UNIT TWO
THE REFORMATION
The story of the Reformation
In October of 1517, at Wittenberg in the German electorate of Saxony, an Augustinian monk named Martin Luther wrote a paper called The 95 Theses and pinned it to the church door, hoping it would be the subject of a theological debate. By doing this, he set into motion the events that would become known as the Protestant Reformation. The paper was soon translated from Latin into German and was read and debated far beyond the local academic and religious community for which it was intended. We need to see how Luther came to write this paper.
The story begins with a young man named Albert of Brandenburg. Albert was ambitious, and although he was already Archbishop of Magdeburg, he wanted to be Archbishop of Mainz, because this would make him the chief archbishop in Germany, who is called the Primate. To get the Mainz position, which would give him two sees, Albert had to practice simony, that is, he had to pay money to get a church office. Although it was wrong, the church had been doing this for awhile now. Pope Leo the 10th was remodeling the Cathedral of St. Peter and St. Paul in Rome and Albert knew more money was needed for the project. It wasn't hard to convince the Pope to give him the job for a sum of money. The problem was that to get the sum, Albert had to borrow money from the banking house of Fugger, and he didn't have enough money to pay his loan back. So he went to the Pope and told him his problem and the pope authorized a bill of indulgence for all Germany. The proceeds from the sale of the indulgence would be divided 50-50 between Albert and the Pope. Albert would use his to pay the loan back, and the Pope would use his on St. Peter's. Albert divided Germany up into sales districts and lined up monks who would sell the indulgence. He issued careful instructions to the indulgence sellers. They were to canvass the region first and see how able people were to pay and price the indulgences accordingly. Albert also warned his sellers that an indulgence was only good if the buyer was penitent and had confessed; however, this appears to have been disregarded when the actual selling went on.
Penance
Before we go further, you need to understand what the sacrament of penance is all about. Penance is the process by which Catholics were (and are) cleansed of sin and reconciled with God in forgiveness. Penance involves three things: being truly sorry that you sinned, confessing your sin to the priest who in the name of God pardons, and satisfaction, in which the sinner does something prescribed by the priest, such as saying extra prayers, lighting candled for the sick, fasting or some other good work that would show that you are willing to give up time and perhaps pleasure in order to repent for the sin. The indulgence came into the picture by being a way you could reduce the punishment for sin. It was a pardon from punishment for sin. It did not forgive the sin itself but it did relieve the punishment. It was never intended to replace confession and it was not supposed to be interpreted as a forgiveness of the sin. However, many of the poorer and less educated people didn't really understand this. They thought it forgave sins. The church had started selling the indulgences during the Crusades to people, who for one reason and another, couldn't go on a Crusade. Such people had said it wasn't fair for the church to offer a chance for salvation that not everyone could take advantage of. So the church thought up indulgences, and they brought in such good revenue (money) that when the Crusades stopped, the indulgence sales went on!
This particular indulgence that Albert had been authorized to sell had some new features. The first was that it was actively sold in the streets. The second was the claims it made as to how good it was. The third was that it was only available where Albert was archbishop, which made it somewhat exclusive, which added, of course, to its desirability.
Johann Tetzel
In the area of Germany where Martin Luther lived, the person commissioned to sell the indulgence was a Dominican monk by the name of Johann Tetzel. Tetzel was a spirited salesman. When he came into a town, he organized a procession complete with choir and crucifer. He brought up the rear, carrying a cushion with a coffer, such as that which they pass around in church for the offering, sitting on it. Tetzel then began to preach earnestly to the people who gathered around. Basically, he sent them on a guilt trip. When he was finished, the people lined up and bought the indulgences. Tetzel's most famous line was, "When a coin in the coffer rings, a soul from purgatory springs!"
Martin Luther
When Martin Luther, who, at that time, was a teacher of religion at Wittenberg University, heard about this indulgence, he was furious. He had come a long way spiritually and the indulgence thing was offensive to him. We need to learn about this life so you can see why the indulgence sales bothered him so.
