Western Civilization II:

Reformation to Present

Fall 2005

Chapter 14 Lecture 2

The Reformation

Martin Luther

Swore to become a monk in a lightning storm; became an Augustinian monk

Appointed to a professorship at the University of Wittenberg in Saxony

Reading of Romans and Galatians led to the realization that observing the sacraments could not alone guarantee salvation; salvation was by grace — the undeserved merit of God — through faith alone

Indulgences: Johann Tetzel, a monk, came to Wittenberg selling indulgences. Luther no longer believed in indulgences.

31 October 1517 (All Hallows Eve): Luther nailed a copy of the 95 Theses on the castle door at Wittenberg. The Theses:

• challenged the legitimacy of the sacraments to effect salvation by themselves
• challenged the authority of the pope to remit sins
• 27. They preach man who say that so soon as the penny jingles into the money-box, the soul flies out [of purgatory].
• 28. It is certain that when the penny jingles into the money-box, gain and avarice can be increased, but the result of the intercession of the Church is in the power of God alone.
• 29. Who knows whether all the souls in purgatory wish to be bought out of it, as in the legend of Sts. Severinus and Paschal.
• 36. Every truly repentant Christian has a right to full remission of penalty and guilt, even without letters of pardon.
• 75. To think the papal pardons so great that they could absolve a man even if he had committed an impossible sin and violated the Mother of God -- this is madness.
• 82. To wit: -- “Why does not the pope empty purgatory, for the sake of holy love and of the dire need of the souls that are there, if he redeems an infinite number of souls for the sake of miserable money with which to build a Church? The former reasons would be most just; the latter is most trivial.”

Luther was called to defend his Theses. In the debates that followed, Luther went further: abolishing all the sacraments but Baptism and Holy Communion, both of which were effective on the recipient’s faith alone; rejected transubstantiation.

1521: the pope excommunicated Luther.

Diet of Worms: Luther’s statement before Emperor Charles V: “Unless I am convicted by Scripture and plain reason—I do not accept the authority of popes and councils, for they have contradicted each other—my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. Here I stand. I can do no other. God help me. Amen.”

Luther’s fight with Rome led to serious problems within the Holy Roman Empire. Many German princes wanted the Church’s lands and revenue and saw, in Luther’s struggles, an opportunity to obtain them. Other princes were convinced by Luther’s arguments and came to agree with him in theology. Result: many German princes rejected the authority of the Roman Catholic Church; became Lutheran in doctrine.

Thomas Muntzer, professor at Wittenberg with Luther: claimed both ecclesiastical and civic authorities were corrupt and neither could be trusted; both needed to swept away. Muntzer’s movement led to the Peasants’ War; wanted to lead the common people against the civil authorities. Some princes joined the revolt. Luther opposed it. The peasants were crushed, and Muntzer was beheaded. In Continental Europe, the idea that religious freedom equalled anarchy came to dominate.

Some of Muntzer’s followers became the Anabaptists: those who believed in believers’ baptism. These people had already been baptized as infants, but they decided they needed to be baptized as believers. Muntzer was part of the Anabaptist movement, who revered him as a martyr.

Radical Reformation: the Anabaptists: believed in adult baptism only; refuted infant baptism.

The Anabaptists were apocalyptic.

One last stand of the Anabaptists: Munster: Westphalia, Germany, 1534. Two evangelists came to town, proceeded to evangelize the town (mixture of Lutherans and Catholics), preaching against infant baptism; hundreds of people were re-baptized. Two of their friends — John of Leyden and one other man — followed them. The Lutherans and Catholics realized that the Anabaptists were pushing them to be re-baptized, and the Lutherans left. The Anabaptists became the majority of citizens. The Anabapists issued a call for all Anabaptists in Europe to come to Munster because the world was about to end; everything would be destroyed, with the exception of Munster. A theocracy was established in Munster. Armed gangs ran around town singing “Get out you godless ones and never come back, you enemies of the Father!” and “Repent and be baptized!” to the Lutherans and Catholics left. The rest of the Lutherans and Catholics then left town.

The Anabaptists had to re-distribute all the confiscated goods; equally divided the goods. There were 3 women in Munster for every man. The Anabaptists solved the problem with polygamy. John of Leyden, the leader, wanted 144,000 people in Munster (from Revelation).

