The Protestant Reformation
(1450-1565)
Key Concepts
• End of Religious Unity and Universality in
the West
• Attack on the medieval church—its
institutions, doctrine, practices and
personnel
• Not the first attempt at reform, but very
unique
• Word “Protestant” is first used for
dissenting German princes who met at the
Diet of Speyer in 1529
Causes of the Reformation
• 1. Crises of the 14th & 15th
centuries hurt the prestige of
the Church and clergy
• Avignon Papacy
• Great Schism
• People were becoming tired of
being dependent on the Church
and the constraints it enforced
• 2. Corruption in the Catholic
Church
• Simony-sale of church offices
• Pluralism—an official holding
more than one office at a time
• Absenteeism—an official not
fulfilling the duties of an office,
but still receiving payment and
privileges
Causes
Corruption cont’d
• Nepotism—favoring family
members in the appointment of
church offices
• Moral decline of the Papacy
• Pope Alexander VI had
affairs and children out of
wedlock
• 20% of all priests in Trent
kept concubines in early 16th
century
• Rodrigo Borgia
• Clerical Ignorance—many priests
were illiterate
• Sale of indulgences-pay money to
the Church to absolve one’s sins
Causes
• 3. Renaissance humanism
• Better educated people were more
critical of the church
• Growing individualism meant people
chafed under the power of the Church
• 4. Political Circumstances were favorable
• New Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V
was young and trying to control a vast
realm. He also faced attacks from
France and Ottoman Turks during the
critical early years of Luther’s protest
• 5. Reformers emphasized piety and a
personal relationship with God.
• John Wyclif & the Lollards—England
• Stressed Bible was sole authority and a
personal communion with God
Causes
• John Hus—Czech
• Similar ideas to Wyclif
• Burned at the stake for his views
• Erasmus—In Praise of Folly
• criticized the corruption of the Church and
hypocrisy of the clergy
• 6. Printing Press
• Invention of movable type was
invented in 1450 by Johann Gutenberg
• Helped spread ideas before Catholics
could squash them
• Intensified intellectual criticism of the
Church
•
Protestant ideals appealed to the urban and the
literate
The Emergence of Protestantism in
Europe
Germany
• Luther troubled by the
sale of indulgences
• Dominican friar Tetzel
was selling indulgences in
Wittenberg in 1517
• Luther posted his 95
theses on the door of the
castle church in
Wittenberg on October
31, 1517
• What were some of
Luther’s complaint?
• Luther slowly but surely is
drawn into a heated debate
Germany
• Pope paid little attention
to Luther at first
• Thought it was a
disagreement between
Augustinian & Dominican
monks
• Luther refused to stop his
crusade
• Was protected by Frederick
III of Saxony
• Wanted to reform the
church, not create a new
one
• But in defending his views,
Luther gradually came to
the point that he had no
other choice than to create
a new church
Germany
• 1520 Luther published his theology of reform
• Pope Leo X excommunicated him & Luther
burned the bull that excommunicated him
• 1521 Diet of Worms
• HRE Charles V convened this meeting of leaders
of the empire and demanded that Luther recant
• Luther refused: “Here I stand, I can do no other.”
• Edict of Worms—Luther is outlawed as a heretic
• Luther taken to Frederick’s castle where he was
protected
• Translated the Bible into vernacular
• Married a former nun
3 Key Ideas of Luther’s Theology
1. How is a person saved?
• “Justification by faith alone”-salvation could be
achieved through belief in God, rejected good
works as the means to achieve salvation
2. Where does religious authority reside?
• The Bible is the sole authority, not the Church,
nor the Pope. People could read and interpret
the Bible on their own
3. What is the Church?
• Priesthood of all believers who were spiritually
equal, not a hierarchical Church structure
Protestant Propaganda
The Spread of the Reformation
Why did the Reformation Spread?
