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I.
Protestant Reformation
I. THE PROTESTANT
REFORMATION The
last several weeks, we have been talking about changes on every level in Europe
in the 15th and 16th centuries CE Intellectual change: first
with the Italian Renaissance: revival
of classical art/ learning and rebirth of secularism Technological change, with the gunpowder, new sorts of
ships, and so on Geographical change –
with the discovery of the Americas, and the beginnings of direct contact with
subSaharan Africa, India, and China. TODAY,
I’m going to talk about another change of the 16th century – the
Protestant Reformation - that ended unity of western Christianity (WHAT
ARE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN PROTESTANTISM AND CATHOLICISM?) Justification by faith alone - vs. both
works and faith priesthood of all believers - vs.
priesthood of clerics scripture only source of true doctrine
- vs. scriptures and authority (fathers, councils, pope) No heavenly intermediaries btwn man and God - vs. Mary, saints, angels No sacred images / icons - vs. images
to assist belief two sacraments (baptism, Lord's supper)
vs. 7 sacraments A. LUTHER
AND PROTESTANT REFORMATION The
story of the Protestant Reformation usually begins with one man -Martin
Luther Martin Luther was a German monk, living in the university town
Wittenberg. In 1517, he posted 95 theses on the door of a church (Castle Church
in Wittenberg). THESE THESES WOULD
PUT MOST OF YOU TO SLEEP: In
these 95 theses, he attacked Catholic indulgences – an indulgence was
the remission of the punishment of sin.
The
Catholic church had initially only given them to Crusaders, but by the 16th
century was selling “letters of indulgence.” Luther
(and many others) objected – believing
the salvation could not be bought or sold. Soon
after he began to publish more pamphlets, attacking a wide number of Catholic
practices - He argued that man obtained salvation
through faith alone, not through works or the mediation of priests. - He claimed that there were only two
sacraments – Baptism and the Eucharists – .
He condemned the other sacraments lke confession and absolution. - He promoted the princely leadership
of the church (instead of papal) urging the princes (magnates)
of Germany to take over the job of reforming the Catholic church – In
1520, the pope of Rome condemned Luther as a heretic, and excommunicated him. In
response, Luther, in public, burned the papal letter (bull) which had
excommunicated him. Then
the Holy Roman emperor (Charles V) – who presided over these little
principalities of Germany – gave Luther a chance to recant at (Diet of Worms) Luther's answer: "Since, therefore, your Serene
Majesty and your lordships seek a simple answer, I will give it with neither
horns nor teeth, in this manner: Unless I am convinced by the testimony of the
Scriptures or evident reason (for I trust neither popes nor councils alone,
since it is commonly agreed that they have often erred and contradicted
themselves) I am subject to the scriptures I have quoted. My conscience is
captive to the Word of God. I am unable to recant, nor do I wish to recant,
anything; for to act against conscience would be neither safe nor sane."
[Luther's response to Charles V] (We can
see in this quote some of effect of Renaissance secular humanism: what church tells you to believe no longer
enough; people want to understand - use reason - see the evidence - for
their beliefs) The
emperor wasn't pleased with Luther's answer, and outlawed him. Luther
hid from the authorities, finding protectors in princes (esp. this guy) In the
end, he gave up on the idea of reforming the Catholic church- instead he
set up a new church: what we call the Lutheran church, with married ministers
(instead of celibate priests), and no obedience to Rome The
Reformation had begun – the religious movement which would break the Christian
church into Catholics and Protestants, end of the domination of the pope in
Rome, and start a series of religious wars in Europe which will last for
centuries. But why
was Luther so successful? People
had been criticizing the church for centuries (just read Chaucer's Canterbury
Tales) What
about the 16th century made Europe ready for the Protestant
Reformation? - to split church up into little pieces and throw Europe into
civil war? WHY REFORMATION SUCCESSFUL? It is
important to understand that Martin Luther sparked the Reformation because
Europe was ready for it, not because of what he said was completely new. People
had been criticizing the Pope, indulgences, and so on for quite a while, and
with reason. Some of
your readings from Kishlansky for this week give you taste of why many
Europeans were unhappy with the church. It is difficult to read a piece of
literature written in the 15th and 16th centuries without
finding stories written about the clergy (compare our own obsession with crime) Sexual misdeeds of the clergy: One big theme is the sexual
exploits of priests and monks. For example, Reynard the Fox (1498): German "animal epic" - stories
where animals behave like people (Winnie the Poo) In middle of Reynard the Fox,
Reynard starts saying how difficult it is for him to keep from sinning when the
clergy sin so lightheatredly: "There
is hardly a parish where the priest does not have a concubine, living in sin
and shame, producing children like husbands in normal wedlock. "He
invites us to give our money to help build and maintina the church in exchange
for indulgences….but his ideals are sumptuous garments, pretty women, rich food
and wines.." (Reynard the Fox, From Manifestations of Disconentent, ed.
