Protestant Reformation

Protestant Reformation
Precursors
Waldensians (12th century) Avignon Papacy (1309–77) John Wycliffe (1320–84) Western Schism (1378–1417) Jan Hus (c.1369–1415) Hussite Wars (1420–c.1434) Northern Renaissance German mysticism
Start of the Reformation
95 Theses · German Peasants' War · Schmalkaldic League · Magisterials · Radicals · Counter-Reformation
Reformers
Luther · Melanchthon · Müntzer · Simons · Bucer · Olaus / Laurentius Petri · Zwingli · Berquin · Calvin · Knox · Trubar
By location
Czech lands · Denmark–Norway / Holstein · England · Germany · Italy · Netherlands · Poland-Lithuania · Scotland · Sweden · France · Switzerland
Protestantism
v t e

The Protestant Reformation was the schism within Western Christianity initiated by Martin Luther, John Calvin, and other early Protestants. Although there had been significant attempts at reform before Luther (notably those of John Wycliffe and Jan Huss), the date most usually given for the start of the Protestant Reformation is 1517, when Luther published The Ninety-Five Theses, and for its conclusion in 1648 with the Peace of Westphalia that ended the European wars of religion.^[1] Luther started by criticising the relatively recent practice of selling indulgences, but the debate widened until it touched on many of the doctrines and devotional practices of the Catholic Church.

It led to the creation of new national Protestant churches. The largest of the new churches groupings were the Lutherans (mostly in Germany, the Baltics and Scandinavia) and the Reformed churches (mostly in Germany, France, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Scotland). It also influenced the Church of England decisively after 1547 under Edward VI and Elizabeth I although the national church had been made independent under Henry VIII in the early 1530s for political rather than religious reasons. There were many smaller bodies such as the Free Christians, as well.

Although the core motivation behind these changes was theological, many other factors played a part, including the Western Schism which eroded people's faith in the Papacy, the corruption of the Curia, the new learning of the Renaissance which questioned much traditional thought, the rise of nationalism. On a technological level the invention of the printing press proved extremely significant in that it provided the means for the rapid dissemination of new ideas.

The Roman Catholic Church responded with a Counter-Reformation initiated by the Council of Trent and spearheaded by the new order of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) specifically organised to counter the Protestant movement. In general, Northern Europe, with the exception of most of Ireland, turned Protestant. Southern Europe remained Roman Catholic, while Central Europe was a site of fierce conflict, escalating to full-scale war.

Religious situation in Europe

The Reformation began as an attempt to reform the Roman Catholic Church, by priests who opposed what they perceived as false doctrines and ecclesiastic malpractice—especially the teaching and the sale of indulgences or the abuses thereof, and simony, the selling and buying of clerical offices—that the reformers saw as evidence of the systemic corruption of the Church's Roman Catholic Church hierarchy, which included the Pope.

In Germany, reformation ideals developed in 1517-1521 when Martin Luther expressed doubts over the legitimacy of indulgences and the plenitudo potestatis of the pope.

Martin Luther's spiritual predecessors included John Wycliffe and Jan Hus, who likewise had attempted to reform the Roman Catholic Church. The Reformation is often dated to 31 October 1517, All Hallows' Eve, in Wittenberg, Saxony, where Luther nailed his Ninety-Five Theses on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences to the door of the Castle Church. The theses debated and criticised the Church and the Pope, but concentrated upon the selling of indulgences and doctrinal policies about purgatory, particular judgment, and the authority of the Pope. He would later in the period 1517-1521 write works on the Catholic devotion to Mary, the intercession of and devotion to the saints, the sacraments, mandatory clerical celibacy, monasticism, further on the authority of the Pope, the ecclesiastical Ban (Law), Censure and Excommunication, the prerogatives of secular rulers in religious matters, the relationship between Christianity and the Law, Good Works, and the sacraments. In the event, other religious reformers, such as Ulrich Zwingli, soon followed Martin Luther's example.

The reformers soon disagreed among themselves and divided their movement according to doctrinal differences—first between Luther and Zwingli, later between Luther and John Calvin—resulting in the establishment of different and rival Denominations, such as the Lutheran, the Reformed, the Puritans, and the Presbyterian. Elsewhere, the religious reformation causes, processes, and effects were different; Anglicanism arose in England with the English Reformation, and most Protestant denominations derive from the Germanic denominations. The reformers also accelerated the development of the Counter-Reformation by the Catholic Church.

History and origins

Protestant churches, such as the Unitas Fratrum (Unity of the Brethren), Moravian Church (Bohemian Brethren) date their origins to Jan Hus in the early 15th century. As it was led by a Bohemian noble majority, and recognised, for a time, by the Basel Compacts, the Hussite Reformation was Europe's first "Magisterial Reformation" because the ruling magistrates supported them; unlike the "Radical Reformation", which the State did not support. One hundred years later, in Germany the protests erupted simultaneously, whilst under threat of Islamic Ottoman invasion ¹, which especially distracted the German princes responsible for military defence. Mainline Protestants generally date their doctrinal separation from the Roman Catholic Church to the 16th century.

Earlier schisms

Unrest due to the Great Schism of Western Christianity (1378–1416) excited wars between princes, uprisings among the peasants, and widespread concern over corruption in the church. New perspectives came from John Wycliffe at Oxford University, then from Jan Hus at the University of Prague. Hus objected to some of the practices of the Roman Catholic Church and wanted to return the church in Bohemia and Moravia to early Byzantine-inspired practices: liturgy in the language of the people (i.e. Czech), having lay people receive communion in both kinds (bread and wine - that is, in Latin, communio sub utraque specie), married priests, and eliminating indulgences and the idea of Purgatory. Hus rejected indulgences and adopted a doctrine of justification by grace through faith alone. The Roman Catholic Church officially concluded this debate at the Council of Constance (1414–1417). The conclave condemned Hus, who was executed by burning in spite of a promise of safe-conduct. Wycliffe was posthumously burned as a heretic.^[2]

The Council of Constance confirmed and strengthened the traditional medieval conception of church and empire. It did not address the national tensions, or the theological tensions stirred up during the previous century. The council could not prevent schism and the Hussite Wars in Bohemia.^[3]

Sixtus IV (1471–1484) established the practice of selling indulgences to be applied to the dead, thereby establishing a new stream of revenue with agents across Europe.^[4] Pope Alexander VI (1492–1503) was one of the most controversial of the Renaissance Popes. He fathered seven children, including Lucrezia and Cesare Borgia, by at least two mistresses.^[5] Fourteen years after his death, the corruption of the papacy that Pope Alexander VI exemplified—particularly the sale of indulgences—prompted Luther to write The Ninety-Five Theses, which he nailed to the door of a church at Wittenberg in Saxony.

