THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION

3 Factors contributed to religious upheaval:

1. The poor - saw Church as wealthy, oppressive ruling class

2. Middle classes - wanted same autonomy in Religion as they had in economics and politics

3. Kings & princes - fought Church over taxes, territories

Reformation = Revolution -Goal was change, not reform - Churchitself was wrong in principle

Corruption in the Church:

- Pope Alexander VI :

- Bribed Cardinals to get elected, used Church funds to support his illegitimate son’s wars

- Accused of incest w/ his daughter, Lucrezia Borgia

- Initiated wars to enlarge Papal lands in central Italy

- Pope Leo X – Luther’s opponent – a member of the Medici banking family of Florence

Martin Luther and the Holy Roman Empire- (1483-1546) An Augustinian monk who felt that he still was not on track for salvation

- He felt that ONLY FAITH could save you - good deeds had nothing to do with it - you could not buy your way in to heaven by your actions or w/ $$

- He believed faith was a gift given by God alone

- Indulgences - Luther rejected the Church’s practice of selling forgiveness for the living & deceased. He also rejected the sacrament of Penance, where a priest hears & forgives sins

95 Theses - in 1517, Luther nailed his complaints on a church door - they were quickly printed & circulated throughout the Holy Roman Empire

Luther Cont’d

- He believed that only the Bible contained the teachings necessary for salvation - you did not need the Pope/clergy’s interpretations to help save your soul

- He supported the German nobility & called on them to support him against the Church - many nobles supported him as a way to resist the centralizing power of the HRE

John Tetzel - a friar authorized by the Church to sell indulgences - he was a focal point of Luther’s anger

- illiterate lower class also backed him - shared his apocalyptic, end-of-days view

- Social, nationalist, religious protests fused w/ lower class resentment of the wealthy Church – reflected the Czech revolt that emerged w/ Jan Hus’ protest against the Church

- Diet of Worms, 1521 - meeting called by HRE Charles V to address Luther’s issues

- “Here I stand...” - Luther professed his desire not to reform the Church, but to reject the Catholic hierarchy entirely - he was excommunicated as a result and became an outlaw in the HRE – avoided Hus’s fate due to the protection of a German noble Frederick the Wise, elector of Saxony

Diet of Worms- 1521

Lower Class Reaction:

Peasant War of 1525 - peasants & artisans fought against the Catholics and Landed Nobility - Luther disagreed w/ fight against nobility

- Catholic Church - largest land-owner in German states (1/7th of the land)

- Peasants & artisans paid taxes to Church & nobility

- Cath. & Prot. nobles united to crush it, Luther supported Nobles

- 100,000 killed, many more wounded or maimed

- Luther - religion is separate - all must obey civil authority despite differences of faith

- Nobles were winners - they simultaneously defeated peasants & confronted the HRE’scentralized authority over them

Upper Class Reaction -The German Princes and Lutheranism:

- Resented Church’s taxes which drained German lands of wealth

- Popes were almost always Italian, Cardinals were Italians, Frenchmen, and Spaniards

- Many princes openly converted to they could collect their own religious taxes, eliminate power of church courts, and wipe out church territorial boundaries that divided their lands (dioceses)

- Luther knew he needed the Princes, so he supported their confiscation of Church lands, encouraged peasants to obey them

- Some free cities did the same for the same reasons

Huldrych Zwingli & John Calvin-Huldrych Zwingli (1484-1531) - Swiss preacher from Zurich who attacked Church corruption & other Church dogma

- differed with Luther on concept of Transubstantiation- idea that Christ is literally present in the bread (Eurcharist) and wine - that it is miraculously transformed through the mass into the

actual body and blood of Christ:

- Luther believed it, Zwingli believed the bread & wine were SYMBOLS of Christ’s union w/ believers

- attempts to reconcile their opposing views failed – other rifts formed that split the Reform movement into several different sects

Huldyrch Zwingli

CALVINISM

JOHN CALVIN - French clergyman, humanist, lawyer - a generation younger than Luther

*Agreed with most Lutheran thought

Institutes of the Christian Religion - his most famous work - denounced Church, professed his views

Calvin’s key focus:PREDESTINATION - your salvation/damnation is already known by an omniscient God. You cannot “earn” salvation -

