Historia ya Kanisa — Sehemu ya 6: Mgogoro wa Mwishoni mwa Zama za Kati na WatanguliziChurch History — Unit 6: Late Medieval Crisis and the Forerunners

Sehemu ya 5 ilimalizika mwaka 1300, katika kilele cha juu kabisa cha Ukristo wa Zama za Kati. Akwino alikuwa amemaliza Summa. Kanisa Kuu la Notre Dame lilikuwa limekamilika. Ndugu waombaji walikuwa wakihubiri katika kila soko. Papa Bonifasi VIII angetoa hati ya kipapa Unam Sanctam mwaka 1302 ikitangaza kwamba kujitiisha kwa papa kulikuwa lazima kwa wokovu. Kanisa la Magharibi lilionekana, kwa juu juu, kuwa na nguvu zaidi na umoja zaidi kuliko wakati wowote katika historia yake.Unit 5 ended in the year 1300, at the high water mark of medieval Christendom. Aquinas had finished the Summa. Notre Dame was finished. The friars were preaching in every market. Pope Boniface VIII would issue the bull Unam Sanctam in 1302 declaring that submission to the pope was necessary for salvation. The Western church appeared, on the surface, more powerful and more unified than at any point in her history.

Miaka mia mbili iliyofuata ingebadilisha yote hayo. Kati ya mwaka 1300 na 1500, kanisa kuu la Zama za Kati lilipasuka kuanzia msingi hadi kilele cha mnara wake. Bonifasi mwenyewe alishambuliwa na kudhalilishwa na mawakala wa mfalme wa Ufaransa mwaka uliofuata na akafa kwa mshtuko. Upapa ulichukuliwa hadi Avignon chini ya udhibiti wa Ufaransa kwa miaka sabini. Kufikia mwaka 1378 kulikuwa na mapapa wawili kwa wakati mmoja, kisha watatu. Kifo Cheusi kiliua labda theluthi moja au zaidi ya wakazi wa Ulaya. Wanamatengenezo kama Wycliffe huko Uingereza na Hus huko Bohemia waliliita kanisa lirudi kwenye Maandiko, nao wakaitwa wazushi kama malipo ya juhudi zao. Wanamistiki katika eneo la Rhine walielekea ndani ya nafsi zao wakati kanisa la kitaasisi halikuwaridhisha tena. Wasomi wa kibinadamu (wanahumanisti) wa Zama za Mwamko huko Italia walianza kurudi kwenye Agano Jipya la Kigiriki lililo nyuma ya Vulgata ya Kilatini. Kufikia mwaka 1500 mtawa kijana Mjerumani aitwaye Martin Luther alikuwa tayari yu hai duniani, na dhoruba ambayo Sehemu ya 7 itaieleza ilikuwa tayari ikijikusanya juu ya Ulaya.The next two hundred years would change all of that. Between 1300 and 1500 the medieval cathedral cracked from foundation to spire. Boniface himself was attacked and humiliated by agents of the French king the next year and died of the shock. The papacy was carried off to Avignon under French control for seventy years. By 1378 there were two popes simultaneously, then three. The Black Death killed perhaps a third or more of Europe's population. Reformers like Wycliffe in England and Hus in Bohemia called the church back to Scripture and were branded heretics for their pains. Mystics in the Rhineland turned inward when the institutional church no longer satisfied them. Renaissance humanists in Italy began going back to the Greek New Testament behind the Latin Vulgate. By 1500 a young German monk named Martin Luther was already alive in the world, and the storm Unit 7 will describe was already being built up over Europe.

Sehemu ya 6 ni hadithi ya karne hizo mbili. Vuguvugu tano zinatupa muhtasari wetu. Kudhoofika kwa upapa kuanzia Bonifasi VIII hadi Mfarakano wa Magharibi. Watangulizi — Wycliffe na Hus — waliolipa kwa moto kwa yale ambayo Luther na Yohana Calvin wangesema baadaye. Wahusi na Walollardi walioubeba moto wa walimu wao baada ya walimu hao kufa. Wanamistiki na kitabu cha Kumfuasa Kristo (Imitation of Christ), waliolisha roho za waumini wakati taasisi haikuweza. Zama za Mwamko (Renaissance) na Erasmus, aliyeweka Agano Jipya la Kigiriki lililochapishwa mikononi mwa Luther.Unit 6 is the story of those two centuries. Five movements give us our outline. The decline of the papacy from Boniface VIII to the Western Schism. The forerunners — Wycliffe and Hus — who paid in fire for what Luther and Calvin would later say. The Hussites and Lollards who carried their masters' fire on after the masters were dead. The mystics and the Imitation of Christ, who fed believers' souls when the institution could not. The Renaissance and Erasmus, who put a printed Greek New Testament into Luther's hands.

Upapa wa Zama za Kati ulifikia kilele chake cha kisiasa chini ya Inosenti III (1198–1216), aliyeweza kumtenga mfalme na kanisa na kuyapigisha magoti mataifa. Karne moja baadaye, mtu aliyekuwa kwenye kiti cha enzi cha papa — Bonifasi VIII — alijaribu kusukuma mamlaka yale yale na akagundua kwamba ulimwengu ulikuwa umebadilika.The medieval papacy reached its political peak under Innocent III (1198–1216), who could excommunicate a king and bring nations to their knees. A century later, the man on the papal throne — Boniface VIII — tried to push the same authority and discovered the world had changed.

