THE REFORMATION |
Erasmus of Rotterdam |
Martin Luther |
John Calvin |
In addition to being a time of geographic exploration, the sixteenth century was also characterized by upheavals in Western Christendom. For almost a millennia the only historical continuity and social cohesion Western Europe had possessed flowed from the Pope through the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church. Though language and tradition gave the people of Europe a sense of diversity, common allegiance to the Papacy created a superficial homogeneity from Ireland to Italy. As if following an unwritten law of history, however, political endurance eventually leads to political stagnation, and political stagnation leads to revolution. The Protestant Reformation, by any definition of the term, was certainly such a revolution. PRELUDE TO REFORMATION A. The Attitude of the Masses In the two centuries preceding the Reformation, the people of Europe had developed an extraordinary sensitivity concerning the fragility of life and human mortality. Europe, during the first two decades of the fourteenth century, had experienced what has been referred to as the "mini ice-age." Though the exact cause remains unknown, a drop in the overall temperature patterns resulted in both a shortened growing season and an unusual amount of rainfall. Harvests were destroyed, and the resulting food shortages generated wide-spread starvation. The Great Famine of 1315-1317 was the prelude of a famine cycle that extended on through the 1340s. This left the people of Europe weak, malnourished, and susceptible to the greatest natural disaster ever to hit the continent: the Black Death. One of the laws of history is that the exchange of goods always leads to an exchange of ideas. It can be said with equal validity that an exchange of goods also leads to an exchange of pestilence. The Black Death (a generic term for both the bubonic plague and its more aggressive relative, pneumonic plague) apparently originated in central Asia. In all likelihood it was spread both by the Mongols (who may have developed something of an immunity to the affliction) and by the same climatic factors that had resulted in the crop failures during the earlier portion of the century. As the temperature dropped, rodents that had previously been indigenous to central Asia, began to migrate. The Black Rats brought with them their fleas, and their fleas brought with them the lethal bacteria Yersina Pestis. The plague was introduced into Europe in October of 1347, when Genoese merchants brought it back to Italy from the Middle East. Between 1347 and 1351, in four years time, between 25 and 50 percent of the population of Europe died from the sickness. As with most such calamities, people began to seek an explanation in either a judgement from God or an act of the Devil. In the former case, groups of flagellants, repentants who believed that they could stop the plague by whipping themselves in order to gain forgiveness of sin, began to emerge all over Europe. Believing that the blood which flowed from the self-inflicted wounds of these penitents was miraculous, many women would take it and apply it to their eyes, often spreading the very disease they sought to abate. On the other hand, many believed that it was the work of the Devil, and sought a scapegoat. As has been the case so many times in the past, the Jewish population provide a ready place to deposit blame for the disaster. By 1351 more than sixty Jewish settlements in Germany alone had been destroyed. In Strausbourg, two thousand Jews were placed on a platform in the Hebrew cemetery. Half of them submitted to Christian baptism on the spot. The remaining thousand were subsequently burned in a mass imolation. After the plague subsided (there were major outbreaks in 1361, 1369, and lesser recurrances throughout the fifteenth century) two long-term impacts remained. First, the decline in population had greatly increased the value of peasent labor; it was simply a case of supply and demand. Second, Europe's encounter with such overwhelming mortality had produced an acute awareness of the spiritual aspect of human existence. An intense spiritual hunger developed, and the Church was woefully unprepared to satisfy that hunger. B. Tension within the Church. The Church had known many periods of tension and division prior to the fourteenth century. In addition to having to cope with various heresies, there was the Great Schism of 1054, which divided Christianity into the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church. A few years later the Church was wracked by the Investure Controversy (1076). It had become common practice for secular leaders both to choose and invest the higher clergy with their office. When Pope Gregory VII came to office he determined to eliminate this practice. Gregory was convinced that the Pope, and only the Pope, was God's "vicar on earth." He subsequently had authority over all offices of power, both clerical and secular. In his opinion, the practice of investure had made the Church subject to the State, and this, he believed, was definitely a case of the cart getting in front of the horse. This conflict dragged on until 1122, when a compromise known as the Concordat of Worms was reached. The agreement maintained that the Church would appoint its own high officials, but they would pledge their allegiance to the King as a feudal lord, who would then invest them with the symbols of his secular office. A papal representative would then bestow the symbols of the official's secular office. The Concordat of Worms, however, did not end the conflict of Church and State. Another crisis was precipitated by tension between Pope Boniface VIII (1294-1303) and King Philip IV of France (1285-1314). Philip claimed the right to tax the clergy of France, and Boniface maintained that no secular ruler could tax the Church or its representives without the consent of the Pope. In response, Boniface issued the papal letter Unam Sanctem in 1302, perhaps the strongest statement ever made concerning the supremacy of Papal over temporal power. Boniface subsequently excommunicated Philip, and Philip responded by sending a contingent of French soldiers into Italy to capture the Pope. Though a few country nobles tried to rescue Boniface, the soldiers were successful in their venture. Unfortunately, Boniface died from the shock of his experience. Though this was not part of Philip's plan, he did not lose too much sleep over the accident, and began to apply pressure to the College of Cardinals in Rome to appoint a Frenchman as the successor. They complied, electing Clement V (1305-1314) as Holy Father. The death of Boniface had thrown Italy into chaos, and Clement knew that it would be rather hazardous at this time for a Frenchman assuming the Papal crown to remain in Rome. Prudently, Clement established his residence at Avignon, a city on the east bank of the Rhone River. Technically, Avignon was part of the Holy Roman Empire, and therefore German. Culturally, however, the city had been heavily influenced by France. Clement and his successors would remain at Avignon for three-quarters of the fourteenth century. The problems created by such a situation are both immediate and obvious. The Pope was the Bishop of Rome, and his role had been tied to that city for over a thousand years. To many, for the Pope to reside outside of his ordained parish threatened the fabric of all Christendom. Though the Avignon Popes frequently asserted their intention to return to Rome, when they began to construct an elaborate palace it became clear that their words and their deeds were at variance. Many in Rome began to suspect that the Popes were being held in Avignon against their will by the French king. Further exacerbating matters, of the 113 of the 134 new cardinals appointed by the Avignon papacy were French, a fact greatly resented