Figure 1.--.
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Figure 1.--. |
The Reformation began in Germany. This was no accident. Church state issues had reached serious levels in Germany with the Ivestiture Controversy. This played a major role in Germany's failure to develop a strong national government. Thus the Germans were not like the French able to negotiate withthe papacy om a position of strength. There were many doctrinal issues involved in the Reformation and the Church showed with the supression of Huss and his followers that within the Holy Roman Empire that it was willing to use the Inquisition to limit debate. Financial concerns and the disposition of the Church's wealth and income should not be minimized as a major cause of the Reformation. Almost independent of the German Refomation was the Reformation in England, but this proved to be crucial because of the future imperial role of England.
The heart and soul of the Protestant Revolution was in Germany. In began when Martin Luther posted his 95 thesis on the church door in Witenberg. He was offended by the sale of indulgences which struck at all the major themes of the Reformation. Luther was offened that an agent of the pope was selling indulgences forgiving future sins. Here initially it was a doctrinal matter, but it also it affected the pope's use of German Church income and the naionalistic concerns of foreign control over the German Church. Matters escalated when the Reformation became associated with the struggle between the emperor and German princes over political power. It should be stressed that the German Reformation was not a struugle for religious freedom, but rather a struggle over whose faith would prevail.
The Swiss Reformation occurred largely independently of the developments in Germany, but for much the same reason. A Swiss pastor Huldreich Zwingli like Luther began annoucing the sale of indulgences (1518). He was apponted rector of the Great Minister of Zurich and began criticising abuses of eclesiastical authority (1519). He would speak whereever he could find an audience, sermons, market place conversatioins, and even in front of the town council. Like Luther hec stressed the Bible as the sole source of religious authority. In Zurich the decissions to break from Roman Cathloic traditions and ultimately the Church itsrelf were taklen by voyes of the townncouncil (1523-25). Under Zwingli's leadership, relics were destroyed, ceremonial processiins and the adoratuion of saints ceased, vows of celibacy were revoked, and the elaborate Catholic Mass replaced with a simpler ceremony. The commercial class was Zewingli's strongest source of support and their interest was not only religous, but also a poliitical desire for independence from both Rome and the (German) Holyb Roman Empire. Other Swiss towns (Basel and Bern) followed Zurich, but the more conservative peasantry of the forrest cantons remained Catholic. The Swiss central government did not have the strength to enforce religious coinformity. There were two short conflicts between the Protestant and Catholic factions (1529 and 31). Zwingli was killed during the fighting (1531). Neither side prevailed in the fighting. Under the terms of the resulting peace, each canton was allowed to choose its religion. For the most part the Catholics were entrenched in the mountaneous areas of the country and the OProtestants in the heavily pipulated valleus and towns. This basic division basically persists in Switzerland today.
Protestantism moved north into Scandinavia from northern Germany. Here the process was much more peaceful than in Germany and more parlitarian. The monarchies in both Denmark and Sweden came to support the Reformation. Olaus and Laurentius Petri helped spread the Lutheran faith in Sweden. The Swedish Diet at an early stahe of the Refotrmation adopted Luthernism with the support of King Gustavuis I (1527). The process was much the same in Denmark. A Danish national assembly revoked the authority of Catholic bishops (1536). As Denmark at the time controlled Iceland and Norway, they were also affected. King Christian III requested that Johann Bugenhagen, a friend of Luther, organize a Danish Lutheran Church on the basis of the Augsburg Confession. The conversion of Svandinavia was important to the success of the Reformatuion in Germany. Not only were the northern German princes not surrounded by Catholics, they now had potential allies to the north.
John Calvin (1509-64) represented a new genreration of Protestants and became a dominant figure of that Reformation. Only a child when the Reformation began, he became an ardent Protestant. As a theologian, he was forced to flee France after his conversion to Protestanism and settled in Geneva (1536). Geneva at the time was a crossroads for exiles and expatriates from both France and Geramny as well as other parts of Switzerland. His semons and public discourse were effective and he soon became the most influential preacher in the city. He wrote an influential explanation of Christian doctrine and life that the layman could read and understand, The Institutes (1536-59). Calvin's most important Institutes was obedience to God's will as elucidated in the Holy Scriptures. Salvation, he maintained was entirely a matter of faith in God's grace which was mediated through word and sacrament by the force of the Holy Spirit. Echoing the Protestant condemnation of indulgences, he wrote that good works were the inebvitable consequences of union with Christ, bit not the means of achieving personal salvation.
