The Reformation: History in an Hour

THE REFORMATION

History in an Hour

Edward A. Gosselin

About History in an Hour

History in an Hour is a series of ebooks to help the reader learn the basic facts of a given subject area. Everything you need to know is presented in a straightforward narrative and in chronological order. No embedded links to divert your attention, nor a daunting book of 600 pages with a 35-page introduction. Just straight in, to the point, sixty minutes, done. Then, having absorbed the basics, you may feel inspired to explore further.

Give yourself sixty minutes and see what you can learn …

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Contents

Cover

Title Page

About History in an Hour

Introduction

Origins of the Protestant Reformation

131 Years of the Reformation

The Sacraments, Heaven and Hell

‘The Third Place’: Purgatory

‘Shortening a Stay in Purgatory’

Early Sixteenth-Century Efforts at Reform

Martin Luther

Luther’s Interpretation of St Paul

Renaissance Popes

The Birth of Classical Protestantism

The Diet of Worms

One Man Alone

‘Infallible Donkey’ and ‘Upstart Heretics’

‘Preaching the Gospel Purely’

Zwingli v. Luther on the Eucharist

Zwingli’s Death

The Creation of Sects

John Calvin and his ‘Reformed Church’

Anti-Tolerance of Anti-Trinitarianism

Hunted Heretic

The Spread of Protestantism

The End of Choices: The Territorial Churches

Protestantism on a European Political Basis

The Reformation after 1550

France

The Low Countries

The Protestant Diaspora

How the Protestant Reformation Ended

Appendix 1: Key Players

Appendix 2: Timeline of the Reformation

Copyright

Got Another Hour?

About the Publisher

Introduction

From the time of St Peter to AD 1521, the Roman Catholic Church was the only ‘official’ Christian church in western Europe. It provided the only means through which a person could expect to have access to God and gain entry into Heaven. The Church, however, was not immune to corruption, and there had been several attempts to rein in Church leaders who were often distracted from their pastoral duties with more earth-bound interests such as the gathering of power and wealth. Yet the one Church remained intact and unchanged in its teachings and doctrines throughout the Middle Ages into the Renaissance and up to the Reformation.

In the sixteenth century, Martin Luther began his feverish quest for salvation and Church reform, and started an evangelical movement which spread beyond the borders of sixteenth-century Germany. This movement is the first of three distinct developments of the Protestant Reformation. Luther’s (and others’) evangelical revolution evolved into personal causes for rulers and monarchs, who sought to impose their religious will upon their subjects, and signified a second phase, the Reformation ‘from above’. During the Reformation’s third, confessional (religious wars) period, in which princes, territories and national churches conducted wars of belief, Protestants migrated to and colonized new settlements, and created their own methods of preserving the faith.

The era of the Protestant Reformation begins in 1517 and, by 1648, becomes fully shaped in Europe as a movement embodying several new independent churches, revolutionized systems of belief and geopolitical changes that affected monarchs and their subjects throughout the region. By the mid-seventeenth century, the original one Church had become several different churches without any hope of reuniting.

Origins of the Protestant Reformation

On 31 October 1517, the 34-year-old German monk, Martin Luther (pictured above c. 1520), posted his condemnation against Roman Catholic theological declarations on the door of Wittenberg Castle Church. Luther therein attacked, among other things, a system of Church-sponsored intercession in exchange for money as a means of getting into Heaven. Described by a contemporary as ‘a man of middle stature, with a voice which combined sharpness and softness’, Luther believed in a God who condemns sinful men, without exception, and was consumed by years of self-doubt as to whether he himself would ever get into Heaven.

Martin Luther c.1520, by Lucas Cranach the Elder

131 Years of the Reformation

The Protestant Reformation, in simple terms, caused a breaking off of many Christians from the original Roman Catholic Church. New churches were formed throughout Europe under the leadership of Luther, Huldreich Zwingli, John Calvin and others. Wars would be fought within and between states over matters of religion, and tens of thousands of Europeans would die in the ensuing conflicts.

Today’s relatively harmonious coexistence among the many Protestant churches and sects as well as between Protestantism and Roman Catholicism belies the hatred that existed between and among them all throughout the sixteenth century.

Luther’s simple act of nailing his writings to a cathedral door began a change in western Europe of such magnitude that it can only be compared to the Scientific Revolution of the seventeenth century. The invention of Gutenberg’s new printing press with movable type (c. 1450) made these two revolutions possible by allowing information and new ideas to spread quickly and far.

The Sacraments, Heaven and Hell

Ensuring your salvation for an eternity in Heaven so as to avoid eternity in Hell was as important to a believer in the sixteenth century (whether king or commoner) as getting a good crop or transporting your wool to market. According to the Roman Catholic Church, there could be no entrance into Heaven without the Church and its exclusive sacraments which conferred what is known as sanctifying grace.

