The Impact of the Protestant Reformation
There is much discussion of the individual now being able to study Scripture for himself or herself. This not only affected their view of the church but also the state. How has this influenced how we in America today view freedom, government, and rights?
If you include sources, cite them in current APA format. This assignment must be 250–300
CH-19 Impact of Protestant Reformation
Introduction We have seen thus far in Western Culture that the values of a culture will determine the people’s behavior and the country’s actions. One of the most important paradigm shifts that occurred within Western Culture was the Protestant Reformation. It impacted all of Europe’s religious views, as well as the way people viewed their cultural identity, government, and individual rights and freedoms. For the first time in their history, they began to question from where these rights and freedoms came. Thus, the Protestant Reformation was a worldview changing event for Europe as well as for the early immigrants to America. This major paradigm shift occurred across the European continent in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries and produced a radical change in the people’s manner of looking at the world, as well as their concept of God and government. The spirit of reform that broke out with surprising intensity gave birth to Protestantism and shattered the papal leadership of Western Christendom. This movement of protesting the Pope and the Catholic belief system had been mounting since the fifteenth century and earlier. People often believe that this alteration was primarily driven by Martin Luther of Germany, but many others throughout Northern Europe and England influenced this movement as well. Had this Reformation given people a new view of freedom not only from the religious perspective, but also from an individual rights vision, apart from the king’s or states’ demands?
Individuals reside in a defined culture that in most cases is generational and expected, as well as comfortable and secure. This human condition of security helps determine and understand the cultural values of the time period and how these cultural values can and will determine individual behavior. Cultural changes do not occur overnight and the Protestant Reformation did not transpire within a vacuum, as it had its roots planted in soils dating back hundreds of years. When we look at the European continent today with its numerous countries, we see individual realms with a variety of beliefs, cultures, and traditions. This present day view of the continent, which is the birth place of Western Civilization, is not what the continent appeared between the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Of course, we see some of the individual countries mentioned in earlier centuries and even divided into similar regions on our maps, but the cultures within these countries were very similar, being heavily influenced by the Roman Catholic Church. By studying the culture of the people during major upheavals such as the Protestant Reformation, one can discover the sum total of the common things that connect people together in a society. When the Protestant Reformation swept across Europe, it had a tremendous effect on most areas of the culture in the various European countries. Culture was changed and people’s values were affected, including what they were willing to live and die for in the end.
Influence and Impact
The Protestant Reformation spread rapidly throughout European culture, and within a short time numerous areas on the continent had been greatly affected. Often, radical changes that impact a large group of people take centuries, yet the Protestant Reformation surged quickly in its influence on the European continent. There is still much debate revolving around the causes of this vast movement and why it spread so rapidly, creating in its wake a people willing to be martyred for newfound beliefs based upon the individual’s freedom to choose. Some may argue it is because of the growth of the nationalized state, while others believe it was in revolt against the corruption of the Catholic Church. There was an ardent passion that these early Protestants developed very rapidly, based
on the newly established doctrine of the believer—a belief they were willing to give their lives and freedom for (Smith, 1955). It is also important to remember that the Protestant Revolution might have had its early beginnings in Germany, but it quickly spread past national borders to become a European movement. The European Plague in the century before had created a sense of despair in many areas of Europe, where death had been a way of life for many years. The people were yearning for something that could give them a faith and assurance, which the tutelage of the Protestant leaders offered. The martyrs of the Reformation as well as the people of this time found something that gave them “‘marvelous comfort and quietness’ in the intimate knowledge of a God more merciful and more powerful than the visible church” (Smith, 1955, p. 212). Luther was not the first voice for reformation of the Church. Men such as John Huss,
Wycliffe’s follower, paid with their lives because of their proclamations for reform. The origins of the Protestant Reformation are found primarily in Luther’s religion and the country of Germany, but as previously mentioned, other regions of the European continent would follow Luther’s example in a few short years. The Reformed Reformers, such as John Calvin, would set this earlier foundational reformation in a more far-reaching crusade throughout his home base of Geneva and other European countries (Shelley, 1995). Various other Reformers would be classified as Radical Reformers as they pushed the newfound freedom of the individual to the next level. The English Reformation was very real as well, but for different reasons than religious freedom of the individual to worship as Scripture directed. The English Reformation would begin as the English Church broke away from the Church of Rome, but not over some high theological dispute like justification or the interpretation of Scripture.
England’s Reformation The religious views of England had not been affected by the Protestant Reformation to the same degree as many countries on the European mainland, but it had some influence nonetheless. England was under the papal umbrella. Bishops, as well as various other religious officials in the Catholic Church, played a major role in the lives of the people, as well as the monarch (Solt, 1990). Henry the VIII broke away from the Catholic Church, not based on doctrinal issues, but because he desired to divorce his wife and remarry Anne Boleyn in order to conceive a possible heir. King Henry did not dislike the Catholic doctrine. In fact, he continued to insist upon Catholic doctrine within the realm. Instead, his goal was an English Catholic Church instead of a Roman Catholic Church. Unknowingly, Henry greatly helped the Protestant Reformation when he ordered that an English Bible be installed in all churches. The authorization of the translated English Bible by Henry VIII created widespread excitement within some groups of people. Henry VIII tried to regulate the reading of this Bible to wealthy merchants and aristocrats only, but greater freedom was just a matter of time (Shelley, 1995). England was now considered Protestant, not based on the teachings of leaders like Luther but upon a break from the pope. Henry VIII took on the role of the Pope in England and became known as the “Supreme Head” of the Anglican Church (Solt, 1990). Although the monarch would shift back and forth from Catholic to Anglican rule, ultimately the Church of England would take hold. The English Channel was not wide enough to stop the influence of the Protestant
Reformation’s view of religious freedom, which had spread to many areas on the European mainland. Various views that had developed from exiles that had migrated from the Rhineland and Switzerland began to emerge within the various articles of faith within the Church of England. This separation from the Catholic Church would ultimately lead to various influences by the Protestant Reformation that had developed on the European mainland, such as the newly emerging belief in the freedom of the individual. The search for freedom may have progressed from a different source, but had its beginnings in the underlying current of the Reformation: the doctrines of Scripture alone, freedom of individuals to worship is they saw fit, and the right of liberty. During these turbulent times in England (1500s) a group known as the Puritans emerged. With them, they brought many of the teachings of Calvin through Parliament to be added to the articles of the Church of England (Solt, 1990). Many of these individuals took a very radical stance on the rights of the individual and a general attitude of persecution developed towards them. Consequently, some of the Puritans migrated to England and settled into safe Reformation communities, where a general intermingling occurred. There appears to be a merging of ideas that went back and forth from these two areas, both of them influencing each other and shaping the vision of the future, while men and women searched for a country where they could truly live free.
The Catholic
Church’s Response How did the Church of Rome respond to this Reformation that appeared to be spreading out of its control? The response initially appeared to be nonexistent because the usual threats and intimidation of heretics appeared to be ineffective and unable to stem the tide of this Reformation heresy. In the early sixteenth century, the Church of Rome did not seem to be interested in reform or change, which appeared to be due to the politics of Emperor Charles V and the Pope. When the Pope realized the seriousness of this rebellion, Pope Paul III assembled the Council of Trent, which was called to examine doctrine of the Church and possible areas of reform. Charles V wanted the Reformers unrest looked at first in an attempt to please the Protestants and hopefully tempt them back to the Church.
