Spread of the Reformation

7 Key excerpts on "Spread of the Reformation"

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  eBook - ePub

  Christian History

  An Introduction

  • Alister E. McGrath(Author)
  • 2012(Publication Date)
  • Wiley-Blackwell

    (Publisher)

  Some recent studies of this age have used the plural form “Reformations” to suggest that the Reformation was a multi-faceted movement – perhaps even that it was a loosely connected set of distinct reforming movements, rather than a single coherent movement with local adaptations. The Reformation in England illustrates this point neatly, as this developed in its own characteristic manner. The interaction of religion and politics in England was such that a local variant of the Reformation arose, quite distinct from its counterparts in Switzerland or Germany.

  The present volume follows the general practice of using the term “Reformation” to refer to the major upheavals which changed the shape of western Christianity in the sixteenth century, spilling over into the seventeenth. We begin our reflections on this phase in the history of western Christianity by reflecting on its background in the later Middle Ages.

  3.1.  Setting the Context: The Background to the Reformation

  In recent scholarship, there has been a growing emphasis upon the need to place the Reformation movements of the sixteenth century in their late medieval context. Although many popular accounts of the origins of Protestantism often identify Martin Luther’s posting of the Ninety-Five Theses against indulgences (October 31, 1517) as marking the origins of the European Reformation, the truth is somewhat more complex. The origins of the Reformation lie largely in the intellectual and social upheavals of that era, which both created a crisis for existing forms of Christianity, and offered means by which it might be resolved.

  3.1.1.  The Pressure for Reform of the Church

  The fifteenth century witnessed many calls for reform of the late medieval church. A substantial “grievance literature” began to develop, expressing concerns about many aspects of church life, from the pope down to the most menial of the clergy. The Renaissance papacy was widely criticized for its financial excesses, and preoccupation with social status and political power. Pope Alexander VI, a member of the Borgia family, perhaps chiefly remembered for its lethal dinner parties, managed to bribe his way to victory in the election to the papacy in 1492 despite the awkwardness of having several mistresses and at least seven known illegitimate children. Niccolò Machiavelli, the age’s greatest theorist of naked power, put the immorality of his age down to the appalling example set them by the papacy.

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  Western Civilization: A Global and Comparative Approach

  Volume I: To 1715

  • Kenneth L. Campbell(Author)
  • 2014(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  Chapter 4 in Volume II). Both Catholics and Protestants relied heavily on logic and rational argument to defend their positions, regarding God as a being whose existence could be proved and demonstrated. Many Catholics and Protestants believed that two religions could not coexist within the same state, although in practice Catholics and Protestants in a number of local communities across Europe found a way to do just that. Both Catholic and Protestant rulers regarded religious uniformity as a prerequisite for political loyalty. Both persecuted religious minorities and feared countries with a different religion as real or potential enemies. Thus religion came to shape much of the political discourse that followed the Reformation.

  The Reformation had a number of social consequences, although these have been widely debated among historians. The Reformation was in some ways related to the development of a more individualistic society, though which was the cause and which the effect is a complicated matter. The Reformation offered alternative views on marriage, sexuality, education, the role of women in society, and poor relief. If the period did not fundamentally alter the patriarchal and hierarchical nature of European society, it both reflected and contributed to social changes that did affect the lives of individual men and women, especially in those lands most affected by the Reformation. Finally, because the Reformation movement coincided with a period of European exploration and overseas travel, the religious controversies of Europe were transported to the far corners of the globe within a relatively short period of time.

   

     1. What were the decisive factors and events leading to Martin Luther’s break with the Roman church?

     2. Discuss the social consequences of the Reformation. In particular, what impact did the Reformation have on women? Would attitudes have changed in this period independent of the religious changes that were occurring?

     3.

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  God Hovered Over the Waters

  The Emergence of the Protestant Reformation

  • dePrater(Author)
  • 2015(Publication Date)
  • Wipf and Stock

    (Publisher)

  2011 that in a short time swept across major portions of Japan, the sixteenth-century collision of systemic forces enabled the Protestant Reformation to sweep across the face of Europe. From its meager beginnings with Wycliffe and Huss, Luther’s nailing of his “Ninety-Five Theses” to the church door at Wittenberg, the Protestant Reformation was swept up amidst the deep churning social and economic waters, finally emptying into theological lakes and streams across Europe. This theological tsunami changed the face of theology about the world. For us to understand the Protestant Reformation, we need to understand the dynamics within the Middle Ages in order to discover the systemic forces that were at play. All these factors helped lead to the emergence of the sixteenth-century Protestant Reformation. Let us therefore begin with the first tremors of the earthquake that was striking Europe.