by the citizens of Italy. Finally, the criticism had become so intense and the loss of prestige so severe that Pope Gregory XI decided to return to Rome in 1377, seventy-three years after Clement V relocated. Unfortunately, he died soon thereafter. The citizens of Rome were convinced that the French majority in the College of Cardinals would select another Frenchman, and this new Pope would return the Papacy to Avignon. Through less-than-subtle means the French Cardinals were informed that they would not leave Rome alive unless a Roman, or at least an Italian was selected to fill the vacancy left by Clement. Faced with such strong motivation, the Cardinals quickly selected the Archbishop of Bari, an Italian, as Pope Urban VI (1378-1389). Within five months, however, a group of dissenting French Cardinals declared the election of Urban invalid, since it was achieved through such coercion, and selected one of their own number for the honor. He took the title Clement VII and returned to Avignon, initiating what Church historians refer to as the the Avignon Crisis (Other historians refer to the bifurcation of the Papacy as the Great Schism, but this title is more properly reserved for the 1054 split.) Quickly, the political landscape began to modify itself behind the two men. Allies of the French (Spain, Scotland, and Southern Italy) supported Clement, while the adversaries of the French (England, Germany, Scandinavia, and most of Italy) supported Urban. The situation continued to deteriorate with each Pope excommunicating the other, designating his rival to be the Antichrist. The immediate result of this controversy was the rise of the Conciliar Movement, an early attempt at reform which maintained that the governing authority of the Church should rest with Church Councils rather than either of the Popes. Finally a group of Cardinals met at Pisa in 1409 to settle the issue. In a very logical fashion they deposed both of the Popes and elected a new one. Unfortunately, the Pope at Rome and the Pope at Avignon both refused to surrender their office. The situation had become even more complicated. Rather than two Popes there were now three, and this situation would continue for another five years. Finally, Sigismund, the Holy Roman Emperor, convened a new council in 1414. The Council of Constance met until 1418, and in the end the three competing Popes were either deposed or resigned. A new conclave elected a Roman Cardinal to the position, and he took the name Martin V (1417-1431). C. Secularism within the Church. In addition to the sentiments of the masses and the fragmentation of ecclesiastic authority, the Church at the beginning of the fifteenth century was characterized by extensive secularization. There was generally a substantial amount of wealth attached to Church offices, and there was the tendency for the higher church offices to focus in the hands of the upper nobility. This practice, known as Pluralism, was relativly common in the years immediately preceeding the Reformation. Due to the pressure of maintaining their political position these nobles who held multiple offices tended to delegate their ecclesiastical responsibilities to underlings. In many cases these "priests" were uneducated, underpaid, and little concerned with the spiritual life of their congregations. The trend towards secularization was enhanced by extensive building programs undertaken by Rome and the need to raise additional funds to finance these projects. Foremost among these projects was the construction of the Basilica of St. Peter, the initial designs of which were laid out by Michaelangelo. To generate the necessary monies, exorbitant installation fees were charged for the higher church offices, and the practice of selling indulgences became both aggressive and widespread. The theory behind the sale of indulgences was relatively simple: An indulgence was supposedly a remission of the penalties of sin by the Church and its agents. The theory upon which it was based was that Christ and the Saints, by their exceeding goodness, had earned more credits than were necessary for their own salvation, and had stored these credits in a 'Treasury of Merit' from which the pope could make transfers to others. In return, the recipient was to make a monetary contribution to the Church, which was, of course, graduated according to an individual's ability to pay. Salvation was thus reduced to a business transaction, with the Pope acting as chief broker. The Church of Rome had never been more powerful, and less in touch with the spiritual needs of the people. Europe was rife for religious reformation. THE NATURE OF REFORMATION There are two tendencies that form an inescapable aspect of virtually every human experience. The first of these is the irrepressible desire to realize and express oneself as an individual. Our individuality is expressed in the clothes we wear, the music to which we listen, the books we choose to read, the food for which we have a preference, and a thousand other ways. The second tendency, perhaps the reverse side of the same coin, is the need of human beings to associate themselves within the context of a group, to feel as if they belong to a community. Human beings need the company of their fellows. In the sphere of religion, as in every other sphere of human endeavor, both of these tendencies are active, and ideally the two tendencies are in balance, satisfying both the need for individual expression and the need for communal involvement. When this harmony between the two tendencies begins to deteriorate, as is inevitably the case, a third irrepressible human tendency begins to assert itself; the need to impose order and structure upon the environment. When order and structure are imposed upon a religious environment, orthodoxy is created, and an inescapable side-effect of the creation of an orthodoxy is the suppression of the ability of the individual to express themselves. Religious hierarchies are empowered to insure that the needs of the individuals are subordinated to the needs of the community, and those same hierarchies determine exactly what the needs of the community are. Life is reduced to peaceful, ordered stagnation. Within the community, however, there are always going to be persons in whom the sense of individuality is so strong that it cannot be suppressed by the hierarchy. Such individuals threaten the hierarchy, which must take steps to silence the malcontent if it is to survive. Three possible situations exist: First, the non-conformist may be removed from the community by excommunication or exile, thereby creating a heretic. Such actions are generally short-term solutions, and result in the creation of a cult following of the exile along the fringes of the community. Secondly, the non-conformist may be removed from the human community by execution, thereby creating a martyr. Though this appears to be a final solution, the creation of a martyr generally tends to attach an abiding validity to that which the non-conformist had professed. Men seldom lay down their lives unless that for which they are willing to die has eternal significance. In the long run, a non-conformist may achieve by his death that which he had been unable to accomplish in his life. The third scenario results when the hierarchy cannot remove the non-conformist without destroying itself in the process. He may have powerful allies outside of the hierarchy, or have attracted so many within the community that his expulsion or execution would jeopardize the foundation upon which the hierarchy itself is built. In such a situation, the non-conformist will remain within the ranks of the community, thereby becoming an element of transformation, a reformer. Regardless of what the non-conformist is labeled, it is inevitable that change is going to be introduced within the community of the orthodox. In general, the views of the non-conformist