color:red'>Lollards</span>
The doctrines of the Lollards were inspired by the teachings of John Wycliffe (ca. 1325-1384), an Oxford theologian whose vies anticipated many of the developments of the Reformation. Wycliff argued that the Bible was the standard of faith for Christians. The head of the church is Christ, not the pope whom he denounced as Antichrist.
The term Lollard derives from the middle Dutch word lollaert (meaning mumbler) and was applied by Wycliffe's opponents to his followers. Because of his anti-clerical views Wycliffe was forced to retire from Oxford in 1378 and his immediate supporters were rooted out and punished. The movement, however, spread well beyond Oxford. The early rapid spread of Lollard teaching was halted when Henry IV came to the throne in 1399.<b> Two years after his accession an anti-heretic statute was passed, De haeretico comburendo, under which a number of Lollards were put to death by fire. </b>In 1414 the Lollards rebelled against the crown, only to be defeated and driven underground. No contemporary adherents.
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<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><span style='color:red'>Hussites</span>
The Hussites followed and developed the teachings of John Huss, a theologian at the University of Prague who came under the influence of John Wycliffe's writings. Huss taught that the true church consists of those predestined to salvation; that Christ, not the Pope, is the head of the church; and that the Bible alone provides the laws on which church life should be governed. Huss' followers broke with the Roman Catholic Church by using a Czech liturgy and by distributing both the eucharistic bread and wine to the laity. (It was the practice of the Roman Catholic Church to administer bread alone to the laity.)
Because of his open support for Wycliffe, Huss was summoned to appear at the Council of Constance in 1414. <b>Although promised safe conduct, Huss was condemned as a heretic and on 6 July 1415 was put to death by fire.</b>From 1420 the Roman Catholic Church launched a series of unsuccessful crusades against the Hussites. Peace negotiations began in 1431 which granted communion in both kinds to the laity. This was accepted by the Utraquists but not by the Taborites. The Utraquists and Catholics united and defeated the Taborites at the battle of Lipany in 1434, thus ending any further Taborite influence. A peace treaty signed in 1436 ensured the Utraquists their own independent Catholic church. The Church of the Utraquist Hussites survived until 1620 when it was absorbed into the Roman Catholic Church.
Following the first world war a further reform movement emerged within the Catholic Church in the newly formed state of Czechoslovakia. In 1920 the Czechoslovak Hussite Church was formed by a group of priests whose demand for a Czech liturgy and the abolition of celibacy among priests had been rejected among Rome.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>Waldenses</span>
Believing the Bible alone to be the sole source of authority for Christians, the Waldenses reject the Roman Catholic Mass, prayers for the dead, and the doctrine of purgatory as unbiblical. Instead of ordaining clergy, they encourage both men and women to preach and to commit themselves to a life of poverty and celibacy.
The founder of the Waldenses was Valdes, a wealthy 12th century merchant of Lyons, France. Inspired by the passage in the Gospel of Matthew in which Christ instructed a rich young man to sell all that he had for the good of the poor, Valdes gave away all of his possessions in order to adopt the life of a mendicant preacher.
As a layman Valdes was not authorised to preach by the church. His refusal to discontinue his preaching led him and his followers to be condemned as heretics and excommunicated at the Council of Verona in 1184. During the 13th century the Waldenses were persecuted by the Roman Catholic Church. A remnant survived in the Alpine valleys south west of Turin. Today the church has some 22,000 members in Italy and some 15,000 members in Uruguay
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><span style='color:red'>Jansenist Church of Holland</span>
Jansenist theology derives from the teaching of Cornelius Jansen (1585-1638), bishop of Ypres. In his most important work Augustinus, published posthumously in 1640, Jansen promulgated a theology based upon Augustine's doctrine of predestination.
From the outset, Jansenist doctrine was condemned by the Roman Catholic Church, particularly the Jesuits who opposed the extreme doctrine of predestination proclaimed in the Augustinus. Two years after its publication the Augustinus was condemned and proscribed by Pope Urban VIII.
Viewed by the French monarch, Louis XIV, as a threat to national unity, Port Royal was closed in 1709. With the encouragement of Louis XIV, Pope Clement XI condemned the Jansenist leader Pasquier Quesnel in 1713. Under Quesnel's leadership, the Jansenists left France for Holland. In 1723 they established their own independent church at Utrecht. Today the church has some 10,000 members.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
http://philtar.ucsm.ac.uk/encyclopedia/chr...west/index.html