Mwaka 1296 Bonifasi aliwakataza wafalme kuwatoza kodi makasisi bila ruhusa ya papa. Mfalme Filipo IV wa Ufaransa alimpuuza. Mwaka 1302 Bonifasi alitoa hati ya kipapa Unam Sanctam, ikitangaza kwamba "kujitiisha kwa Askofu Mkuu wa Roma ni lazima kwa wokovu wa kila mwanadamu." Jibu la Filipo, mwaka 1303, lilikuwa kutuma mawakala Italia walioingia kwa nguvu katika ikulu ya papa huko Anagni, wakampiga papa kofi usoni, na kutishia kumburuta hadi Ufaransa ili ashtakiwe. Bonifasi aliokolewa na maasi ya wananchi, lakini mshtuko ule ulimuua katika kipindi cha wiki chache. Mtu aliyekuwa amedai mamlaka juu ya ulimwengu wote alikuwa ameshambuliwa kimwili na kushikiliwa mateka na polisi wa mfalme. Nadharia ya Zama za Kati ya ukuu wa papa haikuwahi kupona kikamilifu.In 1296 Boniface forbade kings to tax the clergy without papal permission. King Philip IV of France ignored him. In 1302 Boniface issued the bull Unam Sanctam, declaring that "submission to the Roman pontiff is necessary for salvation for every human being." Philip's response, in 1303, was to send agents into Italy who broke into the papal palace at Anagni, slapped the pope across the face, and threatened to drag him to France for trial. Boniface was rescued by a popular uprising, but the shock killed him within weeks. The man who had claimed universal authority had been physically assaulted and held captive by a king's police. The medieval theory of papal supremacy never quite recovered.

Upapa wa Avignon (1309–1377)The Avignon Papacy (1309–1377)

Papa aliyefuata, Mfaransa Klementi V, hakuwahi kukanyaga Roma. Aliihamishia mahakama ya papa Avignon kusini mwa Ufaransa, pembezoni mwa eneo la Ufaransa. Upapa ulikaa huko kwa karibu miaka sabini, chini ya kile ambacho karibu kila mtu alikubali kuwa udhibiti halisi wa Ufaransa. Waitalia waliuita Utumwa wa Babeli wa kanisa — mwangwi wa makusudi wa uhamisho wa Israeli huko Babeli. Mapapa wa Avignon walijenga ikulu ya fahari, waliongeza mapato ya papa kwa kila mbinu ambayo akili ya Zama za Kati ingeweza kubuni, na walipoteza uaminifu wa kiroho mwaka baada ya mwaka. Mshairi Petrarka, akiandika kutoka ndani ya Avignon, aliuita "mfereji wa machafu ambamo uchafu wote wa ulimwengu hukusanyika."The next pope, the Frenchman Clement V, never set foot in Rome. He moved the papal court to Avignon in southern France, on the edge of French territory. The papacy stayed there for almost seventy years, under what almost everyone agreed was effective French control. The Italians called it the Babylonian Captivity of the church — a deliberate echo of Israel's exile in Babylon. The Avignon popes built a sumptuous palace, raised papal revenues by every device the medieval mind could invent, and lost spiritual credibility year by year. Petrarch the poet, writing from inside Avignon, called it "a sewer where all the filth of the universe collects."

Mfarakano wa Magharibi (1378–1417)The Western Schism (1378–1417)

Mwaka 1377 Papa Gregori XI hatimaye aliurudisha upapa Roma. Alifariki huko mwaka mmoja baadaye. Chini ya shinikizo la umati wa Roma, makardinali walimchagua Mwitalia, Urbano VI. Urbano alionekana kuwa mtu asiyetabirika na mnyanyasaji, na katika kipindi cha miezi michache makardinali (wengi wao Wafaransa) walitangaza kwamba uchaguzi wake haukuwa halali, wakajitenga kwenda Anagni, na kumchagua papa mwingine, Klementi VII, aliyerudi Avignon. Sasa kulikuwa na mapapa wawili, kila mmoja na baraza lake la makardinali, kila mmoja akimtenga mwenzake na kanisa, kila mmoja akitambuliwa na falme hasimu za Ulaya. Kashfa ilikuwa kwamba papa alikuwa akimtenga papa, na Wakristo wa kawaida hawakuwa na njia ya kujua ni nani hasa aliyeshika funguo.In 1377 Pope Gregory XI finally returned the papacy to Rome. He died there a year later. Under pressure from the Roman crowd, the cardinals elected an Italian, Urban VI. Urban turned out to be erratic and abusive, and within months the cardinals (most of them French) declared his election invalid, withdrew to Anagni, and elected another pope, Clement VII, who returned to Avignon. Now there were two popes, each with a college of cardinals, each excommunicating the other, each receiving recognition from rival European kingdoms. The scandal was that pope was excommunicating pope, and ordinary Christians had no way to know who really held the keys.

Mfarakano uliendelea kwa miaka arobaini. Mwaka 1409 Mtaguso wa Pisa ulijaribu kuumaliza kwa kuwaondoa mapapa wote wawili na kumchagua wa tatu — na matokeo pekee yakawa kwamba sasa kulikuwa na mapapa watatu, wote wakidai mamlaka juu ya kanisa lote. Mgogoro huo hatimaye ulitatuliwa katika Mtaguso wa Konstanz (1414–1418), ambao uliwaondoa wadai wote watatu na kumchagua papa mpya, Martino V. Mfarakano ukaisha. Lakini madhara kwa mamlaka ya kimaadili ya upapa wa Zama za Kati hayakuisha. Kufikia wakati Mtaguso wa Konstanz ulipofunga milango yake, Wakristo wa kawaida kote Ulaya walikuwa wametumia vizazi viwili wakiwatazama mapapa wakitengana wao kwa wao. Taasisi iliyodai kuwa mwamba wa uhakika ilikuwa imeonekana wazi ikipasuka kwa miaka mia moja.The schism dragged on for forty years. In 1409 the Council of Pisa tried to end it by deposing both popes and electing a third — with the only result that there were now three popes, all claiming universal authority. The crisis was finally resolved at the Council of Constance (1414–1418), which deposed all three claimants and elected a new pope, Martin V. The schism ended. The damage to the moral authority of the medieval papacy did not. By the time Constance closed its doors, ordinary Christians across Europe had spent two generations watching popes excommunicate one another. The institution that claimed to be the rock of certainty had been visibly cracking for a hundred years.