are built upon his own experience, which he finds to be at odds with the professed dogma of the establishment. Those whom he attracts to himself have either participated in his experience, or vicariously identified themselves with him through a common opposition to the orthodoxy. This establishment of a dissenting community within the orthodox community can be labeled the first generation of reform. The first generation is usually characterized by depth of vision, coupled with the understanding that change takes time. Moderation is advocated, growing from the belief that the hearts and minds of men must be changed before the institutions themselves will give way. The second generation of reform is generally the radical phase. The vision which the first generation would achieve by means of gradual process becomes an obsession for the second generation. Those whom the first generation bring into the fold are dissatisfied with the reluctance of the establishment to accept their reforms and attempt to accelerate the process through more aggressive means. Open protest and violence usually follow as a confrontation with the orthodox establishment is pursued. Restraint on the part of the first generation leaders and the deterrent activity of the hierarchy are usually able to suppress the enthusiasm of the second generation before social chaos ensues. With the radicalism of the second generation suppressed, and the first generation passed its prime, the leadership of the reform passes on to a third generation. Lacking the experiences of the first generation, these new leaders tend to codify the experiences of the first generation thereby creating a new standard of orthodoxy. Inevitably, a new hierarchy is generated and the cycle begins again. This paradigm of reformation possesses a broad range of applicability. Each phase can bee seen in the Buddhist reform of Hinduism, in the American Civil Right's Movement, and a host of others. Here the paradigm will be applied to Europe in the early sixteenth century and the emergence of the Protestant Churches. THE BEGINNINGS OF THE REFORMATION |
The academic roots of the Protestant Reformation are located in the emergence of a strong humanistic tradition in northern Europe during the latter years of the fifteenth century. Following the Italian Renaissance and the rebirth of classical learning south of the Alps, a number of northern European academics began to study in the Italian schools. This, and the advent of printing helped carry the spirit and the ideas of the Renaissance beyond the borders of Italy, to France, England, Germany, and the Netherlands, initiating what is known as The Northern Renaissance. Whereas the Italian Renaissance focused on excellence in the plastic arts, the Northern European Renaissance focused on scholarship; More specifically, they sought to integrate the best of the classical and the Christian traditions. |
The most influential individual during this period was Erasmus of Rotterdam (1466-1536), an influential Dutch humanist who had been trained as a Catholic priest. Erasmus, however, had arrived at the conclusion that the Church had become corrupt and greedy, and began to call for a return to the simple faith that was found in early Christianity. As a satirist, Erasmus was unrivaled. His most influential work of criticism, In Praise of Folly, attacks the narrowmindedness of the scientists, philosophers, scholars and clergy of his day. Unlike most of the Renaissance humanists, Erasmus was a true cosmopolitain. He taught at Oxford, Cambridge, and the University of Paris, as well as in lesser known schools in Germany, Italy and Switzerland. Perhaps his most enduring contribution was the collection of various fragments, and their assembly into a functional Greek New Testament, which we now know as the Textus Receptus, or "Received Text," the basis of the King James Bible. |
Erasmus was a indicator of greater changes to come. His publication of a Greek text of the New Testament, flawed though it may have been, served to cast doubts upon the authority of the Latin Vulgate, which had been the authorized Bible of the Catholic Church for centuries. Once the source from which the doctrines were derived was questioned, it was only a matter of time before the doctrines themselves became subject to scrutiny. In addition, his criticism of the clergy indicated that a vast gulf separated the common people and religious professionals, and the very fact that he was able to point out the existence of this gap indicates that the gulf was widening. MARTIN LUTHER On 31 October 1517, Martin Luther, a young Augustinian monk (1483-1546) initiated a sequence of events that transformed the political, social, and religious landscape of Western Civilization. Though there had been various reform and sectarian movements within the Roman Catholic Church in the previous centuries, Luther was the first to create a definitive break in the unity of Roman Christendom. |
Luther was born on 10 November 1483, of peasant stock. He was raised in the town of Eisleben in Thuringia. In 1501, he entered the University of Erfurt, receiving the Master of Arts degree in 1505. Abiding by the wishes of his father, he prepared to begin a legal career. In July 1505, Luther was overtaken by a thunderstorm as he was returning to the University following a visit with his parents. Terrified by the anger of the heavens, and acting consistent with his own impulsive nature, Luther made a promise to St. Anne to take monastic vows should he survive the experience. He did survive, and he fulfilled his commitment, taking his final vows in September 1506. Luther was ordained as a priest in May of the following year, and in 1508, he transferred to the University of Wittenberg to serve as an instructor in logic and physics. He visited Rome in 1510, and upon his return two years later, he was granted the degree of Doctor of Theology. |
Throughout his life, Luther had been plagued by an intense awareness of his own sinfulness. By the time he returned from Rome, he had exhausted the penitential and confessional resources of the Church, only to find that his feelings of guilt had increased. At this point in his life, Luther perceived God only as an accusing Judge, a Judge whose offended righteousness he could never appease. Luther began his teaching career at Wittenburg with a series of lectures on Psalms, Romans, and Galatians. These lectures extended from 1513 to 1516, and during the course of his studies he concluded that human salvation is predicated solely upon the compassionate grace of God. Man can only believe, and accept that forgiveness can only come through the simple act faith. "The just shall live by faith" (Romans 1:17) became the center around which Luther's world-shaking doctrines would be structured. Luther's final break with the Church came about over the then current practice of selling indulgences. The particular instance which ignited Luther's rage occurred when Pope Leo X granted the authority to dispense indulgences to Albrecht, the archbishop of Mainz. Whereas the earlier dispensations from the Treasury of Merit had been applied only to the accounts of living individuals, by Luther's time indulgences could also be purchased by the living for souls presently suffering in Purgatory. Though the money received from the sale of indulgences was designated for the construction of St. Peter's Church in Rome, through an agreement with the Pope Albrecht was retaining half of the funds in order to repay a loan he had incurred to purchase his office. According to tradition, although Albrecht was too young to be a bishop, he was already holding two bishoprics, and Leo X had offered him the high office of Archbishop of Mainz if he could pay the installation fee of 12,000 ducats, which the Pope maintained represented the Twelve Apostles. Albrecht offered Leo 7,000 ducats, to commemorate the