The Reformation - An Overview

THE REFORMATIONAn Overview

BACKGROUND TO THE REFORMATION

NORTHERN EUROPE IN THE 1500S

• Northern Europeans had much uncertainty in their lives o Most were poor and life could be violent o Changing economy to urban, market-based economies o Wealth distributed unequally

• With the printing press, Renaissance humanist ideas spread o Return to classical education o Emphasis on social reform

• Used humanist ideas to question the Church

CHURCH ABUSES• Catholic Church increasingly caught up in worldly affairs

o Popes competed with Italian princes for political power o Popes fought wars to protect Papal States against invasions by

secular rulers o Fought to expand own interests

• Popes were leading lavish lives, supported the arts, and hired artists to beautify churches o To finance, Church increased fees for services (marriages,

baptisms, etc.) and some clergy sold indulgences o Indulgence: Pardon for sins committed during a person’s

lifetime

• Many Christians, mainly northern Europeans protested these Church practices

PRE-REFORMATION REVOLTS• John Wycliffe

o 1300s England o Systematic attack on Church o Used sermons and writings to call for change o After death, followers met in secret to keep

Wycliffe’s movement alive

• Jan Hus o Born 40 years after Wycliffe in the current Czech

Republic o Led reform movement o Executed for reform

GERMAN REFORMATION

MARTIN LUTHER• German monk and professor of theology

• Led protest against Catholic Church in 1517 o Near Wittenberg, Germany, Johann Tetzel, a priest, set up

pulpit ▪ Offered indulgences in return for paying money to

rebuild the Cathedral of St. Peter in Rome ▪ Claimed indulgences would assure entry into heaven

for the payer and his dead relatives

• Wrote the 95 Theses in Wittenberg, Germany in response to Tetzel o Arguments against indulgences

▪ Indulgences had no basis in the Bible ▪ Pope had no authority to release souls from purgatory ▪ Christians can only be saved through faith

RESPONSE TO 95 THESES• Copies of Luther’s 95 These printed and distributed across Europe

• Caused debate

• Church asked Luther to recant (give up his views)

• Luther refused – created new doctrines

• Luther urged Christians to reject the authority of Rome • Believed Church could only be reformed by secular (non-Church) authorities

• 1521: Pope Leo X excommunicated Luther

• 1521: Charles V, new Holy Roman emperor, requested Luther at the diet of Worms • Diet = assembly of German princes • Charles V ordered Luther to recant; Luther again refused; Charles V declares Luther

an outcast

LUTHER’S TEACHINGS AND IDEAS• Luther’s Beliefs

o All Christians have equal access to God through faith and the Bible

o Translated parts of Bible into German so ordinary people could read and study it

o Wanted every town to have school for children to learn to read the Bible

o Banned indulgences, confession, pilgrimages, and prayers to saints

o Simplified rituals of mass and focused on sermon

o Allowed clergy to marry

SPREAD OF LUTHERANISM• Luther’s beliefs spread throughout Germany and Scandinavia due to the printing press • By 1530, Lutherans used the term “Protestant” (name for those who protested papal

authority)

• Support of Lutheranism o Some Clergy

▪ saw it as answer to Church corruption o German Princes

▪ Throw off rule of the Church and Holy Roman emperor and chance to seize church propertyin their territories for their own purposes

o Some Germans ▪ Feeling of national loyalty

PEASANTS’ REVOLT• 1524: Revolt Across Germany

o Peasants hoped to gain Luther’s support for social and economic change

o Called for an end of serfdom and demanded other changes in their livelihoods

o Became violent as revolt intensified

o Luther denounced revolt

o Nobles suppressed rebellion with Luther’s support ▪ Tens of thousands of peasants killed ▪ Thousands became homeless

PEACE OF AUGSBURG• 1530s-1540s: Charles V tried forcing German princes back into Catholic Church

• Several brief wars ensued

• 1555 – Peace of Augsburg

o Settlement between Charles V and German princes

o Each prince decided which religion, Catholicism or Lutheranism, would be followed in his land