The Protestant movement hoped that the participants of the Council of Trent would realize that their view of Scripture alone, (Sola Scriptura) would be enough to convince the Catholic Church leadership to change their view of Scripture as well. This was not to be the case, however, as the Council insisted on the supreme teaching of the Roman Church, the Pope and Bishops, as the essential interpreters of the Bible (Shelly, 1995). Obviously, those in power did not want to lose it, so only the issues that the Pope acknowledged were focused on. However, some minor reformation was implemented by this council (Trueman, 2000). The threat to the Church’s power was also addressed by Catholic writers who began
a “pamphlet war.” This was an intense period of activity in which each side, Catholics and Reformers, bombarded each other with cheap, mass-produced works of religious propaganda. About sixty Catholic writers were involved in this campaign, and between them they produced over two hundred books and pamphlets against the Reformation, mainly Luther (Bahghi, 2000). The Protestant Reformation created a power loss for the Catholic Church in Northern Europe, and forced submission and threats were all the Church had to rely on to corral the Reformers. The weakness of the office of Pope that had been created by years of abuse had generated a spiritual vacuum that had to be rectified before change within the Church would be able to occur and a counter to the Protestant Reformation movement could be implemented. There were also political issues involving Emperor Charles V that had to be dealt with before a serious effort could be executed to challenge this threat to the Church. The Church did mount a Catholic Reformation, which some say was in response to the
Protestant Reformation and others describe as a genuine revival of Catholic piety, but regardless of the reason, it did occur. The Protestant Reformation had its heroes and its outspoken leaders, but the Catholic Church had its frontrunners as well. Thomas More, the English lawyer and statesman, had a remarkable influence in his position. Francis of Sales proved to be highly effective in his debates and interaction with the Calvinists as well (Pernin, 1909). Perhaps the most influential of all the Catholic responders was Ignatius Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits. As a recognized order, this Society of Jesus had one mission: to restore the Roman Catholic Church to the position of spiritual power and worldly influence it had held in centuries past. This mission was twofold—to convert the heathen and to reconvert Protestant Europe (Shelly, 1995). This order of the Roman Catholic Church was very efficient in its military-like discipline in order to accomplish the mission that lay before them. Many of the people on both sides of this conflict were convinced that religious truth
was identifiable and would be found and taught. Error was on one side of the debate and truth stood on the other. The Catholic Church and the Protestant movement both thought that they had the truth on their side. In this conflict over the interpretation of Scripture and teachings, there were inquisitions, persecution, and civil wars within provinces and countries so the Church could keep its power and authority. On the philosophical front in the sixteenth century, the Jesuits and Calvinists led the charge for the hearts and minds of the people. The Protestants viewed these reactions as a counter-Reformation, while the Catholic Church preferred to see them as just a reformation of their church, and certainly not influenced by the Protestant Reformation. Regardless of the true reason for the minor changes that occurred within the Roman Catholic Church, many of them had their roots long before Luther’s teachings. Some of the events in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries would lead to shifts in knowledge, shifts in worldview, and major paradigm shifts regarding the church
Changes within Society and Church
For centuries, the Roman Catholic Church had been able to control the people’s behavior through fear, indulgences, purgatory, and threats of excommunication. The Church had also been able to control many of the princes and kings through the same types of intimidation, but by power and money as well. The Church sought to manipulate the
secular aspects of society, resulting in an unholy alliance between the Pope and the secular leadership within numerous countries in Europe. The citizens were caught in the middle of this alliance, and from the viewpoint of the common people both areas of leadership tried to restrict their every action. The Black Death of the fourteenth century had created a feeling of uncertainty, and the protection that many Recreated Gutenberg press in Teutonic castle in Gniew, Poland. people had received from the Church and Kings had vanished. Most of the people were illiterate regarding the Scriptures and really just believed what the Church and state told them. But the invention of the printing press in the fifteenth century created an avenue for some to hear and read what Scripture really said. Luther and the Protestant Reformation presented a view of the Church as having returned to its early state as a community of Christian believers in which all are priests called to offer spiritual sacrifices to God themselves. This view would not only disrupt the people’s understanding of the Church, but also begin to unravel the relationship that had existed between the Church, state, and people for centuries. In the early fifteenth century, pamphlets began to circulate that agreed with Luther’s view of the Catholic Church, which promoted new dogmas such as opposing prayer to the saints and contrasted the Word of God with papal customs. Some of the promoters of these pamphlets had not read enough of Luther’s writing to even understand or comprehend the principles he was teaching. Many encouraged the closing of monasteries and the return of lands believed to have been extorted from the people (Pettegree, 2003). The belief behind this was that once the clerical properties were repossessed there would be enough for everyone, even the poor peasantry. In certain areas, the peasants actually defaced and even destroyed the monasteries because the Catholic Church had no power to control them anymore. In a sense, they blamed the Catholic Church for many of their problems, even when their problems were not actually the Church’s fault. The princes, nobles, and other secular political figures encouraged these views, so that they could increase their own power as well as their income. From many peasants’ perspectives, the Church and the lords had kept their boots on the peasants’ necks long enough. The end result was the Peasants War of 1525, which was not really a war but more like a feud.
Bands of resisters and disgruntled individuals were encouraged by these persuasive pamphlets and began to initiate boycotts and uprisings, both against the Church and the lords. Invigorated by the Reformers’ concept of the freedom of a Christian man, which the peasants applied to economics and social spheres as well, they revolted against their own lords, seeking the abolition of serfdom in their desire for freedom. Many based these newfound beliefs on the principles set forth by the Reformer of going to Scripture to find guidelines on how to live. Unless it could be found in Scripture and justified by the gospel, there should be a relief from the excessive services demanded of them (Shelley, 1995). This revolt against the Church and lords resulted in thousands of peasant deaths.
New Philosophy
Luther promoted individualism in the area of religious freedom, but many people applied it to political freedom as well. This was an important philosophy that developed early in the Protestant Reformation—new visions of freedom of the individual to choose how to live. This belief was something that had not even been conceivable in earlier generations. Luther had encouraged the people to read and study the Scriptures for themselves, and it would not be long before many people on the European continent were doing just that, concluding that no state government should tell them how to worship or put burdens on them. Many people were ready for this vision of freedom, but the leaders of many countries were not. This resulted in some people looking for a place where their religious and political freedom would be recognized. They had been introduced to a belief that they were willing to die for if necessary, and the European continent would never be the same.
The Reformation spread rapidly because late medieval Europe was like wood soaked with gasoline, just waiting for the spark that would set the culture ablaze. But while the Protestant Reformation had a tremendously positive impact on society, it had its share of negative attributes—including “an apathy towards matters seemingly removed from the concerns of day to day survival or in others to an unthinking conservatism, a desire to keep a hold of Mother Church for fear of finding something worse”(Pettegree, 2003, p. 97). Often, we study the history of the Protestant Reformation and assume that a majority of the people wanted to be involved in this movement. But that was not the case. Comparatively, few people migrated to America; a majority of the population may not have liked the status quo, but were unwilling to leave its comforts and familiarity. This Reformation begun by Luther created unrest in many areas of the culture, but two areas that would result in violence involved the Imperial Knights Revolt and the German Peasants Revolt. The Knights Revolt was much less violent, but did involve some deaths of individuals who took a stand for less obvious reasons (Davies, 1996). The Imperial Knights had been in decline for years because of the various social changes occurring with the European culture, including the feudal aristocracy and the need for a Knight in shining armor. The political conditions in Germany were not like they were in England, resulting in no strong central government in Germany to set priorities regarding taxes and property. This resulted in conflict between the knight, princes, and the Church. Knights such as Schaumberg and Sickingen were key leaders of this revolt and stood with Luther and his reformation (Stayer, 2000). They supported Luther without a detailed grasp of his ideas, advocating for the use of the German language in both worship and communion for the laity, opposing prayers to the saints, and contrasting the Word of God with papal customs. The Knights Revolt was short-lived, but the knightly anti-monastic propaganda and attacks on the tithes in pamphlets, along with the refusal of payment in the villages, led inexorably to the sacking of monasteries that marked the beginning of the Peasant’s War (Stayer, 2000). Change was on the horizon both politically and religiously. Many of the peasants who had struggled for this newfound freedom became disillusioned with Luther and his followers and returned to the safety and security of the Catholic Church. Others moved to safer areas of the European continent and turned to various other Reformation teachings, some being more radical than those Luther had promoted. The Protestant Reformation brought to the forefront ideas that few individuals had pondered, including the freedom of a man to not only choose how to worship God, but also the belief that man should have a say in how he is governed. There were some negative aspects of the movements, but the positive aspects would travel all the way to America in a few short years.
Martin Luther and His Influence on the Reformation Let’s look at the man credited with beginning the key event in Western Culture known as the Protestant Reformation. We shall see that Luther’s desire for the Catholic Church and Pope was for them to accept his views and change their attitudes, as well as the Church’s doctrines, to fit the truths that he had found in Scripture. The Pope and Catholic Church were certainly not interested in any changes being made within their organization, and no kind of compromise or appeasement was an option. To the Pope, Luther and his followers were the ones who needed a belief change, and not the Catholic Church.
