The Reformation

The Reformation was a part of the Renaissance, though its origins were in northern Europe rather than in Italy. The Protestant revolt had its origins in humanist ideas, expanding literacy, and political turbulence. Luther and Lutheranism initiated a great split in the church, but the Protestant movement took many different forms. Like Catholic humanists, Protestants had increased confidence in people’s ability to know things for themselves, including God and the Bible. Unlike Catholics, however, Protestants believed the official doctrines concerning salvation, the priesthood and church government were wrong.  For them, the sufficiency of Biblical authority, along with ideas of “salvation by faith” and of a “priesthood of all believers” denied both church authority and the power of popes and priests to confer saving grace. The spread of these ideas produced tremendous hopes and equally profound fears.

Origins of the Reformation

We have already encountered some of the developments that led eventually to the Reformation.  In the late Middle Ages, the prestige and authority of the church had declined, and the papacy had become a game piece of powerful rulers.  For a time in the early 1400s there were three different popes at the same time.  In the Renaissance, the Popes were worldly, that is to say interested in power, wealth and the good life. The ideals of humanism and the new discoveries of the ocean navigators inspired an enthusiasm for the cultivation of secular life in contrast to preparation for eternal life.

But humanism also inspired a new sort of Christian idealism, particularly in northern Europe. Much of this had to do with reading. Humanists believed in recovering and studying old texts.  Catholic humanists like the English courtier Thomas More were interested in reading the New Testament in the original Greek for himself.  Very few could read Greek.  Educated churchmen and lawyers knew Latin, but most could not read at all.  Three things changed this equation.  First, increased wealth made education and books more widely available.  Second, the invention of efficient printing in 1450 made books and pamphlets more cheap and plentiful.  Third, the reformers provided translations of the Bible into the vernacular--the common European languages.  Reading and books were no longer the monopoly of the priesthood. One of Luther's most lasting achievements was his translation of the Bible into German.  This translation shaped the future development of the German language much the same way as the King James translation of the early 1600s influenced English.   Reformation and Renaissance humanism shared this ideal especially--that people had the capacity to read and improve themselves through knowledge.  Now this ideal could be put into practice on an unprecedented scale.

Luther's Revolt

Martin Luther had a troubled youth, though he was not troubled by things that typically trouble young people today. He was concerned with matters that troubled devout Christians in his day, namely the salvation of his soul.  Like St. Francis, he vowed as young man to devote himself to God, angering his businessman father.  Luther joined the Augustinian order of friars, and applied himself to its rigorous discipline, while continuing academic studies.  He earned his doctorate in theology in 1512.    He became a star professor at Wittenberg University, but he was still not happy.  Like any good Catholic, he understood that good works (such as charity, prayer, fasting, pilgrimages, etc) and the sacraments administered by the priests (especially communion) were the means to obtain the grace of God.  But that didn't help him, because he was an ordained friar and he still didn't feel confident that he had God's grace.  Furthermore, he was uncertain how many good works would be enough.

Luther's studies of St. Paul led him to conclude that one's faith, not the sacraments, were the key to God's grace, and that made him feel much better.  But this idea in itself did not lead to the Reformation.  It has been calculated that at least 40 other theologians had reached similar conclusions before he did.  Why, then, did Luther cause the split in Catholicism?

One reason was Luther's opposition to Papal fundraising by means of "indulgences," and another was the church's response to Luther's challenge.  Still another reason was Luther's supreme self-confidence.  Indulgences had been around for a long time.  The Papacy had granted indulgences for crusaders.  These were reductions of penance necessary atone for ones sins.  The theory was developed in the 13th century of a "treasury of merits," a storehouse of good works by Christ and the saints that the pope could redistribute to worthy people.  These merits could reduce the time a soul spends in purgatory before ascending to heaven.  Starting in the 14th century, the sale of indulgences became an important source of income for the pope.  In Luther's day they were needed to pay the debts on the new St. Peter's Basilica designed by Michelangelo.   It was not theoretically possible to buy one's way into heaven, but many common folk probably thought that is what they were doing.