seven deadly sins. After a period of haggling, they compromised at 10,000 ducats, symbolizing the ten commandments. Albrecht borrowed the money, and to make the loan managable, Leo granted him permission to sell indulgences for a period of eight years. Albrecht entrusted the sale of the indulgences to Johann Tetzel, an able Dominican monk, and Tetzel showed remarkable enthusiasm for his work. Contemporary woodcuts portray the vendors of indulgences taking in so much money that new coins were being minted on the spot to facilitate the transactions. Even as the money changed hands, Tetzel assured his customers, the loved one for whom the purchase was made experienced liberation from the torments of Purgatory. Tradition even records his sale pitch: "As soon as the coin in the coffer rings, The soul from Purgatory springs." Such activity rankled Luther's very soul. On 31 October 1517, according to a customary debate practice, Luther posted a document of protest consisting of ninety-five arguments against the practice on the door of the Castle Church at the University of Wittenburg. This manifesto, known as the Ninety-five Theses, was unwittingly a declaration of independence from the Catholic Church. Within the document, Luther took the brokers of indulgences and their excesses to task: 20. The pope by his plenary remission of all penalties does not understand the remission of all penalties absolutely, but only of those imposed by himself. 21. Therefore those preachers of indulgences are in error who allege that through the indulgences of the pope a man is freed from every penalty. 22. For he remits to souls in purgatory no penalty which they had been bound, according to the canons, to pay in this life. 23. If any complete remission of penalties can be given to anyone it is sure that it can be given only to the most perfect; that is, to very few. 24. And therefore it follows that the greater part of the people is deceived by this indiscriminate and liberal promising of freedom from penalty. Luther then proceeded to question the veracity of any link between the contribution of money and the forgiveness of sin. If the Pope had the authority to dispense merit and forgive sin, then why did he not free every soul in Purgatory as a simple act of Christian kindness? Luther's attack went far beyond the abuses of the system, which were obvious, to the very nature of the system, denying the fundamental theory of the accumulated merit of the Saints. A copy of the Ninety-Five Theses was sent to Archbishop Albrecht, who in turn forwarded them to Pope Leo X. Leo was apparently undisturbed at the protest, maintaining that Luther was just another drunk German who would repent from the bottom of his heart once he sobered up. The Pope then went on to affirm Tetzel's claim in the matter. When Luther protested he was summoned to Rome. Fortunately, Luther's prince was Fredrick the Wise of Saxony, a senior member of the electors of the Holy Roman Empire, and Fredrick insisted that Luther receive a fair hearing. He also insisted that this would be possible only upon German soil. This historic distrust of the Italian Papacy by the German nobility proved to be extremely significant, and prevented the Reformation from being crushed before it began. Arrangements were quickly made for Luther to appear before Cardinal Cajetan, who was attending the Diet of Augsburg, on 12-14 October 1518. The Cardinal confronted Luther with a papal announcement, or bull, which contended that the doctrine of an accumulated Treasury of Merit was contained in Canon Law, and represented a legitimate doctrine and practice of the Church. Luther disputed the proclamation, and in doing so directly challenged the authority Canon Law, as well as that of the Pope as the earthly representative of Christ. Cajetan promptly responded by declaring Luther a heretic, dismissing him with orders not to return until he was ready to recant. Death at the stake was almost a certainty for Luther. Fortunately, however, the political climate of Europe suddenly shifted with the death of the Holy Roman Emperor, Maximillian. The choice of his successor was in the hands of the seven electors, chief among whom was Luther's protector, Fredrick the Wise, Elector of Saxony. There were three principle contenders for the Imperial throne: Henry VIII of England, Francis I of France, and Charles I of Spain. Pope Leo X was a remarkably perceptive, as well as politically astute individual and, to avoid augmenting the power of these three, he threw his support behind Fredrick the Elector. To gain Fredrick's favor, Leo agreed to allow Luther to openly debate his views with Johann Eck, a formidable theologian from the University of Leipzig. During the course of the debates (June-July 1519), Eck drove Luther to admit that his views were remarkably similar to those of John Huss, a Bohemian heretic that had been burned at the stake a century earlier. By defending the views of a heretic, Luther was proclaiming himself to be a heretic, and execution seemed imminent. Luther's courage, however, had attracted the attention of a diverse and powerful assortment of allies. German nationalists and nobility alike saw in Luther a champion against the rapacious appetite of the Papacy, and the humanists, led by Erasmus of Rotterdam, saw in Luther an opportunity for scholarship to shake off the oppressive papal restrictions. Following his debate with Eck, Luther proceeded both to strengthen his position with the German nobility and further alienate himself from Rome by publishing a series of tracts, each of which amplified the magnitude of his offense. The first of these, The Address to the Christian Nobility of the German Nation, issued a call for secular leaders to force a reformation upon the Church. Luther asserted that the temporal affairs of the Church should be handled at national level, and that the Church hierarchy should return to apostolic standards of poverty. He further demanded that the requirement of clerical celibacy be abolished. He attacked the distinction between the clergy and the laity, and affirmed his belief in the priesthood of all believers: There has been a fiction by which the Pope, bishops, priests and monks are called the 'spiritual estate'; princes, lords, artisans, and peasants are the 'temporal estate.' This is an artful lie and hypocritical invention, but let no one be made afraid of it, and that for this reason: that all Christians are truly of the spiritual estate, and there is no difference among them, save of office. Such assertions brought an enthusiastic response from the nobility, who were eager for an opportunity to dispense with their obligations toward Rome. It was also a revolutionary statement in an era still governed by medieval feudalism, aiming an arrow at the very heart of European social structure. The second tract, The Babylonian Captivity (6 October 1520), was far more radical and theologically threatening than the first. It was addressed to scholars and theologians, therefore it reverted back to Latin, but it was soon translated, quickly finding its way into the hands of the masses. In this document Luther compared the millennia-long dominion of Rome over the Church to the Babylonian captivity of the Jews. During this time the morals and rituals of the Church had been corrupted by Rome. There were two sacraments rather than Rome's seven; baptism and the Eucharist, which was to be administered in both forms (bread and wine, the cup was usually prohibited to the laity). Additionally, in this tract Luther repudiated the doctrine of transubstantiation, which maintained that, through the mediation of the priest, the bread and wine were miraculously transformed into the very blood and body of Jesus Christ. In its stead, he proposed the doctrine of consubstantiation, which held that Christ was present in the Eucharist along with the bread and wine. Luther's third