Luther Takes a Stand
On October 31, 1517, a disillusioned Augustinian monk named Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the door of the castle church at Wittenberg, Germany (MacCulloch, 2003). It was the tradition in that time period to post for debate and discussion current political and theological topics of the day on the church doors. These 95 propositions regarding the Catholic Church set forth by this lone monk would ignite a flame that would not be extinguished by the Church or the state. The Pope responded to this threat to the Church in the summer of 1520 with a Papal Bull, calling Luther a “wild boar invading a vineyard,” and condemning him and his heretical writings and views; the Pope called Luther to repent and repudiate his errors or face the dreadful consequences (Shelly, 1995). Luther responded to this by refusing to retract anything and preaching with even more boldness, fanning the fire of the Protestant Reformation throughout all of Germany and beyond its borders. There have been many books and numerous studies on Luther and his impact on the Protestant Reformation. It is true that some of these stories are slightly exaggerated, but most of what we know about Luther has been documented in historical documents and through Luther’s own writing and sermons. The Protestant Reformation would forever change the way some people viewed the Church and state, resulting in much of what the Pope feared coming to fruition. Luther was a man for the times and the times were ripe for a change—a paradigm shift in the way the people viewed the Church, the state, and their world. When historians study history, they must review the context of all events and see how they interacted with each other in order to see how each was affected. It is certainly an undertaking to evaluate actions that occurred hundreds of year ago and put them in a proper perspective for current study. When we look back at the event known as the Protestant Reformation, we see how it was just a matter of time before it occurred in Europe. But during this time period, there was turmoil and what Culture-Epoch Theory would call chaos. We remember that this theory says that a culture is founded upon whatever conception of reality is held by the great majority of its people over a considerable period of time (Lamb, 2004). This view describes how a culture will progress from chaos to periods of adjustments, ending in periods of overall balance; all function with greater or lesser impact throughout the entire time period. The generation before the Protestant Reformation was a time period when people knew their place in society and how to view the Church and state. The chaos created by Reformers like Luther spurred a questioning of worldviews and the philosophies that underlie the basic institutions of Church and state, along with a disharmony that developed between them (Davies, 1996). A twenty-first century version of this concept was illustrated on a smaller scale in a book written by Malcolm Gladwell called Tipping Point. Gladwell used the illustration of the tipping point to describe a dramatic moment when little causes drive the unexpected to become the expected and propel the idea of radical change to certain acceptance (Gladwell, 2002). This tipping point usually involves a connector, or someone who has influence or knows many people and can bring them together (Gladwell, 2002). In the case of the Protestant Reformation, Martin Luther was that man, as he was in the position to influence and became known by people all over Europe because of his writings about the individual and the Catholic Church. Even this method of mass communication was not available until the printing press was invented in the mid-fifteenth century. Luther had a tremendous influence on his cultural landscape in the areas of religion and politics, and this inspiration would continue throughout future generations. Luther’s tipping point was the selling of Indulgences by the Pope, to help pay for the building of St. Peter’s Basilica. In 1516, Johann Tetzel, a Dominican friar and papal commissioner for indulgences, was sent to Germany by the Roman Catholic Church to sell indulgences to raise money to rebuild St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. Indulgences were offered as basically a grant by the Pope of remission of the temporal punishment in purgatory still due for sins after absolution. In other words, it was a way to reduce the amount of punishment one has to undergo for sins in purgatory. The unrestricted sale of indulgences by pardoners was a widespread abuse during this time period. Luther’s teachings on the Pope and the Church would forever change how they would be viewed by European Christians. The Lutheran movement may have appeared to capture the majority of German hearts and minds, but it is important to remember that many, perhaps the majority, proved hostile to its message. Luther was excommunicated from the Catholic Church in 1520, but this did not slow his attacks upon Catholic doctrines, especially on the selling of indulgences by Johann Tetzel and others as they gathered money for the papal building projects that had really precipitated his earlier 95 Thesis in 1517 (Davies, 1996). Luther’s preaching was tolerated to a certain extent by the Pope, but when Luther began to affect the Church’s money gathering, the Pope stepped in. The Papal Bull that condemned Luther and his writings was done by listing forty-one statements taken from Luther’s writings that were to be regarded as variously heretical, scandalous, false, offensive to pious ears, misleading to simple minds, or contrary to Catholic truth (Bahghi, 2000)
Reformation’s Effect on European Thinking
Luther’s teaching and writings had also been critical of the demands the Church and established authorities had put upon the people, but he never intended for them to rebel against the princes in Germany. Luther was caught in the middle because he needed the princes for protection and wanted the peasants to have economic relief—but he by no means wanted the people to use violence to gain their freedom. Luther sided with the princes and condemned the peasants by calling upon the princes to knock down, strangle, and stab the insurgents (MacCulloch, 2003). Many peasants felt that Luther had betrayed them because he told them to search the Scripture for truth, which some had done and found nowhere that said they should be so mistreated by the authorities. Some returned to Catholicism, while others turned to more radical forms of reformation (Davies, 1996). The Protestant Reformation helped create a German nationalism that would strengthen the future Lutheran Church, as well as produce an attitude of statehood that would affect other countries in Europe as well. We hear much about the English and German Reformations, but on the European continent it was local concerns and circumstances that determined how the reformers’ ideas were received and how the new religious dispensation was implemented (Taplin, 2000). Switzerland was not an organized country as we know it today, but in the sixteenth century consisted of a Swiss Confederation that was a loose and constantly evolving alliance of sovereign territories. The Protestant movement spread to this region and took on numerous characteristics in various parts of the Swiss area. Many of these newfound Protestant churches shared many similar teachings but were not necessarily the same in organization or even theology, as they often followed the view of whomever founded the local gathering. A young charismatic figure named Zwingli rose to prominence in the early 1500s and developed a following, but the Swiss Reformation was a gradual process with no set doctrine (MacMulloch, 2003). Zwingli had read much of Luther’s writing and was influenced by much of what he read, but issues such as the Eucharist created some barriers for total acceptance of all of Luther’s views. Although Switzerland was still under Catholic dominance in the sixteenth century, many radical reformers who had come from Germany and the rest of Europe would create a country that would convert to Protestantism in the near future. Eastern Europe was profoundly affected by the Protestant Reformation and the many teachings of Martin Luther during the early and mid-sixteenth century. There were some very positive changes in these eastern European societies and the people enjoyed a more relaxed, less legalistic worship style (Shelly, 1995). The Catholic Church would recover much of its lost ground in the early seventeenth century, but a variety of Protestant churches emerged from localized reform initiatives across the region, and no single Protestant group proved to be strong enough to completely eclipse the Catholic Church. There would be much blood shed in these two centuries in the name of religion as the Catholics sought to gain control and the Protestants sought to be their own decider of their faith (Murdoch, 2000). No prominent leader like Zwingli would surface, but several groups from Bohemia, such as the Moravians, would survive and later migrate to America for true religious freedom without persecution. France presented a different context as it dealt with the Protestant Reformation and the doctrines of Sola Fide and Sola Scriptura. There were no Protestant churches in France before 1555, as the Reformation doctrines were able to penetrate France despite official repression but failed to produce a new religious order (Reid, 2000). The early reformers in France held similar doctrine to their counterparts in Germany and Switzerland, but contemplated no schism from the Catholic Church. They sought to renew the church from within, not separate. Not until after John Calvin appeared in France teaching a clear system of Reformed doctrine, which appeared to be more along the lines of a model church, were some reformers willing to reject Catholicism (Davies, 1996). The religious battleground was very evident in France, much more so than in the Swiss and German regions. France had a king to dole out punishment and control the people via an organized effort, which allowed the Catholic Church to keep the Reformers at bay for many years (Skinner, 1978).
John Calvin had a tremendous influence on many of the French peoples’ views of the Reformation, but he was forced to flee to Geneva; regardless, he would have a tremendous impact on the French peoples’ view of the Reformation. After Calvin gained political ascendancy in Geneva, he was allowed to send over 200 missionaries to France, which allowed for some French Protestant Churches to be formed (Reid, 2000). We will see that the country of England was not immediately affected by the Lutheran Reformation, but would have a Reformation of its own, begun by Henry the VII in a power struggle with the Pope. The Protestant Reformation truly changed culture, especially on the European continent. Many historians and theologians mention both positive and negative results of this historic event, but neither would be able to agree upon them. It is hard to say if the Reformation caused the Peasants Revolt, or if the humanistic side of the culture actually set this event into motion by past movements. The Reformation forced the Catholic Church to become less secular and reform its spiritual foundation, as well as encouraging them to begin sending thousands of missionaries worldwide (Bagchi, 2000). Within this movement, the Protestants created an attitude of direct access to God through Christ, as well as what we now know as denominations. Individual countries began to take on a more nationalistic view, which helped the people within these countries. One of the most important aspects of the Reformation was the teachings on the rights of the individual and the freedoms that each person should have, including the freedom to worship God as Scripture directed (MacCulloch, 2003). This belief would develop credence as the right to worship as an individual saw fit, even if the state did not approve of it. This particular freedom was hard to find on the European continent and resulted in many people looking for a place where they could live out this worldview. The newly discovered land called North America would be that country, which would result in a westward migration to settle in this future home of the truly free. There were many positive results emanating from the Protestant Reformation both politically and religiously, but cultural changes are often not easy. The loss of lives is never easy to accept and is almost always negative, making it difficult to ever say that it was a positive event. The persecution and killing of individuals who disagreed with the Catholic Church or Protestant dogma was a very negative result of the Reformation. Hundreds of thousands of lives were lost in wars and revolts occurring on the European continent in the name of religion. Both Catholics and Protestants alike believed they were part of the true Church and used force to accomplish their goals. Many religious scholars say that the Reformation created a schism within the Church that can never be repaired and should never have happened. This is truly a negative aspect of the movement, as we are still reaping the effects of this division even today. The Reformation of the sixteenth century was far more than an effort to correct doctrine that had become distorted after the period of the “pristine” early Christian Church. There was also a concerted attempt to reform people’s behavior (Karant, 2000). When authorities or leaders try to control people’s behavior, abuse often occurs, and in some instances was present in the Reformation. The debate over whether there were more positive or negative effects resulting from the Protestant Reformation may never be known, but the Reformation did answer several vital questions for mankind in a new way. The four questions that Protestantism answered in a new way are: How is a person saved? Where does religious authority lie? What is the Church? What is the essence of Christian living? (Shelly, 1995). Babcock (2011) stated the following: Luther’s teaching and the heart of the Reformation are really summed up in two Latin phrases. The first phrase is sola scriptura, which means “only Scripture,” or “by Scripture alone.” The idea here is that only Scripture is authoritative for life and practice, for faith and doctrine. Not the teachings of the Church, not the edicts of the Pope, but only Scripture. If you can’t justify it by Scripture, then what business do you have teaching it as the doctrine of the Church? The other Latin phrase, so important to understand the teaching of the Reformation, is sola fide, which means “by faith alone.” This means that we come to salvation only through faith in Christ, not through the Church’s mediation, but only through faith. (p. 211) As mentioned earlier, the Protestant Reformation affected the religious and political landscape of England and the European continent for centuries. Many worldviews would never be the same, and the rights of the individual in relationship to God and the state were forever altered. Freedom and democracy were now branded into the minds and language of the societies making up Western Civilization and would determine their destinies for years to come.