16th century

The protests against the corruption emanating from Rome began in earnest when Luther, an Augustinian monk at the university of Wittenberg, called in 1517 for a reopening of the debate on the sale of indulgences and the authority to absolve sin and remit one from purgatory. The Reformation was born of Luther's dual declaration – first, the discovering of Jesus and salvation by faith alone; and second, identifying the Papacy as the Antichrist. The reformers were unanimous in agreement and this understanding of prophecy furnished importance to their deeds. It was the rallying point and the battle cry that made the Reformation nearly unassailable.^[6] The Reformers made heavy use of inexpensive pamphlets (using the relatively new printing press invented by Johannes Gutenberg) so there was swift movement of both ideas and documents, including The Ninety-Five Theses.

Parallel to events in Germany, a movement began in Switzerland under the leadership of Ulrich Zwingli. These two movements quickly agreed on most issues, but some unresolved differences kept them separate. Some followers of Zwingli believed that the Reformation was too conservative, and moved independently toward more radical positions, some of which survive among modern day Anabaptists. Other Protestant movements grew up along lines of mysticism or humanism, sometimes breaking from Rome or from the Protestants, or forming outside of the churches.

After this first stage of the Reformation, following the excommunication of Luther and condemnation of the Reformation by the Pope, the work and writings of John Calvin were influential in establishing a loose consensus among various groups in Switzerland, Scotland, Hungary, Germany and elsewhere.

The Reformation foundations engaged with Augustinianism. Both Luther and Calvin thought along lines linked with the theological teachings of Augustine of Hippo. The Augustinianism of the Reformers struggled against Pelagianism, a heresy that they perceived in the Roman Catholic Church of their day. In the course of this religious upheaval, the German Peasants' War of 1524–1525 swept through the Bavarian, Thuringian and Swabian principalities, including the Black Company of Florian Geier, a knight from Giebelstadt who joined the peasants in the general outrage against the Roman Catholic hierarchy. Luther, however, condemned the revolt, thus contributing to its eventual defeat. Some 100,000 peasants were killed.^[7]

Even though Luther and Calvin had very similar theological teachings, the relationship between their followers turned quickly to conflict. Frenchman Michel de Montaigne told a story of a Lutheran pastor who declared over dinner that he would rather hear a hundred masses than take part in one of Calvin's sacraments.^[8][9]

The political separation of the Church of England from Rome under Henry VIII, beginning in 1529 and completed in 1536, brought England alongside this broad Reformed movement. However, religious changes in the English national church proceeded more conservatively than elsewhere in Europe. Reformers in the Church of England accepted Protestant doctrine but the structure of the church ministry remained, and the Church alternated, for centuries, between sympathies for older traditions and radical Protestantism represented by the puritans, progressively forging a compromise between adherence to ancient tradition and Protestantism. In the Victorian period John Henry Newman reinterpreted this as the establishment of a via media.

Literacy

The Reformation was a triumph of literacy and the new printing press.^[10] Luther's translation of the Bible into German was a decisive moment in the spread of literacy, and stimulated as well the printing and distribution of religious books and pamphlets. From 1517 onward, religious pamphlets flooded Germany and much of Europe.^[11]

By 1530, over 10,000 publications are known, with a total of ten million copies. The Reformation was thus a media revolution. Luther strengthened his attacks on Rome by depicting a "good" against "bad" church. From there, it became clear that print could be used for propaganda in the Reformation for particular agendas. Reform writers used pre-Reformation styles, clichés, and stereotypes and changed items as needed for their own purposes.^[11] Especially effective were writings in German, including Luther's translation of the Bible, his Small Catechism for parents teaching their children, and his Larger Catechism, for pastors.^[12]

Using the German vernacular they expressed the Apostles' Creed in simpler, more personal, Trinitarian language. Illustrations in the German Bible and in many tracts popularised Luther's ideas. Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472–1553), the great painter patronised by the electors of Wittenberg, was a close friend of Luther, and illustrated Luther's theology for a popular audience. He dramatised Luther's views on the relationship between the Old and New Testaments, while remaining mindful of Luther's careful distinctions about proper and improper uses of visual imagery.^[13]

Reformation outside Germany

Switzerland

Zwingli

Parallel to events in Germany, a movement began in the Swiss Confederation under the leadership of Huldrych Zwingli. Zwingli was a scholar and preacher who moved to Zurich – the then-leading city state – in 1518, a year after Martin Luther began the Reformation in Germany with his 95 Theses. Although the two movements agreed on many issues of theology, as the recently introduced printing press spread ideas rapidly from place to place, some unresolved differences kept them separate. A long-standing resentment between the German states and the Swiss Confederation led to heated debate over how much Zwingli owed his ideas to Lutheranism. Although Zwinglianism does hold uncanny resemblance to Lutheranism (it even had its own equivalent of the 95 Theses, called the 67 Conclusions), historians have been unable to prove that Zwingli had any contact with Luther's publications before 1520, and Zwingli himself maintained that he had prevented himself from reading them. The German Prince Philip of Hesse saw potential in creating an alliance between Zwingli and Luther, seeing strength in a united Protestant front. A meeting was held in his castle in 1529, now known as the Colloquy of Marburg, which has become infamous for its complete failure. The two men could not come to any agreement due to their disputation over one key doctrine. Although Luther preached consubstantiation in the Eucharist over transubstantiation, he believed in the spiritual presence of Christ at the mass. Zwingli believed that the mass was only representative and memorial – Christ was not present. Luther became so angry that he famously carved into the meeting table 'Hoc Est Corpus Meum' – a Biblical quotation from the Last Supper meaning 'this is my body'. Some followers of Zwingli believed that the Reformation was too conservative, and moved independently toward more radical positions, some of which survive among modern day Anabaptists. One famous incident illustrating this was when radical Zwinglians fried and ate sausages during Lent in Zurich city square by way of protest against the Church teaching of good works. Other Protestant movements grew up along lines of mysticism or humanism (cf. Erasmus), sometimes breaking from Rome or from the Protestants, or forming outside of the churches.