In 1517, Luther denounced the practice of selling indulgences.  He was attempting to start a debate, not to split the church.  The church's response was not conciliatory, however.   In 1518, Luther met with a distinguished theologian, Cardinal Cajetan, sent by the pope.  But instead of the theological debate Luther wanted, he got a statement about church authority and a demand for a retraction.   In 1519, Luther engaged in a debate at the University of Leipzig with another famous theologian, who argued that Luther's position was heretical, and who later helped draft of a papal bull (decree) in 1520 requiring Luther to recant or be excommunicated.

This is where Luther's self-assurance enters in.  Luther, no doubt helped by the enthusiastic support of many lay and clerical Germans, refused to back down, and responded to this threat with a series of pamphlets denouncing the government and theology of the church.  In these writings he proclaimed his famous doctrines of justification by faith, the priesthood of all believers, and his reduction of the number of sacraments from seven to two.  These pamphlets were widely published, and made Luther either a hero or villain everywhere in Europe.

Luther quickly became a national hero in Germany, where anticlerical sentiments were strong.   People from many walks of life could find something in Luther to like.  As you can see from our reading, Luther denounced the special claims of church authority in both secular and spiritual life.  He argued that secular rulers alone controlled worldly affairs.  This was a welcome idea from the point of view of the rulers of the many German states, like Saxony, whose ruler protected Luther from both the church and the Holy Roman Emperor.  Those from the middle strata could also appreciate the message that they, rather than the powerful bishops and occasionally corrupt priests, were responsible for their own salvation.  Finally, the peasants found new inspiration to demand new freedoms and rights.   The peasants rose in rebellion in a number of parts of Germany, and in the end some 100,000 were killed in brutal fighting.  While the fighting was going on, however, Luther denounced the peasants as an unjustified murdering horde.  The freedom and equality Luther spoke of was spiritual, not political 

The Establishment of Protestantism

In order to win the tolerance of the Emperor, Charles V, one of Luther's friends, Philip Melancthon, wrote a confession to be considered for approval by the Diet (Imperial congress) meeting at Augsburg in 1530.  This "Augsburg Confession" was, however, rejected by the Emperor and war between Catholic and Protestant Germany loomed. Luckily for the Protestants, Emperor Charles was too preoccupied with conflicts with France and the Ottoman Turks.  But religious war finally did come in 1546.  After a decade of indecisive campaigns, a truce was called in 1555--the peace of Augsburg--that guaranteed the right of the German princes to establish Lutheranism in their territories.  It meant that in every German state, the subjects were expected to be either Catholic or Lutheran, depending on which one the ruler made the official religion.  Protestantism did not lead to a system of toleration and individual choice.  It did, however, irrevocably split Christianity, and introduce a volatile division in European culture and society that would play a role in many future conflicts.

The Anabaptists

In studying the Bible, some believers earnestly tried to base their beliefs and practices strictly on the Gospel texts and on the practice of the original Christian church described in Paul's letters and in Acts.   Followers of Conrad Grebel, a Swiss humanist, and Michael Sattler, a former German monk, and others, insisted that infant baptism had no basis in scripture.  They also attempted to follow the early church in adopting a simple worship entirely free from state control.  They were called Anabaptists for their belief that baptism should only be performed on adults who confessed and repented their sins.  Because they rejected the authority of either the church or the state, they were feared by the authorities and often persecuted.  Sattler and most Anabaptists were usually pacifists, but some were more assertive.  Authorities could point to the events in Münster in 1534 to confirm their fears.  Radical reformers there had taken control, suppressed Catholicism and Lutheranism, and tried to create a community of gospel equality in preparation for the imminent second coming of Christ (see Acts)

Calvinism

A still more important branch of Protestantism was Calvinism.  Calvin was born in France, and educated at the University of Paris, where he was exposed to both humanist scholarship and Catholic theological training as he prepared for the priesthood.  Later he switched to the study of law, but pursued his love of classical texts, especially the Roman stoic philosophers.  Calvin was converted to Protestantism, and promoted the importance salvation by grace.  He was forced to flee Paris to Switzerland, where he befriended many leading reformers.  There, in 1536, at the ripe age of 26, he published his masterwork on theology, The Institutes of the Christian Religion.

