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14 - Protestant Reformation
By the 900s A.D., the Roman Catholic Church had come to dominate religious life
in Northern and Western Europe. However, the 16th century would bring radical
changes to the balance of power and the attitude of citizens towards religious
freedoms. The Protestant Reformation was the 16th-century religious, political,
intellectual and cultural upheaval that splintered Catholic Europe, setting in place the
structures and beliefs that would define the continent in the modern era. Many would even say it was the beginnings
of resistance that led to the eventual revolutions seen in the next couple hundred years, including our own American
Revolution.
CAUSES OF THE REFORMATION
By 1500, many forces were weakening the church. The Renaissance emphasis on the secular and the individual
challenged church authority and caused many to contemplate the condition of the world around them. This led to a
series of challenges:
1. Merchants in northern Europe resented paying church taxes to Rome. They often had to face triple payments; a tax
to their king or ruling family, a tithe to their local church, and a tithe or tax to the church in Rome.
2. Printing press spread secular ideas – Johannes Gutenberg’s invention made bulk printing of books and pamphlets
both easy and inexpensive. With new access to printed books, a new hunger for information developed. Once
reformers began publishing Protestant ideas against the Roman Catholic Church, they were quickly spread
throughout Europe.
3. The city-states in Germany or Italy were difficult for the pope or the emperor to impose central authority.
4. Kings and rulers began to challenge the Church’s political power. Popes and Cardinals often lived more like kings
than spiritual leaders. Popes claimed political as well as spiritual power. They commanded armies, made political
alliances and enemies, and, sometimes, even waged war. After a military
campaign between the two in 1516, King Francis I of France and Pope Leo X
created a pact (agreement) called the Concordat of Bologna which gave the
French king power to nominate leaders to the church. This was a big step in
taking supreme power of appointing church leadership out of the hands of just
one man. When the church refused to give King Henry VIII a divorce, Henry
forced a separation of England from the Catholic Church altogether (more about
this later).
5.
Corruption in the church caused discontent. Simony (the selling of Church offices),
nepotism (favoritism based on family relationships) and the selling of indulgences (a promise
to go to heaven in exchange for money) were common practices in the church. In addition,
many of the church leaders lived immoral lives; committing the very sins they condemned
their followers for. The corruption of the Church was well known, and several attempts had
been made to reform it (notably by John Wycliffe and Jan Hus), but none of these efforts
successfully challenged Church practice until Martin Luther's actions in the early 1500s.
LEADER OF THE MOVEMENT
Martin Luther was a German monk and Professor of Theology at the University of
Wittenberg. Luther sparked the Reformation in 1517 by posting his "95 Theses" on
the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany - these theses were a list of
statements that expressed Luther's concerns about certain Church practices - largely
the sale of indulgences. Committed to the idea that salvation could be reached
through faith and by divine grace only, Luther vigorously objected to the corrupt
practice of selling indulgences.
1517
Martin Luther nailed his 95 Thesis to the door of the Wittenberg Palace
All Saints' Church. This event signaled the beginning of the Protestant
Reformation in Germany and Protestantism in general.
1518 - 1520
Luther faces trials before the papacy (Pope) who demands he recants. Luther publicly burned the papal edict
demanding that he recant or face excommunication.
1521
Pope Leo X excommunicated Martin Luther from the Catholic
Church.
1521
Martin Luther was called before an Imperial Diet (a legislative
assembly) in Worms, Germany. He was already accused of heresy and
excommunicated by the Pope. Emperor Charles V and the Diet issued
the Edict of Worms which banned Luther's work and declared all of
Luther’s followers to be outlaws.
1522
Martin Luther translated the New Testament from Latin into German
Luther’s actions began a world changing movement that created a split between
Catholics and Protestants. Notice that the word Protestant contains the word "protest" and that reformation contains the word
"reform"—this was an effort, at least at first, to protest some practices of the Catholic Church and to reform that Church. Little
did they know it would not only reform the Church, but also create an explosion of protestant religion. Today there are
almost 40,000 protestant denominations (religious classifications) and over 800 million protestant Christians in the world!
OTHER CONTRIBUTORS TO PROTESTANTISM
Zwingli, Huldreich
Swiss theologian and leader of early Reformation movements in Switzerland. Vigorously denounces the sale of
indulgences in 1518.
Tyndale, William
Published the New Testament in English in 1526. Is burned at the stake for heresy in 1536.
Calvin, John
Instituted a form of Church government in Geneva which has become known as the Presbyterian Church.
Started the belief in predestination, the doctrine that all events have been willed and planned by God,
including the eventual destination of each individual soul. Very controversial.
King Henry VIII
The English Reformation started in the reign of Henry VIII . King Henry VIII had
requested that the Pope permit him to divorce his wife and marry his mistress. The
Pope refused. King Henry responded by renouncing Roman Catholicism, taking
England out from under Rome’s religious control, and declaring himself as the
reigning head of State to also be the new head of the Church. This new branch of
the Christian Church, neither Roman Catholic nor truly Protestant, became known
as the Anglican Church or the Church of England with King Henry acting
essentially as its “Pope”. This set in motion a chain of events that resulted in
dramatic changes to the religious, economic and cultural structure of European
society.