John Calvin

Following the excommunication of Luther and condemnation of the Reformation by the Pope, the work and writings of John Calvin were influential in establishing a loose consensus among various groups in Switzerland, Scotland, Hungary, Germany and elsewhere. After the expulsion of its Bishop in 1526, and the unsuccessful attempts of the Berne reformer Guillaume (William) Farel, Calvin was asked to use the organisational skill he had gathered as a student of law to discipline the 'fallen city' of Geneva. His 'Ordinances' of 1541 involved a collaboration of Church affairs with the City council and consistory to bring morality to all areas of life. After the establishment of the Geneva academy in 1559, Geneva became the unofficial capital of the Protestant movement, providing refuge for Protestant exiles from all over Europe and educating them as Calvinist missionaries. These missionaries dispersed Calvinism widely, and formed the French Huguenots in Calvin's own lifetime, as well as causing the conversion of Scotland under the leadership of the cantankerous John Knox in 1560.^[14] The faith continued to spread after Calvin's death in 1563 and reached as far as Constantinople by the start of the 17th century.

The Reformation foundations engaged with Augustinianism. Both Luther and Calvin thought along lines linked with the theological teachings of Augustine of Hippo. The Augustinianism of the Reformers struggled against Pelagianism, a heresy that they perceived in the Roman Catholic Church of their day. Unfortunately, since Calvin and Luther disagreed strongly on certain matters of theology (such as double-predestination and Holy Communion), the relationship between Lutherans and Calvinists was one of conflict.

Scandinavia

See also: Reformation in Denmark-Norway and Holstein, Reformation in Iceland, Reformation in Norway, Reformation in Sweden

All of Scandinavia ultimately adopted Lutheranism over the course of the 16th century, as the monarchs of Denmark (who also ruled Norway and Iceland) and Sweden (who also ruled Finland) converted to that faith.

In Sweden, the Reformation was spearheaded by Gustav Vasa, elected king in 1523. Friction with the pope over the latter's interference in Swedish ecclesiastical affairs led to the discontinuance of any official connection between Sweden and the papacy from 1523.^[15] Four years later, at the Diet of Västerås, the king succeeded in forcing the diet to accept his dominion over the national church. The king was given possession of all church property, church appointments required royal approval, the clergy were subject to the civil law, and the "pure Word of God" was to be preached in the churches and taught in the schools—effectively granting official sanction to Lutheran ideas.^[15]

Under the reign of Frederick I (1523–33), Denmark remained officially Roman Catholic. But though Frederick initially pledged to persecute Lutherans, he soon adopted a policy of protecting Lutheran preachers and reformers, of whom the most famous was Hans Tausen.^[15] During his reign, Lutheranism made significant inroads among the Danish population. Frederick's son, Christian, was openly Lutheran, which prevented his election to the throne upon his father's death. In 1536, the authority of the Roman Catholic bishops was terminated by national assembly.^[16] The next year, following his victory in the Count's War, he became king as Christian III and continued the reformation of the state church with assistance of Johannes Bugenhagen.

England

Church of England

The separation of the Church of England (or Anglican Church) from Rome under Henry VIII, beginning in 1529 and completed in 1537, brought England alongside this broad Reformation movement; however, religious changes in the English national church proceeded more conservatively than elsewhere in Europe. Reformers in the Church of England alternated, for centuries, between sympathies for ancient Catholic tradition and more Reformed principles, gradually developing into a tradition considered a middle way (via media) between the Roman Catholic and Protestant traditions.

The English Reformation followed a different course from the Reformation in continental Europe. There had long been a strong strain of anti-clericalism and England had already given rise to the Lollard movement of John Wycliffe, which played an important part in inspiring the Hussites in Bohemia. Lollardy was suppressed and became an underground movement, so the extent of its influence in the 1520s is difficult to assess. The different character of the English Reformation came rather from the fact that it was driven initially by the political necessities of Henry VIII.

Henry had once been a sincere Roman Catholic and had even authored a book strongly criticising Luther, but he later found it expedient and profitable to break with the Papacy. His wife, Catherine of Aragon, bore him only a single child that survived infancy, Mary. As England had recently gone through a lengthy dynastic conflict (see Wars of the Roses), Henry feared that his lack of a male heir might jeopardise his descendants' claim to the throne. However, Pope Clement VII, concentrating more on Charles V's sack of Rome, denied his request for an annulment. Had Clement granted the annulment and therefore admitted that his predecessor, Julius II, had erred, Clement would have given support to the Lutheran assertion that Popes replaced their own judgment for the will of God.^{[citation needed]}

King Henry decided to remove the Church of England from the authority of Rome. In 1534, the Act of Supremacy made Henry the Supreme Head of the Church of England. Between 1535 and 1540, under Thomas Cromwell, the policy known as the Dissolution of the Monasteries was put into effect. The veneration of some saints, certain pilgrimages and some pilgrim shrines were also attacked. Huge amounts of church land and property passed into the hands of the Crown and ultimately into those of the nobility and gentry. The vested interest thus created made for a powerful force in support of the dissolutions.