Calvin was soon recruited to help liberate and reform the town of Geneva, Switzerland, then under the rule of a worldly and unpopular bishop.  In Geneva, Calvin helped to create a sort of Protestant theocracy, meaning that the social life of the town was governed by the Protestant church elders.  These elders examined the lives of all the citizens and punished them accordingly.  Dancing, card-playing, theaters, drunkeness and gambling were all banned.  (On the other hand, the failure to eliminate prostitution led the elders to organize and regulate the prostitutes and give them regular medical treatment.)  The city was also very concerned to provide for the poor as an act of charity and also to reduce crime.  Unlike Thomas More, Calvin did not think much of women's abilities, and they were permitted no role in either church or state.

The key to Calvin's theology is his concept the sovereignty and majesty of God.  God, out of love, planned the universe to the end of time, selecting some (the elect) for salvation.  Faith binds the believer to Christ and permits him to follow his or her calling--in other words the way that God planned for him or her.  This is the reason for the seriousness of Calvinists, or Puritans, as they were known in England.  Everyone had to work hard to find out God's plan for himself or herself, and follow that calling faithfully.  Calvinists made the conversion experience central to their spiritual life.  As an adult, the Calvinists had to experience a moment when they felt God's saving grace working in them, and when they discovered God's plan for their lives.  Only with such an experience, and a convincing account of that experience before the church elders, could a Calvinist become a full member of the church.

The English Reformation

Nowhere was the political aspect of the Reformation more apparent than in England, where the king who wrote a pamphlet against Martin Luther in defense of the seven sacraments was the same king who ended up taking control of the church away from the Pope and abolishing the monasteries.  The Pope had political reasons to deny Henry VIII a divorce, and Henry had political reasons to take matters into his own hands.  Henry's confrontation with the Pope was nothing really new, but the popularity of Reformation ideas in England made it possible for Henry to go much further than he might otherwise have gone.  Luther had said, after all, that only secular rulers had authority in secular affairs--even the secular affairs of the church--and this is precisely the argument that Henry needed.

Thomas More was a friend of the King, and his Lord Chancellor during the divorce crisis.  The king thought that More's humanism would make him willing to support the king against the Pope.  More did not oppose Henry on the ground that divorce was wrong, but on the ground that it was presumptuous and dangerous for the king to make himself head of the church.  More could not accept Luther or Henry's belief in the supremacy of secular rulers in church affairs.  Henry had More put on trial, and false evidence was used to convict him of treason.  He was beheaded in 1535.

Under Henry's daughter, Elizabeth I, a list of 39 articles of belief for the Church of England were enacted, which contained elements of Lutheran, Calvinist and Catholic theology.   The Church of England became a sort of moderate Protestantism which included different beliefs and practices within itself.  That did not mean that conflict was ended; there was sometimes more and sometimes less tolerance of a given tendency at different times.   Calvinists in the Church of England found their beliefs and practices less and less tolerated in the Church by the early 1600s, and starting with the Mayflower, they began immigrating to America in large numbers.  The flexible Protestantism of England did succeed, however, in preserving England from the worst kind of religious civil wars that much of the rest Europe suffered in the century following Luther's revolt.

Protestantism was a mix of theological and political motives. The movement was divided and entangled with political concerns. Protestant ideas opened new avenues for opportunistic rulers of different sorts to leverage new power. On the other hand, Protestant optimism that better knowledge of the Bible would unlock a new era in the Christian life inspired both new faith and new fanaticism. Protestants in general believed the historic church was superfluous and corrupt. Protestants argued that the faithful stood individually and collectively before God and Bible rather than the Pope and the priesthood. The ideas of “salvation by faith” and of a “priesthood of all believers” suggested a new sort of spiritual freedom from the church that many found liberating, while others though exceedingly misguided presumptuous, not to mention political dangerous.