The Reformation of Religion,
1500-1560
The West
CHAPTER 13
The Search for Spiritual and
Fiscal Freedom
• Degradation of papacy’s moral authority led
to search for new forms of religious
expression - Modern Devotion
• Perception of pope as a distant, thieving
foreigner
• Concern about clerical immorality
• Desire for greater local control over church
The Print Revolution
• Invention of movable metal type and paper
made books cheaply and readily available
• Rise in literacy rates and increasing power
of literate culture
• New interpretations of experience possible
The Northern Renaissance
and the Christian Humanists
• Christian humanism - application of philological
method to Bible and other Christian writings
• Search to understand the precise meaning of
Christian texts
• Belief in imitation of the “primitive church” as
path for personal and ecclesiastical reform
• Legitimacy of religious practice dependant upon
biblical sanction and promotion of morality
Martin Luther and the Break
with Rome
• Justification by faith alone - salvation
dependent on God’s grace along, not upon
any good works
• The Ninety-Five Theses challenged the
selling of indulgences
• Priesthood of all believers undermined
clerical authority
• Emphasized private examination of the soul
The Lutheran Reformation, in
Cities and Principalities
• Reformation spread quickly among educated
urban classes
• City magistrates and German princes took control
of local churches
• Imperial Diet of Speyer, 1526, granted princes
religious sovereignty
• Religious Peace of Augsburg, 1555, cemented the
religious division of the Holy Roman Empire
The Lutheran Reformation on
the Margins
• End of clerical celibacy recognized the positive
religious value of wives and mothers
• Early female preachers and reformers were soon
suppressed
• German peasants interpreted religious reformation
as licensing social reform - German Peasants’
Revolt 1524-1525
• Reformers sided with princes against peasants
The Success of the Lutheran
Reformation
• Establishment of new religious institutions
and practices
• Educational reforms
• Lutheranism spread from Germany to
Scandinavia
• Religious Peace of Augsburg, 1555,
legitimized Protestant worship by principle
of “cuius regio, eius religio”
The Reformation in
Switzerland
• Evolved independently of Lutheran Reformation
• Close co-operation of civic magistrates and
reformers to create a moral community - public
conformity to Christian morality
• Principle of predestination - God was above any
human influence and only the Elect could truly
follow Christian teaching
The Reformation in Britain
• Tudors imposed the Reformation as a matter of
royal policy, to consolidate dynastic power, rather
than to effect religious reform
• Declaration of royal independence from papal
supervision
• Elizabethan Settlement established a moderate,
Protestant church
• Scotland became staunchly Calvinist
The Radical Reformation
• Anabaptists rejected established authorities
in favor of a pure community of believers
• Spiritualists sought divine illumination
directly from God
• Unitarians rejected the divinity of Christ
and advocated religious tolerance
• Attacked by both Catholics and Magisterial
Reformers
The Free World of Eastern
Europe
• Relative weakness of monarchs made
religious toleration possible
• Aristocracy protected and nourished
Protestantism
• Religious diversity flourished in Hungary,
Bohemia, Transylvania and the PolishLithuanian Commonwealth
The Religious Orders of the
Catholic Reformation
• Developed from late medieval religious
vitality
• Male orders emphasized an active ministry
in the world
• Society of Jesus (1540) important for
missionary and educational work
• Discalced Carmelites reformed convent life,
advocating strict withdrawal from the world
The Counter Reformation
• Failure of the Imperial Diet of Regensburg,
1541, prompted a systematic Catholic
counterattack against Protestantism
• Reorganization of the Roman Inquisition, to
discover Protestants, created a climate of
intellectual caution
• Index of Forbidden Books censored texts
considered to be heretical or immoral
The Council of Trent
• General church council met in
three
sessions, between 1545 and 1563
• Offered no compromise to Protestants on
doctrinal issues
• Sought to guarantee a well-educated and
honest Catholic clergy
• Reasserted papal and ecclesiastical power
Protestant Iconoclasm
• Widespread destruction of religious images
• Images were perceived to be too powerful
and potentially dangerous
• Images were also too ambiguous,
distracting, and too easily misinterpreted
• Reformers did use printed woodcuts and
engravings to promote Protestant ideas
Counter Reformation Art
• Catholic Church retained a strong
commitment to the religious value of art
• Sought stronger control over image
production, to ensure clarity of religious
message
• The Inquisition condemned nudity and
perceived impiety in art works
Sacred Music: Praising God
• Luther recognized and promoted the power
of music to move the congregation
• Zwingli and certain radical reformers
eliminated all music from churches
• Council of Trent approved liturgical music,
but only to encourage worship
Competing Understandings
• The religious reformations permanently
divided the West into two distinct and
opposed religious cultures
• Emphasis shifted from Christian unity to
confessional differences
• The West became a place of intense
religious conflict, undermining the notion
that its identity was founded upon
Christianity