There were some notable opponents to the Henrician Reformation, such as St. Thomas More and Bishop St. John Fisher, who were executed for their opposition. There was also a growing party of reformers who were imbued with the Zwinglian and Calvinistic doctrines now current on the Continent. When Henry died he was succeeded by his Protestant son Edward VI, who, through his empowered councillors (with the King being only nine years old at his succession and not yet sixteen at his death) the Duke of Somerset and the Duke of Northumberland, ordered the destruction of images in churches, and the closing of the chantries. Under Edward VI the reform of the Church of England was established unequivocally in doctrinal terms.

Yet, at a popular level, religion in England was still in a state of flux. Following a brief Roman Catholic restoration during the reign of Mary 1553–1558, a loose consensus developed during the reign of Elizabeth I, though this point is one of considerable debate among historians. Yet it is this "Elizabethan Religious Settlement" which largely formed Anglicanism into a distinctive church tradition. The compromise was uneasy and was capable of veering between extreme Calvinism on the one hand and Roman Catholicism on the other, but compared to the bloody and chaotic state of affairs in contemporary France, it was relatively successful until the Puritan Revolution or English Civil War in the 17th century.

Puritan movement

The success of the Counter-Reformation on the Continent and the growth of a Puritan party dedicated to further Protestant reform polarised the Elizabethan Age, although it was not until the '40s that England underwent religious strife comparable to what its neighbours had suffered some generations before.

The early Puritan movement (late 16th–17th centuries) was Reformed or Calvinist and was a movement for reform in the Church of England. Its origins lay in the discontent with the Elizabethan Religious Settlement. The desire was for the Church of England to resemble more closely the Protestant churches of Europe, especially Geneva. The Puritans objected to ornaments and ritual in the churches as idolatrous (vestments, surplices, organs, genuflection), which they castigated as "popish pomp and rags". (See Vestments controversy.) They also objected to ecclesiastical courts. They refused to endorse completely all of the ritual directions and formulas of the Book of Common Prayer; the imposition of its liturgical order by legal force and inspection sharpened Puritanism into a definite opposition movement.

The later Puritan movement were often referred to as dissenters and nonconformists and eventually led to the formation of various reformed denominations.

The most famous and well-known emigration to America was the migration of the Puritan separatists from the Anglican Church of England, who fled first to Holland, and then later to America, to establish the English colony of Massachusetts in New England, which later became one of the original United States.

These Puritan separatists were also known as "the Pilgrims". After establishing a colony at Plymouth (which became part of the colony of Massachusetts) in 1620, the Puritan pilgrims received a charter from the King of England that legitimised their colony, allowing them to do trade and commerce with merchants in England, in accordance with the principles of mercantilism. This successful, though initially quite difficult, colony marked the beginning of the Protestant presence in America (the earlier French, Spanish and Portuguese settlements had been Roman Catholic), and became a kind of oasis of spiritual and economic freedom, to which persecuted Protestants and other minorities from the British Isles and Europe (and later, from all over the world) fled to for peace, freedom and opportunity. The Pilgrims of New England disapproved of Christmas and celebration was outlawed in Boston from 1659 to 1681. The ban was revoked in 1681 by Sir Edmund Andros, who also revoked a Puritan ban against festivities on Saturday night. Despite the removal of the ban, it wouldn't be until the middle of the 19th century that Christmas would become a popular holiday in the Boston region.^[17]

The original intent of the colonists was to establish spiritual Puritanism, which had been denied to them in England and the rest of Europe, to engage in peaceful commerce with England and the native American Indians, and to Christianize the peoples of the Americas.

Scotland

The Reformation in Scotland's case culminated ecclesiastically in the establishment of a church along reformed lines, and politically in the triumph of English influence over that of France. John Knox is regarded as the leader of the Scottish reformation

The Reformation Parliament of 1560 repudiated the pope's authority by the Papal Jurisdiction Act 1560, forbade the celebration of the mass and approved a Protestant Confession of Faith. It was made possible by a revolution against French hegemony under the regime of the regent Mary of Guise, who had governed Scotland in the name of her absent daughter Mary, Queen of Scots (then also Queen of France).

The Scottish reformation decisively shaped the Church of Scotland^[18] and, through it, all other Presbyterian churches worldwide.

A spiritual revival also broke out among Roman Catholics soon after Martin Luther's actions, and led to the Scottish Covenanters' movement, the precursor to Scottish Presbyterianism. This movement spread, and greatly influenced the formation of Puritanism among the Anglican Church in England. The Scottish covenanters were persecuted by the Roman Catholic Church. This persecution by the Catholics drove some of the Protestant covenanter leadership out of Scotland, and into France and later, Switzerland.

France

Protestantism also spread into France, where the Protestants were nicknamed Huguenots, and this eventually led to decades of civil warfare.

Though he was not personally interested in religious reform, Francis I (1515–47) initially maintained an attitude of tolerance, arising from his interest in the humanist movement. This changed in 1534 with the Affair of the Placards. In this act, Protestants denounced the Catholic Mass in placards that appeared across France, even reaching the royal apartments. The issue of religious faith having been thrown into the arena of politics, Francis was prompted to view the movement as a threat to the kingdom's stability. This led to the first major phase of anti-Protestant persecution in France, in which the Chambre Ardente ("Burning Chamber") was established within the Parlement of Paris to deal with the rise in prosecutions for heresy. Several thousand French Protestants fled the country during this time, most notably John Calvin, who settled in Geneva.

Calvin continued to take an interest in the religious affairs of his native land and, from his base in Geneva, beyond the reach of the French king, regularly trained pastors to lead congregations in France. Despite heavy persecution by Henry II, the Reformed Church of France, largely Calvinist in direction, made steady progress across large sections of the nation, in the urban bourgeoisie and parts of the aristocracy, appealing to people alienated by the obduracy and the complacency of the Catholic establishment.