Take, for example, King Henry IV of France who on 14 May 1610 was stopped in his carriage on a street in Paris, and stabbed in the chest by an assassin. His companions, although sure he was already dead, covered his wounds as he was rushed back to the palace. Laid out on his bed, a priest put his ear to the king’s mouth in order to hear a possible last confession but no sound came from the dead monarch’s mouth. The sacrament of Last Rites could not be performed and it was thus possible, although the Church would never pronounce on the issue, that King Henry never made it to heaven.

By the mid-twelfth century, seven sacraments (the outward acts which give inward, divine grace) had been defined canonically, of which five were for the laity and religious alike. All Roman Catholics were baptized soon after birth, removing the Original Sin (which Adam and Eve had committed after their unfortunate encounter with Satan in the Garden of Eden). They could all receive the sacrament of confession from a priest by which their souls were cleansed of sins committed since baptism. All Catholics could then receive communion (the Eucharist or Lord’s Supper – a replication of Christ’s Last Supper with His Apostles before His crucifixion) from a priest who changed the bread and wine at the celebration of Mass into what was (and is still) believed by Catholics to be: the real Body and Blood of Jesus. They were given the sacrament of confirmation in their teenage years to become adults in and defenders of the Catholic faith. Finally, all Christians could have their souls given a final cleansing, Eucharist, and a last anointing from a priest before death through the sacrament of Extreme Unction.

One of the final two sacraments was for the laity (Marriage) and the other (Holy Orders) for those becoming priests who were then capable of performing the sacrement of Eucharist – changing bread and wine into the real Body and Blood of Jesus for Eucharistic communion. After AD 1139, the Church decreed that priests could not marry, thereby circumventing inheritance disputes within the Church and its properties.

‘The Third Place’: Purgatory

Salvation should have been accessible for all sixteenth-century Roman Catholics as long as they received these sacraments and did good works. However, as in the case of Henry IV, death might be sudden, leaving serious or, as they were called, mortal sins unconfessed. If you died with unconfessed mortal sins (for example murder or robbery), you certainly wound up in Hell for eternity. God’s judgement upon your death with unconfessed venial (lesser) sins sent you to Purgatory, the ‘Third Place’ as Luther called it.

Purgatory was not an eternal abode, but a place where your soul spent an unknown period of time, undergoing a purging of venial sins such as theft, lying or some minor moral offence. Such purgation through fire could last anywhere from a day to the end of the world, and God never gave clues as to how long a soul would stay in Purgatory. The existence of Purgatory became carefully defined through the authority of thirteenth-century Roman Catholic theologians such as Thomas Aquinas. At the Council of Florence (1439), the Roman Catholic Church decreed Purgatory, and believers saw it as a densely populated place which was nearly impossible to avoid.

We can now see why a real crisis of salvation existed in the early sixteenth century. Christians (and all Christians were Roman Catholics in western Europe) had to keep careful track of all their sins so that they could give an accurate accounting of them at the confessional. It seemed certain that all Christians were sentenced to Purgatory, if not Hell, while only Church martyrs and saints gained immediate entry into Heaven because of their sinless state. But how long were those who were going to be eventually saved going to have to stay in Purgatory? What’s notable about all of this is the notion that humans had some sort of control over the length of time they would have to stay there.

‘Shortening a Stay in Purgatory’

The Church created the indulgence as a hedge against too long a stay in Purgatory (pictured below). Indulgences, of which there were many forms, basically shortened the time of punishment in Purgatory for one’s sins. Prominent among these forms was the purchase of pardon. These purchases were recognized as abusive by the Church itself, but the abuse continued nonetheless. Christians could, depending on how much money they paid for these indulgences, shorten their own souls’ or the souls of their relatives’ duration in Purgatory and hasten entry into Heaven by a year, ten years, several hundred or however much they could afford. However, if the uncertain Christian had not paid enough, the poor soul still might have another several million years to spend in Purgatory; or, conversely, he may have overpaid. Proceeds from the purchase of indulgences were used for rebuilding the ancient St Peter’s in Rome to be the present basilica we know it as today. It was a win-win solution for the Church and an uncertain one for the buyer of the indulgences.

A sixteenth-century depiction of purgatory

Accounting and banking had been developing since the thirteenth century in the city-states of Florence and Venice. By the sixteenth century, several high officials and popes in the Roman Catholic Church came from banking families such as the Medici. The ideas of accounting and the monetary compensation for intercession in Purgatory transferred from traditions of commerce and banking in civil society to the Church and its mission of salvation, with the Church acting as the broker for salvation.