• 1. The Emperor was distracted fighting the
Ottoman Turks and France
• 2. Luther’s stand against the Church
emboldened other reformers to break with
the Church
• 3. Rulers protected reformers
• 4. The printing press spread ideas quickly
and the Church was unable to stop them
Zwingli-Zurich
• Very urban,
cosmopolitan setting
• Reformer Ulrich
Zwingli
“Memorialist” view of
the Mass
• Zwingli also opposed
purgatory, clerical
celibacy, intercession
of the saints, and
salvation by works
• The death of Zwingli
Calvin-Geneva (French-speaking)
• John Calvin’s leadership
in Geneva from 15411564
• Geneva became the model
Protestant training center
• Stress on order and
rigorous adherence to
God’s law
• A “Quasi-theocracy”
• Very austere religion
practiced in Geneva
• Self-discipline and the
“Protestant Work Ethic”
(1) Background
• More of a scholar than
Luther
• More of a systematic
thinker than Luther
• Calvin’s **Institutes
of the Christian
Religion (1536)**
• Early legal training
• Clear-cut moral
directives for living
• Relied on Scripture
primarily for his ideas
(2) Teaching
• Predestination
• The Elect
• The right of rebellion
--English Civil War
• Divine calling to all
sorts of vocations
• The “invisibility” of
the True Church
• Government serves
the Church
Henry VIII-England
• Henry VIII’s marriage to
Catherine of Aragon
• Henry seeks an annulment
• Henry creates the Church
of England and
establishes his own
supremacy over it
• A “political reformation”
only at first
• The six wives of Henry
VIII
B. England (cont)
• The brief reign of Edward
VI
• The rule of “Bloody”
Mary
• Return of the Marian
exiles to England from
Geneva
-- “Puritans”
• Queen Elizabeth I-The
Elizabethen Religious
Settlement
• The attack of the Spanish
Armada in 1588
-- “The Protestant Wind”
Radical Reformers-the Anabaptists
• Desire to return to the
primitive, first-century
Church
• High standard of
morality valued and
pursued
• Bitterly persecuted by
both Catholics and
other Protestants
• Ardent missionaries
who were harassed for
their zeal
(2) Teaching
• Free will—all can be
saved
• Adult, “believer” baptism
• Social and economic
equality
• Pacifism
• Separation of Church and
State
• Stressed role of the Holy
Spirit in the life of the
believer— “inner light”
(Quakers)
• Simplicity of life and
millenarianism—living in
the last days
France
• King Francis I was
initially sympathetic to
Luther as long as his ideas
stayed in Germany
• Protestantism made illegal
in France in 1534
• Persecution of the
Huguenots—French
Protestants
• St. Bartholomew’s Day
Massacre-1572
• King Henry and the Edict
of Nantes (1598)
Other Parts of Western Europe
• No Protestant inroads into
Spain or Italy
• Protestantism succeeded
only where it was urban
and supported initially by
the nobility
• After 1540, no new
Protestant territories
outside of the Netherlands
• Most powerful European
nations were Catholic
• Protestants were feuding
with each other
The Counter Reformation
• Reformation shaped the
form and rapidity of the
Catholic response
• Council of Trent (15451563)
• The Society of Jesus
(“Jesuits”)—1534
--Ignatius Loyola
• The Inquisition
• The Index
• Renewed religious
emotionalism
--Baroque Art
• Religious warfare
Impact of the Reformation
• Germany was politically
weakened and fragmented
• Christian Church was
splintered in the West
• 100 Years of Religious
Warfare
• Right of Rebellion
introduced by both Jesuits
and Calvinists
• Pope’s power increased
• Furthered societal
individualism and
secularism
• Growing doubt and
religious skepticism
Impact of Reformation (cont)
• Political stability valued
over religious truth
• Calvinism boosted the
commercial revolution
• Witch craze swept Europe
in the 1600’s
--Between 1561-1670,
3000 people in Germany,
9000 people in
Switzerland and 1000
people in England were
executed as witches
• Possible reasons for this
witchcraft craze