Yohana Wycliffe (takriban 1330–1384) alikuwa mwanatheolojia wa Oxford na mwanafikra Mwingereza mashuhuri zaidi wa kizazi chake. Akiwa msomi kijana alikuwa amemfyonza Augustino kwa kina — hasa mafundisho ya Augustino juu ya neema, kuchaguliwa tangu awali, na kutangulia kwa tendo la enzi la Mungu katika wokovu. Akiwa mtu mzima zaidi aliugeuza msingi huo wa Kiaugustino kuwa ukosoaji mpana wa kanisa la mwishoni mwa Zama za Kati.John Wycliffe (c. 1330–1384) was an Oxford theologian and the most prominent English thinker of his generation. As a young scholar he had absorbed Augustine deeply — especially Augustine on grace, predestination, and the priority of God's sovereign action in salvation. As an older man he turned that Augustinian foundation toward a sweeping critique of the late-medieval church.

Wycliffe alifundisha mambo matano ambayo yangeunda kila Mwanamatengenezo aliyekuja baada yake. Kwanza, mamlaka kuu ya Maandiko. Biblia, si amri ya papa wala mapokeo ya kanisa, ndiyo kanuni ya mwisho kwa yale ambayo Wakristo wanapaswa kuamini na jinsi wanavyopaswa kuishi. Pili, kanisa ni mwili wa wateule wanaojulikana na Mungu, si tu taasisi ya Roma. Tatu, ukuhani wa waumini wote, katika umbo la mbegu — kila Mkristo ana njia ya moja kwa moja ya kumfikia Mungu kupitia Kristo. Nne, kukataa fundisho la kugeuka kwa dutu ya mkate na divai (transubstantiation) kama kanisa la Zama za Kati lilivyolifundisha. Wycliffe hakuweza kulipata fundisho hilo katika Maandiko, wala hakukubali kuifunga dhamiri yake kwalo. Tano, makasisi kuwa chini ya watawala wa kiraia kimaadili na kisiasa pale makasisi walipoishi katika utajiri wa aibu au udunia.Wycliffe taught five things that would shape every Reformer who came after him. First, the supreme authority of Scripture. The Bible, not papal decree or church tradition, is the final rule for what Christians must believe and how they must live. Second, the church is the body of the elect known to God, not simply the Roman institution. Third, the priesthood of all believers, in seed form — every Christian has direct access to God through Christ. Fourth, the rejection of transubstantiation as the medieval church taught it. Wycliffe could not find the doctrine in Scripture and would not bind his conscience to it. Fifth, the moral and political subordination of clergy to civil rulers when the clergy lived in scandalous wealth or worldliness.

Mafanikio maarufu zaidi ya kivitendo ya Wycliffe yalikuwa Biblia. Aliamini kila Mwingereza anapaswa kuweza kusoma Maandiko kwa lugha yake mwenyewe. Karibu mwaka 1382 kundi lake lilitoa tafsiri ya kwanza kamili ya Biblia kwa Kiingereza, wakitafsiri kutoka Vulgata ya Kilatini. Biblia ya Wycliffe ilinakiliwa kwa mkono, ikasambazwa kwa taabu kubwa, na kusomwa faraghani kwa hatari ya kukamatwa. Wycliffe mwenyewe alikufa kwa kiharusi mwaka 1384, akiwa padri wa parokia huko Lutterworth, bila kuuawa kamwe kwa sababu ya misimamo yake. Hata hivyo, ushawishi wake ulikuwa ndio unaanza.Wycliffe's most famous practical achievement was the Bible. He believed every Englishman should be able to read Scripture in his own tongue. Around 1382 his circle produced the first complete translation of the Bible into English, working from the Latin Vulgate. The Wycliffe Bible was hand-copied, painstakingly distributed, and read in private at the risk of arrest. Wycliffe himself died of a stroke in 1384, a parish priest at Lutterworth, never executed for his views. His influence, however, was just beginning.

Mtaguso wa Konstanz, mtaguso ule ule uliomaliza Mfarakano wa Magharibi, ulimhukumu Wycliffe mwaka 1415 (zaidi ya miaka thelathini baada ya kifo chake). Uliamuru mifupa yake ifukuliwe na kuchomwa moto na majivu yake yatawanywe katika mto Swift. Mwandishi wa kumbukumbu Thomas Fuller baadaye aliandika kwamba mto Swift ulipeleka majivu ya Wycliffe hadi mto Avon, Avon hadi mto Severn, Severn hadi baharini, na bahari hadi kila pwani — "hivi kwamba majivu ya Wycliffe ni ishara ya fundisho lake, ambalo sasa limetawanyika kote ulimwenguni." Wycliffe kwa haki anaitwa Nyota ya Asubuhi ya Matengenezo ya Kanisa. Alikuwa nuru ya kwanza ya mapambazuko ambayo yasingepambazuka kwa karne nyingine moja.The Council of Constance, the same council that ended the Western Schism, condemned Wycliffe in 1415 (more than thirty years after his death). It ordered his bones dug up and burned and his ashes scattered in the river Swift. The chronicler Thomas Fuller later wrote that the Swift carried Wycliffe's ashes to the Avon, the Avon to the Severn, the Severn to the sea, and the sea to every shore — "so that the ashes of Wycliffe are the emblem of his doctrine, which now is dispersed over all the world." Wycliffe is rightly called the Morning Star of the Reformation. He was the first light of a dawn that would not break for another century.