LUTHER VS. CALVIN

1. Calvin more obsessed w/ predestination - believed very few were saved - piety was a sign that you were saved.

2. Role of the state - Luther revered civil authority, Calvin rejected it outright.

3. Lutherans had leaders similar to Bishops, Calvinists had self- contained communities that elected their own ministers

4. Calvinists - militant, uncompromising - called “Puritans” in Britain and America

5. Luther retained music, altars, ritual, Eucharist – Calvin forbade instrumental music, all sacraments, vestments, religious images

Anabaptists

- Laypeople of Zurich who took Zwingli’s lead and had their own rebellion

- rejected infant baptism & insisted on adult baptism- lead by the artisan class, supported by middle & lower classes

- radical pacifists who rejected civil authority

- many executed by Zurich magistrates at Zwingli’s urging for not swearing allegiance to him and bearing arms

- condemned by HRE, it spread rapidly in southern Germany

- They seized the city of Munster, abolished private property, created a commune that allowed men to have multiple wives

- City retaken by combined Cath/Prot. army - leaders’ bodies displayed in cages hung from the church tower

New Forms of Discipline:

- Peasant revolt scared people & turned middle class against the chaos of the lower classes - they urged self-discipline through several activities:

- Public Relief for the Poor - The states, often under converted protestant leadership, sought to rid society of “vagabonds” through public charity

- Reading the Bible - part of daily life. It was translated into the vernacular of multiple languages - protestants preferred it, the Catholic Church eventually followed suit, contrary to past practice.

- Reforming Marriage - Prot. reformers wanted to end clerical celibacy and make marriage an official institution in both

civil and religious life - it was viewed as essential to a stable society

The Anglican Church in England

HENRY VIII - “Defender of the Faith”

- Wanted a male heir to ensure stable succession of the Tudor line

- Wanted divorce from Catherine of Aragon, daughter of Ferd. & Isab. of Spain, to marry Anne Boleyn

-C of A’s nephew was Charles V, HRE - Pope could not afford to offend him, refused annulment

ACTS OF SUPREMACY - HVIII established the Anglican Church with himself as its spiritual head - still mainly Catholic in doctrine

Anglican impact on Catholic England:

- All Catholic tax revenue redirected to the crown

- All papal court appeals/authority dissolved

- Sir Thomas More – Chancellor to the king – executed for publicly opposing Henry’s divorce

- Dissolved monasteries, confiscated all Church lands, redistributed it

- In Practice – not much changed – Anglicanism greatly resembled Catholicism in doctrine and practice

Edward VI – Succeeded H8, influenced by reformists, radically changed religious practice to emulate Calvinist/Protestant ideology

- Priests could marry, faith alone = salvation, English mass, new version of the Bible, reduced sacraments to 2

Mary Tudor – H8’s daughter – succeeded E6 – daughter of Catherineof Aragon

- Mad that Mom got the boot

- Reinstituted Catholicism

- Persecuted all Protestants – “Bloody Mary”

Elizabeth Tudor – Daughter of H8 & Anne Boleyn

The Elizabethan Compromise -

- Puritans (Eng. Calvinists) wanted Eliz. to eradicate all Catholic ritual from Anglicanism

- 39 Articles of Religion - issued under Eliz., it included much Catholic ritual along w/ Calvinist practices

- Puritans denounced it, under-cut Anglican authority by setting up local Presbyteries -localized Puritan councils that included the minister & town elders

- Puritans encouraged Bible reading, adopted King James Bible, named after Mary Stuart’s (Scotland) son James

Catholic Reaction:COUNCIL OF TRENT - 2 goals - reform & establish doctrine of the Church

Major results included:- Reaffirmation of salvation by Faith & Good Works- Reaffirmation of Vulgate as the official Bible- Reaffirmed transub., priesthood, conf. & absol., purgatory

- Reaffirmed practice of indulgences

- Cemented break w/ Protestants - eliminated hope of compromise w/ them

New Religious Orders- Society of Jesus - AKA the “Jesuits”:

- established hundreds of colleges in Eur., As., Africa, eventually America

- established by Ignatius Loyola, Sp. nobleman

- the most vigorous defenders of the Pope

- their activities restored confidence in the church’s power to Catholics

- became chief missionaries of the Church