Early Life
Martin Luther was born in 1483 in Eisleben, Germany. His father was a miner who was ambitious for his son and therefore, worked hard and saved so his son could attend a law school and become a lawyer. Martin had no particular problems with that and in due time went off to the University of Erfurt. Martin had a good time there; he "sowed his wild oats" as they say; he attended his share of parties and did what other college students do. Toward the end of his college career, one of his friends died. This sobered Martin up a little bit, and he began to wonder about the purpose of life. Then one afternoon on the way back to the University from a visit to see his parents, Martin was caught in a thunderstorm, apparently a pretty bad one. Lightning struck the ground not far from him and he was frightened out of his mind. He was sure he was going to die. In his fright, he prayed to the patron saint of miners, St. Anne. He promised that if he lived through the storm, he would become a monk. Martin was a devout Catholic and a product of the medieval times, which dictated that he take such a promise seriously. He feared dying; all people of the medieval times did. They'd been raised on the horrors of purgatory and hell. This is why he had made the promise in the first place.
Martin in the monastery
Martin became an Augustinian monk. In doing this, he defied his father. His father was furious with him; he thought his son was a little ungrateful and disobedient not to become a lawyer as everyone had planned; but he did not forbid his son to join the holy orders. Martin became obsessed with guilt. He says in his writings that he felt "lost". He did all the things the medieval church prescribed for his feelings: he prayed, he confessed his sins, he fasted for days on end. Nothing he did made him feel any better. Martin was afraid that he would never gain salvation; he was afraid of God, whom he saw as majestic and terrible, not as a God of mercy. He felt helpless. Probably there were a number of things on Martin's mind that were making him feel this way. There was the death of his friend that was probably still bothering him. It is not at all unusual for a person to feel guilty when someone he loves dies. It's a stage of grieving people go through. There was also the unresolved fight with his father about not continuing law school. There was probably also some guilt about some of the escapades he had gone on in college. We would probably say today that Martin was clinically depressed. Feeling worthless and helpless is the way a depressed person feels. Anyway, the head monks began to get very concerned about Martin. They decided that a trip to Rome was the answer!
Martin goes to Rome
Martin went to Rome on an errand for the head monks. He was appalled at what he found in Rome. First, he was appalled at the luxury of the Pope's court. The Pope at the time was Leo X, who, before he became Pope and changed his name, had been Giovanni de Medici. He was used to having plenty of money and living in luxury. He didn't think there was anything sinful about the way he lived, but Martin did. Martin thought the higher clergy should exemplify the kind of life all Christians should lead by living as much as possible like Jesus and the Apostles. Second, Martin also noticed that the priests were leaving out parts of the Mass so they could get through the service faster. This shocked him. Martin visited all the holy places in Rome; he saw the Catacombs, where the early Christians had hidden from the Romans; he climbed up the 28 stairs where St. Peter had supposedly dragged his own cross before he was crucified. None of it made him feel better. He returned to the monastery in Erfurt more upset than before.
Martin becomes a teacher at the University of Wittenberg
The head monks decided perhaps monastery life was not for Martin! They put him out as a teacher at the University of Wittenberg. There he taught religion and theology. In preparing for his lessons one day, he was reading St. Paul's Letter to the Romans. He was struck by what one of the sentences said. It said, 'The just are saved by faith'. Martin firmly believed that he had now found the answer! A person wasn't saved by what he did but by believing in God. Now this was contrary to what the church taught at that time, which was that there had to be good deeds, too. The date of this spiritual awakening for Luther was approximately 1517, the same year that Johann Tetzel showed up in Luther's area, selling the new indulgence. Now, it is true that sooner or later, Martin would have probably gotten in trouble with the church anyway. He was the kind of person who could not have kept quiet about his newfound belief, and the church did not handle differing opinions on religion well. You either taught what they said or you were a heretic, and the church got rid of heretics before they could spiritually hurt others. The indulgence issue just brought matters to a head more quickly. When Martin found out about the indulgence, he first wrote letters to Rome about it. When there was no response to that, Martin wrote the paper, the 95 Theses, which he intended to be the subject of a debate between clerics. Martin felt sure a debate would straighten things out.
Martin’s protest spreads
The protest might have ended there if it had been ignored. But it was not. The 95 Theses was translated into German and many people read the paper. Johann Tetzel was a Dominican monk; the Dominican order was a friendly rival of the Augustinian one. People were watching to see what would happen. At this point, other issues entered what had been so far a purely religious matter.
