o The targets of the reformers were consistent: Scholastic
theology, the power of the papacy, the complications of the
liturgy and canon law, the institution of monasticism and
religious life generally, and the emphasis on externals rather
than internal realities, on “works” rather than the simple
response of the heart.• The justice of the reformer’s charges is difficult to deny, for the
changes they point to are obvious to anyone with a historical sense.
Yet the fundamental charge that Christianity had lost its “essence”
in the time leading up to the Reformation may be much too strong.
o The problem with a counter-assertion, however, is the difficulty
of substantiating it; can it be shown that ordinary Christians
lived lives fully consonant with the Jesus of the Gospels, the
teaching of Paul, and the guidance of the Holy Spirit?
o Did the elaboration or even the corruption of public forms also
corrupt in a fundamental way those practices of piety, charity,
generous devotion, and quiet witness of a good life that had
always, from the 1st to the 16th centuries, been the proclaimed
goal of the Christian message?o Here, the evidence of the saints must count for something.
By “saints,” we mean others than those officially recognized
by the church, just as we must include others than the visible
historical players.o We must include those who lived lives of patient endurance,
quiet service, and deep charity in accordance with the gospel
and, by so living, communicated something of the gospel’s
power from one generation to the next. It does not matter
whether they were monk or mendicant, pilgrim or poet. What
matters is the character of their lives.o In the final analysis, although it would make for dull reading
because it would be so lacking in high adventure or political