  Popular Unrest and Emerging Nationalism

  The half-century encompassing 1450 to 1500 witnessed an era of unparalleled popular unrest and nationalism. Due to France’s extended struggle with England (1339 –1453 ), the power of the French nobility decreased and that of the French crown grew. Louis XI (1461 –1483 ) broke the back of the feudal nobility and gave the crown unprecedented authority. His son, Charles VIII (1483 –1498 ), led France in foreign conquests in Italy, and opened a new era in European international relationships, which determined the political background leading up to the Reformation era. Louis XII (1498 –1515 ) and Francis I (1515 –1547 ) extended these gains during their reigns, extending its control to the power of the church. By the dawn of the Protestant Reformation, the church in France was essentially a state-controlled church.

  Spain, by the end of the fifteenth century, was unparalleled in the interwoven relationship of its national patriotism and Catholic orthodoxy. By the thirteenth century, the Moors were restricted to Granada, with four kingdoms created to provide order: Castile, Aragon, Portugal, and Navarre. Strong feudal nobility controlled each of these kingdoms, with limited national identity. The 1469 marriage of Ferdinand, the heir of Aragon, and Isabella, the heir of Castile, increased the power of the royal throne. Under their joint reign (1479 –1504 ), royal authority was strengthened and the political aspirations of unruly feudal nobles were suppressed. The discovery of the New World by Columbus brought unimaginable wealth to the royal treasury. On Ferdinand’s death in 1516

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  Reformation Thought

  An Introduction

  • Alister E. McGrath(Author)
  • 2021(Publication Date)
  • Wiley-Blackwell

    (Publisher)

  Part One The Context of the Thought of the Reformation Passage contains an image

  2 A Changing World

  The Cultural Backdrop to the Reformation

  To understand the origins of the Reformation and its religious and intellectual agendas, it is necessary to reflect on the culture of western Europe in the fifteenth century. Recent scholarship has placed an emphasis upon the need to place the Reformation movement in its historical context and to try to integrate the insights of late medieval, Renaissance, and Reformation studies into a larger vision of this “Age of Reformation.” The separation of these fields – for example, through each having their own university chairs, journals, and learned societies – has done little to help this process of synthesis and consolidation, which is essential if we are to understand both the intellectual context within which the ideas of the Reformation emerged, and the reasons why they proved to have such appeal.

  During the fifteenth century, as we noted in the previous chapter, many protest movements emerged, urging reform of the church at multiple levels. Some of these movements – echoing themes from Jan Huss’ fourteenth-century campaign for reform in Bohemia – were entangled with local demands for regional autonomy; others expressed concern at the excessive wealth and social influence of the church. Some are best seen as processes of reform and renewal, initiated by influential figures within the church, such as the reforms introduced in Spain during 1480s by Francisco Ximénez de Cisneros, which laid the foundations for the church playing a major role in the Spanish “Golden Age” of the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries.

  Yet it is important to look beyond these demands for reform and consider some deeper changes in outlooks and expectations on the eve of the Reformation in western Europe, which help us understand the emergence of reforming movements, the agendas they pursued, and their popular appeal. The present chapter offers a sketch-map of some relevant aspects of late medieval European culture which will help contextualize the developments of the sixteenth century. The two chapters which follow examine in some detail the two most important intellectual forces in late medieval Europe: Renaissance humanism and scholastic theology.

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  From Jesus to the Internet

  A History of Christianity and Media

  • Peter Horsfield(Author)
  • 2015(Publication Date)
  • Wiley-Blackwell

    (Publisher)

  11 The Modern World

  The legacy of the Reformation

  As noted earlier, the Protestant Reformation did not occur in a vacuum, but from within a convergence of social, political, economic, and religious changes that were coalesced by the Reformation. Similarly, although printing was only one part of that convergence, as Eisenstein contends it warrants special attention because it provided the means by which a range of other changes became possible.1

  While there were numerous micro-changes that occurred during the Reformation, a number of enduring wider consequences are of particular relevance in thinking about mediation, Christianity, and religious change. One was the shattering of the single institutional authority structure of Roman Catholic Christianity in the West, an authority that had persisted for almost nine hundred years. The increased number of alternative Christian belief systems that emerged during the Reformation diminished the capacity of the dominant Roman Catholic Church to argue that it was the sole legitimate embodiment of Christianity in the West. The unity of the Holy Roman Empire was replaced by a “confessionalization”2 of Christianity, one in which different Christian streams differentiated themselves through doctrinal, liturgical, ethical, and social emphases expressed in formal statements of belief. These were reproduced and distributed in printed texts – confessions of faith, articles of belief, catechisms, hymn books, bible commentaries, and devotional reading material – and served to build a sense of identity among their adherents, as well as a point of differentiation by which to evangelize and pitch themselves and their version of Christianity into the market.

  These groupings of Christianity are now known as denominations, like notes in a currency. In line with the connections that Anderson makes between printed media and the different imaginations of community in the modern period,3

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  Christian Apologetics Past and Present (Volume 2, From 1500)

  A Primary Source Reader

  • William Edgar, K. Scott Oliphint(Authors)
  • 2011(Publication Date)
  • Crossway

    (Publisher)

  In most countries where the Reformation took a foothold there was opposition, some of it fierce. In France, despite the initial attraction to the Huguenots (the name given to Protestants there) by many in the population, and despite numerous attempts at peace and concord, the Reformation was rejected, and by the eighteenth century fierce persecutions forced tens of thousands to flee. Instead of promoting the cause of biblical religion, the French Enlightenment with its rationalistic skepticism would become a most influential force throughout Europe.