Prominent Individuals of the Protestant Reformation
The Protestant Reformation that began in the 1500s with Luther may have impacted the Catholic Church more than other earlier movements, but it was certainly not the first outward voice against the Church or Pope. John Wycliffe of England denounced the worldliness of the Popes and emphasized the spiritual freedom of the righteous man as early as the fourteenth century. Because his teaching had spread and gained some popular support among the people, the Church authorities had the good sense not to move against him and he was able to live out his life in his parish. Wycliffe’s impact would be evident in England in the next century because of his influence at Oxford, where he had the Latin Bible translated into English (Carpenter, Lahey, and Luscombe, 2003). The compelling teachings of Wycliffe would make their way to the mainland of Europe as well as Bohemia, where they would be joined with a strong national party led by John Hus. Hus, a Czech Reformer, would come into prominence when he taught and wrote that Christ, not the Pope, was the head of the church. Hus’s stand would result in his being burned at the stake in 1415, but produced the formation of a more moderate and militant wing that clashed with the Roman Catholic Church and German Empire for the next century (Pettegree, 2003). The wave of the revolt inspired by Wycliffe and Hus was crushed, but there was a remnant left that would influence, accept, and encourage the Protestant Reformation led by Luther and others in the next century.
Some of the prominent individuals of the Protestant Reformation include men such as Calvin, Zwingli, and Melanchthon. These three men stand out as leaders within the movement who left their marks in history while providing a needed doctrinal stance. They were not afraid to confront the Catholic Church head on if necessary. Melanchthon was a conspicuous German Reformer who developed into one of the most intellectual leaders of the Lutheran Reformation (MacCulloch, 2003). Luther had personally invited Melanchthon to become an instructor and professor at the University of Wittenburg, where he became a theologian as well as an intellectual equal to Erasmus. Melanchthon is known for much of what he was able to accomplish and his contribution to education, but he is best known for his work on the Augsburg Confession, one of the most significant documents of the Protestant Reformation (Davies, 1996). The Augsburg Confession was brought before the Diet of Augsburg in about 1530, and contained the main teachings and doctrine of Luther and the Lutheran Church. While the Confession was based on Luther’s articles, it was mainly the work of Melanchthon. Charles V had called on the German princes to expound upon their religious principles in an attempt to reestablish the political and religious union of the Holy Roman Empire (Tlusty, 2012). This Confession that had been assembled by Melanchthon became the primary confessional document of Lutheran development in Germany, and would impact the overall Protestant Reformation as well. Melanchthon was able to categorize Luther’s thoughts and defend them in public in a logical manner, as well as develop these ideas into a basis for religious education (Graybill, 2010). Although he is not as well known as other Reformers, Melanchthon was very influential in the progress and impact of the Protestant Reformation and Lutheranism.
Geneva’s Calvin
Calvin is someone that has been associated with the Protestant Reformation ever since his arrival to the town of Geneva in the early 1500s. His writings and teachings not only affected culture during his lifetime, but also impacted many societies well into the twenty-first century. Calvin’s accomplishments are too many to count, along with his writings and doctrines. However, I would like to share a glimpse into his life so that we can get a feel of who he was and what some of his foundational beliefs were. Various individuals consider Calvin a second-generation reformer because he was twenty-six years younger than Luther. Luther was from Germany and his impact was first felt in this area, only to spread to other areas of Europe a little later. Calvin read many of Luther’s writings and was influenced greatly by them, but because he was from France, his impact quickly spread to other countries throughout Europe (Backus, 2008). Luther’s central doctrine on justification by faith and not works was also central to Calvin’s teachings, but Calvin emphasized the sovereignty of God in all of man’s decisions. Calvin was also influenced by the Swiss Reformer Zwingli, which influenced many of his views about the state and religion. In Calvin’s early days, he was run out of France because of his teachings against the Catholic Church and the government. He settled in Geneva where he was given the opportunity to implement his views on Christian living, church discipline, and guiding secular authorities in spiritual matters. Calvin disagreed with some of Luther’s disciples on the Lord’s Supper, election, and other Reformation doctrines, but they had similar enough views to avoid a major rift within the Reformation (Graybill, 2010). Calvin not only had a major impact on religion, but also significantly influenced how the government was set up. Shelley (1995) stated: Calvinism’s emphasis upon the sovereignty of God led in turn to a special view of the state. Luther tended to consider the state supreme. The German princes often determined where and how the gospel would be preached. But Calvin taught that no man, whether pope or king, has any claim to absolute power. Calvin never preached the “right of revolution,” but he did encourage the growth of representation assemblies and stressed their right to resist the tyranny of monarchs. Calvinist resistance to the exercise of arbitrary power by monarchs was a key factor in the development of modern constitutional governments. (p. 261) Calvin’s view of church and government would lead to his belief that the sovereignty of God within his church should allow his disciples to guide the secular authorities in spiritual matters. This would result in Calvin’s followers going throughout Europe and challenging false religion and restrictive governments at every opportunity (Johnson, 1991). Calvin’s views on Christian living, religion, and the government were especially influential in England, Switzerland, Scotland, and later, Colonial America. Calvin’s English followers would be known as the Puritans, and in France they were known as the Huguenots, and were significantly persecuted by the king and Catholic Church (Davies, 1996). Calvin’s teachings on the sovereignty of God and the freedom of the individual to worship and live as one saw fit would have an impact on many groups migrating to America in search of such freedoms. It would also influence the type of government that would later develop within this newly developing country known as the United States.
Switzerland’s Zwingli
Many people today believe that during the Protestant Reformation, a majority of the religious leaders who opposed the Catholic Church had a similar stance on the new doctrines that were developing. Because many of this religious leaders had different backgrounds and religious foundations, their persuasions were similar but varied in some key areas. Enough dissimilarities were present to create arguments on occasion. The common threads being Sola Scriptura, justification by faith alone, and a need for change in the worship of God. For example, Luther was involved with the Catholic Church as many others were, but Calvin’s background was in law, and he later developed into a theologian and pastor. Calvin did not seek to change the Church from within, but sought to develop what he thought were the correct guidelines for Christian living. Zwingli, a Swiss Reformer, was raised in eastern Switzerland and became a priest in a parish. He sought to influence the Church from within, much like Luther. But like Luther, Zwingli realized that the Church was not willing to change, so he began to work outside of the Church. Zwingli managed to master Greek and some Hebrew at his parish. He was influenced by the writings of Erasmus, which inspired his belief of how God intended Christianity to be an engine of change and improvement in human society (MacCulloch, 2003). Zwingli’s early views and writing were mainly Ulrich (also spelled Huldrych) Zwingli (1484-1531) led the Reformation movement in Switzerland. his own and not Luther’s, because it is recorded that he made a point not to read Luther’s works in his early preaching, as he did not want to be negatively influenced by issues that he may not have agreed with or accepted (Backus, 2008). By the early 1500s, Zwingli began to preach concepts on reforming the Catholic Church and initiated a political movement against the Catholic Church for hiring Swiss mercenary troops for wars. His views of the Eucharist and other doctrine set him apart from Luther, but did not dampen his influence on the Reformed Church then and now. Gabler (1986) stated: Luther had made a sharp contrast between law and the Gospel message of Christ, so sharp that on occasion he was prepared to say that God had destroyed Jerusalem in ancient times as a divine judgment on the Jewish law. Zwingli begin to teach and emphasize that there were human commandments within the Catholic Church such as lent, that were not commanded in Scripture. These commands of the Church were thus human commands which might or might not be observed but which obscured the real laws of God in the Gospel if it was made compulsory. Zwingli called the Bible the Divine Law; the Law represented the will of God. So, from this pronouncement, which openly identified Zwingli with the development revolution, he was proclaiming the difference between Zwingli Reformation and the paradoxical message of Luther. (p. 53) Zwingli clashed with the Anabaptists and others radical reformers that were emerging within Swiss territories in the early sixteenth century over their views on baptism. The Swiss Confederation of states in Zwingli country were divided between Catholic versus Reform, and when fighting between these groups broke out, Zwingli was killed at the age of forty-seven (Coornhert, Gerrit, and Voogt, 2008). He would be remembered as one of the most prominent Reform leaders to arise in the sixteenth century Protestant Reformation movement, and would influence a future generation seeking to assist the poor and downtrodden, as well as teaching that the Church should guide their government in the application of godly guidelines and laws for the people live by.