Early Sixteenth-Century Efforts at Reform

Attempts in the early sixteenth century to reform the Roman Catholic Church were led by, among others, Desiderius Erasmus of Holland and Jacques Lefèvre d’Étaples of France. They believed that the Church was guilty of pastoral neglect, sexual malfeasance and personal financial gain, but they had no intention of breaking with Rome or its papacy. They also believed that the laity should have more direct access to the Scripture within their own vernaculars. Bibles existed only in Latin according to Church dictate, and those who dared to publish the Bible in vernacular languages were turned over to secular authorities for punishment.

However, some highly placed people felt that the Bible should be accessible to all. In 1524, for example, Lefèvre d’Étaples (pictured below) was asked by Bishop Guillaume Briçonnet to introduce vernacular bibles in the district of Meaux, north-east of Paris. Bishop Briçonnet had, as support, Marguerite d’Angoulême, the sister of the French king, Francis I.

Engraving of Lefèvre d’Étaples

However, political conditions changed the reforms in Meaux. Francis I sought to control areas to which he had dynastic claims and thus he invaded Italy in 1525. After his defeat in February 1525 at the Battle of Pavia in northern Italy, Francis I was taken prisoner by the Emperor Charles V and brought to Spain for a year, thereby depriving Lefèvre of his royal protection. Theological enemies forced Lefèvre and his colleagues to close down their biblical work in Meaux and flee to Navarre (of which Marguerite d’Angoulême was now queen).

Desiderius Erasmus (pictured below), known as the greatest scholar of his age, was a contemporary of Lefèvre and twenty-one years older than Luther. Born in Rotterdam, he joined the Augustinian Order of monks, which he eventually left, and travelled throughout Europe as a welcome guest of royalty and other court figures. He published many influential books, including a Greek New Testament (1516), which became the basis for the work of other scholars and religious thinkers. Erasmus was also a pacifist, arguing that since Christ was the Prince of Peace, all Christians should be peaceful as well.

Portrait of Erasmus c.1523, by Holbein the Younger

Such men as Lefèvre and Erasmus wanted to restore the Roman Catholic Church to its original nature in the time of the Apostles. They believed that man is saved by both faith and his own good works. This idea was in accord with that of the late medieval Church and its belief that man is saved by the Church and his participation, as a believer, in the seven sacraments.

Lefèvre and Erasmus kept in close contact with the Catholic Church’s hierarchy and their work at reform was distinct from that of the Protestant reformers, although their influence is evident in the teachings of Luther and Zwingli as well as some of the more radical reformers.

Martin Luther

Martin Luther (1483–1546) was born of peasant stock, and lived among the untutored folk of the remote woods and mines around the East German town of Eisleben in the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation. His mother and father were both devout and prayerful but also superstitious, believing in spirits that inhabited the forests, winds and water. Devils, witches and ill-tempered spirits roamed this world among the church spires and bell towers in towns where Luther learned his Psalms and marched in religious processions. His father, Hans Luther, owned a copper mine and was, therefore, wealthy enough to send Martin to school and university to become a lawyer. This would ensure that Martin would be prosperous enough to look after his parents in their old age. But after Martin was awarded a Master of Arts degree in 1505, he was caught on the outskirts of a Saxon village in a terrible thunderstorm (2 July 1505). He prayed to St Anne, the patron saint of his father’s occupation as a miner, and promised to become a monk if he survived the storm. Having duly survived, Luther kept his promise and joined the Augustinian Order on 17 July.

As a monk, Luther should not have had to worry about his afterlife, for he diligently obeyed his monastic vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. But he nonetheless feared an angry God who condemned any and all sinners to Hell. Seeing himself as nothing but a weak and sinful man, he could only imagine that God would most certainly condemn him to Hell. Urged by his senior monks to study and teach the Psalms, Luther transferred north from the University of Erfurt in Saxony to Wittenberg in 1511, and was made Professor of Theology at Wittenberg’s new university. Here he immersed himself in studying the Psalms and the Letters of St Paul, both of which dealt with sin and salvation.

Luther’s Interpretation of St Paul

In 1515, Luther began preaching on St Paul’s Letter to the Romans. Studying these biblical texts for the first time, he was astounded by Paul’s words: ‘He who through faith is righteous shall live’ (Romans 1:17) and ‘For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God’ and ‘Not of works lest any man boast’ (Ephesians 2:8–9). Luther interpreted these passages to mean that although God should be feared, man can also take succour in God’s love and mercy.

Luther also awakened to a realization that salvation and faith were given freely by the grace of God and not earned by good works. From this personal epiphany came Luther’s doctrines of salvation by faith and grace alone. His constant confessions seemed no longer necessary, for he now believed that confession and good works did not determine whether or not a man is saved. St Paul’s message of God’s love made the Roman Catholic Church’s papal bulls and indulgences seem irrelevant to Luther as avenues for salvation. He also recalled his 1510 journey to Rome, where he had observed a corrupt and arrogant Church which bore little resemblance to the true religion he felt he had discovered through St Paul’s epistles.

