The Conditionalist Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 2

I. Agitation During Dominance of Papal Traditionalism

From the tenth century onward, amid the crystallizing establishment of Roman Catholic theology, until the middle of the sixteenth century men lived in constant fear—fear of man, of the state, of the church, of God, of the devil, of death, and of Hell and Purgatory. Roman Catholicism was the only Christianity publicly recognized. Medieval eschatology, as portrayed in the Summa Theologica of Thomas Aquinas, declared that souls fly immediately at death to their appointed places. ¹ And the dogma of the soul—its nature and destiny—was at last defined at the Council of Trent. The medieval belief in a future life was largely concentrated around the current concepts of Satan, Purgatory, the Last Judgment, and Hell. God, Christ, grace, and Heaven were tragically obscured. The gospel was in eclipse. CFF2 49.2

CHALLENGES TO INNATE IMMORTALITY ERUPT

But the Middle Ages, though thus shrouded in darkness, were nevertheless marked by a growing agitation over the immortality issue. It kept coming periodically to the fore. Thus in 1270, Stephen, Catholic bishop of Paris, condemned thirteen propositions allegedly taught by several professors of philosophy and divinity in Paris. The seventh proposition was that “the soul of man ... is corruptible.” The eighth was that “the separate soul does not suffer eternal fire”; and the thirteenth stated that God “cannot give immortality or incorruptibility to a mortal and corruptible creature.” While the names of the holders of these views were not stated, they are said to have been expelled from the university for their temerity. CFF2 50.1

And according to the testimony of the eminent Sorbonne professor Lewis E. Du Pin, in 1302 charges were even brought by four French earls against Pope Boniface VIII, alleging that he “did not believe in immortality.” ² Thus rumors and charges were bandied back and forth over the volatile issue of the nature and destiny of man. Various scholastics were involved and numerous names were suspect. But most of the struggles were shrouded in the mists of innuendo and obscured by blurred accounts. The records are neither too clear nor reliable—except that they disclose a growing undercurrent of revolt against the dominant medieval position of the Roman Church on the Innate Immortality of all men and the Eternal Torment of the damned. This growing challenge we will now trace, beginning with Wyclif. CFF2 50.2