Strauss, 92-93. This is just one literary
complaint among many. Spanish novel Lazarillo de Tormes -
at end of novel, archpriest gets the hero - Lazarillo to marry one of his
female servants, so that he keep her as his mistress living next door. Marguerite de Navarre, a sister of the king of France and king of small kingdom
Navarre near Spain, is credited with stories which are often hostile to the
Catholics. In one
story, the friars – mendicants vowed to celibacy - tried to rape a woman when she was travelling with them in boat Were these criticisms just? Catholic church probably no more
corrupt than it had been before (in fact perhaps somewhat less so) But people believed that it was: (compare
our own beliefs about crime: going up
or down? - down) (but
how portrayed in popular media?) How did Protestant like Luther
seek to solve problem of immoral clergy? The
Protestants would advocate a married clergy – they thought that priests were more likely to
keep their hands of other people’s wives if they had their own. Luther
set the example by marrying a nun himself. SECULAR RULERS WANTED TO BRING
NATIONAL CHURCHES UNDER THEIR OWN AUTHORITY As we saw with the Magna Carta,
one thing that prevented kings from becoming too powerful was the power of the
church (coupled with power of nobility) Many kings and lesser princes
suppored Luther and other Protestant reformers because they let the king be the
head of the church, not the Pope We'll talk about this more later
one with example of Henry VIII PRINTING PRESS / GROWING LITERACY So one big reason Luther was such
a hit is that people were already convinced (rightly or wrongly) that priests /
monks were corrupt.; second reason, kings wanted to get control over national
churches Third reason Protestants were so
successful was growing literacy of Europeans. because of… Luther's most important
ally: the printing press Thanks
to invention of printing press by Gutenberg in 15th century, books
were affordable. More
people could buy them; more people learned how to read them; a literature in
the vernacular: French, German, English
(instead of just Latin) began to be produced. The
Catholic church (with some important exceptions) was afraid of the implications
of this new technology: Today
we're afraid of people getting the instructions for making bombs over the
Internet. The
fear in the 16th century? that people might read the Bible for themselves: . . Many
Catholic clerics (and the Pope) thought that people needed to prevented from
interpreting the Bible for themselves - they were likely to get it wrong. Lay
people needed to have someone trained in interpreting the scriptures – a friar
or priest – explain the Bible to them. The church had made it illegal to
translated the Bible into the vernacular, into the languages people actually
spoke: (should
only be in Latin, Greek, Hebrew) So you have this situation where a
growing number of people could read in the vernacular; the
church wouldn't let them read the Bible in the vernacular They
suspected that the church merely wanted to keep a monopoly on the word of God -
that in fact that if people read God's word for themselves, they wouldn't need
priests or friars God would speak to them directly.' The Protestants fed this desire
for direct access to the Bible. The first thing Martin Luther did
when he was hiding from the emperor was translate the New Testament into
German. Luther was a wonderful
translator; his translation of the
Bible was almost immediately printed – with the new printing presses. Every German Protestant who could
read – and many who could not – bought a Bible People read it out in the streets; the German language itself took a standard form based on Luther’s
Bible, instead of being separated into many different dialects. Protestants in other countries
translated the Bible into their
vernaculars – French, English. Now
even peasants began to memorize God’s word – and this was indeed dangerous. Not only Luther’s Bible, but his
95 theses and his eloquent pamphlets all were immediately printed, and
distributed. The Protestants became masters at
propaganda - leaflets, posters - aimed against the Catholic church. Fragmented
western Christianity (Catholic v. Protestant, added to Catholic vs. Orthodox) Increasing
emphasis on individualism, even among Catholics (w/ a religious basis; emphasis
on each persons "conscience" as a guide, rather than the Church) Increase
in vernacular literacy: reformers encouraged people to read the Bible, which
they had translated into the vernacular languages; consequently, schools were
established and other forms of vernacular literature that could be used to
teach people to read were developed So for all of these reasons, the
Protestant reformation succeeded much more than any previous anticlerical
movement The
German princes were Luther’s first supporters. These princes were trying to become more independent from their
overlord – the Holy Roman emperor, who considered himself the defender of Catholicism. But
soon Protestantism spread out of the German states to other parts of Europe. John
Calvin – Switzerland Switzerland
– a Frenchman John Calvin, developed Luther’s doctines into a new form
of Protestantism. studied law at Paris at same time as Ignatius Loyola after conversion to Protestantism, went to Geneva produced the Institutes