The French monarchy had a special relationship with the Church. French kings had generally avoided the kind of open split with the papacy like the Investiture Controversy that so divided Germany. The Pope gave the kings of France the title of "Most Christian King." Each French King took an oath to "extirpate" heresy in his realm. The French Church despite the close relationship between th moinarch an papacy had evolved considerable independence from the papacy. The French monarchy had perhaps more authority over the Church in his country than any other prince in Western Christendom. This was further recognized on the eve of the Reformation by the Concordat of Bologna which confirmed Francis I's authority to make appointments to benefices. As a result, many of the conditions which led to the Reformation in Germany were less apparent than in Germany. The Concordot provided for the rights of both pope anf king, but made the king clearly dominant over the French Church. While religious issues are most commonly discussed in connection with the Feformation, financial matters were a major concern at the time. The monarchy in France had enormous control over the disposition of the wealth and income of the French Church and routinely used the authority to appoint bishops, abbots, and other church officers to reward faithful followers because there was considerable income associated with many of these offices. As a result, the princes of the French Church included many worldly people, often uninterestred in spiritual or doctrinal matters, but often quite nationalistic. The Pope had a veto on such appointments, but out of defference to the monarch, rarely exercized it. Thus there was a considerable fusion of church and state in France very diffeent than the situation in Germany. The University of Paris (the Sorbonne) during the late Medieval era served as a kind of scholastic think-tank for both Church and state.
Erasmus strongly promoted reform of the Catholic church during the years leading to the Reformation. The Netherlands was by the early 16th century a non-German possession of German Hapsburg Emperor Charles V. The Emperor within the Holy Roman Empire (Germany) attempted to resolve the dispute with Luther and his followers diplomatically. His approach outside the Empire in the provinces where he ruled directly, he was not prepared to compromise and invoked the full force of the Inquisition. he University of Leuven (Louvain) condemned Luther's theses (1519). Emperor Charles appointed van der Hulst as
the Inquisitor General to supress the Protestants in the Netherlands (1522). He applied the full force of the Inquisition and within a year there were executions. Count Alva's brutal methods in the southern Netherlands appered for a time to have succeded in destroying the Reformation in the Netherlands. Imperial forces were in control in the south. Alva when he left the Netherlands, however, was a hated man as was the emperor (1573). The Count was, however, was unable to completely eliminate Protestantism. To many people in the Netherlands had cinverted. Despite supression in the south, rebellion flared in the north. The provinces of Holland and Zeeland rose in revolt (1572). The most repected nobleman in the Netherlands, William of Orange-Nassau, had serious differences ith the Imperial government (1568). The fighting became a bitterly fought war and excesses and atricities were committed by both sides. The creation of Union of Utrecht brought on one of the longest struggles in European history--the Dutch War of Independence. It was foiught by the Dutch againt local Catholic forces and the Spanih. (Upon the death of Emperor Charles V, the Netherlands became a Spanish territory.) Fighting continued until the Peace of Utrecht (1648). The Dutch made Calvinim the sate religion or confession. They looked on Catholics with great suspission, although they were not arrested for their faith. Other religioins were tolerated, this included not only other Protestants, but the Jews as well. This made the Dutch the most tolerant people in Europe and the Netherlnds a refuge for those facing religious persecution. This was an element in the Dutch become the most prosperous people in Europe.
While the Reformation in England was initaited by the monarchy, in Scotland in occurred in spite of the opposition of the monarchy, although supported by the English.The Reformation was preceeded by a rising sence of popular disatisgaction with the Catholic clergy. Both Lollardy and Wycliffe in England had influenced some. Merchants and the minor nobility were the first to embrace the Reformation, not only for religius reasons, but as a vehicle for independe from both England and France. Protestant teaching reached Scotland only a few years after Martin Lurther launched tghe Reformation. As early as 1522 the Royal Government was attempting to stop the circulation of Luthern books. Early Reformation leaders like Patrick Hamilton were adherents of Luther, but John Knox led the Scottish Reformation to a Calvinist confession.
John Knox lived for a time in Geneva and was influenced by John Calvin. He became the driving force of the Reformation in Scotland. Know was the first spokesman for Presbyterianism. Knox persuaded the Scottish Parliament to adopt a confession and book of discipline modeled on those develooped by Calvin in Geneva (1560). Parliament created the Scottish Presbyterian Church governed by local kirks. Mary Queen of Scotts attempted to attempted to reinstate the Catholic Church, but was friven to exile in England. Her infant son James, the future James I of England, was kept in Scotland and eventually tutored by Presbyterian scholars. The Catholic Church was reduced to minor importance, except for a few disticys in the north.
Almost independent of the German Refomation was the Reformation in England, but this proved to be crucial because of the future imperial role of England. Political rather than relogious issues were to drive the Renaissance in England. It was a Defender of the Faith, Henry VIII that set the Reformation in motion in England. Henry VIII decided to divorce his wide, the Spanish princess Catherine. He was furious when Pope Clement VII refused to approve the divorce. In response he rejected papal authority over the Church in England. He founded the Anglican Church and set himself up as head of the new church (1534). While sparked by his personal life, the break with Rome had many advantages for Henry. One of the most important was the wealth of the Church was now at his disposal. Much of this he seized by closing the monestarires. Huge quantities of land were in 6the hands of the monestaries. The first tentative steps toward actual reformation was a liturgy in English and The Book of Common Prayer. Henry's lesser known and very devout Protestant son Edward VI played a major role in the success of the Reformation in England.
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