French Protestantism, though its appeal increased under persecution, came to acquire a distinctly political character, made all the more obvious by the noble conversions of the 1550s. This had the effect of creating the preconditions for a series of destructive and intermittent conflicts, known as the Wars of Religion. The civil wars were helped along by the sudden death of Henry II in 1559, which began a prolonged period of weakness for the French crown. Atrocity and outrage became the defining characteristic of the time, illustrated at its most intense in the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre of August 1572, when the Roman Catholic party annihilated between 30,000 and 100,000 Huguenots across France.^[19] The wars only concluded when Henry IV, himself a former Huguenot, issued the Edict of Nantes, promising official toleration of the Protestant minority, but under highly restricted conditions. Roman Catholicism remained the official state religion, and the fortunes of French Protestants gradually declined over the next century, culminating in Louis XIV's Edict of Fontainebleau—which revoked the Edict of Nantes and made Roman Catholicism the sole legal religion of France. In response to the Edict of Fontainebleau, Frederick William I, Elector of Brandenburg declared the Edict of Potsdam, giving free passage to Huguenot refugees, and tax-free status to them for ten years.

In the late 17th century, many Huguenots fled to England, the Netherlands, Prussia, Switzerland, and the English and Dutch overseas colonies. A significant community in France remained in the Cévennes region. A separate Protestant community, of the Lutheran faith, existed in the newly conquered province of Alsace, its status not affected by the Edict of Fontainebleau.

Netherlands

The Reformation in the Netherlands, unlike in many other countries, was not initiated by the rulers of the Seventeen Provinces, but instead by multiple popular movements, which in turn were bolstered by the arrival of Protestant refugees from other parts of the continent. While the Anabaptist movement enjoyed popularity in the region in the early decades of the Reformation, Calvinism, in the form of the Dutch Reformed Church, became the dominant Protestant faith in the country from the 1560s onward.

Harsh persecution of Protestants by the Spanish government of Philip II contributed to a desire for independence in the provinces, which led to the Eighty Years' War and eventually, the separation of the largely Protestant Dutch Republic from the Roman Catholic-dominated Southern Netherlands (present-day Belgium).

Hungary

Much of the population of the Kingdom of Hungary adopted Protestantism during the 16th century. After the 1526 Battle of Mohács, the Hungarian people were disillusioned by the ability of the government to protect them and turned to the faith they felt would infuse them with the strength necessary to resist the invader.^{[citation needed]} They found this in the teaching of the Protestant reformers such as Martin Luther. The spread of Protestantism in the country was aided by its large ethnic German minority, which could understand and translate the writings of Martin Luther. While Lutheranism gained a foothold among the German- and Slovak-speaking populations, Calvinism became widely accepted among ethnic Hungarians.^[20]

In the more independent northwest the rulers and priests, protected now by the Habsburg Monarchy, which had taken the field to fight the Turks, defended the old Roman Catholic faith. They dragged the Protestants to prison and the stake wherever they could. Such strong measures only fanned the flames of protest, however.^{[citation needed]} Leaders of the Protestants included Matthias Biro Devai, Michael Sztarai, and Stephen Kis Szegedi.

Protestants likely formed a majority of Hungary's population at the close of the 16th century, but Counter-Reformation efforts in the 17th century reconverted a majority of the kingdom to Roman Catholicism.^[21] A significant Protestant minority remained, most of it adhering to the Calvinist faith.

In 1558 the Transylvanian Diet of Turda declared free practice of both the Catholic and Lutheran religions, but prohibited Calvinism. Ten years later, in 1568, the Diet extended this freedom, declaring that "It is not allowed to anybody to intimidate anybody with captivity or expelling for his religion". Four religions (Unitarianism became official in 1583, following the faith of the only Unitarian King John II Sigismund Zápolya 1541-1571) were declared as accepted (recepta) religions, while Orthodox Christianity was "tolerated" (though the building of stone Orthodox churches was forbidden). During the Thirty Years' War, Royal (Habsburg) Hungary joined the Roman Catholic side, until Transylvania joined the Protestant side.

There were a series of other successful and unsuccessful anti-Habsburg (requiring equal rights and freedom for all Christian religions) uprisings between 1604 and 1711; the uprisings were usually organised from Transylvania. The constrained Habsburg Counter-Reformation efforts in the 17th century reconverted the majority of the kingdom to Roman Catholicism.

Ireland

The Reformation in Ireland was a movement for the reform of religious life and institutions that was introduced into Ireland by the English administration at the behest of King Henry VIII of England. His desire for an annulment of his marriage was known as the King's Great Matter. Ultimately Pope Clement VII refused the petition; consequently it became necessary for the King to assert his lordship over the Roman Catholic Church in his realm to give legal effect to his wishes. The English Parliament confirmed the King's supremacy over the Church in the Kingdom of England. This challenge to Papal supremacy resulted in a breach with the Roman Catholic Church. By 1541, the Irish Parliament had agreed to the change in status of the country from that of a Lordship to that of Kingdom of Ireland.

Unlike similar movements for religious reform on the continent of Europe, the various phases of the English Reformation as it developed in Ireland were largely driven by changes in government policy, to which public opinion in England gradually accommodated itself. However, a number of factors complicated the adoption of the religious innovations in Ireland; the majority of the population there adhered to the Roman Catholic Church. However in the city of Dublin the reformation took hold under the auspices of George Browne (Archbishop of Dublin).

Italy

The Reformation spread to the Italian states in the 1520s, and quickly collapsed at the beginning of the 17th century. Its development was hindered by the Inquisition and also popular disdain.^[22] In Italy the Reformation exerted almost no lasting influence, except for strengthening the Roman Catholic Church, unlike the essential impact it had on other European countries (Switzerland, Germany, Bohemia, Hungary, and Transylvania among others).^{[citation needed]} Many Italians were outstanding activists of the European Reformation, mainly in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (e.g. Giorgio Biandrata, Bernardino Ochino, Giovanni Alciato, Giovanni Battista Cetis, Fausto Sozzini, Francesco Stancaro and Giovanni Valentino Gentile) who propagated Nontrinitarianism there and were chief instigators of the movement of Polish Brethren.^{[citation needed]}

In 1532 the Waldensians adhered to the Reformation, adopting the Calvinist theology. So, their Church, survived in the Western Alps through many persecutions, has been for centuries the only Protestant Church in Italy.