Renaissance Popes

Since the papacy of Nicholas V in 1447–55, priests and bishops had visited an increasingly cosmopolitan and humanist Rome on Church business, and consequently many hotels were built to house them. Scores of brothels and a multitude of concubines accommodated some of these Church leaders. Many thousands of Romans participated in the prostitution trade and some cardinals, bishops and monastic orders had a hand in running several of the brothels.

Portrait of Pope Leo X c.1518, by Raffaello Sanzio

The Rome of Pope Leo X (reigned 1513–21, pictured above) disgusted Martin Luther. He felt it was bad enough that humans believed they could determine a price for divine intercession in the form of indulgences, but the blatant corruption that seemed to exist at the very heart of the Church had created for him a cognitive dissonance. Consequently, soon after his return to Saxony and Wittenberg, Luther sought inspiration and solace in the words of St Paul, and from these readings he gained the confidence that he no longer needed to accept the decretals from what he considered to be the corrupt and flawed leaders of his Church.

The Birth of Classical Protestantism

Repelled as he was by the corruption he saw, Luther’s ideas evolved into a reform of theology rather than the simple reform of abuses attempted by earlier reformers like Erasmus and Lefèvre d’Étaples. Luther’s teachings embodied three main doctrines which served as the cornerstone of classical Protestantism. The first doctrine, sola fide (by faith alone), emphasizes the necessity of faith and rejects any human effort towards salvation through reason or meritorious behaviour. The second doctrine, sola scriptura (by Scripture alone), states that the Word of God is the only truth and is revealed in Scripture, through which God reaches those with whom He has graced with faith. The third doctrine, sola gratia (by grace alone), maintains that God’s grace alone grants man the power, goodness and virtue to oppose all that is wicked and evil in nature, especially man’s nature. This set of doctrines was at the centre of Luther’s attack on the Roman Catholic Church.

The Diet of Worms

Up until this point, Luther had remained in the Roman Catholic Church and in his monastic order. However, on 15 June 1520, Pope Leo X published a bull, Exsurge Domine, asserting that Luther had sixty days to recant his views or be expelled from the Church. Luther received a copy of the bull in early October and, the following month, wrote a tract entitled Against the Execrable Bull of the Antichrist, which is possibly the first time in the Reformation era that a pope was called the Antichrist – a name that would often be repeated in anti-Catholic books, sermons and artistic representations.

Soon thereafter (28 November), the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, gave Luther safe passage to travel to the German parliament, the Diet of Worms, to present his views before them. Luther arrived in Worms on 16 April 1521, and theological scholars required him to read books by accepted Church authorities, including St Thomas Aquinas, and to reconsider his own views in light of these Church teachers. Luther reflected upon these authors, but held fast to his teachings. He stood before the emperor on 18 April and said, ‘I cannot change my views. Here I stand. I can do no other.’

One Man Alone

By this time, Luther stood alone against Church and state. He stood alone against the history of orthodox Catholic teachings. He also stood against the emperor, Charles V, who rebuked Luther by stating that as the descendant of the most Catholic rulers of the Empire, of the German nation, Spain and Austria, he was no longer willing to tolerate Luther’s heresy. He could only accede to the orthodox Roman Catholic teachings in which he had been brought up and which he had vowed to defend. Charles decreed Luther an enemy of the Empire, but allowed him safe passage back home to Wittenberg.

Soon, Pope Leo X declared Luther an excommunicant, which meant he was no longer a member of the Roman Catholic Church. In May, the Edict of Worms made him an outlaw in the Holy Roman Empire. Luther fled to the Wartburg in Saxony where he enjoyed the protection of Frederick the Wise, Elector of Saxony, who, though a strong Catholic, was an enemy of Charles V. He was joined by thirteen monks who had also left the Augustinian Order in Wittenberg. It was only in March 1522 that Luther could return to Wittenberg, where his fellow former monks joined him in apostasy. There, he and his followers taught Lutheran theology and founded the centre of Lutheranism.

Luther’s later years were spent writing and teaching his congregation. In 1525, he married Katherine von Bora so that he could please his father, ‘spite the pope and the devil’ and have someone to carry on his name after what he expected would be an early martyrdom. He said of von Bora, a former nun he had brought back to Wittenberg for one of his fellow former monks to marry, that he would ‘rather have Katie than France or Venice’, and together they sired six children. When Luther died on a visit to his home town of Eisleben in 1546, contemporary Catholic writers asserted that a posse of devils had been seen taking his soul directly to Hell both for his ‘theological heresy and for marrying a former nun’.