The Protestant Reformation: Causes and Events during Pope Leo X’s Reign
The Protestant Reformation was a major upheaval against the Roman Catholic Church in
16th century Europe. Although religious in nature, the Reformation left a legacy that still shapes
present day society. It fundamentally changed Christian doctrine and organization, but also
paved the way for other significant structural occurrences to take place, such as the improved
quality of education and the secularization of law across nations. The Protestant Reformation
was incited during Pope Leo X’s reign as a culmination of pre-existing resentment towards the
Roman Catholic Church, a cultural awakening that strengthened Reformation ideals, the
impactful message of famous reformers, and the revolutionary abilities of the newly invented
printing press.
The reformation began with public concern over corruption within the Roman Catholic
Church. The Church had been steadily gaining a reputation for being an exploitative organization
in society that preyed on people to advance its own agenda, and this bred anticlerical discontent
and unrest among the common people. Before the Reformation, the Church was enabled by
certain socio-political conditions to exploit the public by gaining their trust. It operated like a
profit-seeking firm in a market, manipulating the demand for spiritual goods and monopolizing
the supply of them (Ekelund, Hebert and Tollison, 2002). This corruption remained deep-seated
in European society for centuries while feudalism was the ruling social and economic system, in
which the centralization of power was part and parcel of a nation’s governance. This hierarchical
distribution of land and wealth kept most people poor, illiterate and reliant on superstition as a
source of moral guidance, something that was highly sought out for during a time when plagues,
sickness and natural disaster ravaged Europe (Iordache, 2017). These social conditions were
instrumental to the Church as it amassed power and enforced itself as a supreme authority in
society, leveraging the public’s grievances to establish absolute control. Assuming the role of
God’s designated middlemen, priests and bishops under the leadership of Pope Leo X effectively
manipulated these circumstances by convincing the public their suffering was due to sin and
ungodliness that could only be resolved through the intervention of the Church. Redemption
could be purchased from the clergy through the sale of indulgences, tithing was a compulsory act
that was claimed to be pleasing to God, and positions of high power in the church could be
bought for a place in heaven (George, 2017). These were strategies implemented by the Catholic
Church to maintain control over the supply of spiritual goods to a disempowered, and therefore,
guaranteed customer base for a price. Moreover, clergymen were looked upon with disdain due
to their irreverent lifestyles of gambling wastefully, drinking and having mistresses (Ferrero,
2014). This gained them a reputation for being depraved hypocrites, behaving against the very
teachings they preached and misusing funds for their enjoyment and pleasure. Over time, the
Catholic Church and the papacy lost public favour as their offences accumulated and people
became collectively angered by the unscrupulous ways in which the Church ignored their needs
and leeched off of their livelihoods. By the turn of the 15th century, the fabric of the Catholic
institution had begun to wear itself down and public resentment led to a building urgency for
change that peaked during the reign of Pope Leo X.
The Reformation was further propelled by the changing economic and cultural landscape
in the 15th and 16th century that paved way for reformation to occur. In the 15th century, Europe
experienced a significant turning point that saw the structure of the economy shift as trade and
commerce expanded rapidly. Feudalism gradually dissolved after the Black Death when the
population dramatically declined and wealth was more evenly distributed. As a result, labour
became scarcer and land-owning nobles were forced to respond by offering higher wages and
greater benefits to peasants to keep them in employment (Peschke, 2007). This change gave
peasants the freedom and mobility to seek out higher sources of income and better lives
elsewhere. This initiated the shift from a land-based hierarchical system to an early capitalist
economy in which people supported themselves independently by participating in the market
through private business (Ekelund, Hebert and Tollison, 2002). Consequently, this new growing,
self-sufficient middle class enjoyed increased wealth and a better overall quality of life
(Dillenberger, 1961). This had a huge impact on the public’s propensity to think about their lives
beyond day-to-day survival, and this included a greater interest towards matters of the spiritual,
existential and political. This influenced the wave of humanist thinking that defined the
Renaissance which, later on, played a role in eliminating ideological resistance towards ideas of
reformation that might have otherwise existed. The Reformation reflected and embodied the
fundamental spirit of humanism in its emphasis of greater personal autonomy and abolishing the
status quo. These sentiments had already been prevalent in society due to the intellectual
developments of the Renaissance that broke society away from dogma and superstition in
exchange for human agency and rationalism instead. People’s beliefs about God and the
supernatural opened up as they began thinking more critically about the institution of religion
and their relationship to it. Moreover, theologians and intellectuals who had been proponents of
humanist thought supported the ideas of the Reformation or became reformers themselves, which
further added to the impact of the Reformation. The reformers Jean Calvin and Ulrich Zwingli
were both educated within a framework of humanism before they joined the Reformation and led
movements in their own cities; Calvin was a humanist lawyer and Zwingli attended the
University of Basel, which was regarded as a centre of humanism (Iordache, 2017). The
intellectual developments during Pope Leo X’s reign were integral in giving credence to the
objective of the Protestant Reformation.