Maandishi ya Wycliffe yalisafiri hadi Bohemia (Jamhuri ya Cheki ya leo) kupitia wasomi waliokuwa wakisoma Oxford. Yalifika mezani pa Jan Hus (takriban 1369–1415), profesa katika Chuo Kikuu cha Praha na mhubiri aliyependwa zaidi katika mji mkuu wa Cheki. Hus alihubiri kwa Kicheki badala ya Kilatini, akaijaza Kanisa lake dogo la Bethlehemu maelfu ya raia wa kawaida, na akaipokea programu ya matengenezo ya Wycliffe: ukuu wa Maandiko, uovu wa ngazi za uongozi wa kipapa, kutangulia kwa injili juu ya taasisi. Ambapo Wycliffe alilindwa huko Oxford na ufadhili wa wakuu wa Kiingereza na jiografia ya kisiwa, Hus hakuwa na kinga kama hiyo.Wycliffe's writings traveled to Bohemia (the modern Czech Republic) through scholars studying at Oxford. They reached the desk of Jan Hus (c. 1369–1415), professor at the University of Prague and the most popular preacher in the Czech capital. Hus preached in Czech rather than Latin, packed his Bethlehem Chapel with thousands of ordinary citizens, and adopted Wycliffe's reforming program: the supremacy of Scripture, the corruption of the papal hierarchy, the priority of the gospel over the institution. Where Wycliffe had been protected at Oxford by the patronage of English nobles and the geography of an island, Hus had no such cover.

Mwaka 1411 papa alitangaza vita vya msalaba dhidi ya mfalme wa Napoli na akatoa hati za msamaha (indulgences) kwa yeyote ambaye angefadhili vita hivyo. Hus alihubiri waziwazi dhidi ya uuzaji wa hati hizo za msamaha, akisema kwamba hakuna mtu anayeweza kununua msamaha kutoka kwa padri yeyote kwa sababu msamaha hutoka kwa Mungu peke yake kwa imani katika Kristo. Alitengwa na kanisa. Mfalme wa Cheki aliendelea kumlinda kwa miaka kadhaa, lakini kufikia mwaka 1414 shinikizo la kisiasa lilikuwa limezidi. Mtaguso mpya wa Konstanz, ulioitishwa ili kumaliza mfarakano wa kipapa, pia ulikusudia kumshughulikia mzushi wa Bohemia.In 1411 the pope declared a crusade against the king of Naples and offered indulgences to anyone who would fund the war. Hus preached against the indulgence sale openly, saying that no man could buy forgiveness from any priest because forgiveness comes only from God through faith in Christ. He was excommunicated. The Czech king continued to protect him for several years, but by 1414 the political pressure had become too much. The new Council of Constance, summoned to end the papal schism, also intended to deal with the Bohemian heretic.

Hus alisafiri hadi Konstanz chini ya hati ya binafsi ya kumhakikishia usalama wa safari kutoka kwa Kaisari wa Milki Takatifu ya Kirumi, Sigismund. Aliwasili Novemba 1414 akiwa tayari kutetea mafundisho yake kutoka katika Maandiko. Mtaguso haukuwa na nia ya kusikia utetezi. Hus alikamatwa katika kipindi cha wiki chache, akawekwa katika gereza la chini ya ardhi, akanyimwa vitabu vyake, na kulazimishwa kujitetea kwa kumbukumbu tu. Hati ya kaisari ya usalama wa safari iliwekwa kando kwa hoja kwamba hakuna haja ya kutunza ahadi kwa mzushi. Baada ya miezi ya kesi, mtaguso ulimtaka Hus akane orodha ya mafundisho yaliyotolewa kwa ulegevu kutoka katika kazi zake na zile za Wycliffe. Hus alikataa. Asingekana kile ambacho hakuwa amekisema, wala asingekana kile alichoamini Maandiko yalifundisha.Hus traveled to Constance under the personal safe-conduct of the Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund. He arrived in November 1414 ready to defend his teaching from Scripture. The council had no interest in defense. Hus was arrested within weeks, kept in a dungeon, denied access to his books, and forced to defend himself from memory. The emperor's safe-conduct was set aside on the grounds that no faith need be kept with a heretic. After months of trial, the council demanded that Hus recant a list of teachings drawn loosely from his works and from Wycliffe's. Hus refused. He would not retract what he had not said, and he would not retract what he believed Scripture taught.

Tarehe 6 Julai, 1415, Hus aliongozwa hadi kwenye uwanja wa majani nje ya Konstanz, kichwa chake kikavikwa kofia ya kiaskofu ya karatasi iliyochorwa mashetani, naye akachomwa moto kwenye nguzo. Mapokeo yanasema maneno yake ya mwisho yalikuwa mchezo wa maneno juu ya jina lake mwenyewe: "Leo mnamchoma bata bukini" (Hus maana yake ni "bata bukini" kwa Kicheki) "lakini miaka mia moja kuanzia sasa mtasikia bata maji (swan) ambaye hamtaweza kumchoma wala kumchemsha." Usemi huo umeripotiwa na watu wa wakati wake, ingawa huenda maneno yake halisi yalinolewa kupitia vizazi vya kusimuliwa tena — ikiwemo, baadhi ya wanahistoria wanadokeza, mikononi mwa Luther mwenyewe. Karne moja baadaye huko Wittenberg, yule bata maji alikuja hata hivyo: mtawa Mjerumani aitwaye Martin Luther, aliyeyathamini maandishi ya Hus na kujiona kuwa mrithi wa Hus.On July 6, 1415, Hus was led to a meadow outside Constance, his head was crowned with a paper miter painted with devils, and he was burned at the stake. Tradition holds that his last words were a paraphrase of his own name: "Today you are roasting a goose" (Hus means "goose" in Czech) "but a hundred years from now you will hear a swan that you can neither roast nor boil." The saying is reported by contemporaries, though its exact wording likely sharpened over generations of retelling — including, some historians suggest, in Luther's own hands. A century later in Wittenberg, the swan came regardless: a German monk named Martin Luther, who treasured Hus's writings and considered himself Hus's heir.