▪ Lutheranism: most northern German states

▪ Catholicism: southern German states

REFORMATION IN SWITZERLAND

ULRICH ZWINGLI

• Lived in Zurich, Switzerland

• Priest and admirer of Erasmus

• Stressed importance of the Bible and rejected elaborate church rituals

• Ideas were adopted by Zurich’s city council

JOHN CALVIN• Born in France

• Trained as priest and lawyer

• 1536 – Published book about his religious beliefs and explained how to organize and run a Protestant church

• Shared many of Luther’s beliefs; however, had some of his own views o Preached predestination

▪ Idea that God had long ago determined who would gain salvation

o World divided into 2 types of people – saints and sinners

CALVINISM IN SWITZERLAND

• 1541: Protestants in Geneva ask Calvin to lead community

• Calvin sets up a theocracy o Theocracy = government run by church leaders

• Geneva followers consider themselves a “chosen people” entrusted by God to build a truly Christian society o Stressed hard work, discipline, thrift, honesty, and morality o Faced fines or punishments for offenses

• Many Protestants viewed Geneva as a model community o Late 1500s, Calvinism spreads to Germany, France, the

Netherlands, England, and Scotland

SPREAD OF CALVINISM

• Causes bloody wars of religion across Europe

o Germany: Catholics and Lutherans opposed Calvinists

o France: War raged between French Calvinists and Catholics

o Netherlands: Calvinists preached in countryside to avoid persecution

o England: Some Calvinists sailed to the America in early 1600s to escape persecution

o Scotland: Religious rebellion let by John Knox, Calvinist preacher, that eventually overthrew the Catholic queen

ANABAPTISTS

IDEAS OF ANABAPTISTS• Rejected infant baptism

o Argued infants were to you to understand meaning of accepting the Christian faith

• Some sought radical social changes o Abolish private property o Speed up the coming of God’s day of

judgment by violent means

• Took over Munster, Germany o Luther advised his supporters to join

Catholics in suppressing the Anabaptists ▪ Seen as threat on traditional order

• Most Anabaptists were peaceful o Called for religious toleration and

separation of church and state

• Baptists, Mennonites, and Amish trace religious ancestry to the Anabaptists

ENGLISH REFORMATION

HENRY VIII• King of England

• Originally against Protestant revolt o Pope gave him title, “Defender of the Faith,” for writing a

pamphlet denouncing Luther

• Married 18 years to Catherine of Aragon and had one child, Mary Tudor

• Believed stability of England depended on him having a male heir o In love with Anne Boleyn, a servant to the Queen o Thought if he could divorce the Queen and marry Anne, he

may be able to have a male heir

• 1527: Henry VIII asks Pope to annul (cancel) his marriage to Catherine of Aragon

o Pope refuses request because he did not want to offend Charles V, Holy Roman emperor, and nephew to Catherine of Aragon

CHURCH OF ENGLAND• With no annulment from the Pope, Henry VIII took over the English church

• Guided by his chancellor, Thomas Cromwell, he had Parliament pass a series of laws o English church came under Henry VIII’s rule, no longer under the pope’s control

• Appointed Thomas Cranmer as first archbishop of the new church o Annuls king’s marriage and in 1533 Henry VIII marries Anne Boleyn

• 1533: Anne Boleyn gives birth to daughter, Elizabeth

• 1534: Act of Supremacy passed by Parliament o Henry became “the only supreme head on Earth of the Church of England”

• Many Catholics refused to accept Act of Supremacy o Executed for treason

▪ Sir Thomas More, great English humanist and served in Henry’s government, tried to resign in protest of Act ❖ Catholic Church later canonized him (recognized as a saint)

CHURCH OF ENGLAND

• 1536 – 1540: Royal officials investigate Catholic convents and monasteries o Henry VIII orders them closed as they are “centers of immorality” and

seizes their land and wealth • Henry VIII gives some of the new land to nobles and high-ranking citizens

o Secures their support for the Anglican Church (new name of the Church of England)