manifesto, A Treatise on Christian Liberty, was published in November, 1520. In this tract he simply elaborated upon his doctrine of justification by faith alone and the priesthood of all believers. The Pope still did not want to alienate Fredrick, but Charles of Spain had already become Charles V, and Luther's threat to Leo's authority was becoming progressively more pronounced. In June 1520, Leo composed the bull Exsurge Domine, which began with the words "Arise, O Lord, and judge Thy cause. A wild boar has invaded Thy vineyard." The proclamation, delivered on 10 October 1520, gave Luther sixty days to recant. In reply, Luther issued his own document, Against the Execrable Bull of Antichrist, and two months later, on 10 December, Luther burned both the bull and the Canon Law in celebration of his impending excommunication. The excommunication, however, did not come immediately, for Fredrick had arranged for Luther to have a hearing before the Diet of Worms, which would meet early in 1521 to confer with Charles V. The Pope was outraged at the decision, for it meant that a secular court was to exercise authority over a heretic. On 17 April 1521, Luther was brought before the diet, and confronted with a pile of his books. The Papal faction hoped that Luther would at least repudiate The Babylonian Captivity, averting the impending catastrophe. Luther, however, acknowledged every book in front of him, and more besides. He was next asked if he would stand by everything he had written. Suddenly, as if the sheer magnitude of what he was doing overwhelmed him, Luther became virtually speechless. He requested time to consider his answer, and was given until the following day. In his reply, Luther exhibited the individualism that would characterize all subsequent Protestant thought: Since Your Majesty and your lordships desire a simple reply, I will answer without horns and without teeth. Unless I am convicted by Scripture and plain reason - I do not accept the authority of popes and councils, for they have contradicted each other-my conscience is captive to the Word of God, I cannot and I will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. God help me. Amen. The inscription on the Luther Memorial at Worms, "Hier stehe Ich, Ich Kann nicht anders" ("Here I stand, I can do no other"), does not appear in the official transcript of Luther's reply, though it does appear in the first printed version of his trial. Though the diet hesitated to condemn Luther, Charles took a firm stance for orthodoxy, and after Luther's supporters had departed, he placed Luther under the ban of the Empire. The Edict of Worms, which Charles V presented to the diet on 6 May 1521, referred to Luther as a "devil in the habit of a monk," and allowed him twenty-one days safe passage, after which he was to be arrested as a heretic. His followers were to be condemned and his books were to be burned. Again, Fredrick intervened on Luther's behalf. He instructed his chaplains to arrange for Luther to be ambushed, to make it appear as if they had been attacked by highwaymen, and to hide the monk in a place that would be unknown to the Elector himself. The place chosen for this concealment was the castle at Wartburg, where Luther dwelt for almost ten months (4 May 1521 until 29 February 1522). During the early part of this period of protective custody Luther was extremely depressed. He claimed to have been visited by the Devil on several occasions and, at one point, he hurled his inkpot at the Arch-Fiend. Unfortunately, he is said to have missed. On another occasion he threatened to relieve his bowels in his pants, then tie the garment around Satan's neck. Surely, this would be enough to drive off his Infernal Majesty! Luther's sanity was, perhaps, saved by the prodigious literary output he maintained while at Wartburg. In ten short months he translated the entire New Testament into vernacular German (the Old Testament was to follow later), and penned a substantial number of sermons for publication. Other important factors were also at work during Luther's stay at Wartburg. At Wittenberg, his colleagues at the University had taken up his cause while he was away. The leaders in this endeavor were Philip Melanchthon (1497-1560), a gentle and scholarly man, and the volatile extremist, Andreas Carlstadt (1480-1541). Melanchthon was a German humanist and the first systematic theologian of the Reformation. He arrived at the University of Wittenberg on 25 August 1518, less than a year after the 95 Theses incident, and began a lifelong friendship with Luther. At Luther's encouragement he married Katherine Krapp in 1520. Melanchthon taught both classical and Biblical studies at Wittenberg, showing remarkable ability in the promotion of Protestant doctrine through the tools of Renaissance humanism. His Loci Communes Rerum Theologicarum (1521) was the first attempt to present Protestant theology in a reasoned and orderly fashion. In 1530 he composed the Augsburg Confession, a basic creed of Protestantism. There was a synergistic quality to Melanchthon's thought which frequently brought him into conflict with Luther and others. Whereas he agreed with Luther that salvation is realized through justification by faith, his humanistic tendencies would not allow him to affirm that it is realized through justification by faith alone. Good works are a necessary manifestation of faith, though Melanchthon did not maintain that they were its cause. He also disagreed with Luther's doctrine of consubstantiation, asserting that the presence of Christ in the Eucharist, was completely spiritual in nature. Though these disagreements threatened the friendship between the two men, they agreed to overlook such matters as 'things indifferent,' i.e., superficial matters which, if focused upon, would detract from the central truth of justification by faith. Luther's disappearance resulted in chaos at Wittenberg. A multitude of rumors concerning his fate began to circulate, and the now shepherd-less flock began to search for new leadership. Melanchthon's lack of aggressiveness led to the assumption of the reins of power by Andreas Carlstadt, an impulsive man who was determined to immediately initiate a program of radical reform. Carlstadt believed that the priesthood of all believers made the very concept of a separate and professional clergy an abomination. Ministers should be laymen, and all ministerial titles should be discarded. Carlstadt provided the example by insisting that he be called simply Bruder Andreas, rather than 'Doctor' or 'Archdeacon.' Carlstadt repudiated the collar as well as the title, observing the Mass in ordinary farm clothing, and in the German language. He asserted that the married state was the only state which God honored, and that only married men be set aside for offices in the Church. The real break with Luther occurred over Carlstadt's progressively hostile attitude towards physical aids to devotion. He opposed instrumental music in worship, taught that religious imagery in any form violated the Mosaic injunctions against idolatry, and interpreted the presence of Christ in the Eucharist as a purely spiritual manifestation. Reform of the old order at Wittenburg soon progressed to a desire for its obliteration. Priests were forcibly dragged from the altar, and old believers were mocked and persecuted. Images, crucifixes, and organs were removed from all the churches in Wittenberg. The situation was further exacerbated by the arrival in Wittenberg of three members of the 'Prophets,' an extremist group from the city of Zwickau. Primarily as a result of the teachings of the Zwickau Prophets, Carlstadt began to disparage the schools and universities, claiming that worldly learning was a detriment to true piety. Theological reformation degenerating into social revolution, and this Luther did not want. One of the primary differences between Luther