Mtaguso ule ule wa Konstanz uliomchoma Hus na kuifukua mifupa ya Wycliffe ndio pia mtaguso uliomaliza Mfarakano wa Magharibi. Neno la mwisho la kanisa la Zama za Kati juu ya watangulizi wake lilikuwa: wachomeni, wafukueni, tawanyeni majivu yao mtoni. Mimbari aliyoiacha Hus tupu katika Kanisa dogo la Bethlehemu haikuweza kunyamazishwa. Bohemia ikawa eneo lililoyakaribisha matengenezo zaidi kuliko yote Ulaya, kitalu cha makanisa ya Kihusi na (baada ya Luther) cha wamisionari wa Kimoravia tutakaokutana nao katika Sehemu ya 8.The same Council of Constance that burned Hus and dug up Wycliffe's bones is also the council that ended the Western Schism. The medieval church's final word on her own forerunners was: burn them, exhume them, scatter their ashes in the river. The pulpit Hus left empty in Bethlehem Chapel could not be silenced. Bohemia became the most reform-friendly territory in Europe, the seedbed of the Hussite churches and (after Luther) the Moravian missionaries we will meet in Unit 8.

Wakati Wycliffe alipokuwa akifundisha Oxford na Hus akihubiri Praha, aina tofauti ya Ukristo wa Zama za Kati ilikuwa ikijitokeza katika bonde la mto Rhine huko Ujerumani na katika Nchi za Chini (Low Countries). Kanisa la kitaasisi lilikuwa likijiondolea heshima kwa mfarakano na maovu; teolojia ilikuwa imekuwa ya kitaalamu na kavu; dini ya watu wengi ilikuwa imejaa masalia matakatifu na hati za msamaha. Kwa kujibu, waumini wa kawaida na makasisi makini pia walielekea ndani ya nafsi zao, wakitafuta maarifa ya Kristo ya kujionea wenyewe ambayo hayakutegemea kile ambacho kanisa la kitaasisi lilikuwa likifanya katika muongo wowote ule. Vuguvugu hili linaitwa umistiki wa Zama za Kati, na katika ubora wake lilizaa baadhi ya maandiko ya ibada ya kudumu zaidi yaliyowahi kuandikwa.While Wycliffe was teaching at Oxford and Hus was preaching at Prague, a different kind of medieval Christianity was forming in the Rhine valley of Germany and the Low Countries. The institutional church was discrediting herself with schism and corruption; theology had grown technical and dry; the popular religion was crowded with relics and indulgences. In response, ordinary believers and serious clergy alike turned inward, looking for an experiential knowledge of Christ that did not depend on what the institutional church was doing in any given decade. This movement is called medieval mysticism, and at its best it produced some of the most enduring devotional literature ever written.

Meister Eckhart (takriban 1260–1328), Mdominiko Mjerumani, alihubiri na kuandika juu ya muungano wa nafsi na Mungu kwa lugha ya ujasiri mkubwa kiasi kwamba baadhi ya kauli zake zilihukumiwa muda mfupi baada ya kifo chake. Mwanafunzi wake Johann Tauler (takriban 1300–1361) alihubiri aina ya kichungaji zaidi ya umistiki huo huo huko Strasbourg, na inasemekana alisema kwamba jambo muhimu zaidi aliloliwahi kusoma kuhusu Kristo alijifunza kutoka kwa mlei. Mahubiri ya Tauler yalikuwa mojawapo ya vitabu ambavyo Luther alisoma kwa uangalifu zaidi katika miaka yake ya mwanzo, naye akavitaja kuwa viliunda ufahamu wake wa neema.Meister Eckhart (c. 1260–1328), a German Dominican, preached and wrote on the soul's union with God in language so daring that some of his propositions were condemned shortly after his death. His student Johann Tauler (c. 1300–1361) preached a more pastoral form of the same mysticism in Strasbourg and is reported to have said the most important thing he ever read about Christ he learned from a layman. Tauler's sermons were one of the books Luther read most carefully in his early years and credited with shaping his understanding of grace.

Kitabu cha kimistiki chenye ushawishi mkubwa zaidi cha kipindi hicho — huenda kitabu cha ibada chenye ushawishi mkubwa zaidi katika historia ya kanisa mbali na Biblia — kilikuwa Kumfuasa Kristo (Imitation of Christ), kilichoandikwa karibu mwaka 1418–1427 na kwa mapokeo kinahusishwa na Thomas à Kempis (takriban 1380–1471), mshiriki wa Ndugu wa Maisha ya Pamoja (Brethren of the Common Life) huko Uholanzi. Kitabu hicho ni kifupi, sahili, kimegawanywa katika vitabu vinne vya tafakari fupi. Kinamwita msomaji kwenye unyenyekevu, kujijua mwenyewe, kumfuata Kristo kila siku, na ushirika wa karibu naye katika maombi na katika Ekaristi. Sentensi zake za kwanza zinaweka mwelekeo wake: "Yeye anifuataye hatakwenda gizani kamwe, asema Bwana. Kwa maneno haya ya Kristo tunashauriwa kuiga maisha yake na mwenendo wake, ikiwa tunataka kutiwa nuru kwa kweli na kuwa huru kutoka katika upofu wote wa moyo."The most influential mystical book of the period — perhaps the most influential devotional book in church history apart from the Bible — was the Imitation of Christ, written around 1418–1427 and traditionally ascribed to Thomas à Kempis (c. 1380–1471), a member of the Brethren of the Common Life in the Netherlands. The book is short, simple, divided into four books of brief reflections. It calls the reader to humility, self-knowledge, daily following of Christ, and intimate communion with Him in prayer and the Eucharist. Its first sentences set its tone: "He who follows Me will not walk in darkness, says the Lord. By these words of Christ we are advised to imitate His life and habits, if we wish to be truly enlightened and free from all blindness of heart."