  In England the Reformation took root but would struggle to define how far the cleansing from Rome could go. Scotland became Reformed under the leadership of the fiery John Knox. In the Netherlands, despite great opposition from the so-called Holy Roman Empire, the Protestant Reformation in its Calvinist expression gained much ground.

  It must not be imagined that throughout all of these changes the Roman Catholic Church was quiescent. Partly in reply to Protestants, and partly because of its own desire for reform, the Church of Rome made strong efforts at its own overhaul. We shall label this movement—often known as the Counter-Reformation—the Catholic Reformation, especially since one cannot reduce it merely to reactions to Protestantism. To be sure, many attempts were made to condemn various Reformers and their writings. But also, various movements came into prominence seeking to redefine the Catholic Church and its spirituality. Ignatius of Loyola (1491–1556) founded the Society of Jesus, known as the Jesuits. His followers were known for their respect for education and missions. The Council of Trent met from 1545 to 1563. Though it was opposed to doctrines such as the Protestant view of justification by faith alone and the supremacy of the Scriptures over conscience, yet it also contained elements of reformation, for example in worship and church discipline.

  Again, a significant amount of apologetics during this time concerned the polemics between Protestants and Catholics. On the Protestant side, it was necessary to defend the Reformed religion against its detractors, especially those who thought it was a departure from the true church. One thinks of Luther’s famous statement at the imperial Diet of Worms in 1521: “Unless I am convicted by Scripture and plain reason—I do not accept the authority of popes and councils, for they have contradicted each other—my conscience is captive to the word of God. I cannot and will not recant anything for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe.”7

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  Frontiers of the Reformation

  Dissidence and Orthodoxy in Sixteenth-Century Europe

  • Auke Jelsma(Author)
  • 2016(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  Since the eleventh century, a second 'writing élite' was added to the clergy, men who had received their education at universities and Latin schools and who managed to achieve important positions at courts and city tribunals. This resulted in a gradual shift in the later Middle Ages. More often the church was confronted by people who could not only experience but also understand what happened in the Latin liturgy. An increasing number of people began to distance themselves from what they experienced as superstition and idolatry. Against this background one should also view the revival of the Modern Devotion, which strove for moderation of the Christian life, without the trappings of popular culture. Only the invention of the printing-press and the unfolding of the languages of the people that came with it, made it possible to really develop the Christianizing offensive on a large scale. Despite all the attachment to the traditional culture, the desire among the people for more education, for active involvement in the ecclesiastical life, for knowledge of the Bible which made it possible for them to bring their lives in line with biblical norms, must have become greater and greater. Only in this way can the effect of the Reformation and the vehemence of a phenomenon like the 'breaking of the images' be understood. This way of believing can

  only become more general after it has become possible to distribute books at a large scale. Churches can only start to function in this way after the invention of the printing-press, and after this invention's consequences have had a chance to result in a wider offer of education ... Therefore, only in the course of the sixteenth century does this development become possible at all.19

  So, the fact that a small élite tried to impose its norms and values on the rest of society was not a specific characteristic of Reformed Protestantism in The Netherlands. That situation could be found everywhere in Europe. The population appeared to be willing to be guided by this élite to a large extent. Usually this led to the general acceptance of the ecclesiastical model which the élite preferred. Thanks to the invention of the 'elder' and the exercise of discipline, the Reformed model appeared to offer special opportunities for disciplining people's conduct.20

  In the liberated provinces of The Netherlands a specific situation existed. The national and provincial authorities recognized the opportunities the Reformed ecclesiastical model in particular offered toward 'a new and effective and efficient way to control their populations'. Therefore, they usually appeared to be willing to hinder the expressions of other religious variants and to propagate the Reformed model by means of placards. But precisely this intertwining of the interests of the Reformed church with those of the authorities created problems. Local and regional authorities often sought to prevent all too effective control by central government. As a consequence they were prepared only to a limited degree to look energetically after the interests of the Reformed 'religion'. Of course, the central authorities' grip on society did increase steadily. That is why in the Republic of the Netherlands also, major assemblies like classis and synod could eventually continue their Christianizing offensive with a reasonable measure of success. This, however, did not lead to a situation in which the majority of the population was prepared to join. Despite the area of tension between local and national/provincial authorities and despite religious differences, here too, one did become aware, as at this stage of history one did everywhere else in Europe, that the way of life of most of the population had to change to some degree. Popular culture had to make way for the ethics which the emerging bourgeoisie regarded as necessary for a well-functioning society. The Reformed church actively co-operated in this. Therefore it is worth analysing this policy in more detail.

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