and later reformers such as Calvin and Knox was Luther's belief that the maintenance of order and the administration of justice were solely the province of the civil magistrate. It was not the place of the Church to administer the secular life of the community. Luther was horrified to see his followers using violence and coercion to effect social change. With the Reformation threatening to blow up in his face, Luther made arrangements to leave the security of the Wartburg and regain control of the rapidly deteriorating situation at Wittenberg. On 9 March 1522, Luther began a series of eight sermons in which he demanded that the University and the citizens of Wittenberg return to order. He reasserted his claim as the one through whom God had initiated the Reformation, and urged the people to renounce all usage of force to achieve their goals. He removed the ban on images, music and pictures which Carlstadt had imposed (incidentally removing Carlstadt as well), and, in a spirit of compromise, arranged that one church in Wittenberg would celebrate the Mass according to the traditional rites, whereas in another, the Mass would be administered in both kinds. Such matters, Luther maintained, were of superficial importance. In eight sermons, Luther put the Reformation back upon a track of moderation. The Zwickau Prophets were expelled, and Carlstadt took up a pastorate at Orlamunde, denouncing Luther as the new pope of Wittenberg. Luther had won at Wittenberg, but he would spend many of his remaining years attempting to extinguish the brush fires which began from the torch he ignited. THE SECOND GENERATION Predictably, as Luther's reformation swept across Germany it created a series of theological and sociological aftershocks. The second generation was entering its rebellious adolescence, and Luther knew, ultimately, that he was responsible for the correction of his progeny's misbehavior. At the root of the issue was the question of authority. By his defiance of the Pope, Luther had initiated a sequence of events which would ultimately lead to the questioning of all established authorities, secular as well as papal. THOMAS MUNTZER Thomas Muntzer took the implications of the reformation to the extreme, ultimately advocating the abolition of all authority and the establishment of a communistic state. Munzer had been one of the founders of the Zwickau movement and had been pastor of the weaver's church of St. Catherine. Munzer took to heart Luther's message that the Bible was the sole rule of conduct and faith for the elect, yet he questioned Luther's interpretation of the Bible. As a consequence, Muntzer, along with Nicolas Storch and Marcus Stubner, announced that God was personally speaking through them, and that their interpretation of the Holy Scriptures was infallible. Muntzer had resolved the question of authority in favor of himself. In 1521, Muntzer and his two associates attempted to incite the weavers to revolt. The effort failed and they were expelled from Zwickau. This expulsion corresponded with the time of Luther's stay at the Wartburg. Storch and Stubner were the two Zwickau prophets who stirred up the masses at Wittenberg. Muntzer, after leaving Zwickau, went to Prague, where he was again expelled, and finally took up a pastorate at Allstedt, in Saxony. From the pulpit at Allstedt, his oratory began to take on a much more inflammatory tone. He demanded the eradication of the 'godless' by the elect, if not through conversion, then by the sword. Initially he seemed to believe that the princes should lead the people in this endeavor, and proclaim a national revolt against the clergy and the moneyed interests, but when the princes refused, he demanded that they, too, either be beheaded or hanged. Luther, assisted by the brother and the cousin of the Elector, succeeded in having Muntzer removed from his pastorate, but this proved to be a critical error on the side of compassion. Muntzer moved into the industrial town of Muhlhausen, in Thuringia, where he found a ready audience for his radical message in the disenchanted textile workers and the peasants of the surrounding countryside. In Muntzer, the true revolutionary emerged. He was a man of passion, and he was willing to follow his passions to their logical conclusion. Absolutely convinced of the righteousness of his cause, and absolutely unwilling to compromise on anything, Muntzer was a truly dangerous man. The ideas which Muntzer was willing to carry to their logical conclusion were a strong belief in the election of the saints, an apocalyptic or millenarian obsession, and a genuine hatred of the exploitation of the poor. The natural consequence of these ideas came into play when Muntzer heard of the peasant revolt which was underway in southern Germany. The peasants in the town of Muhlhausen had, heretofore, been free of any revolutionary tendencies, but Muntzer was a man obsessed with a vision, and he now believed that his time had come. He was able to stir the peasants of Muhlhausen into revolt, but it was a futile effort. He was captured, tortured, and killed in May 1525. THE PEASANT'S WAR The Peasant War, though ultimately a failure, occupies an historically pivotal role. In the same way that Luther's Ninety-Five Theses announced the dawn of a new era to the Catholic Church, the Peasant War served notice to the feudal nobility of Germany that change was inevitable. The Peasant's War began in the Black Forest in June of 1524. Within six months it had spread throughout southern Germany, and within a year most of the nation was in an uproar. On the surface, the demands of the peasants did not seem to be unreasonable, exemplifying the traditional grievances of the peasantry everywhere; excessive rents, inadequate pasturage, and restrictive hunting and fishing laws. Beneath the surface, however, were the demands for ecclesiastic reform which had been initiated by Luther's preaching; the right to choose, appoint, and depose a pastor, and the reformation of the tithe. The revolt, however, soon turned riotous, and was crushed by force of arms. Possibly 100,000 peasants being killed in the retaliation. In the beginning, Luther had urged restraint. He petitioned the nobility for reform in their treatment of the peasants, while simultaneously urging the peasants to acknowledge their place in a divinely-ordained system of authority. When the revolt became riotous, Luther came down on the side of the nobility, and delivered perhaps his most infamous address, Against the Murderous and Thieving Rabble of Peasantry, inciting the nobility to stamp out the revolt by force. Though the revolt was quelled, it had a profound an immediate effect upon the progress of the Reformation. Charles V placed the blame for the entire uprising squarely upon Luther's shoulders. The Catholic heirarchy was quick to point out that, had Luther not kindled rebellion on the ecclesiastical level, it would have never seeped through to the secular level. Luther, on the other hand, quickly realized that he would need the support of the German nobility to withstand the incessant attacks of the Emperor and the Pope. This invariably brought him into conflict with the masses, who for generations had felt the heavy hand of feudal oppression. As a result, Luther lost much of his popular support, and many historians date the end of the Lutheran revolution from 1525, the end of the Peasant's War. THE ANABAPTISTS Luther's backing of the German princes during the Peasant's War resulted in a substantial deterioration of his support among the masses. As a result, many of them returned to the Catholic fold, others rejected religion in its entirety, and still others allied themselves with the various fringe sects that had developed in the wake of Luther's work. The most historically significant of these fringe elements was the Anabaptist movement. The term 'anabaptist' refers to the movement's