Other Reformers
Many individuals within the Protestant Reformation took up the cause with vigor and dedication, willing to give their lives if necessary. There were some individuals who were extremely influential in the Reformation but did not get as much notoriety as Luther, Calvin, or Zwingli. These were men like Martin Bucer, who was a reformer who had converted from the Dominican Order and had his monastic vows annulled after meeting with Luther. Bucer would later play a key role in acting as an intermediary between Zwingli and Luther on the doctrine of the Eucharist, as well as other key issues facing the Reformation in the early 1500s (MacCulloch, 2003). As the Reformation spread from Germany, men such as Johannes Bugenhagen, a priest in the Roman Catholic Church, at first disliked Luther and what he stood for, but grew to accept Luther’s teaching and leave the Catholic Church. Bugenhagen became a prominent leader of the Reformation and outlined reform ideas that were well accepted by many within the Reformation community. He was probably one of the most important figures in the Protestant Reformation in Northern Germany and the Scandinavian area (Backus, 2008). Bugenahagen worked with Luther to create rules and regulations for religious service and schooling, and addressed how to deal with the social issues that would face this newly-formed Lutheran Church. He was close enough to Luther to take care of his widow and children after Luther’s death (MacCulloch, 2003). A little-known educator named Martin Chemnitz would develop into one of the eminent Lutheran theologian Reformers and would help in the development of the distinctive beliefs and practices of Lutheranism. These beliefs and practices would become a theological litmus test and would result in the exclusion of many individuals involved in the Reformed movement created by Calvin and others (Backus, 2008). England and Scotland had their Reformers as Engraving of William Tyndale, 1484–1536; English Bible Translator and Reformer, Martyred in Antwerp;by an unknown artist, published in “Daniel and the Revelation” by Uriah Smith, Signs Publishing Company Limited, 1909. well, in men like William Tyndale and John Knox. William Tyndale sought to follow in the footsteps of his fellow Englishman, John Wycliffe, who a century earlier had contended that all humanity is responsible for applying the truths of Scripture to their lives, and therefore asserted the necessity of the availability of Scripture in the vernacular language of the laity (Edwards, 2008). Tyndale’s impact on the Protestant Reformation was not based upon his insightful teachings or any newly formed doctrine; it was centered on his translation of the first English Bible, which was created directly from Greek and Hebrew text. This was no small task because it was done in direct defiance of both the Roman Catholic Church and the English laws, which were now enforced by Henry VIII. Because of his views of the importance of Scripture in the hands of individual believers, Tyndale fled to Europe to live, labor, and print the New Testament there. The Tyndale Bible translation became the first English translation to be printed utilizing the printing press, and before his martyrdom in 1536, approximately 16,000 copies of his translation had passed into England, a country of not more than two and half million people (MacCulloch, 2003). Tyndale was the first biblical translator of the Reformation to die. He was arrested in 1535, and after spending seventeen months in jail he was strangled and burned at the stake under the orders of the Bishop of London and Henry VIII. A few years after Tyndale’s death, a version of the Bible known as the Matthew Bible was written, which was a compilation of Tyndale’s New Testament and several other translators’ work. Henry VIII authorized this version, calling it the “Great Bible” and allowing it to be read within England. The sudden access to the Scriptures created widespread excitement
Scotland’s Knox
The impact of John Knox upon the Protestant Reformation would not be felt in his homeland of Scotland until the mid 1500s. But Knox’s influence was not limited to Scotland; his sway also impacted the English mainland as well. Knox began his religious training as a Catholic priest, but he became associated with early church reformers. He got caught up in the ecclesiastical and political events that involved the murder of Cardinal Beaton, which resulted in Knox being taken prisoner by French forces and exiled to England in 1549 (Wormald, 2005). Knox would join the Protestant Reformation in Edward VI’s English Church only after the death of Henry VIII. He had hardly gotten established as an outstanding preacher when the accession of Mary Tudor, known as Bloody Mary, forced him into exile in Calvin’s Geneva. Here he would develop his theory that Protestants had the right to resist, by force if necessary, any Roman Catholic ruler who tried to prevent their worship and mission. This was further than Calvin himself was willing to go, but many of the nobles in Scotland found the ideas attractive (Shelley, 1995). Knox’s stay in Geneva would shape his view of how the Church should function within society and the freedom of every individual to worship without interference from the government. When civil war broke out in Scotland in the mid 1500s, Knox rushed home. Within one year the Calvinists were in control of Edinburgh. Knox drafted his articles of religion that the Scottish parliament accepted for the country, thereby abolishing Roman Catholicism in Scotland (Tyacke, 1997). After Knox’s return and drafted his articles, the conflicts that developed between Knox and Mary Queen of Scots would come to symbolize the Reformation conflict: Protestant against Catholic, but also the democratic claims of Calvinism against the monarchy’s power to appoint bishops as well as dictate papal policy (Marshall, 2012). Even though some of Mary’s dependents tried to turn back the clock, Scotland remained the most devoutly Protestant Calvinist country in the world. The Protestant Reformation had become the light of freedom that would shine on the restrictiveness of government or Church rule. Many would follow this light of freedom and seek a place to be free to worship and live their lives in peace. This future home would offer them true freedom, but expose them to an unknown wilderness with many unfamiliar situations. To some groups of individuals, this place would be across the ocean, in a land known as America
England’s Reformation
The term Latin Christendom was applied to Europe beginning in the eighth century and covered the European continent as well as the British Isles (Davies, 1996). The European continent receives much of the attention when referring to the Protestant Reformation, but England specifically played a major role in the Protestant Reformation; it just began in a different method. The Catholic Church had based its power and significance on the idea that the papal office was the channel of God’s communication with mankind, and that Christendom could not function without the Pope’s leadership. This creed had been so ingrained within all of the European continent and the British Isles that many in these areas could not free themselves from the assumption that a Pope, even with all of his self-interest on occasion, was the foundation of Christian society on earth. This belief was essential to the religion of the society, as well as a means of sanctioning political rule (Pettegree, 2003). Philosophies like this may not appear to be a major issue, but during this time period if you were to speak against the Catholic Church or the Pope, you would be speaking against the stability of the culture and the political leaders as well. It is one of the reasons why the Protestant Reformation was such a cultural divider upon the European continent and the British
Henry VIII
As previously mentioned, Martin Luther has been given much credit for beginning the Reformation in Germany that spread to other parts of Europe. There were some who had spoken out before Luther’s time and suffered for their actions, but Luther’s 95 Thesis arrived in that special moment in history. It created a division within the Church that could not be stopped by the Pope or the political leaders of the time. England also had its own reformation that was not based on doctrine but on the desires of Henry VIII to remarry, yet it had a major cultural impact on the British Isles, while Luther’s reformation impacted the mainland (Edwards, 2008). As the king of England, Henry VIII had the power to do just about whatever he wanted to do in England, but to challenge the Pope and the Catholic Church required timing and the right social climate. Henry VIII had previously taken a stand against Luther and his so called Protestant Reformation, when he wrote the “Assertio Septem Sacramentorum,” or the Defense of the Seven Sacraments in 1521 in answer to Luther’s 95 Thesis. The Reformation was boiling furiously in Germany, and Henry sought to take his stand on the issue set forth by Luther in this defense. O’Donovan (1908) stated: In England, Henry boasted that the horrors occurring in Germany had not yet begun, and, moreover, he posed as the champion of the Church, to see that Luther’s novelties should not appear there. And this freedom from the “reform” he was ready to maintain by his sword if later need be, but at any rate now by his pen. And Henry was quite well equipped for his self-assumed task, having improved his natural talents by an education intended to prepare him to be Archbishop of Canterbury. (p. 10) This assertion would earn Henry VIII the title of defender of the faith by Pope Leo X, but was quickly removed when he broke from the Catholic Church in the near future. We see a side of Henry VIII that is not usually studied. In previous time periods this break would have required almost a declaration of war, but the groundwork for a break from the Church had been laid and because of Henry VIII’s confidence and boldness, the transition was relatively smooth for the Church of England to navigate.