In Italy the Biblical Unitarian Movement powered by the ideas of Sozzini and others^[23] is represented today by the churches associated with the Christian Church in Italy.^[24] This Movement in Italy claims a strong Christian and biblical soul. From the analysis of documents that you can find on the official site of the CCI,^[25][26] it is clear that the doctrinal position of this Christian confession of faith is therefore akin to the so-called Biblical Unitarian movement^[27][28][29] and on the other hand, far from that of Unitarian Universalist Association who, although they have the same origin in 1500 AD, through the centuries have suffered the influence of many non-biblical ideas (cf. Universalism). The Christian Church in Italy has significant similarities with the Biblical Unitarian movement, although it maintains a cautious position on some doctrinal points. Wilbur wrote about the Unitarian Movement: "The religious movement whose history we are endeavoring to trace...became fully developed in thought and polity in only four countries, one after another, namely Poland, Transylvania, England and America. But in each of these it showed, along with certain individual characteristics, a general spirit, a common point of view, and a doctrinal pattern that tempt one to regard them as all outgrowths of a single movement which passed from one to another; for nothing could be more natural than to presume that these common features implied a common ancestry. Yet such is not the fact, for in each of these four lands the movement, instead of having originated elsewhere, and been translated only after attaining mature growth, appears to have sprung independently and directly from its own native roots, and to have been influenced by other and similar movements only after it had already developed an independent life and character of its own.".^[30] From the analysis of documents that you can find on the official site of the CCI,^[25][26] it is clear that the doctrinal position of this Christian confession of faith is therefore akin to the so-called Biblical Unitarian movement ^[27][28][29] and on the other hand, far from that of Unitarian Universalist Association who, although they have the same origin in 1500 AD, through the centuries, have suffered the influence of many non-biblical ideas (cf. Universalism).

The Christian Church in Italy believes that God is only One Person^[31] in direct contrast with the doctrine of the Trinity which defines God as Three coexisting Persons in one Substance (Essence), merged into one being.^[32] So CCI adheres to strict monotheism by believing that Jesus was a perfect and holy man,^[33] virginally begotten in Mary, the promised Christ, the Son of God and that, as the glorified man, now is at the right hand of God praying for the whole Church.^[34][35] The movement the Christian Church in Italy was inspired from, rejects other doctrines taught for centuries,^[36] including the soteriological doctrines of original sin and predestination.^[37][38]

Polish – Lithuanian Commonwealth

In the first half of the 16th century, the enormous Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was a country of many creeds, but Roman Catholic Church remained the dominating religion. Reformation reached Poland in the 1520s, and quickly gained popularity among mostly German-speaking inhabitants of such major cities, as Gdańsk, Toruń and Elbląg. In Koenigsberg, in 1530, Polish-language edition of Luther's Small Catechism was published. The Duchy of Prussia, which was a Polish fief, emerged as key center of the movement, with numerous publishing houses issuing not only Bibles, but also catechisms, in German, Polish and Lithuanian.

Lutheranism gained popularity in northern part of the country, while Calvinism caught the interest of szlachta, mainly in Lesser Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Several publishing houses were opened in Lesser Poland in mid-16th century, in such locations, as Słomniki and Raków. At that time, Mennonites and Czech Brothers came to Poland, with the latter ones settling mostly in Greater Poland, around Leszno. In 1565, Polish Brethren appeared as yet another reformation movement.

The 16th century Commonwealth was unique in Europe, because of widespread tolerance, confirmed by the Warsaw Confederation. In 1563, the Brest Bible was published (see also Bible translations into Polish). The period of tolerance ended during the reign of King Sigismund III Vasa, who was under strong influence of Piotr Skarga and other Jesuits. After the Deluge, and other wars of the mid-17th century, in which all enemies of Poland were either Protestant or Orthodox Christians, the attitude of Poles changed. Counter-Reformation prevailed, in 1658 Polish Brethren were forced to leave the country, and in 1666, the Sejm banned apostasy from Catholicism to any other religion, under punishment of death. Finally, in 1717, the Silent Sejm banned non-Catholics from becoming deputies of the Parliament.

Among most important Protestants of the Commonwealth, there are such names, as Mikołaj Rej, Marcin Czechowic, Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski and Symon Budny.

Slovene Lands

Primož Trubar is notable for consolidating the Slovene language and is considered to be the key figure of Slovenian cultural history and in many aspects a major Slovene historical personality.^[39][40] He was the key figure of the Protestant Church of the Slovene Lands, as he was its founder and its first superintendent. In 1547 he was expelled from Ljubljana.

While a Protestant preacher in Rothenburg, Germany, he wrote first two books in Slovene, Catechismus and Abecedarium, which were published in 1550 in Tübingen, Germany.^[41] Since 2010, 8 June is commemorated in Slovenia as the Primož Trubar Day.^[42]

Jurij Dalmatin, another important Slovene Lutheran minister, writer and translator, is most notable for the complete translation of the Bible into Slovene, his most important achievement. He allegedly wrote it to a large extent at Turjak Castle under the protection of the Carniolan governor, Herbard VIII von Auersperg (Slovene: Hervard Turjaški), and Herbard's son Christoph von Auersperg, who are said to have provided for the translator Dalmatin a "Wartburg"-type sanctuary as had been offered to Martin Luther by Frederick the Wise, the Elector of Saxony. This, however, is refuted as pure legend.

The original title of Damatin's 1584 Bible translation was Bibilija, tu je vse svetu pismu stariga inu noviga testamenta, slovenski tolmačena skuzi Jurija Dalmatina (The Bible: That Is, the Entire Holy Scripture of the Old and the New Testament, Translated into Slovene by Jurij Dalmatin). The translation set the norm for the Slovene standard language (with later innovations in vocabulary) until the first half of the 19th century. He was also the author of several religious books, such as the 1584 Karšanske lepe molitve (Beautiful Christian Prayers), the 1585 Ta kratki würtemberški katekizmus (The Short Württemberg Catechism, and Agenda published in 1589.

