Update Eighteen

II: The European Reformation

i: Introduction

As conditions worsened throughout Europe due to every present plagues and an increasing food shortage, the Church swept the early reformers under the rug and continued its descent into the depths of depravity and corruption. The clergy continued to grow in power and money along with the powerful Lords while the peasants were being pressed ever more, treated as slaves and starved to death. On the backs of this dying and despairing lot the Church and the State continued to grow fat. But this course could not continue forever. Too many men were beginning to stand up to reform the world. The nations of Europe were ripe for change. Deep within the powder keg of the German empire a spark was about to let fly, while in the city-states of eastern France and Switzerland intellectual forces were gathering with enough force to change the world.

ii: The German Reformation

After centuries of preparation, the Church had finally reached the critical point where change was inevitable. Too long had the many abuses of power went on in the name of Jesus Christ. No where was this more evident than in the Holy Roman Empire, modern day Germany and the surrounding countries. Ruled in a semi-democracy, the Emperor was voted on by the Electors, the princes of Germany. This princes ruled vast tracts of Germany and the surrounding areas and reaped great benefits the Church. This benefit was threefold. First, the Emperor claimed a crown which was bestowed by the Rome Pope. His authority was rooted in the Church. Along with this was the second benefit, as the State ruled with the blessing of the Church. To secure salvation one must follow the Church and the State, allowing the Emperor to keep his subjects in their oppression under threat of eternal damnation. The final benefit was purely monetary. The German princes and the emperor reaped great rewards from the Church for the placement of Bishops and the increased trade from pilgrims and the like. The system worked well fro the noble class, but pressed the peasantry to the point of near open revolt against all of the established order. The rally cry for peasant revolts would come soon in the person of Martin Luther. First, as a disclaimer, Luther was not a very organized theologian. He did not think systematically as later theologians did and therefore it is difficult sometimes to pinpoint what his theology was. We do know his stance on the critical points of Reformation theology such as the three central tenants Sola Gratia et Fides, Sola Scriptura, and the priesthood of believers. Outside of these areas Luther was often paradoxical and tended towards emotional writings and moving statements rather than solid theological foundations. The theology that actually comprises Lutheranism was actually hammered out by his followers, particularly Philipp Melanchthon. It was, however, those emotional and moving theological statements that were needed to light the flames of reformation and get the Reformation to start. Luther was born in 1483 in Eisleben, Germany, to an upper middle class mine owner. At a young age Luther was sent away for his education, eventually studying to become a lawyer. Studying in Erfurt a few miles away from home, Luther would walk home on weekends. One weekend Luther encountered his fateful lightning storm. Nearly being killed by a bolt of lightning, Luther swore his life to God as a monk if only he would let him live. From here, despite his father’s disapproval, Luther went on to become an Augustinian monk. Racked by feelings of guilt and shame Luther, under the guidance of his confessor, Johannes Staupitz the vicar-general of the German Augustinians, broke through Roman theology to the core of the Gospel, salvation by faith alone. With this revelation Luther began to challenge the establishment. Beginning to teach at Wittenberg’s new University, Luther was able to spread his ideas. This may have been as far as he would have gone if not for the fateful visit of John Tetzel to Wittenberg. Incensed by this gross perversion of the Gospel, Luther immediately posted his 95 thesis on October 31st 1517. With the help of the printing press this document circulated throughout all of Europe, catching the eye of even the pope who claimed Luther to be a ‘drunken monk’ and a ‘boar’ in need of killing. Unfortunately for the Romans they did not take the matter seriously enough and soon all of Germany was in flames as peasants reinterpreted Luther’s teachings. After this peasants revolt was put down, with the help of Luther, the princes of Germany began to side with Luther. He now had the protection of half the German empire. Through many trials Luther made it out alive, his allies keeping the memory of John Hus close at hand while planning. Excommunicated and hunted, Luther lived in relative security with the princes of Germany. The greatest nation in Europe, heir to the Carolingian dynasty, was now torn in two; half the princes remaining Roman while the other half turned Lutheran. Using the Augsburg Confession, the princes stood up for the Reformation and set in stone was the division between the two German camps. T hose for Rome would remain Roman; those for Luther would remain Lutheran. This was the best deal the Roman Church could work out, and yet it wouldn’t be enough as decades of religious wars were coming soon. Luther ended up dying a peaceful death in his home town of Eisleben in 1546. He left behind a shattered world, but at least it was a world with hope. His theology of Justification would develop into modern Sotierology (theology of salvation), and his views on the Christian’s union with Christ, recently rediscovered and worked on in the New Finnish interpretation, would lead to new viewpoints on salvation. Luther also became the focal point for a unified German language thanks to his prolific writing and his German Bible. Sadly, Luther would also leave a troubling legacy. He supported the idea that a ruler of a particular area should determine the religion of its people, a concession for peace in Germany. Luther directed the princes to wage brutal war against poor peasants. Luther also left a legacy of anti-Semitism after being rejected by the Jews, a typical recourse Luther had for those who did not accept him yet made more terrible in his later years by his publication of anti-Semitic books, publications that would one day be used by Nazis to support the Holocaust. Luther’s influence was vast, for good or ill, and it would be this influence which would effect more than just Germany, but all of Europe.