of the Christian Religion (first edition in 1536) several versions; most systematic expression of the new Protestant
faith (what Calvin lacked in charisma he made up for with his mind) He
emphasized the sinfulness of man – a sinfulness so deep that only God’s grace
could save him, not anything man could do. God saves men not because of any good
behavior on the part of humans or because of the help of any priest, but
because God had chosen to (his grace) Calvinists hoped for
a direct experience of God’s grace – a sort of direct communication from God to
soul, the experience of being saved – which Protestants today still seek.\ Calvin
established the Genevan Academy, which trained pastors who returned to preach
in their native Switzerland, France, the Netherlands, Scotland, England,
Eastern Europe At the
time, England was being ruled by a royal dynasty called the Tudors. The
king was Henry VIII, known mostly for his may wives. Henry
at first fiercely opposed the Protestants: - declared Defender of the Faith in 1525; - wrote treatise against Luther, was granted the title by
the Pope But
they Henry has problem with Pope (1527) He
wanted to get rid of the first of his wives, Catherine. Catherine
had given birth to a daughter, but no live male heir which Henry desperately
wanted. Henry
had also fallen in love with a woman called Anne Boleyn. The
pope refused to grant him the annulment (remember divorce was illegal in
Europe). (and
Catherine had powerful friends:
daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, and aunt of HRE Charles V
(who had occupied Rome and taken the Pope prisoner in 1527, just prior to
Henry's request So King
Henry simply declared himself the head of the Christian church of England. 1534, Act of
Supremacy (by Parliament) makes Henry the supreme ruler of the Church in
England He executed his chancellor - Sir Thomas More – when he objected. martyrdom of a number of
monks who refused to take the Oath of Supremacy Henry
didn’t have any theological quarrel with the Catholic church, he just wanted
his annulment. Henry
had absolutely no sympathy with Martin Luther or John Calvin – But now
that England was separated from Rome, Protestant ideas began to penetrate it,
esp. in the late 16th century. Calvin’s
harsh Protestant doctrine was adopted by English Christians who called
themselves the “pure ones “ – Puritans. The
Puritans had a rather hard time of it in England, since the kingdom had stayed
Catholic in theology, only Protestant in authority. They
were only able to form their “pure” communities successfully in the New World –
in North America, where they were the earliest English colonists to what is now
the United States. II. Catholic church reform The Catholic church took the
accusations of corruption more to heart than it did Martin Luther and John
Calvin's doctrinal innovations. (discipline not doctrine) A. Council of Trent,
1545-1563 - Church council called by Pope
Paul III to address challenge of Protestants the Council of Trent asserted a
very conservative sort of Catholic doctrine. -
that the Eucharist was really (and physically) Christ's body and blood -
that the saints and their relics existed -
that priests (and celibate) were
necessary to intercede between god and man -
and that the authority of the church (esp. pope) determined correct faith - not
just the Bible So in matters of doctrine, the
Catholic church did not budge in response to the Reformation. But in matters of church
discipline, the Council of Trent set out to reform the church. Bishops
were required to live in their dioceses – (they couldn’t just travel around
living like nobles on church revenues). Clerics
should live simply - not in luxury. Each
diocese should have seminaries – schools – to train priests properly
(remember one of demands of peasants of Swabia was trained pastors to teach
them properly) B. The Jesuits So after the Council of Trent, the
Catholics began to reform church discipline. But they were still at a distinct
disadvantage to the Protestants in terms of teaching ordinary Christians about
their faith: Luther
translated the Bible into German - and with the new printing press, it became
an instant best-seller. (before
the Reformation, it had been illegal to translated the Bible into
vernacular) Luther
had set up primary and secondary schools in Germany - paid for by the
cities - to teach people how to read
the Bible. (In
Catholic Europe, schools were few and expensive) So to keep up with the Protestants
the Catholics needed to become better educators. The Jesuits filled this need. The Jesuits were founded by a
Spaniard, Ignatius of Loyola, in 1540 AD. Ignatius, of aristocratic birth,
had started out as a soldier. He got hit by a cannon ball in one
of the wars between Spain and France. When recuperating from the wound,
he began to study religious books (the only thing around to read). He
converted to the religious life and went back to school - to learn Latin. After
only several years at university, he began to teach people: . He
would gather students and adults to explain the Gospels to them and teach them
how to pray This
teaching got him in trouble with the Inquisition: The Inquisition put Ignatius of Loyola
into jail for 42 days . (In
the eyes of Inquisitors, anyone who was teaching and was not ordained was