Conclusion and legacy

External video

Introduction to the Reformation

Setting the Stage

Martin Luther

Varieties of Protestantism

The Counter-Reformation from Smarthistory at Khan Academy

The Reformation led to a series of religious wars that culminated in the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648), which devastated much of Germany, killing between 25 and 40% of its population.^[43] From 1618 to 1648 the Roman Catholic House of Habsburg and its allies fought against the Protestant princes of Germany, supported at various times by Denmark, Sweden and France. The Habsburgs, who ruled Spain, Austria, Slovene Lands, the Spanish Netherlands and much of Germany and Italy, were staunch defenders of the Roman Catholic Church. Some historians believe that the era of the Reformation came to a close when Roman Catholic France allied itself, first in secret and later on the battlefields, with Protestant states against the Habsburg dynasty.^[44] For the first time since the days of Luther, political and national convictions again outweighed religious convictions in Europe.

The main tenets of the Peace of Westphalia, which ended the Thirty Years' War, were:

• All parties would now recognise the Peace of Augsburg of 1555, by which each prince would have the right to determine the religion of his own state, the options being Roman Catholicism, Lutheranism, and now Calvinism (the principle of cuius regio, eius religio)^[45]
• Christians living in principalities where their denomination was not the established church were guaranteed the right to practice their faith in public during allotted hours and in private at their will.^[45]

The treaty also effectively ended the Pope's pan-European political power. Fully aware of the loss, Pope Innocent X declared the treaty "null, void, invalid, iniquitous, unjust, damnable, reprobate, inane, empty of meaning and effect for all times." European sovereigns, Roman Catholic and Protestant alike, ignored his verdict.^[46]

However, this treaty did not mean that the Reformation concluded. It would be about another century (ca. 1750) before the Reformation could truly be considered to have ended. Meanwhile, other reform movements continued to spring up, even within the Reformation churches. One such movement was Pietism, which impacted the Low Countries (hence the Reformed churches), Germany (hence also Lutheranism), and Great Britain, which lead to a split in Lutheranism and which brought about the creation of some new churches (most notably the Moravian Church and Methodism). In turn, Pietism would branch out into a "normative" form and Radical Pietism.

The Reformation had a wide-ranging influence on personal life. In fashion, for instance, it lead to a more sober and dignified, less wasteful esthetics.^[47]

Further impact on the Reformation came from the Age of Enlightenment, and its preponderance of Rationalism. This would lead to redefined roles for religion, eventually relegating it to second-class status.

In The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism,^[48] Max Weber first suggested that cultural values could affect economic success, arguing that the Protestant Reformation led to values that drove people toward worldly achievements, a hard work ethic,^[49] and saving to accumulate wealth for investment.^[50] The new religions (in particular, Calvinism and other more austere Protestant groups) effectively forbade wastefully using hard earned money and identified the purchase of luxuries a sin.^[51]

See also

Footnotes

References

• Brakke, Mary Jo; Weaver, David (2009). Introduction to Christianity (4th ed.). Belmont, Calif.: Wadsworth. pp. 92–93. ISBN 978-0-495-09726-6. 
• Cameron, Euan (2012). The European Reformation (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press. 
• Estep, William R (1986). Renaissance & Reformation. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans. ISBN 0-8028-0050-5. 
• Kelly, Joseph F (2009). The Ecumenical Councils of the Catholic Church: A History. Collegeville, MN: Michael Glazier/Liturgical Press. p. 226. ISBN 978-0-8146-5376-0. 
• Simon, Edith (1966). Great Ages of Man: The Reformation. Time-Life Books. pp. 120–121. ISBN 0-662-27820-8. , popular and well-illustrated
• Spalding, Martin (2010). The History of the Protestant Reformation; In Germany and Switzerland, and in England, Ireland, Scotland, the Netherlands, France, and Northern Europe. General Books LLC. 

Scholarly secondary resources

Chronological order of publication (oldest first)

• The Cambridge Modern History. Vol 2: The Reformation (1903).
•  Kirsch, J.P. (1913). "The Reformation". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.  Catholic view.
•  Geer, Curtis M. (1920). "Reformation, The". In Rines, George Edwin. Encyclopedia Americana. 

• Smith, Preserved. The Age of Reformation. (1920) online
• Belloc, Hilaire (1928). How the Reformation Happened. Tan Books & Publishing. ISBN 0-89555-465-8.  (a Catholic perspective; reprinted 2009)
• Bainton, Roland (1952). The Reformation of the Sixteenth Century. Boston: The Beacon Press. ISBN 0-8070-1301-3. 
• Elton, G.R., ed. New Cambridge Modern History Volume II The Reformation 1520-59 (1958), 684pp
• Swanson, Guy E. Religion and Regime: a Sociological Account of the Reformation. Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan Press, 1967. x, 295 p.
• Pelikan, Jaroslav (1984). Reformation of Church and Dogma (1300–1700). Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-65377-3.  (focuses on religious teachings)
• Gonzales, Justo. The Story of Christianity, Vol. 2: The Reformation to the Present Day. San Francisco: Harper, 1985. ISBN 0-06-063316-6.
• Spitz, Lewis W. The Renaissance and Reformation Movements: Volume I, The Renaissance. Revised Edition. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1987. ISBN 0-570-03818-9; The Renaissance and Reformation Movements: Volume II, The Reformation. (2nd ed. Concordia Publishing House, 1987). ISBN 0-570-03819-7.
• Braaten, Carl E. and Robert W. Jenson. The Catholicity of the Reformation. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1996. ISBN 0-8028-4220-8.
• Hillerbrand, Hans J., et al. eds. The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Reformation (1996) vol. 1:296 pp., vol. 2:506 pp., vol. 3: 491 pp., vol. 4:484 pp., ISBN 0-19-506493-3
• Elton, Geoffrey R. and Andrew Pettegree, eds. Reformation Europe: 1517-1559 (1999) excerpt and text search
• Spitz, Lewis William. The Protestant Reformation: 1517-1559 (2003)
• MacCulloch, Diarmaid. The Reformation: A History. New York: Penguin 2003; 864pp. influential recent synthesis
  • Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years (2011), pp 604–714, shorter version
• Hendrix, Scott H. Recultivating the Vineyard: The Reformation Agendas of Christianization (Westminster John Knox Press, 2004). excerpt and text search
• Bagchi, David, and David C. Steinmetz, eds. The Cambridge Companion to Reformation Theology (2004) 289 pp.
• Hsia, R. Po-chia, ed. A Companion to the Reformation World (2006) excerpt and text search
• Collinson, Patrick. The Reformation: A History (2006) excerpt and text search
• Naphy, William G. (2007). The Protestant Revolution: From Martin Luther to Martin Luther King Jr. BBC Books. ISBN 978-0-563-53920-9. 
• Hillerbrand, Hans J. The Protestant Reformation (2nd ed. 2009) excerpt and text search
• Lindberg, Carter. The European Reformations (2nd ed. 2009) 472pp, comprehensive introduction
• Marshall, Peter. The Reformation: A Very Short Introduction (2009) excerpt and text search
• Payton Jr. James R. Getting the Reformation Wrong: Correcting Some Misunderstandings (IVP Academic, 2010) excerpt and text search
• Appold, Kenneth G. The Reformation: A Brief History (2011) 217pp

