Sanctifying Truth

16 Sanctifying Truth Augustine, Gregory the Great, and Jerome from the West; Saints Athanasius, Basil the Great, Gregory Nazianzen, and John Chrysostom from the East. 2 During the period that followed the Catholic Reform of the sixteenth century, images of the Doctors of the Church became a standard decora- tion in Catholic churches. Local artists copied what they found in Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome. Today one may still see the images of the four Fathers who hold up the gilt bronze casing designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini to encase the Chair of Peter. It was executed during the years between 1647 and 1653. The pope at that time, Alexander VII, surely want- ed to make his theological message clear. All that the popes teach enjoys continuity with the doctrine of the eight great teachers of Catholic antiquity who themselves enjoy continuity with the apostles and so are revered as the original “Doctors of the Church.” The Protestant Reform contested this tradi- tion. Martin Luther and his followers held a dif- ferent view of the history of the Catholic Church. They opined that from the time that the last drop of ink had dried on the pages of the New Testament, the Roman Church and the pope of Rome man- aged to get everything wrong. Nothing was right. Everything required fixing. The Protestant Reform