suspect.) But
Ignatius had better luck getting the reforming popes on his side. In 1540, he got pope Paul III
(same pope who called the Council of Trent) to recognize his small band of
followers as a new monastic order, the Society of Jesus. Within a century, the Jesuits grew
from a small group of 10 to a order of more than 15,000, scattered throughout
the world. The goal of the Jesuits was
threefold: To
reform church through education To
preach Gospel to non-Christians To
fight Protestantism (through words, not the sword) Jesuit schools (educated pope
Urban VIII) The Jesuits founded schools. By late 16th century,
Jesuits had opened schools in Italy, Portugal, the Netherlands, Spain, Germany,
Poland and India. These
were secondary schools and colleges open to non-Catholics as well as Catholics In their schools – they adopted the Renaissance humanist
teaching techniques – learning ancient and modern languages
(including Asian languages like Chiness) critical
reading of texts even
sciences and technology - like
astronomy, gun making (the Chinese welcomed the Jesuits because they taught
them how to make better cannons) And the Jesuits didn’t just try to
teach Europeans – but the entire world
(Hunt 532 - missionaries) Jesuits
went to Japan, China, Africa, the
Americas as missionaries. They
claimed to have converted over 100,000 Japanese to Christianity in the 16th
century (before Japan closed its borders to outsiders in 17th
century). Often the
non-Europeans welcomed the Jesuits to learn other things besides religion -
like how to make cannons or clocks. Because of missionaries like the
Jesuits, Catholic missionaries will lead new conversions to Christianity, not
the Protestants. C. Poland and religious tolerance Poland is the best example of how
Jesuits helped stem tide of Protestantism without violence. Now Polish Commonwealth in the 16th
century, was the largest state in Europe in area; as large
in population (10 million) as Italy and Iberia, twice as big as England. Most of its population was
Catholic, but Poland's rulers had long practiced religious toleration: ( remember the Jews fled to
Poland/Lithuania after being driven out of most of rest of Europe in 14th
and 15th centuries) When the Protestant Reformation
began in the 16th century, a large portion of the upper classes of
Poland got interested (esp. Calvinism) By
1550's, a majority of the Polish Parliament (the Seym) were Protestants. Even
radical Protestants - like the Anabaptists and Memmonites were allowed into
Poland. The Catholic bishops of Poland
responded to this influx of Protestants with toleration. Some
shared their churches with Lutherans. Some
let people indulge in whatever religion they wanted as long as they paid their
church taxes: The
bishop of Krakow - "I don't care if you worship a goat, as long as you
keep paying your tithes" In one famous case, a man (an
Arian) was brought before the Polish Parliament for stamping on the Eucharist
during a Catholic procession. The Parliament decided that if God
was offended, God should be the one to punish him. In 1539 - king declared freedom of
the press at main university of Poland (Jagiellon) - at a time when no other
state in Europe allowed freedom of the press. Even the new scientific ideas
were tolerated in 16th century Poland. (Hunt 527) Nicolaus
Copernicus was a Polish clergyman in 16th
century. With
support of a Polish archbishop, he studied astronomy. Copercinus
figured out that the earth revolved around the sun - instead of the sun
revolving around the earth (as in Ptolemy and the Bible). (A
generation later, Galileo would get thrown into prison by the Inquisition for
the same idea in Italy) OK, so you have this large
powerful kingdom allowing freedom of thought and religion in the 16th
century, and letting a large portion of its population become Protestant,
Orthodox Christian, and so on. And yet, by the late 17th century, most people of Poland are
Catholic again. The reason that Poland remained
Catholic is above all the Jesuits. Jesuits
arrived in 1564. They began to publish books and
found schools. They
had founded 40 colleges by 17th century - they didn't charge tuition
and allowed people of all faiths to enter them. By
the 17th century, they were the main educators of the upper classes
of Poland. The
Jesuits also got the Polish peasantry on their side - preaching that they
shouldn't be oppressed. By
the mid 17th century, the Catholics were fully in charge of Poland -
other religions were still tolerated - but Catholics were favored for getting
governmental posts and serving in Parliament. Poland is the best example of peaceful
means being used to change or maintain people's religion. It
practiced religious toleration largely
because its kings were weak But Poland was the exception in
Europe, not the rule. In rest of Europe, Protestants and
Catholics spent a good portion of the late 16th and 17th
centuries killing one another.
A.
POPULAR OUTRAGE AT CORRUPTION OF THE CHURCH
Catholic
prohibition on vernacular Bibles
Luther’s
translation of Bible into German
Signficance
of Reformation
B. SPREAD
OF PROTESTANTISM
German principalities
Protestantism
spreads to England
Lutheran and Calvinist ideas and preachers were making their
way into England by the 1530's.
Henry
VIII
Puritans
Origin
of Jesuits