rejection of infant baptism, and their re-baptizing of adults upon a profession of faith. It was used as a term of opprobrium against several non-aligned groups during the period of the Reformation by both Protestant and Catholic polemicists. The Anabaptists themselves objected to the term because they did not feel the sprinkling which they received as infants constituted a true baptism, hence the baptism which adult believers received at the time of their confession could not be construed as a re-baptism. The movement proper began at Zurich in 1525, when several groups became inpatient with Zwingli's plan to win over the cantons of German-speaking Switzerland to Protestantism through the political processes of the town councils. On 21 January 1525, the tension between Zwingli and the radicals became critical. In the village of Zollikon, near Zurich, a group of radicals met, proceeded to baptize one another, and inaugurated the first independent congregation in centuries, absolutely autonomous from any other religious body. The beliefs of the various groups of Anabaptists were somewhat diverse, but there were a number of unifying threads. The Anabaptists maintained that Christianity was a complete way of life. The life of the Christian must go beyond ritual and the simple acceptance of dogma. It is a life which must be lived according to the example of Jesus Christ. A second unifying thread was the Anabaptist's devotion to pacifism. Based upon Matthew 5:39, the Anabaptists believed that it was a violation of the ethics of Christ for his followers to go to war, defend themselves in a court of law, or take part in the activities of the civil government. They maintained that the Christian was called to a life apart from society, and their communities became self-contained units, devoted to a form of Christian communism. Thirdly, the Anabaptist churches were congregational in government, with the entire membership functioning corporately in decision-making and in matters of discipline and doctrine. Though the Anabaptists maintained that their strict ethical codes were a manifestation of salvation rather than its cause, the Reformers saw the Anabaptist emphasis on works as a step backwards, away from the doctrine of justification through faith alone. The Catholics, on the other hand, saw the Anabaptists as anarchists, compared with which Luther and the other reformers seemed to be conservatives. Both sides saw the Anabaptists as dangerous heretics and resolved to eliminate the newcomers from the European theological community. Between 1527 and 1550 thousands of Anabaptists were executed. In Catholic areas the heretics were usually burned at the stake, whereas in Protestant domains they were usually drowned, presumably out of respect for the Anabaptist's fondness for water. The extreme measures with which the established churches dealt with the Anabaptists seemed to be justified when, in 1534 a group of millenarian Anabaptists came to power in the city of Munster. Contrary to their creed, when the bishop assembled his troops to lay siege to the city, the Anabaptists there resorted to arms. During the course of the siege, the leadership of the Anabaptists at Munster fell into progressively more radical hands. Several leaders claimed to have a revelation from God, which maintained that Old Testament ethics were still in effect, and they promptly reintroduced polygamy (since the flight from the city had left many unmarried women, and marriage is the Biblical standard, unattached women should become 'companions of wives,' i.e. concubines.) In an messianic frenzy, the leaders proclaimed that Munster was the New Jerusalem mentioned in the Apocalypse. A Committee of Public Safety was established, which referred to itself as the "Elders of the Twelve Tribes of Israel," and John Leyden, a prominent Anabaptist leader from the Netherlands, was crowned as King David. The outrages at Munster brought a unified response from both Protestant and Catholic conservatives throughout the Empire. In 1528, Luther had urged leniency in dealing with the new movement. Now both he and Melanchthon called for force. A diet held at Worms ordered a tax throughout Germany to aid the Bishop in his siege. On 24 July 1535 several thousand of the Bishop's troops stormed into the city, killing 1200 survivors of the siege. Leyden and two of his aides died under extreme torture. The persecutions of the 1520's and 1530's served to purge Anabaptism of its more militant factions. Many of those that remained were shepherded in by Menno Simons, a Catholic priest who, in 1531, had been converted to Anabaptism (Mennonites). A number of Anabaptists were also drawn into the flock of Jakob Hutter (Hutterites). Both Simons and Hutter repudiated the extremes of the Munster group; violence, polygamy, and overly enthusiastic millennialism would find no place in their congregationalist community. THE SWISS REFORMATION The second major phase in the Reformation occurred in Switzerland. Though the work of Martin Luther had achieved widespread circulation and initiated pockets of reform throughout northern Europe, the Swiss Reformation was fundamentally the result of the influence of Erasmus. Following his production of a Greek New Testament, Erasmus moved progressively away from the traditional authority structure of the Catholic Church, eventually coming to the conclusion that Christian belief and worship must be based solely upon the Bible, rather than the decisions of councils and popes. Sola Scriptura, the Bible Only, became the battle cry of the Reformation, resulting in a fundamental shift in the nature of religious authority. Erasmus had a tremendous influence on Huldrych Zwingli, a hitherto unknown priest of Glaurus, one of the smallest cantons in Switzerland. Zwingli's eloquence, education, and insightful sermons were widely acknowledged, and this soon brought him to the attention of the leadership of Zurich, which offered him the position of parish priest. Zwingli readily accepted. From the beginning, Zwingli asserted his independence from Rome. His first sermon in Zurich took place on New Year's Day, 1519 (which, incidently, was also the occasion of his thirty-fifth birthday), and from the pulpit he announced his intention to break with tradition. He would not preach from the text assigned to him from the lectionary; instead, he would be teaching his congregation from the gospel of Matthew, and the following day he began with the first chapter. Within three years he was openly challenging the practices and traditions of Catholicism. Zwingli asserted that the division of Christians into clergy and laity was artificial and an affront to the Biblical doctrine of equity. Indulgences, the veneration of Mary and the Saints, clerical celibacy, fasting, feast days, religious orders, and clerical garments all came under his unrelenting fire. The following year the city council of Zurich renounced its allegience to Rome, and another national reformation was underway. Zwingli immediately set about establishing an academic community in the city of Zurich dedicated to imposing classical literary criticism upon the Old and New Testaments. He soon initiated efforts to establish alliances with the German Reformation, and this led to a meeting with Martin Luther. On the majority of issues, Luther and Zwingli were able to reach agreement. Zwingli, however, insisted on a symbolic interpretation of the Eucharist, steadfastly opposing Luther's doctrine of consubstantiation. This debate, known as the Marburg Colloquy, signified the first important differentiation in Reformation thought. (cf. p. 538) Zwingli envisioned a Protestant Confederation of Europe, and gradually extended his influence throughout Switzerland. Canton after Canton converted to Zwingli's interpretation of the Scriptures. Ultimately, however, his aggressive attempts at conversion resulted in the polarization of Swiss society, and this polarization had the end result of civil war. In an armed conflict with Catholic forces Zwingli was killed. Indicative of the extent of his influence, his body was dismembered, and burned in order to prevent his followers from taking bones or hair as relics. JOHN CALVIN The work of Zwingli in Zurich was the prelude to a much more significant reform movement in the city of Geneva under the leadership of John Calvin. Calvin, a Frenchman, became the intellectual heart of the Reformation. A brilliant scholar with an extensive legal and theological background, Calvin's work was characterized by relentless logic as well as uncompromising devotion. |
