Applying the Five Habits of Historical Thinking

to Better Understand the ReformationBy Jonathan Burack

Most accounts say he did this by nailing his95 Theses (statements of his views) to the door of the church in Wittenberg.

The Church said an indulgence from the Pope in Rome would release the buyer from certain punishments in the next life for sins committed in this life.

The Pope portrayed as the Antichrist at a sale of

indulgences

In Luther’s view, indulgences were a fraud. He said that the Pope should never claim to be able to do what only God could do.

Interior, Bayeux Cathedral, France Interior, Church of St. Etienne-du-Mont,

Paris, France

“Therefore, watch out for your own false ideas and guard against good-for-nothing gossips, who think they’re smart enough to define faith and works, but really are the greatest of fools. Ask God to work faith in you, or you will remain forever without faith, no matter what you wish, say or can do.”

Martin Luther, from “An Introduction to St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans,” 1522

“The Holy Spirit makes this happen through faith. Because of it, you freely, willingly and joyfully do good to everyone, serve everyone, suffer all kinds of things, love and praise the God who has shown you such grace.”

Martin Luther, from “An Introduction to St. Paul's Letter to the Romans,” 1522

In defiance, Luther publicly burned the papal bull. The Pope excommunicated him on January 3, 1521.

“I stand convinced by the Scriptures to which I have appealed, and my conscience is taken captive by God’s word. I cannot and will not recant anything, for to act against our conscience is neither safe for us, nor open to us.”

Martin Luther, at the Diet of Worms, April 17, 1521

Luther was given a safe hiding place at Wartburg Castle by his prince, the elector Frederick the Wise of Saxony. This is the room in the castle in which Luther stayed.

They wanted more control over that wealth in their own realms. Many of them supported Luther, hoping his reform effort would weaken the Church’s power.

Wartburg Castle, above the town of Eisenach, Germany

Clockwise from left: Philipp Melanchthon, John Calvin, Johannes Bugenhagen,

Gustav II Adolf, Ulrich von Hutten, Ulrich Zwingli, John Hus, and Martin Luther

That’s not an easy question to answer. Historians have been arguing about the Reformation for a long time.

After all, the past itself is gone. All we have to go on is the historical record.

Primary source documents like these are one kind of record. Yet they often leave out as much as they reveal.

Five Habits of Historical Five Habits of Historical ThinkingThinking

• History Is Not the Past Itself• The Detective Model: Problem, Evidence, Interpretation

• Time, Change, and Continuity• Cause and Effect• As They Saw It: Grasping Past Points of View

A Mennonite church (Protestant), Germantown, PA

Lutheran pastor, 1527

Bayeux Cathedral (Catholic), France

““Was the Reformation a Was the Reformation a mere protest mere protest movement, or a full-movement, or a full-scale revolution?”scale revolution?”

Why did the Catholic Church oppose Luther so strongly?Why did Protestantism split into so many mutually hostile sects?Why did many kings and princes back the Reformation?What does the word “revolution” really mean anyway?

“[The peasants] cause uproar and sacrilegiously rob and pillage monasteries and castles that do not belong to them, for which, like public highwaymen and murderers, they deserve the twofold death of body and soul. It is right and lawful to slay at the first opportunity a rebellious person, who is known as such, for he is already under God’s and the emperor’s ban.”

Martin Luther, “Against the Murderous and Robbing

Hordes of the Peasants,” 1525

“Open your eyes! What is the evil brew from which all usury, theft and robbery springs but the assumption of our lords and princes that all creatures are their property? …It is the lords themselves who make the poor man their enemy. If they refuse to do away with the causes of insurrection how can trouble be avoided in the long run? If saying that makes me an inciter to insurrection, so be it!”

Thomas Muntzer, Vindication and Refutation, 1524

“Open your eyes! What is the evil brew from which all usury, theft and robbery springs but the assumption of our lords and princes that all creatures are their property? …It is the lords themselves who make the poor man their enemy. If they refuse to do away with the causes of insurrection how can trouble be avoided in the long run? If saying that makes me an inciter to insurrection, so be it!”

“[The peasants] cause uproar and sacrilegiously rob and pillage monasteries and castles that do not belong to them, for which, like public highwaymen and murderers, they deserve the twofold death of body and soul. It is right and lawful to slay at the first opportunity a rebellious person, who is known as such, for he is already under God’s and the emperor’s ban.”

Kings and nation-states were gaining power over lesser princes. Towns were growing. Moreover, the recently invented printing press made it much easier to spread radical new ideas.

A summary of Luther’s ideas

A massacre of Protestants in France

A Catholic church, France

A Protestant church, England

Page from Gutenberg Bible

“Rising nation-states wantedmore control over their ownreligious institutions.”

“The Church had grown corrupt

andlost touch with ordinary

Christians.”

“A rising middle class wanted a religion

more in tune with its individualistic values.”

“The printing press made it far easierto spread ideas and independent thought.”

Religious & IntellectualSocial, Economic & Political“Rising nation-states wantedmore control over their ownreligious institutions.”

“The Church had grown corrupt and lost touch with ordinary Christians.”

“A rising middle class wanted

a religion more in tune with its individualistic values.”

“The printing press made it far easier to spread ideas and independent thought.”

Five Habits of Historical Five Habits of Historical ThinkingThinking

• History Is Not the Past Itself• The Detective Model: Problem,

Evidence, Interpretation• Time, Change, and Continuity• Cause and Effect• As They Saw It: Grasping

Past Points of View

“Arise, O Lord, and judge thy cause. A wild boar has invaded thy vineyard… We can no longer suffer the serpent to creep through the field of the Lord. The books of Martin Luther which contain these errors are to be examined and burned.”

Pope Leo X, in his bull Exurge Domine condemning Luther’s ideas (1520)

“Therefore there will also unquestionably fall from us the unchristian, devilish weapons of force—such as sword, armor and the like, and all their use [either] for friends or against one’s enemies.”

From the Anabaptist Schleitheim Confession (1527)

“If the fury of the Romanists continue, there seems to me to be no remedy left but that the emperor, kings, and princes, girding on their armour, attack these pests of the earth, and decide the matter, not by words but with the sword.”

Martin Luther, in a reply to Sylvester Prierias (1520)

Tasks ahead:•Interpret several primary sources•Read and debate two secondary sources•Draw your own conclusions about this past episode