Bernardino Ochino - Lapsed Capuchin, Protestant Reformer

[Michie]

Bernardino Ochino - Lapsed Capuchin, Protestant Reformer

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This is the sad story of the Vicar-General of the Capuchin Franciscans in the mid-1500s who became a Protestant and eventually a Trinitarian heretic.

Ochino's defection to the Protestants back then would have been tantamount to someone like Fr. Benedict Groeschel or Fr. John Corapi becoming a Protestant Evangelical. Prior to his defection, Ochino was a gifted preacher, a humble Franciscan, and a source of Catholic renewal. It was a very scandalous affair.

A native of Siena, he joined the Observantine Franciscans and rose to be their general. In 1534 he transferred to the still more austere Capuchins, of whom he was twice (in 1538 and 1541) the vicar-general. His preaching was so eloquent and moving that Emperor Charles V said of him, ‘That man is enough to make the stones weep.’

Contact with Peter Vermigli led him to accept Protestant doctrines, and in 1541 he became a Lutheran. He was cited before the Inquistion, but escaped to Geneva. From 1545 to 1547 he was minister to the Italian Protestants at Augsburg.

In the latter year T. Cranmer invited him to England and secured for him a Prebend of Canterbury and a royal pension as an Anglican. In England, Ochino gave himself up to writing The Usurped Primacy of the Bishop of Rome and the Labyrinth, the latter attacking the Calvinistic doctrine of Predestination. On Queen Mary’s accession to the English throne, he returned to Switzerland and in 1555 was appointed a pastor at Zurich, but on account of his Thirty Dialogues (1563), which proved him unsound on the doctrine of the Trinity and on monogamy, he was expelled from his office. He then went to Poland, but was not allowed to remain there, and died in Moravia.

The moral of this story: If you leave the Catholic flock, you never know where you'll end up. Ochino was once the leader of a potent Catholic revival. He ended in heterodoxy. Let this be a warning to all of us.

http://cantuar.blogspot.com/2010/07/bernardino-ochino-lapsed-capuchin.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+taylormarshall+%28Canterbury+Tales+by+Taylor+Marshall%29

 

[Fantine]

Do you find it surprising that the leader of an austere Franciscan order would be attracted to the ideas of a humble German monk and repulsed by the sale of indulgences and outrageous Vatican spending on St. Peter's Basilica, among other things?

That doesn't surprise me at all. The Church had an opportunity to end the reformation. All it had to say was, "We were wrong."

Instead, they stonewalled a truth teller for years.

I do believe there would have been a reformation anyway. King Henry VIII would have started his own church, and it is obvious that his heart was not pure in this regard.

But I really think the Church has to examine its own culpability in the case of Luther and Ochino--reformers whose opposition to the sale of indulgences and profligate spending would have made the Church better, not worse.

 

[PilgrimToChrist]

Do you find it surprising that the leader of an austere Franciscan order would be attracted to the ideas of a humble German monk and repulsed by the sale of indulgences and outrageous Vatican spending on St. Peter's Basilica, among other things?

That doesn't surprise me at all. The Church had an opportunity to end the reformation. All it had to say was, "We were wrong."

Instead, they stonewalled a truth teller for years.

I do believe there would have been a reformation anyway. King Henry VIII would have started his own church, and it is obvious that his heart was not pure in this regard.

But I really think the Church has to examine its own culpability in the case of Luther and Ochino--reformers whose opposition to the sale of indulgences and profligate spending would have made the Church better, not worse.

This has happened since the days of Noah and Moses and the prophets of old. The Church turns away from God and becomes corrupt but God chastises Her to bring Her back to Him. The Protestants saw corruption in the Church and abandoned the Church and the Faith -- they fell into a bizarre array of dangerous heresies. The true fruit of the Reformation was the Catholic (Counter-)Reformation, that the Protestants abandoned the faith is simply a sad fact of human nature -- people focus on themselves instead of God. Heresies come from pride and Protestantism was founded simply on pride and a man-centered worldview.

 

[kepha31]

Do you find it surprising that the leader of an austere Franciscan order would be attracted to the ideas of a humble German monk and repulsed by the sale of indulgences and outrageous Vatican spending on St. Peter's Basilica, among other things?

Indulgences were not supposed to be for sale. The Council of Trent instituted severe reforms in the practice of granting indulgences, and, because of prior abuses, "in 1567 Pope Pius V canceled all grants of indulgences involving any fees or other financial transactions" (Catholic Encyclopedia). This act proved the Church’s seriousness about removing abuses from indulgences. Myths about Indulgences

What would you suggest they build over the burial site of St. Peter? And what "other things" are you refering to? Free education for the poor? Construction and operation of hospitals? Shame on us!

That doesn't surprise me at all. The Church had an opportunity to end the reformation. All it had to say was, "We were wrong."

It's not that simple. http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/apologetics/ap0097.html

Instead, they stonewalled a truth teller for years.

The moral deficiencies of the original Protestant so-called "reformers" were the MOTIVE, for their apostasy. It was not merely that they were sinners. They were sinners who apostatized BECAUSE of their sins.

If Martin Luther did not suffer from severe bipolar manic-depressant illness with frank psychosis during his periods of mania, he would never have invented a purely formal definition of 'righteousness' that was evacuated of all moral content and inspired millions of others to settle for a sub-Christian notion of discipleship…
Luther lived with his paramour for 1 1/2 years before marrying her. He was complicit in the bigamy of Philip of Hess. He encouraged gangs of thugs to invade convents and rape the nuns therein.

And then there is those blood curdling anti-semetic quotes from your truth teller...

And you have the audacity to say the Church admit wrongdoing and everything would have been fine?

I do believe there would have been a reformation anyway. King Henry VIII would have started his own church, and it is obvious that his heart was not pure in this regard.

There is one thing you've said I can agree with. If Henry VIII did not want to divorce his sacramentally married wife, marry his chippie mistress, steal Church lands and use the money to pay off his personal debts, England would still be Catholic. Henry VIII made himself 'head of the Church" in England. He had more mistresses than wives and he killed several of those. He used his 'religious authority' to ignore the teaching of Our Lord and Savior on divorce and serve his own lusts. he was also guilty of greed, egoism, cruelty, murder, extortion, and irreligion.

But I really think the Church has to examine its own culpability in the case of Luther and Ochino--reformers whose opposition to the sale of indulgences and profligate spending would have made the Church better, not worse.

The Church has examined her own culpability and has not been afraid to admit the truth (not opinions) of what she did wrong. My challenge to you is to set aside your prejudice and come to terms with the fact that Protestantism has been bearing false witness against the Church for 400 years, especially with the propagation of lies about indulgences. Vatican II ended the reformation era with Unum Sint. You need to accept this olive branch and stop beating us with the same silly 400 year old arguments that no longer have any meaning.

Bernardino Ochino was a Catholic priest who became a Lutheran. That makes him an apostate. If he was born a Lutheran, he would not have been an apostate. Ochino falls in the same catagory as Korah. In Numbers 16, Korah set himself up as an illegitimate authority against God's appointed authorities, and was destroyed for his audacious act. That's the point of the OP, I think.

Hebrews 13:17 says, "Obey your leaders and submit to their authority. They keep watch over you as men who must give an account. Obey them so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no advantage to you."


What was the expiration date of this verse?