In 1536, Calvin published the first edition of the Institutes of the Christian Religion, widely hailed as one of the ten most influential books ever written. The Institutes provided the blueprint for further reformation, and as a result of their influence, Calvin was called to Geneva in 1541 with a mandate to establish a throughly reformed Christian city. Within a few short years, Geneva was a model of Protestant civil government, and its influence was felt throughout Europe. John Knox carried the ideals of Geneva to Scotland and founded the Presbyterian Church. Transplanted to his own native France, the ideas of John Calvin gave rise to the Huguenot movement, and as they worked their way through the Anglican church of Henry VIII, they generated the Puritan movement which transformed society in both England and New England. |
Perhaps most important of all, Calvin sought to instilled dignity in every form of labor. Today, when we speak of vocation, we are recalling Calvinistic concepts, for the very term "vocation" is simply the Latin word for "calling," i.e., one's divinely ordained occupation. This Protestant work ethic would later be widely acknowledged as a fundamental driving force behind the rise of modern Capitalism. THE ENGLISH REFORMATION Unlike the Reform movements on the continent, the English Reformation was motivated by political and personal reasons, rather than sincere questions of religion. Henry VIII was intensely displeased with the fact that his queen, Catherine of Aragon, had failed to produce a male heir to the throne. He appealed to the Pope for an anullment, but Catherine was the aunt of Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor as well as the king of Spain. Should the Pope grant Henry his annullment, he would risk alienating the Emperor, and lose his most powerful ally. The annullment was denied. Henry then decided he would secure his annullment through the English clergy. In 1533, Henry presented his case to Thomas Cranmer, the archbishop of Canterbury, and the head of the highest ecclesiastical court in England. Cranmer responded by declaring Henry's marriage to Catherine "null and absolutely void." The following year Parliament presented Henry with the Act of Supremacy, officially severing England's relationship with Rome and establishing the Anglican Church (known in the United States as the Episcopalian Church) with the sovereign of England at its head. In addition to allowing Henry to re-marry, the Act of Supremacy enabled him to confiscate all properties owned by the Catholic Church in England. By selling these properties, Henry significantly increased the resources of the English Treasury. The later need to further reform the Anglican church would result in the emergence of the Puritan movement, as well as of the Baptist and Methodist Churches. THE CATHOLIC REFORMATION Quite naturally, the Reformation acted as a wake-up call to the Catholic Church. If reform did not occur within the institutions of the Church, it would necessarily be imposed from without. The only problem, however, is that institutions, often with centuries of traditional baggage, accept reform slowly, if at all. The most important step toward reform within Catholicism was the convention of the Council of Trent. Summoned in 1545 by Pope Paul IV, the Council met intermittently for nineteen years, finishing its business in 1563. Though Calvinist and Lutheran representatives were invited to attend, none chose to do so. THE CONSILIAR MOVEMENT From the beginning, the Council was plagued with difficulties. Due to the tense political situation in Europe,Henry II of France and Charles V of Spain both refused to allow their national bishop leave to attend. Additionally, Charles V, as the Holy Roman Emperor, feared that the proceedings of the Council would further alienate his Lutheran subjects in Germany. More important, however, was the impact of the Consiliar Movement. Within the Church hierarchy many of the bishops had developed strong nationalistic tendencies and now believed that the supreme authority in the Catholic Church should be vested in a council of Bishops. Representatives of the Pope, on the other hand, had a more international orientation, and felt that vesting the bishops with such authority would fracture Christian unity still further, creating national Catholic churches. Only by keeping the final ecclesiastic authority in the hands of an elected, internationally acknowledged Pope could such factionalism be prevented. A token compromise was eventually reached, which allowed councils to propose ecclesiastic policy, while maintaining that all such proposals required papal approval before their institution. Though reconciliation with the Protestant factions was not accomplished, many of the Protestant complaints were addressed. The sale of indulgences was forbidden, and the practice of purchasing church offices was brought to an end. Bishops were required to live within their diocese, as well as establish a seminary in each diocese for the education of the priests. OTHER ASPECTS OF THE CATHOLIC REFORMATION NEW CHURCH ORDERS- As a result of the Reformation, the Catholic Church began to place a new emphasis upon education. The Ursuline order of nuns was the first religious order to concentrate exclusively on the education of young women. By far the most significant group to emerge from the Catholic Reformation was the Jesuits, or the Society of Jesus. The Jesuit Order was founded by Ignatius Loyola, a former Spanish soldier. While recuperating from a leg wound Loyola spent his time reading a life of Christ and other religious books. He then spent a year in meditation and prayer, and as a result he decided to give up his military career and become a soldier in the cause of Christ. During this time he also gained the insights necessary to write Spiritual Exercises. This book, intended for study during a four week retreat, was designed to direct the imagination and will towards an intense sense of spiritual piety and duty. Loyola called upon his military service, and organized the Jesuits along military lines. Candidates for the order underwent a two-year initiatory period, in contrast to the single year required by other orders. In addition to the usual monastic vow of poverty, chastity, and obedience, the Jesuits took an additional vow of loyalty to the Pope, making the order something of an intellectual army, well-trained and awaiting its instructions. Jesuits were frequently sought as tudors for the nobility and as advisors to kings. Their intense self discipline and their indifference to physical discomfort and personal safety made them ideal missionaries to adverse climates. Additionally, their unique oath of allegience allowed them to function as the eyes and ears of the Pope, an elaborate and effective spy network. OFFICE OF THE INQUISITION Consisted of six cardinals with the authority to arrest, imprison, torture, and execute. Heresay evidence was adequate. Only effective within Papal States and Spain. LIST OF PROHIBITED BOOKS Venitian book trade RESULTS OF THE REFORMATION New understanding of authority. Ironically, paved the way for the enlightenment. |
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