Summer of 1534: John of Leyden was anointed king of “New Jerusalem.” The town was well-fortified, but when the last evacuation of Lutherans and Catholics happened, they ran to the bishop. The bishop gathered a mercenary army to attack Munster; a siege developed. June 1535: town was to the point of starvation; 2 men slipped out of town, approached the army, and pointed out the weak point in the wall. The army overran the town. The bishop’s army executed all the Anabaptists trying to leave town under the protection of the bishop. The Anabaptists became fervent pacifists from that point forward, even in the midst of persecution.

Huldrych Zwingli in Switzerland

Believed in congregational autonomy

Joined Luther in denying the authority of the pope, but went further than Luther in denying the sacraments; held that Holy Communion was only a memorial, there was no presence of Christ in the Host.

Marburg Colloquy: 1529: met with Luther, but Zwingli and Luther could not agree; failure led to the division of Protestantism into the Lutheran and Reformed traditions.

Zwingli died at the battle of Kappel in 1531.

John Calvin

studied to be a lawyer, became a theologian instead

Institutes of the Christian Religion: first edition (pocket-sized) in 1536, final version (4 volumes) in 1559.

Geneva, 1536: Calvin instituted a religious and moral reformation in Geneva, believing that Christians in government had a duty to enact Christian morals and laws.

At Calvin's death in 1564, his theolgy was already internationally known.

The English Reformation

Henry VIII:

• marriage to Catherine produced only a daughter, Mary
• needed a divorce from Catherine to marry someone to produce him a son.
• Levirate marriage:

  Leviticus 18:16: You shall not uncover the nakedness of your brother’s wife; it is your brother’s nakedness.

  Lev. 20:21: If a man takes his brother’s wife, it is impurity. He has uncovered his brother’s nakedness; they shall be childless.

  Deut. 25:5: If brothers dwell together, and one of them dies and has no son, the wife of the dead man shall not be married outside the family to a stranger. Her husband’s brother shall go in to her and take her as his wife and perform the duty of a husband’s brother to her.

• Pope Clement, fearful of the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V (Catherine’s nephew), refused to offer Henry the divorce.
• 1529: Henry deposed Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, his principle advisor, and took Thomas Cromwell and Thomas Cranmer as his advisors.
• 1532: Problem: Anne Boleyn, Henry’s mistress, became pregnant. 8 wives, need for divorce from Katherine of Aragon led to the founding of the Church of England with Henry as head of the Church.
• 1536: Boleyn was executed for adultery, but not before the birth of her daughter, Elizabeth.
• 1534: Parliament passed the Act of Supremacy which declared that the monarch was the “only supreme head of the Church in England.”
• Henry confiscated all monastic properties, dismissed the monks and nuns. Henry sold all the Church properties to his followers at rock-bottom prices.

Edward VI: Henry’s son; ruled 1547-1553: formalized the Church of England through the first Book of Common Prayer. Cranmer, one of Edward's regents:

• wrote the BCP
• introduced worship in English
• wrote homilies (sermons) for the clergy, sermons which emphasized Lutheran ideas
• kept Catholic rituals and forms while introducing Reformed theology
• 39 Articles: synopsis of Anglican doctrine.

Mary: Henry's daughter by Catherine of Aragon:

• attempted to return England to Catholicism.
• executed Cranmer and other Protestants, earning her the name of "Bloody Mary."
• married Philip II of Spain; led to hatred by the English subjects

Elizabeth I: moderate Protestant. Ruled 1558-1603. Restored Protestantism, but tolerated Catholics

Catholic Counter-Reformation

reforms before Luther. Luther wasn't the first to realize the Church needed reform.

Jesuits: new order that swore allegiance to the pope. The Jesuits became the intellectual "shock troops" of the Counter-Reformation; re-converted many areas to Catholicism.

Council of Trent, 1543-1563

• rejected Lutheran ideas of justification, the sacraments, and priesthood of believers
• re-asserted the authority of the priests
• reformed clerical abuses, including the abuse of indulgences
• ordered that seminaries be established in every Catholic diocese to combat clerical ignorance
• composed catechisms to educate the laity