iii: The Swiss Reformation

Following after the works of Luther, claiming to be a separate movement, came the work of Ulrich Zwingli. Zwingli was born in Glarus Switzerland in 1484. Having a similar upbringing as Luther, Zwingli was transformed by a meeting he had with the humanist Erasmus. Following these humanistic teaching, thinking highly of man, Zwingli went on to become a famous preacher. He was invited into Zurich, the main city of the Swiss Confederacy, and quickly became the ‘people’s preacher’ at its cathedral by his 35th birthday. Going beyond Luther, Zwingli purged the Swiss churches of Roman influence, changing the entire look of the Church in Switzerland. Quickly Zwingli Protestantism took over the Swiss Confederacy, merging the Church with the State in a way Rome could only dream of. He also took his theology further away form Roman than Luther, seen especially in the divisive issue of the Lord’s Supper, which Zwingli taught as purely ceremonial. Eventually some Swiss reformers would rise up to try and take the Reformation further. These were the Anabaptists, and they wanted to do away with infant baptism in exchange for believer baptism (Anabaptist stands for re-baptizers, modern day Mennonites). This group was heavily persecuted by Zwingli, many were arrested and some drowned in the Swiss rivers. In 1531 tensions in Switzerland between Catholics and Protestants became too great. The Forest Cantons, those counties still holding to Rome, launched an attack against the Protestants. Zwingli would die a violent death at the hands of these Forest Cantons, taking an axe blow to the head in his suicide mission to defend the protestant city-states. The defense worked, however, and the main protestant army arrived to defend the cities. While Zwingli died before all his work was complete, one John Calvin would pick up his work and Luther’s, founding the Reform church and spreading the reformation ideas throughout France, England, Holland, Scotland, and eventually the American colonies. Calvin was born in France in 1509. Calvin is best known for systematizing Protestant theology in his Institutes, and for the famous TULIP model, though he did not actually devise TULIP ( Total depravity, Unconditional election, Limited atonement, Irresistible grace, Perseverance of the Saints). Growing up in an intellectual climate, Calvin converted to Protestantism in 1530. He fled from France to Switzerland when persecution broke out against Protestants in Paris. At the age of twenty-five he wrote the Institutes of Christian Religion, in which he laid out all of Protestant theology. It was an immediate success and catapulted him to a place of fame. In 1537 Calvin was travelling to Strasburg when he was detoured to the newly converted city of Geneva. Once there the city begged him to stay, which he did. Quickly he became the ruler of the city, leading to Calvin’s Geneva. He turned the city into his perfect model of Protestantism. Sometimes ruthless, Calvin once had a travelling atheist burned at the stake. Discipline was strict, but with the emphasis on the middle class merchants Calvinism prospered. The mercantile bent and prosperity of Calvinists caused it to expand as merchants travelled, taking their religion with them. Wealthy and powerful, Calvinism would be rooted permanently in Northern Switzerland as well as throughout Scotland. It was this Scottish influence which would leak into the Anglican Church and form Anglican theology. Calvin would lead his part of the Reformation from his city of Geneva, dying there in 1564. On the field of theology, Calvin took a mediating position between Luther and Zwingli in regards to the Lord’s Supper. Calvin advanced Luther’s idea of double predestination, the idea that God predestines both those who go to Heaven and those who go to Hell. Despite differences, Calvin very much built off Zwingli who had built off of Luther. While the vehemence with which they disagreed can be understood in light of their theological bent (Luther was strong on Communion because of his strong views of the Union with Christ) it was truly minor issues which separated them in these early days. Still, being separate they did successfully fend off the most powerful organization the Earth has yet to see, the Roman Church. And in doing so they brought back the light of the apostolic faith, lost beneath the corruption and vestments of Rome.