Wycliffe
Henry VIII was able to secede from the Catholic Church with straightforwardness, because earlier influences had created an environment conducive to a separation from the Church. Wycliffe’s teachings in the 1300s, a sense of nationalism, and Luther’s teaching making its way to the shores of England contributed to this smooth transition for Henry VIII in the early 1500s. In the fourteenth century, Wycliffe began to question the Catholic Church’s role in policy related to the state and how the Church and its representatives should relate to the secular state or kings within the country they resided. Wycliffe was a lay preacher who rose to prominence at the University level and greatly desired for Scripture to be in the hand of the layman. His criticism of the Roman Catholic Church would lead to his being classified as one of the early Protestants. The Lollard movement that he began was the forerunner to the Protestant Reformation on the European mainland, and is the reason that Wycliffe Morning Star of is sometimes called the the Protestant Reformation (Carpenter, Lahey, and Luscombe, 2003). Wycliffe focused on Christian doctrine within the Catholic Church and preached on numerous areas of change, but his teaching on the relationship with the Pope and kings brought his name to the forefront of the heretics of the time. Because of his teaching on the dominion of grace and the very nature of the Church, Wycliffe became entangled in conflict with the Catholic clergy, which began a conflict with the Catholic Church that Henry VIII benefitted from. Pastors, theologians, and philosophers are often influenced by the cultural events that surround them. Such was the case of Wycliffe. His views on the state, Christian liberty, and papal abuses had an effect on the culture’s attitude toward the Catholic Church and kings of the time period. The days Wycliffe taught at Oxford were a time in which many of his controversial ideas came to fruition. The fourteenth century had been difficult for England and the European continent as a whole. England and France were engaged in a conflict that became known as “the Hundred Years War,” because it lasted nearly a century. Living conditions of the peasants were deplorable and social and economic discontent was rampant. In addition, the Black Death, or the bubonic plague, ravaged Europe, leaving in its wake devastation on an unprecedented scale (Solt, 1990). Nearly thirty percent of Europe’s population died of the plague, while in other areas the mortality rate exceeded fifty percent. These events that occurred during Wycliffe’s lifetime gave him boldness in his teaching and instruction. His principles created an attitude of nationalism within England and laid a foundation for a smooth cessation from the Catholic Church by Henry VIII.
Henry VIII and His Church of England
When Henry VIII chose to defy the papal authority and remarry Anne Boleyn, the Pope had no option but to excommunicate him from the Catholic Church. The Pope might have been open to a dissolving of Henry VIII’s marriage and divorce of Catharine, but because she was the aunt of Charles V, it was politically not an option for him (Pettegree, 2000). The king knew that antipapal sympathies in England were running high and opposition to authority of the Pope was on the rise in various areas of England. The was occurring in the Universities as well. Shelley (1995) said: At Cambridge, for example, certain instructors were so taken with Luther that the favorite gathering place, the Inn of the White Horse, was called “Little Germany.” So the king calculated that he would face little popular opposition so long as he renounced papal authority in England and avoided troublesome doctrinal questions. (p. 266) The important point to remember in this initial English Reformation was that it was solely based on the religious issue of papal supremacy. The English Reformation would later take on many of the characteristics of the Protestant Reformation that was occurring on the European continent, but for now papal supremacy was reason enough for King Henry. The transition had been justifiable to Henry VIII for many reasons, but for men such as Thomas Cranmer, it was an opportunity to implement some Protestant Reformation ideas into the newly-formed Church of England. Cranmer was very close to Henry and when Henry was pursuing options in his divorce, he had Cranmer and Thomas More research and provide the legal means for an annulment. Cranmer had a tremendous influence on the change and became the Archbishop of Canterbury, but because of the conflict within the Church between the religious conservatives and Reformers, he was not able to make many radical changes (Edwards, 2008). Cranmer continued to assist Henry VIII with this new Church of England and wrote his highly significant Forty-two Articles, which defined the faith of the Church of England along Protestant lines, and the Book of Common Prayer (Rupp, 1957).
As the Reformation continued in England into the next century, it began to resemble the Protestant Reformation that was occurring on the mainland with Luther and others. The religious situation in England was in a King Henry VIII. constant state of flux and modification during the sixteenth century, as the leadership of England drifted back and forth between Catholic and Protestant. As previously stated, Henry VIII broke from the church to form the Church of England, which marked several major changes in worship: the suppression of monasteries in England, and the publication of the English Bible for use in the churches (Edwards, 2008). The use of the English Bible was not one of Henry VIII first proclamations, but would occur two years later, after the famous Reformer William Tyndale was killed for printing an English version of Scripture. Tyndale drew heavily from the work of Wycliffe but his English Bible pulled unswervingly from the original Greek and Hebrew texts (Tyache, 1997). The earlier works of Wycliffe has been written by hand, but this version would be the first to be published by use of the printing press, which allowed it to spread rapidly. This move was seen as a direct challenge to both the English laws and the Roman Catholic Church, so Tyndale was strangled and burned at the stake. The access to Scripture in English created such an excitement in England that shortly thereafter, Henry VIII authorized the printing of a Bible called the Great Bible to be used and read throughout all of England (Marshall, 2012). When people are in the dark, they will not see or know the truth. But once light is shone on truth, people begin to change their views. Once people were allowed to read Scripture for themselves they began to perceive God, the Church, and the state
After Henry VIII
At the death of Henry VIII in 1547, his only surviving son Edward VI inherited the throne and with the help of men like Cramer, moved the Church of England closer to the views of the Protestant Reformation and Luther, as well as Calvin (Pettegree, 2000). This Protestant shift begun by Edward would come to an abrupt halt at his death and the rise in power of Mary I, the only surviving daughter of Catharine of Aragon and fourth crowned monarch of the Tudor Dynasty ( MacCulloch, 2003). By the middle of the sixteenth century, the people of England had enjoyed almost a generation without interference from Rome and the Pope, but the marriage of Mary I to Philip of Spain resulted in her attempt at the reestablishment of Roman Catholicism in England. The actions of this queen upon her own people would have far reaching affects upon the religious and political landscape for many years to come. Mary I is better remembered throughout history as “Bloody Mary,” because during her short five-year reign, she had almost 300 catholic dissenters burned at the stake, including Thomas Cramner. This action by the queen would result in a book being written by John Foxe called The Book of Martyrs, which would forever incite the English people to a longstanding horror and hatred of Catholicism, as well as create martyrs willing to die for their beliefs (Foster,1991). Mary I’s reign would also cause many protestant leaders and groups to be exiled to the European continent, where they would study under the Calvinist doctrine of the Protestant Reformation and Calvin’s views of the church-state relationships, as well as views on salvation, predestination, and the sovereignty of God. Elizabeth I would come to power after the death of Mary I and would seek to restore many of the Protestant views back to the Church of England. Elizabeth I, daughter of Anne Boleyn and last of the Tudor Dynasty, was not seeking to transform the Church of England into a Protestant Church, but rather to present the Anglican Church as having its own distinct character, being neither Catholic or Protestant (Marshall, 2012). This compromise between these two factions would allow Elizabeth I to control the Church as well as the government, without having to create enemies on either side. Many saw this as a great solution to the church leadership and government problem that had existed in the past. Some of the exiles who had been forced out by Mary I returned, but were not so sure that the Church had truly been reformed enough to make a difference. As previously mentioned, many had been influenced by Calvin and desired true reform, which included more input from Scripture and less involvement from Queen Elizabeth, the newly named “Supreme Governor” of state and church (Marshal, 2012). The exiles wanted true change within the bipartisan Church of England and would do whatever they could to reform it. They had read their Bibles and established their own ideas about what a precise reformation in England should be and look like. Because of their desire to purify the Church of England and not destroy it, they were given the name of Puritans, preachers of personal and national righteousness.
