I made the mistake of trying to make a quick survey of what the theological issues would have been around the turn of the 16th Century, which is when I believe Stephen Gardiner would have been finishing up his education and preparing for the priesthood.
You know...no big deal just summary of the various issues, which I figured would be sort of contained, because afterall, the 27 theses doesn't happen until 1517.
And I knew that shit had been brewing for a while but omg the Lutherans really do like to take a lot of credit because there was Jan Hus in Bohemia in 1415 who was an anti-papist and he had gone to a University that was heavily anti-papist and so that influenced him. And I'm like how in the name of Martin Luther do you have a University full of reformation-minded scholars an entire century earlier?
So the big issues for the Hussites were:
Ecclesiology: being able to learn church history, which had been suppressed so that even people studying to be clergy, didn't know the history.
Simony: this boils down to taking money for indulgences, taking gifts and bribes as part of the office of being priest. This issue was super huge for Luther and one of the many engines of the reformation.
Papal Authority: There had been a schism the previous century with a pope being declared an "anti-pope" and another pope put in his place. Similar to the way that the political landscape was in a constant cycle of civil war over who was going to be king, there was a big divide in the church that went on in a cycle with one faction getting their guy in place and then vice versa. Just as with politics, the indecision called into question "divine right." If the king and the pope were chosen by God, then how do you explain anti-popes and civil wars?
Communion of both kinds: Apparently some churches started doing just bread or just wine and that was heresy to the Hussites. The questions around the Eucharist have always been the hardest for my Protestant ass to grasp. (I made a whole post about grappling with Transubstantiation).
I wish there was a monastery I could go to study this stuff...Oh the irony.