Kitabu cha Kumfuasa Kristo kimetafsiriwa katika lugha nyingi kuliko kitabu kingine chochote cha Kikristo isipokuwa Biblia. Yohana Wesley alisema kilikuwa mojawapo ya vitabu ambavyo Mungu alivitumia kumleta kwenye wokovu. Vizazi vya Wakatoliki, Waprotestanti, na Waorthodoksi wote wamekiona kuwa chenye kulisha roho. Kitabu cha Kumfuasa Kristo ndilo jibu ambalo kanisa la mwishoni mwa Zama za Kati lilitoa kwa kudhoofika kwake kitaasisi: wakati mapapa walipokuwa wakitengana wao kwa wao huko Avignon, mtawa asiyejulikana katika Nchi za Chini alikuwa akikifundisha kizazi kizima jinsi ya kutembea kila siku pamoja na Yesu Kristo.The Imitation has been translated into more languages than any Christian book except the Bible. John Wesley said it was one of the books God used to bring him to salvation. Generations of Catholics, Protestants, and Orthodox have all found it nourishing. The Imitation is the answer the late medieval church gave to her own institutional decline: while popes were excommunicating each other in Avignon, an obscure monk in the Low Countries was teaching a generation how to walk daily with Jesus Christ.

Ndugu wa Maisha ya Pamoja wenyewe — vuguvugu la walei lililomzaa Thomas à Kempis — waliendesha shule kote katika Nchi za Chini na Ujerumani. Mojawapo ya shule zao huko Deventer ilimsomesha mvulana Mholanzi aitwaye Erasmus. Nyingine, baadaye sana na mahali pengine katika mtandao huo, ilimsomesha kijana Martin Luther. Taasisi ambayo upapa wa mwishoni mwa Zama za Kati haukuweza kuirekebisha ilikuwa ikiandaliwa kutoka chini na shule tulivu, vitabu vya ibada, na walimu waaminifu madarasani.The Brethren of the Common Life themselves — the lay movement that produced Thomas à Kempis — ran schools across the Low Countries and Germany. One of their schools at Deventer educated a young Dutch boy named Erasmus. Another educated, much later and elsewhere in the network, the young Martin Luther. The institution that the late medieval papacy could not fix was being prepared from below by quiet schools, devotional books, and faithful classroom teachers.

Karne ya kumi na tano huko Italia ilizaa vuguvugu la kitamaduni linaloitwa Zama za Mwamko (Renaissance) — kihalisi "kuzaliwa upya" kwa shauku katika vyanzo vya kale vya Kigiriki na Kirumi vilivyo nyuma ya ustaarabu wa Kilatini wa Zama za Kati. Wanahumanisti wa Kiitalia waligundua upya falsafa ya Kigiriki, fasihi ya Kigiriki, na (jambo lenye matokeo makubwa zaidi kwa kanisa) Agano Jipya la Kigiriki lililo nyuma ya Vulgata ya Kilatini ya Jeromu. Kauli mbiu ya Zama za Mwamko ilikuwa ad fontes — "kurudi kwenye vyanzo." Ikiwa wanaskolastiki wa Zama za Kati walikuwa wamerundika Aristotle na Akwino na wafafanuzi elfu moja kati ya msomaji wa kisasa na maandishi ya asili, wanahumanisti walitaka kuondoa matabaka hayo na kusoma maandishi ya asili katika lugha zake zenyewe.The fifteenth century in Italy produced the cultural movement called the Renaissance — literally a "rebirth" of interest in the classical Greek and Roman sources behind medieval Latin civilization. Italian humanists rediscovered Greek philosophy, Greek literature, and (most consequentially for the church) the Greek New Testament behind Jerome's Latin Vulgate. The Renaissance motto was ad fontes — "back to the sources." If the medieval scholastics had layered Aristotle and Aquinas and a thousand commentators between the modern reader and the original text, the humanists wanted to strip the layers off and read the originals in their own languages.

Zama za Mwamko zilikuwa na upande wa giza katika mahakama ya papa — mapapa kama Aleksanda VI Borgia na Julius II walikuwa wakuu wa kifalme wa Zama za Mwamko kuliko kuwa baba wa kiroho, na uovu wa upapa wa mwishoni mwa Zama za Kati ulifikia kilele chake katika enzi zao. Lakini Zama za Mwamko pia zilizaa vifaa vya kielimu ambavyo vingewezesha Matengenezo ya Kanisa. Mapinduzi mawili ya kitaalamu yalileta tofauti. Msomi wa Kigiriki Lorenzo Valla katika miaka ya 1440 alitumia uhakiki wa maandishi kuthibitisha kwamba ile hati maarufu ya Zawadi ya Konstantino (Donation of Constantine) — iliyodaiwa kuwa zawadi ya Konstantino ya mamlaka ya kifalme kwa papa — ilikuwa hati ya kughushi ya Zama za Kati. Pia aliandika Maelezo juu ya Agano Jipya (Annotations on the New Testament), akilinganisha maandishi ya Kigiriki na Vulgata ya Jeromu na kuonyesha kwamba tafsiri ya Kilatini, ingawa iliheshimiwa sana, wakati mwingine ilikuwa na makosa. Karibu mwaka 1450, Johannes Gutenberg huko Mainz alibuni uchapishaji kwa herufi zinazohamishika. Kitabu kikuu cha kwanza kutoka katika mashine yake kilikuwa Biblia ya Kilatini. Kufikia mwaka 1500, mashine za uchapishaji zaidi ya elfu moja zilikuwa zikifanya kazi kote Ulaya na mamilioni ya vitabu yalikuwa yamechapishwa. Kanisa la Zama za Kati lilikuwa limechukua miaka elfu moja kunakili Biblia kwa mkono. Zama za Mwamko zililipa kanisa Biblia hiyo katika miaka ishirini.The Renaissance had a darker side at the papal court — popes like Alexander VI Borgia and Julius II were Renaissance princes more than spiritual fathers, and the corruption of the late-medieval papacy reached its high water mark in their reigns. But the Renaissance also produced the intellectual tools that would make the Reformation possible. Two technical revolutions made the difference. The Greek scholar Lorenzo Valla in the 1440s used textual criticism to prove that the famous Donation of Constantine — supposedly Constantine's gift of imperial authority to the pope — was a medieval forgery. He also wrote Annotations on the New Testament, comparing the Greek text with Jerome's Vulgate and showing that the Latin translation, however venerable, was sometimes wrong. Around 1450, Johannes Gutenberg in Mainz developed movable-type printing. The first major book off his press was a Latin Bible. By 1500, more than a thousand printing presses were operating across Europe and millions of books had been published. The medieval church had taken a thousand years to copy the Bible by hand. The Renaissance gave it to her in twenty.