• Anglican Church most similar to the Catholic Church o Henry VIII not religious radical and reject most Protestant doctrine o He kept most Catholic forms of worship o Difference from Catholic Church: 1) broke away from Rome and 2)

allowed use of English Bible

EDWARD VI• 1547: Henry VIII dies

• One surviving male heir – Edward – becomes king of England at age 9

• Edward VI and advisors were devout Protestants

• Take steps to make England a Protestant country o Parliament passed new laws bringing Protestant reform

to England o Thomas Cramner – writes Book of Common Prayers – required

reading in all church services in country o Sparked uprisings; however, they were quickly suppressed

MARY I

• Edward VI dies as a teenager and his half-sister, Mary Tudor, becomes Queen

• Mary I determined to bring Catholicism back to England

• Under her rule, hundreds of English Protestants, including Archbishop Thomas Cramner, are burned at the stake for heresy

ELIZABETH I• 1558 – Mary I dies

• Throne passed to Elizabeth, daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn

• Determined the future of the Church of England

• Enforced series of reforms called the Elizabethan settlement o Policies were a compromise between Protestant and Catholic practices

▪ Church of England preserved much Catholic ritual and kept hierarchy of bishops and archbishops

▪ Monarch was “supreme governor” over spiritual matters in England ▪ Restored version of Common Book of Prayers, accepted moderate

Protestant doctrine, and allowed English to replace Latin in church services

• Compromises accepted by both Catholics and Protestants and ended the religious turmoil • England became a Protestant nation while keeping many Catholic

traditions

CATHOLIC REFORMATION(COUNTER-REFORMATION)

GIROLAMO SAVONAROLA• A Monk • One of first reformers of to try to change Catholic church

from withing • Late 1400s, preached fiery sermons against abuses of the

church • Called for the church to melt down gold and silver

ornaments to buy bread for the hungry and poor members of the church

• Convinced people to gather and burn their own jewelry and trinkets o Fire knows as the “bonfire of vanities”

• Pope Alexander eventually excommunicated him for spreading ideas the Pope thought were dangerous

• 1498 – executed in Florence

Society of Jesus• Most influential new religious order to reform church • Also known as the Jesuit order • Founded in 1534 by Ignatius of Loyola

o Basque nobleman and former soldier o Father General of the order

▪ Ran Jesuits like a military organization ▪ Emphasized obedience to church above all

• 1539 – Pope approves order • Jesuits concentrated on education as means of combating

the Protestant Reformation o Established missions, schools, and universities

• With Jesuits’ effective organization, Catholic Church began to regain ground against Reformation

COUNCIL OF TRENT• Pope Paul III convened Council of Trent in 1545

o Need to redefine the doctrines of the Catholic faith o Led by Italian cardinal Carlo Borromeo

• Series of reforms addressed the corruption of the clergy o Training of priests was regulated o Financial abuse was curbed o The sale of indulgences was abolished

• Declared salvation comes through faith and good works

• Stated the Bible is a major source of religious truth but isn’t the only source

• Council met on and off until 1563 Pope Paul III

COUNCIL OF TRENT

• Pronouncements of Council of Trent meant there would be no compromise between Catholicism and Protestantism

• The council's bold action was a great boost to Catholicism

• Austria, Poland, and other parts of Europe returned to the Catholic Church. 

• Catholics felt renewed energy and confidence

THE INQUISITION

• Pope strengthened Inquisition to fight Protestantism • Inquisition = Church court set up during Middle Ages

• Used secret testimony, torture, and execution to root out heresy

• Prepares the Index of Forbidden Books • List of works considered too immoral or irreligious for

Catholics to read • Included works by Luther and Calvin as well as earlier

works by Petrarch and other humanists

SPREAD OF CATHOLICISM

• Jesuits used renewed spirit to expand scope of church

• By 1700, they operated 669 colleges in Italy, Germany, and other places

• Many future leaders were educated in Jesuit schools o Order would have some influence over political

affairs • Worked in India, Japan, China, and other places

• Gained and passed along information about the cultures of other lands

RELIGION IN EUROPE