iv: The English Reformation

Starting from far less noble reasons then the other reformations, the English reformation was initiated by King Henry VIII’s desire to dissolve his marriage. At this time, when the marriage and birth in a royal family meant so much, kings could generally be granted annulments to their marriage in the protection of their marriage, but these annulments had to come from Rome to be effective. Since so much power and wealth were wrapped up in these unions, political considerations usually trumped spiritual ones. The king of England, married to a Spanish princess, wished to find a new wife since he had yet to produce an heir with her. The Papacy, however, refused to grant the annulment as this would be detrimental to the Spanish monarchy, one of the strongest and firmest supporters of the Papacy. Enraged, the king went around the pope and claimed himself as the head of the English church, not the Pope, and appointed the Archbishop of Canterbury as the highest clergy. With this set up the king got his annulment from Canterbury and gave birth to the Anglican, or English, Church. This archbishop, appointed as the newly created head of the Anglican Church in 1534, was Thomas Cranmer. While granting the divorce, Cranmer went on to immerse himself in protestant theology and brought these ideas to England, truly reforming the Church there despite its secular beginnings. He produced the Book of Common Prayer, the standard worship tool for the Anglican Church, and opened the door for Continental Protestants to escape from the pressures of the Roman Church. Unfortunately in the year 1553 ‘Bloody Mary” gained the throne and converted the island back to Rome. In doing this she beheaded or burned three hundred Protestants, along with Cranmer. Protestants running from her ended up in Geneva and would bring back a more Reformed theology to England. When Mary died in1558 Elizabeth I took over and restored the Church of England. By now two groups in English Protestantism had grown up, the High Church advocates of Anglicanism led by Richard Hooker and the Low Church advocates of Puritanism led by Walter Travers. These two groups were forced together by Elizabeth but their differences would facilitate the English civil war a century later. These difficulties foreshadowed the coming terror to the Continent. As religious differences increased, war began brewing. Counter-reformation was on the way and the legions of Rome were about to be unleashed across the continent against the multiplying heretics called the Reformers. The fires of the early years of Reformation would pale in comparison to the coming Religious Wars.


VI: Further Reference

Owen Chadwick’s A History of Christianity

Everett Ferguson’s Church History v.1 & v.2

Francis Gregor’s The Story of Bohemia

Alister McGrath’s Christian Theology

Mark Noll’s Turning Points: Decisive Moments in the History of Christianity

Roger Olson’s The Story of Christian Theology

William C. Placher’s A History of Christian Theology

William C. Placher’s Readings in the History of Christian Theology v.1

Paul Spickard and Kevin Cragg’s A Global History of Christians
M.E. Thalheimer’s Medieval And Modern History (Out of print in 1874)