Mwanahumanisti Mkristo mkuu kuliko wote wa Zama za Mwamko alikuwa Desiderius Erasmus wa Rotterdam (takriban 1466–1536). Mholanzi aliyesomeshwa na Ndugu wa Maisha ya Pamoja, aliyewekwa wakfu kuwa padri, na kufunzwa Kigiriki, Erasmus alitoa mwaka 1516 kazi ambayo ingebadilisha kila kitu: Agano Jipya la Kigiriki lililochapishwa pamoja na tafsiri yake mpya ya Kilatini kando yake, lililoitwa Novum Instrumentum. Kwa mara ya kwanza tangu zama za kale, wasomi na wachungaji kote Ulaya walishika mikononi mwao Agano Jipya katika lugha yake ya asili, lililohaririwa kutoka katika miswada, katika kitabu kilichochapishwa ambacho wangeweza kumudu kukinunua.The greatest Christian humanist of the Renaissance was Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam (c. 1466–1536). A Dutchman educated by the Brethren of the Common Life, ordained a priest, and trained in Greek, Erasmus produced in 1516 the work that would change everything: a printed Greek New Testament with his own new Latin translation alongside it, called the Novum Instrumentum. For the first time since antiquity, scholars and pastors across Europe held in their hands the New Testament in its original language, edited from manuscripts, in a printed book they could afford to own.

Erasmus pia aliandika kejeli za maovu ya makasisi (Sifa ya Upumbavu) na kazi makini za ibada (Enchiridion, "jambia la askari Mkristo"), na aliendesha mawasiliano makubwa ya barua kote Ulaya na wafalme, wasomi, na wanamatengenezo. Alikuwa msomi maarufu zaidi na anayeheshimiwa zaidi wa kizazi chake. Pia alikuwa mtu mwangalifu ambaye, Matengenezo ya Kanisa yalipozuka, hakuwahi kuliacha Kanisa Katoliki la Roma — ingawa Agano Jipya lake la Kigiriki ndilo hasa maandishi ambayo Luther aliyatumia kutafsiri Agano Jipya kwa Kijerumani.Erasmus also wrote satires of clerical corruption (The Praise of Folly) and serious devotional works (the Enchiridion, "the dagger of the Christian soldier"), and conducted a vast correspondence across Europe with kings, scholars, and reformers. He was the most famous and most respected scholar of his generation. He was also a cautious man who, when the Reformation broke, never left the Roman Catholic Church — though his Greek New Testament was the very text Luther used to translate the New Testament into German.

Wakati mwingine husemwa: Erasmus alitaga yai ambalo Luther aliliangua. Usemi huo si wa haki kwa nia za Erasmus mwenyewe lakini ni sahihi kuhusu athari yake ya kihistoria. Bila Valla na Gutenberg na Erasmus, Matengenezo ya Kanisa aliyoyahubiri Luther mwaka 1517 yasingeweza kuenea jinsi yalivyoenea. Wasomi na wachapishaji wa Zama za Mwamko walimpa Luther maandishi ya Kigiriki yaliyochapishwa, mashine ya uchapishaji, watu wanaojua kusoma, na mbinu ya uhakiki wa maandishi — vifaa vinne ambavyo Matengenezo ya Kanisa yalivihitaji kabisa. Kufikia mwaka 1500 vifaa hivyo vilikuwa tayari. Mtawa aliyefuata ambaye angelitazama Agano Jipya kwa Kigiriki na kuhoji kile alichokiona angeiwasha Ulaya moto.It is sometimes said: Erasmus laid the egg that Luther hatched. The saying is unfair to Erasmus's own intentions but accurate about his historical impact. Without Valla and Gutenberg and Erasmus, the Reformation Luther preached in 1517 could not have spread the way it did. The Renaissance scholars and printers gave Luther a printed Greek text, a printing press, a literate populace, and a method of textual criticism — the four tools the Reformation absolutely required. By 1500 those tools were ready. The next monk to look at the New Testament in Greek and to question what he saw would set Europe on fire.

Kwanza, taasisi hudhoofika polepole zaidi na hadharani zaidi kuliko tunavyotarajia. Upapa wa Zama za Kati haukuanguka kwa siku moja. Ulipasuka kwa muda wa karne moja — Bonifasi akidhalilishwa, mapapa wakichukuliwa hadi Avignon, mapapa watatu kwa wakati mmoja, mitaguso ikishindwa kurekebisha kilichokuwa kimevunjika. Kufikia wakati Luther alipowasha kiberiti chake, kila Mkristo anayejua kusoma huko Ulaya tayari alijua kwamba taasisi ilikuwa mgonjwa. Mchungaji, taasisi zako mwenyewe zitadhoofika kwa kasi ile ile. Kutaja kwa uaminifu kile kilicho kibaya ni mojawapo ya matendo ya kudumu ya upendo wa kanisa kwa nafsi yake.First, institutions decline more slowly and more publicly than we expect. The medieval papacy did not fall in a day. It cracked over a century — Boniface humiliated, the popes carried off to Avignon, three popes simultaneously, councils failing to fix what was broken. By the time Luther struck his match, every literate Christian in Europe already knew the institution was sick. Pastor, your own institutions will decline at the same speed. The honest naming of what is wrong is one of the church's permanent acts of love toward herself.