Primary sources in translation

• Fosdick, Harry Emerson, ed. Great Voices of the Reformation [and of other putative reformers before and after it]: an Anthology, ed., with an introd. and commentaries, by Harry Emerson Fosdick. New York: Modern Library, 1952. xxx, 546 p.
• Janz, Denis, ed. A Reformation Reader: Primary Texts With Introductions (2008) excerpt and text search
• Luther, Martin Luther's Correspondence and Other Contemporary Letters, 2 vols., tr. and ed. by Preserved Smith, Charles Michael Jacobs, The Lutheran Publication Society, Philadelphia, Pa. 1913, 1918. vol.2 (1521–1530) from Google Books. Reprint of Vol.1, Wipf & Stock Publishers (March 2006). ISBN 1-59752-601-0.
• Spitz, Lewis W. The Protestant Reformation: Major Documents. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1997. ISBN 0-570-04993-8

Historiography

• Bates, Lucy. "The Limits of Possibility in England's Long Reformation," Historical Journal (2010) 53#4 pp 1049–1070.
• Bradshaw, Brendan. "The Reformation and the Counter-Reformation," History Today (1983) 33#11 pp 42–45.
• Brady, Jr., Thomas A. "People's Religions in Reformation Europe," The Historical Journal (1991) 24#1 pp173–82
• De Boer, Wietse. "An Uneasy Reunion The Catholic World in Reformation Studies," Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte (2009), Vol. 100, p366-387.
• Dickens, A. G. and John M. Tonkin, eds. The Reformation in Historical Thought (Harvard University Press, 1985)
• Fritze, Ronald H. "The English Reformation: Obedience, Destruction and Cultural Adaptation," Journal of Ecclesiastical History (2005) 56#1 pp 107–15.
• Haigh, Christopher. "The recent historiography of the English Reformation." The Historical Journal (1982) 25#4 pp 995–1007.
• Haigh, Christopher. "The English Reformation: A Premature Birth, a Difficult Labour and a Sickly Child," The Historical Journal (1990) 33#2 pp 449–59
• Haigh, Christopher. "Catholicism in Early Modern England: Bossy and Beyond," "Catholicism in Early Modern England: Bossy and Beyond, " 45, no. 2 (2002): 481–94. (2002) 45#2 pp 481–94.
• Heininen, Simo / Czaika, Otfried: Wittenberg Influences on the Reformation in Scandinavia, European History Online, Mainz: Institute of European History, 2010, retrieved: 17 December 2012.
• Hsia, R. Po-chia. "Reformation on the Continent: Approaches Old and New," Journal of Religious History (2004) 28#2 pp 162–170.
• Hsia, R. Po-Chia. "The Myth of the Commune: Recent Historiography on City and Reformation in Germany." Central European History (1987) 20#3 pp 203–215. in JSTOR
• Karant-Nunn, Susan C. "Changing One's Mind: Transformations in Reformation History from a Germanist's Perspective," Renaissance Quarterly (2005) 58#2 pp 1101–1127. in JSTOR
• MacCulloch, Diarmaid. "The Impact of the English Reformation," The Historical Journal (1995) 38#1 pp 151–53
• MacCulloch, Diarmaid; Laven, Mary; Duffy, Eamon. "Recent Trends in the Study of Christianity in Sixteenth-Century Europe," Renaissance Quarterly (2006) 59#3 pp 697–731. in JSTOR
• Marnef, Guido. "Belgian and Dutch Post-war Historiography on the Protestant and Catholic Reformation in the Netherlands," Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte (2009) Vol. 100, pp 271–292.
• Marshall, Peter. "(Re)defining the English Reformation," Journal of British Studies (2009) 48#3 pp. 564–586 in JSTOR
• Menchi, Silvana Seidel. "The Age of Reformation and Counter-Reformation in Italian Historiography, 1939-2009," Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte (2009) Vol. 100, pp 193–217.
• Nieden, Marcel: The Wittenberg Reformation as a Media Event, European History Online, Mainz: Institute of European History, 2012, retrieved: 17 December 2012.
• Scott, Tom. "The Common People in the German Reformation," The Historical Journal (1991) 24#1 pp 183–92 in JSTOR
• Scott, Tom. "The Reformation between Deconstruction and Reconstruction: Reflections on Recent Writings on the German Reformation," German History (2008) 26#3 pp 406–422
• Walsham, Alexandra. "The Reformation and 'The Disenchantment of the World' Reassessed." Historical Journal (2008) 51#2 pp 497–528; focus on claims about the Reformation origins of modernity
• Wiesner-Hanks, Merry. "Gender and the Reformation," Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte (2009), Vol. 100, pp 350–365.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Reformation.

• Internet Archive of Related Texts and Documents
• 16th Century Reformation Reading Room: Extensive online resources, Tyndale Seminary
• The Reformation Collection at the Library of Congress

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