Against the backdrop of anti-papal sentiment and growing humanist thought came the
definitive push for change by determined reformers. Before the events of the Reformation, the
demand for reform had already existed for centuries. Oxford scholar and theologist John
Wycliffe was a strong critic of the Catholic Church in the 14th century and he had produced
several works in which he attacked the hegemony of the Church. In his 1380 book “Objection of
Friars”, Wycliffe condemned the corruption within the papacy and the clergy claiming that their
actions were antithetical to scripture (Murray, 1829). Jan Hus and the Christian humanist
Erasmus, two other important predecessors to the Reformation, both challenged the Church in
their own right and called for the replacement of the monastic hierarchy for the rule of Biblical
divine law instead (Becker, Pfaff and Rubin, 2016). These reformers had published a series of
works before Martin Luther that focused on the individual spiritual experience informed by the
Bible as opposed to empty ceremonies and rituals conducted by the Church. Erasmus was also
the first to publish the New Testament in Greek, which Martin Luther used in writing the famous
95 Theses that sparked revolution (George, 2017). The ideas of these reformers were evidently
integral for reformation to occur but it was not until Martin Luther’s message emerged that these
ideas could come to fruition. While Luther was lecturing at the University of Wittenberg, Pope
Leo X launched the sale of indulgences to raise revenue for the construction of Saint Peter’s
Cathedral. Luther was appalled at this decision as it emphasized salvation through works, not
faith, and this was an alarming sign of the increasing commercialization of church. In response,
Luther wrote and posted his famous 95 Theses on the door of Wittenburg’s castle church. Due to
the public and controversial nature of this act, the 95 Theses incited debate amongst other
scholars and theologists while garnering attention from the masses. After centuries of feeling
disempowered in hands of the Church, the public saw the opportunity to make their frustrations
known by standing behind Luther’s call for change. His 95 Theses gave a concrete, audible voice
to their growing disgruntlement. Even though Luther was placed under a papal ban and
excommunicated by the church in 1520, he was steadfast in his beliefs and used the Church’s
attempts to thwart him as further fuel to undermine the power of the papacy. In another act of
defiance, he burned the papal order in front of his supporters (Howard, 2005) and it was this
bravery in standing against the church that inspired support from the masses. As opposed to the
reformers before him, the Church could not successfully stifle his efforts to bring about change
due to the overwhelming attention and support his message had. He stirred the pot of brewing
frustration and converted centuries of discontent into action. His determination was rewarded
with widespread public acceptance and this was crucial for reform to occur during Pope Leo X’s
reign.
Furthermore, Martin Luther’s message was spread rapidly through Europe due to the
emergence of the printing press. Invented in 1450 by Johann Gutenberg, the printing press was
being used in almost every city in Europe by the end of the 15th century (Rubin, 2014). Literacy
rates rose as a result of this and the masses had easier access to religious books at a lesser cost
(Howard, 2005), but no one wielded the power of the printing press quite like Martin Luther did.
After pinning his 95 Theses to the door of Wittenberg’s church, there was an outburst of support
from Luther’s peers and other clerics for the points he brought attention to. They began
discussing these points amongst themselves and soon after, this spilled over into the public
realm. Capitalizing on the public’s growing interest, Luther began distributing printed editions of
the 95 Theses and publishing other books which spread very quickly throughout Germany and
then Northern Europe. By 1520, Luther had written 30 publications which sold over 300 000
copies (Rubin, 2014). He had gained himself a large following within the span of three years and
went from living in obscurity to being the most published author in Europe, solely responsible
for over half of pamphlet printing before 1550 (Terpstra, Nicholas, and Oberman, 1996). By
providing the public individual access to texts and books that the Catholic Church was
previously gatekeeping, this phenomenon did not just undermine the church but also empowered
the common people, giving them unprecedented autonomy in the way they practiced their faith.
The open accessibility effectively provided by the printing press brought theological discourse
out from monasteries and universities and into the streets and homes of ordinary people
(Terpstra, Nicholas, and Oberman, 1996). This was a historically significant change due to the
heavily guarded, secretive nature of theological discussion prior to the Reformation. It
successfully fulfilled the vision that Luther and the reformers before him had which
characterized the spirit of Protestantism: man having a direct, unmediated relationship to God,
based on faith informed by God’s divine law. By the time the Church chose to intervene and
undo the storm that was the Reformation, it was too late. Luther’s message had spread all around
Europe, and other reformers had already taken up the mantle of change by organizing action
against the Catholic institution in their own cities. John Calvin began implementing the
reformation in Geneva, and Zwingli began the Protestant revolt in Zurich, with many Swiss and
Southern German cities following suit (Iordache, 2017). By combining his message with the
technology of the printing press, Martin Luther’s vision for change was unstoppable, creating
ripple effects in countries surrounding Germany. Luther’s ability to harness the power of the
printing press was a pivotal aspect to why the Reformation occurred when it did.
Although the timeline of events causing the Reformation are debated amongst historians,
they agree it was a consequence of several key events that gradually altered the social climate,
until it was ripe for reform during Pope Leo X’s reign. The history of abuse by those in power
within the Roman Catholic Church eventually caught up with them, and public discontent peaked
as humanist values of the Renaissance were becoming increasingly popular. These periodspecific changes were instrumental in creating widespread public support for the message of
Martin Luther and his fellow reformers, and utilizing the printing press boosted that support
exponentially throughout Europe, successfully creating the movement that became the Protestant
Reformation. These intersecting factors made the ground fertile for reformation to occur during
Pope Leo X’s reign.
Works Cited
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