Pili, watangulizi hawaishi kila mara kuona mavuno. Wycliffe alikufa mezani pake; Hus alikufa kwenye nguzo ya kuchomwa; Tyndale (tutakayekutana naye katika Sehemu ya 7) alinyongwa na kuchomwa moto. Hakuna hata mmoja wao aliyeishi kuona kile ambacho kazi yao iliwezesha. Uaminifu wako leo huenda unapanda mti ambao wajukuu wako wataketi kivulini mwake. Si kila kazi ya injili huzaa matunda yanayoonekana katika maisha ya mfanyakazi mwenyewe. Panda hata hivyo.Second, the forerunners do not always live to see the harvest. Wycliffe died at his desk; Hus died at the stake; Tyndale (whom we will meet in Unit 7) was strangled and burned. None of them lived to see what their work made possible. Your faithfulness today may be planting a tree in whose shade your grandchildren will sit. Not every gospel labor produces visible fruit in the laborer's lifetime. Plant anyway.

Tatu, kina cha ibada hustahimili kudhoofika kwa taasisi. Mapapa walipokuwa katika hali yao mbaya kabisa, kitabu cha Kumfuasa Kristo kilikuwa kikiandikwa. Shule zilipokuwa zimeoza, Ndugu wa Maisha ya Pamoja walikuwa wakiwafundisha wavulana walioitwa Erasmus na Luther jinsi ya kumfuata Yesu. Kanisa la kitaasisi linaweza kuwa mgonjwa huku maisha halisi ya Kikristo yakizidi kuwa na kina katika monasteri, katika nyumba za walei, na katika vitabu vya ibada. Mchungaji, taasisi yako inapodhoofika, usiache hiyo iwe hadithi pekee ambayo watu wako wanaisikia. Waelekeze kwenye mkondo usiokatika wa maisha ya ibada ya Kikristo unaotiririka chini ya kila karne.Third, devotional depth survives institutional decline. When the popes were at their worst, the Imitation of Christ was being written. When the schools were corrupt, the Brethren of the Common Life were teaching boys named Erasmus and Luther how to follow Jesus. The institutional church can be sick while the actual Christian life is being deepened in monasteries and lay homes and devotional books. Pastor, when your institution is in decline, do not let that be the whole story your people hear. Point them to the unbroken stream of devotional Christian life that runs underneath every century.

Nne, wakati mwingine kanisa huwachoma watu wake mwenyewe. Watangulizi hawakuuawa na Warumi, Waviking, Wamongolia, au Waislamu. Waliuawa na Ulaya ya Kikristo. Mchungaji aliye mwaminifu kuhusu historia ya kanisa hatalipamba kanisa la kitaasisi kwa ndoto za kimapenzi. Atalipenda kwa sababu Kristo analipenda, naye atakataa kulitetea linapokosea. Mifupa ya Wycliffe katika mto Swift na majivu ya Hus yaliyopeperushwa na upepo ni ukumbusho wa kudumu: taasisi si injili, na taasisi inapoigeukia injili, Wakristo waaminifu husimama upande wa injili.Fourth, sometimes the church burns her own. The forerunners were not killed by Romans, Vikings, Mongols, or Muslims. They were killed by Christian Europe. The pastor who is honest about church history will not romanticize the institutional church. He will love her because Christ loves her, and he will refuse to defend her when she is wrong. Wycliffe's bones in the river Swift and Hus's ashes on the wind are a permanent reminder: the institution is not the gospel, and when the institution turns on the gospel, faithful Christians side with the gospel.

Kufikia mwaka 1500, kila hali ambayo Matengenezo ya Kanisa yalihitaji ilikuwa tayari mahali pake. Upapa ulikuwa umeonekana wazi ukipasuka kwa miaka mia mbili. Watangulizi walikuwa wameweka msamiati — Maandiko juu ya mapokeo, imani juu ya matendo, injili juu ya taasisi — uliokuwa ukingoja kuchukuliwa. Wanamistiki walikuwa wamekifundisha kizazi cha waumini kutembea kila siku pamoja na Kristo bila kutegemea kanisa la kitaasisi. Wasomi wa Zama za Mwamko walikuwa wameweka Agano Jipya la Kigiriki lililochapishwa katika mzunguko. Mashine ya uchapishaji iliweza kuzalisha kitabu kwa maelfu ya nakala katika wiki chache. Watu wenye elimu wa Ulaya walikuwa tayari wamechukizwa na hali ya kimaadili ya upapa.By the year 1500, every condition the Reformation needed was already in place. The papacy had been visibly cracking for two hundred years. The forerunners had laid down a vocabulary — Scripture above tradition, faith above works, the gospel above the institution — that was waiting to be picked up. The mystics had taught a generation of believers to walk daily with Christ apart from the institutional church. The Renaissance scholars had put a printed Greek New Testament into circulation. The printing press could reproduce a book in thousands of copies in weeks. The educated classes of Europe were already disgusted with the moral state of the papacy.

Kiberiti kilikuwa kimewashwa miaka mia moja thelathini na tano kabla, wakati Wycliffe alipoanza kufundisha Oxford. Kiberiti hicho kilipitishwa kwa Hus, naye Hus akakiacha kiwake hadi kuunguza vidole vyake mwenyewe na akamwita bata maji ambaye bado hakuweza kumwona. Bata maji huyo alikuwa tayari yu hai. Alikuwa tayari ameingia monasteri. Alikuwa akijifunza Agano Jipya la Kigiriki la Erasmus na kugundua kwamba kanisa alilolipenda lilikuwa limepotoka mbali na injili aliyokuwa akiisoma. Jina lake lilikuwa Ndugu Martin. Faulu mtihani huu, nasi tutakutana naye katika Sehemu ya 7 — na tutaona kinachotokea wakati miaka mia moja thelathini na tano ya nyufa za mwishoni mwa Zama za Kati hatimaye inapopasuka wazi.The match had been struck a hundred and thirty-five years earlier when Wycliffe began teaching at Oxford. The match was passed to Hus, and Hus burned it down to his own fingers and called out to a swan he could not yet see. The swan was already alive. He had already entered the monastery. He was studying Erasmus's Greek New Testament and discovering that the church he loved had drifted from the gospel he was reading. His name was Brother Martin. Pass this examination, and we will meet him in Unit 7 — and we will see what happens when a hundred and thirty-five years of late-medieval cracks finally splits open.