Puritans
Part of the dilemma that many Reformers faced was: should rulers always be obeyed, and if not, what was appropriate dissension? Skinner (1978) stated: It had been assumed by the majority of reformers that all rulers and magistrates, regardless of whether they discharged the duties of their office, had to be seen as powers ordained of God. Once it began to be emphasized instead that all such powers are in fact ordained to fulfill a particular set of duties, the new question which rose was whether a magistrate who fails to meet these obligations ought to still be regarded as a genuinely ordained power. (p. 225) The Puritans were seeking to begin their reformation in England in a nonviolent method, which coincided with an independent religious revolution in Scotland by John Knox. This was the first time that European Protestants carried out a successful armed rebellion against their Catholic rulers in both the church and Commonwealth (MacCulloch, 2003). In Calvin’s early days, he was firmly anchored in the Pauline doctrine of absolute non-resistance. But later, he left the issue open for active resistance, if there was persecution of believers by an evil government. This not only gave the French Huguenots justification for their rebellion but Knox as well, who had seen violence as a possible option against the tyranny of the Church upon his country (Skinner, 1978). This issue of active resistance was something that was communicated consistently by Luther and Calvin and appeared to fluctuate with times and situations. The Puritans chose to follow the path of seeking to change the Church by political and persuasive means versus violence because they were English by birth and felt a certain sense of nationalism. Unlike the Scots who knew they were Scottish citizens and felt the country of England as well as the Church was telling them what to do and how to live, these religious reformers had a different mindset than the English puritans. Henry VIII had begun the first English Reformation during his reign, and the Puritans would try to begin the second reformation upon the Church of England during the reign of Elizabeth I. The Puritans would seek to offer a new kind of teaching throughout the country, as they began to emphasize a heart change over a head change, living out the teachings of Christ versus just knowing them (Winship, 2012). These instructions moved to stress the Puritans’ mission in the world and the reshaping of society according to biblical principles. These Puritans took up their work totally convinced that the Bible gave specific guidance for the ordering of personal life, the structuring of the church, and the regulation of society. The Puritans realized that the most important area to control was the selection of ministers for the local congregation, which became one of the most explosive political issues of their movement. They wanted the selection of their ministers to rest with the people and not the leadership, but the Queen insisted that the appointment of bishops was a responsibility of the rulers. She knew she could keep her power and control the Puritans as long as she controlled what was taught by the preachers (Shelley, 1995). There were other areas of contention between the Church of England and Puritans, such as the church Sacraments, but none so contentious as the bishop selection. As we have seen, when an individual within a crusade or movement appears out of the norm in his or her views, then the individual is labeled as radical. Such was the case with the Puritans, as some were labeled Radical Puritans because they took the principles of the Puritans further than most Puritans wanted to. Some of these Radical Puritans believed that they were a chosen people of God and had been given a sense of destiny, as well as a vision of God’s purpose among men and women. They had their Geneva Bible, which had be written by some English exiles, as well as The Book of Martyrs, written by Englishman John Fox. To them, God had a special place for the English people in his worldwide plan of salvation of the lost (Winship, 2012). The key to the Puritans’ view of the Geneva Bible and themselves was in their understanding of the biblical use of the word “covenant.” Like the ancient Hebrews, the Puritans believed that there was a spiritual contract between God and men. This spiritual contract was not based upon work but on the grace of God. Calvinism had taught them that God sovereignly elected man to salvation; they also held that anyone could be added to the covenanted company by personal faith in Jesus Christ (Shelley, 1995). This “City on a Hill” belief and sense of so-called destiny held by many of these Radical Puritans, along with their Bible and The Book of Martyrs, directed them across the Atlantic and into the American wilderness (Winship, 2012). Although most Puritans were content to stay in England and seek any changes available at any opportune time they were not allowed much change, even under James I’s rule after the death of Elizabeth I. Thus, many of the leaders in the Puritan movement tended to merge with the Parliament in their resistance to the Church of England by use of political maneuvering and less radical dialogues. At the end of the reform movement in England, a group developed that involved an indifference or hostility to the basic Puritan goal—of using the combined resources of church and state to Christianize and civilize the English people (Foster, 1991).
Separatists
The Separatists had no interest in the state and assumed that the Church of England existed only for the demonstrably elect (Winship, 2012). The Separatists that we hear about today are the Pilgrims that came to America on the Mayflower, but there were also numerous other groups in England that had more and fewer radical beliefs than these Pilgrims. These Separatists were persecuted by the Church of England and authorities more than the Puritans because they sought to worship outside the realm of the Church, which was a direct challenge not only the Church of England, but also to Elizabeth I and later James I. As long as the government could keep the Reformers under control as the Puritans were, their behavior was deemed acceptable. If they were trying to start their own teachings outside of the Church of England, that was rebellion. The Separatists had no desire to purify the Church of England. They wanted to cut the ties that held them to the Church. As such, it is important to separate them not only from the Puritan movement, but also from the majority of the Church of England. From the sixteenth through the seventeenth centuries, the reformation that began in England with Henry VIII would continue to have an impact on the Church, as well as the monarchy, up until the reign of Charles I. Although this English Reformation would differ in many aspects from the Protestant Reformation begun by Luther on the European continent, certain characteristics would begin to emerge through the teaching of Calvin and the availability of the Bible in the English language. Wycliffe and Tyndale had provided the impetus for the complete English Bible to be available in printed form for the people to read for themselves. Up until the sixteenth century, the Catholic Church and Pope had ruled the religious landscape in the British Isles. After this reformation, England would forever be out of their reach and influence. Calvin’s governance in Geneva had created an environment for many exiled reformers from England to grow and be influenced by his views on the function of church, as well as the liberty that believers should have. Many of these Reformers would seek to change the Church of England, while others would simply leave for other countries where they could worship and live as they desired. During this time period, the world’s explorers returned from their trips and shared stories of America and what was available to those willing to take the risk. Some of these Reformers, at times called Radical Reformers, were willing to take that risk for a place to live and worship, free from the Church of England and the Catholic Church.
The Impact of the Reformation on the Fine Arts
Music and art have given expression to the most profound of human longings and emotions. Since ancient times, music and art have plumbed the depths of man’s interpretation of his experience with the physical and spiritual worlds. Even a casual study of the history of music and art in the West will reveal not only a wide range of styles and motifs, but also the progression of Western thought from premodern to modern to postmodern. Music and art are frequently known to transcend the writings and the speeches of great men and women who have attempted to give voice to the ceaseless human desire for that which is both beautiful and eternal. Long after the words of great orators have been forgotten, the work of masterful musicians and painters has served to inspire. . . .
The General Impact of the Reformation on Music and Art
Before the years when the ideas of the Reformation spread across Western Europe, music and art existed primarily within the realm of the church. Will Durant, in his monumental study of western civilization, stated that “through nine centuries almost all European art was inspired and financed by the Church; and even when art took a pagan color the popes of the Renaissance continued their patronage. Music in its higher forms was a daughter of the Church.”2 Prior to the Reformation, the attitude of the church toward the arts was that it ought to be pedagogical. Because the laity did not have free and private access to the Scriptures, the church believed that the purpose of music and art was to give the unlettered a base of knowledge about Christianity in a closely supervised manner. Durant said, Catholic liturgy was aristocratic, a stately ceremonial rooted in inviolable tradition and standing frankly above the people in language, vestments, symbols and music. In that spirit the clergy defined itself as the Church, and thought of the people as a flock to be shepherded into morality and salvation by myth, legend, sermons, drama, and all the arts.3 This attitude became more acute once the Reformers’ influence was felt in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In what became known as the Counter-Reformation (the Catholic answer to the Protestant movement), music and art were meant to revitalize and reinvigorate the Catholic faithful and motivate them to resist the forces of Protestantism. Hans Rookmaaker described the art of the Counter-Reformation as portraying “a world of superhumans, extremely muscular and showing superhuman fortitude, within an environment fitting for such beings. . . .”4 A parallel artistic movement with the Reformation and Counter-Reformation was, of course, the Renaissance, representing the “rebirth” of classical sources and a resurgence of humanism. The art forms of the Renaissance and the Reformation were not, as Paul Henry Lang wrote, “Joint phenomen[a] marking the advent of a modern era. . . .”5 The art of the Renaissance, according to Lang, “is courtly, aristocratic, learned, and at times snobbishly exclusive.”6 The Reformation, being concerned with divine revelation, popular and direct access to God, and salvation by grace through faith stood in stark contrast with what seemed to be the earthly concerns of the Renaissance. William Halewood wrote, There is a fairly obvious sense in which the Reformation was anti-humanist and as such contradicted the spirit of the Renaissance. Its exclusive concern with the relation of God to man . . . led not only to the despising of reason (and the concept of man’s essential rationality had been the basis of Renaissance education and ethics) but [also] to the repudiation of the cherished Earthly “happiness”. . . .7 The art and music of the Reformation rejected the Catholic and Renaissance forms because the movement was theological at its root. Reformation forms were theocentric, placing their emphasis on God as He is, and His works as they really are. There was an abrupt cease to the portrayal of biblical themes with theatrical flair among Reformation painters, and a turn to realism resulting from the artist’s private interpretation of Scripture. Musicians and artists of the Reformation sought to portray man as being in need of God’s grace because of sin, thus they sang about passing from death to life and painted themes of redemption and hope through a very human, as well as divine, Christ. Rather than attempting to idealize the creation of God, the Person of Jesus, the obedient of Scripture, or the crucifixion of Christ, artists inspired by the theology of the Reformation were eager to be true to the world, to mankind, and to God. Rookmaaker wrote that the artists of the Reformation, especially Dutch artists, “Painted life and the world realistically, without idealizing or glorifying the creature but, instead, showing things as they really were and are, not glossing over sin but not exalting it either. . . .”8 Francis Schaeffer stated, “At its core, therefore, the Reformation was the removing of the humanistic distortions which had entered the church” (emphasis original).9 Gene Veith maintained that in Reformation art, “There are still some religious pictures—madonnas, nativities, and crucifixions, but they are strikingly different from those of the Middle Ages; the gold leaf is gone.”10 In the spirit of the Reformation, artists and musicians were not attempting to instruct the laity through their work as those of the Catholic church, nor did they have an agenda to dramatize the Scriptures or idealize the world. They were painting and composing music for the sake of the beauty of their themes. Their work was itself an act of worship designed to aid the church in worship. Moreover, their audiences would not need their works to teach them the Scriptures, because they were counting on the laity to interpret Scripture as they read it in their own language—just as the artists and musicians themselves were doing when they portrayed biblical themes. The Reformation, then, impacted the art and music of the day not only in the styles and forms of the various pieces, but also in their production and intended reception by those who would hear and see them. Given that the musicians and painters of the Reformation were thus affected, what attitude did Luther and Calvin take toward art? While it is certainly true that the Reformation had a positive impact on the art of the period, it is also true that many Protestant churches across Western Europe, in their zeal to cleanse themselves of the perceived idolatry of the Catholic church, dedicated much art work to destruction. Calvin sought to purge the church of images that fostered idolatry, but did not have a negative view of art on the whole. He wrote, “I know the common proverb, that images are the books of unlettered folk, and that St. Gregory hath thus spoken: but the Spirit of God hath judged otherwise” and that “all that men learn of God through images is frivolous and even abusive.”11 At the same time, he saw art as a gift of God that should be encouraged, as long as it glorified Him and did not seek to supplant His authority or majesty. He said, “I am not so scrupulous as to judge that no images should be endured or suffered. . . . Therefore men should not paint nor carve anything but such as can be seen with the eye; so that God’s Majesty . . . may not be corrupted by fantasies which have no true agreement therewith.”12 For Calvin, faith in the gospel through the preached Word was what the Christian ought to allow—to draw him heavenward. Those churches that did destroy their art did so sometimes with pure intentions of rooting out idolatry. Often, however, they destroyed their art with either a wrong motive or a wrong understanding of what Calvin was teaching. Luther had a much friendlier attitude toward visual art, especially music. He believed that art should always be used to glorify God and did not ban any form of art, even images. His interpretation of Scripture allowed for art to be used in churches and in private homes to assist in the worship of God. He wrote, “I would fain see all arts, and especially that of music, serving Him who hath created them and given them unto us. . . .”13 Luther’s love of music came second only to his love of theology.14 His understanding of music was advanced, and he had an accomplished tenor voice. He and his choirmaster, Johann Walther, produced a hymnbook entitled the Wittenberg Gesangbuch. The book was the first of its kind. It contained a great variety of hymns, among them the famous “Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott,”15 which was a product of both Luther’s musical talent and theological insight.16 For the first time, the laity took a practicing role in the worship of God, and music was one of the vehicles by which they were able to do this. This is what set Reformation practice apart from the earlier Catholic style. As Durant wrote, “The people became the Church, the clergy became their ministers, the language of the service was to be the vernacular of the nation, the music was to be intelligible, and in it the congregation would take an active, finally a leading, role.”17 Luther, then, was instrumental in the later development of Protestant music, much more so than he (or any other Reformer) was in visual art.
Notes
1. Will Durant, The Reformation, vol. 6, The Story of Civilization (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1957), 5.
2. Ibid., 777–78.
3. Marleen Hengelaar-Rookmaaker, ed., The Complete Works of Hans R. Rookmaaker, vol. 4, Western Art and the Meanderings of a Culture, by Hans Rookmaaker (Carlisle, UK: Piquant, 2002), 171.
4. Paul Henry Lang, Music in Western Civilization (New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 1941), 200.
5. Ibid.
6. William H. Halewood, Six Subjects of Reformation Art: A Preface to Rembrandt (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1982), 9.
7. Rookmaaker, 137.
8. Francis Schaeffer, The Complete Works of Francis A. Schaeffer: A Christian Worldview, vol. 5, A Christian View of the West, 2d ed. (Westchester, IL: Crossway, 1982), 122.
9. Gene Edward Veith, State of the Arts: From Bezalel to Mapplethorpe (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 1991), 59.
10. John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, quoted in G. G. Coulton, Art and the Reformation (London: Cambridge University Press, 1953), 411.
11. Ibid., 407. 12. Coulton, 408. 13. Robert Stevenson, Patterns of Protestant Church Music (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1953), 3.
14. The English translation is, “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God”. 15. Schaeffer, 127. 16. Durant, The Reformation, 778.
Johann Sebastian Bach would be a great representative of Reformation Music and Rembrandt van Rijn would be a representative of Reformation Art. The Protestant Reformation began as a theological movement at its core but would infuse its influence to many areas of the Western Culture. We have seen thus far in our study of Western Culture that values and beliefs of a culture will be expressed in the Arts within that society. This worldview changer, known as the Protestant Reformation, would impact all areas of the Reflective and Expressive Arts and would continue to do so for hundreds of years. Western Culture would never be the same.
Final Thoughts
We have learned how the Protestant Reformation influenced how the people throughout Europe viewed God and their access to Him. This Reformation would open their minds to the truth about where freedoms and liberties truly came from; but just as important it would affect their values within the culture of these countries. These Reformation values would be seen in these areas of Western Culture: • Education—People needed to learn how to read to be properly educated, and just as important allow them to read Scripture for themselves. • Government—People realized that their freedoms came from God, not the State, and they have personal rights as well, which come from God. • Science—God had created the orderly world in which they lived and it could be studied as being a consistent and organized universe, not something by random change or superstitious theories. • Philosophy—People begin to see truth as being foundational in God, not coming from the Catholic Church or mankind in general. • Work Ethic—Learning that God has given each believer a calling to serve Him and to honor God and they needed to do their best at whatever task they were given. Thus glorify God. (Protestant Work Ethic) • Rights and Freedoms—God had created them as free people and they should be free to worship Him in the way that they desired, based on His standards. God gave the people their rights, not the State—and the State did not have the right to take them away
• Liberty—Much like the freedoms and rights that God gives, liberty given by God should override the government’s restrictions on them.
• The Arts—The areas of music, art works would be impacted as well.
This Protestant Reformation changed the worldview of countless numbers of individuals within Western Culture. It opened Western Culture’s eyes to an approachable God, who could be known on a personal basis. The most important aspect of this was that people could see that they could have salvation by faith alone, based on God’s grace—not their sincere acts of penance. It gave the people hope that had been absent for centuries. The new knowledge found within Scripture did not come without a price being a paid by many committed, passionate individuals like Tyndale. Tyndale was willing to sacrifice his life so that his fellow Englishman could read the Bible for themselves in their native tongue. Igniting the fiery passion within Tyndale’s soul was his core belief that saving faith requires knowledge of the truth, which requires that one has the Word of God in his own language. No one can enter the kingdom of God, he maintained, apart from the knowing of the gospel truth. If the English people were to possess the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, the tenacious Tyndale knew that having the Scripture in English was crucial. What is more, he believed no Christian can be sanctified apart from the Word, making an English translation even more important. Tyndale’s driving passion was to make the Scriptures open and accessible to the English people, and he wanted to put the Bible in their hands, for their own eyes to read (Larson, 2015). This was not just a preference but a conviction for him, and he would not be swayed from the mission God had given him. Tyndale paid a price for his passion to get the Gospel News to the English people. On October 6, 1536, Tyndale was tied to a cross and strangled by an iron noose, as a crowd watched him gasped for air as he suffocated and died. The authorities were not satisfied with just his death, as the executioner then lit the straw, brushwood, and gunpowder that had been placed around Tyndale. The blazing fire caused the gunpowder to explode, leaving just the burnt, tattered, limp body of Tyndale hanging on that cross. This type of steadfastness is what caused the Reformation to impact Western Culture for centuries, and to spread to all parts of Western Civilization. In many ways, the Reformation was the spiritual side of the Renaissance. Renaissance thinkers in the fifteenth century reacted against huge swaths of medieval culture, calling for a return to the more ancient, and they believed, heathier culture found in classical Greece and Rome. Their well-known motto was ad fonts—“to the sources.” For some, this came to include rejecting almost all medieval theology and spirituality and returning to the original sources of Christianity, namely, the Bible and the early church fathers (Needham, 2016). While the Reformation and the Renaissance overlapped historically and although they dealt with the same basic questions, they gave completely different answers. Thomas Aquinas, a Catholic philosopher of the thirteenth century, had taught that the will of an individual was fallen after man revolted against God, but the mind was not. This resulted in people believing they could think out the answers to all the great questions, beginning only from themselves; thus, to look within to find truth and the beginnings of the Renaissance. The Reformation, in contrast to Aquinas, had a more biblical concept of the Fall. For the people of the Reformation, people could not begin only from themselves, and on the basis of human reason alone, think out the answers to the great questions which confront mankind (Schaeffer, 1976). The men of the Reformation did learn from much of the new knowledge and attitudes brought forth by the Renaissance, but choosing not to turn to man as beginning only from himself, but to the original Christianity of the Bible and the early church. Gradually they came to see that the church founded by Christ had since been marred by distortions. However, in contrast to the Renaissance humanists, they refused to accept the autonomy of human reason, which acts as though the human mind is infinite, with all knowledge within its realm. Rather, they took seriously the Bible’s claim for itself—that it is the only final authority. And they took seriously that man needs the answers given by God in the Bible to have adequate answers not only for how to be in an open relationship with God, but also for how to know the present meaning for life and how to have final answers in distinguishing between right and wrong. That is, man needs not only a God who exists, but a God who has spoken in a way that can be understood (Schaeffer, 1976).
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