Martin and Germany
Martin Luther became a national hero in Germany. He had said what so many of the Germans felt. Germany was part of something called the "Holy Roman Empire". This had been set up in the 10th century. It consisted of Germany, Austria and Italy. Since Austria owned a lot of land, the Holy Roman Empire was large. It was ruled by a "Holy Roman Emperor", who was elected by seven electors, one of whom was the Duke of Saxony. The Holy Roman Emperor had little real power. This was because he couldn't do anything that would upset the Pope, who was the real ruler of the Empire. The Pope considered the Empire to be his sphere of influence, and if he wanted to collect money from it, he did. The Germans were sick of this. They admired Martin for attacking the church. That was why he was a hero to them. Public indignation was so great that Johann Tetzel dared not show his face in public.
Martin’s "trials"
The Roman church was quickly alerted to the importance of the issues that Luther had raised in the 95 Theses. The Archbishop of Mainz complained to Pope Leo of the disastrous financial consequences if Luther were to get away with what he said. So, in 1518, Luther was ordered before the papal legate, Cajetan, and told to recant (take back ) some of what he said in the 95 Theses. Luther would not. Instead, he went further. He claimed good works did you no good at all, that the Pope was not infallible (infallible? never wrong), that men did not need priests to intercede for them with God, and that the bread and wine of Communion did not become the body and blood of Christ really, as the church then believed. In 1519, Luther debated John Eck, a learned theologian, at Leipzig. John Eck was a skillful debater, and he soon had Martin saying things that were heretical. For example, Luther said that church councils might be wrong. In 1520, Pope Leo, finally becoming annoyed with this monk who would not recant, excommunicated Martin. By this time Martin Luther didn't care. He no longer thought the Pope had the authority to keep him away from the sacraments God had ordained through Jesus, and he burned the bull (letter) of excommunication! in front of a number of his followers. In 1521, Martin was ordered to appear before the Diet Of Worms; this was the legislature of the Holy Roman Empire - and again he was asked to recant what he had said. He refused again. The Diet was divided as to what to do about him because he was so popular in Germany, but finally, Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, got the Diet to vote to make him an outlaw.
Martin was spared the consequences of this sentence by the fact that Duke Frederick of Saxony was his supporter and Frederick arranged to have Martin kidnapped as he left the Diet. Frederick then hid Martin in one of his castles until things quieted down a little bit. While in enforced retreat in the castle, Martin translated the Bible into German, wrote some hymns, and reflected on his theology. He studied more church history. He continued to insist that the Pope did not deserve to be the head of Christendom because papal direction had led the church in the wrong direction. He said only three sacraments were necessary, Baptism, Communion and Penance. He continued to say that a priest was not necessary to be an intermediary between God and man, and that a person was responsible for his own beliefs. He also said every man should be a priest to other men. Luther emerged from the castle a year later, ready to reshape the church in Saxony and a national hero in Germany.
Martin and the revolt
Martin, being the single-minded, self-absorbed sort of person he was, did not always think of the implications of what he said. Implication means what a statement someone makes suggests, not what it actually says. Other people did see the implications. Also, he didn't realize that changes in the church would affect the social, political and economic situation in Germany as well as the religious situation. This was because the church was so involved with all those other things. When Luther emerged from seclusion, he found things had taken a tack he did not necessarily like. First, some religious groups had gone out and more or less set themselves up as a church. They took Martin's teaching to greater lengths than he had imagined. Second, he was faced with civil revolts. One was the Knights' Revolt, which broke out in 1522 and lasted until 1523. The other was the Peasants Revolt which began in 1523 and lasted until 1525. Luther was shocked by both revolts. He had not meant that people didn't need to obey the authorities in their lives. He denounced both the revolts; in particular, with the Peasants' Revolt, he recommended harsh action against them.
The occurrence of these two revolts plus the religious groups going off on their own led Martin to reconsider what he had said about each man being responsible for his own beliefs. Luther decided they did need some guidance in religion as well as civil affairs. This led Martin Luther to found his own church. This was the Lutheran Church, named after Luther. The Lutheran Church was the first Protestant church. A Protestant church is any church that was a result of the Reformation, as the events you have been studying came to be called. Things might have ended there, but they did not.
Religious war
Many of Luther's supporters were German princes. There were many small states in Germany, all held loosely together by the Holy Roman Empire and ruled by Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor. The founding of the Lutheran Church gave these princes the chance to rebel against Charles V. They demanded to have the right to choose the religion of their little state. Charles could not have that; it would divide the Holy Roman Empire; plus, his own devout observance of and belief in the Catholic faith would not let him give the princes that right. To Charles, Lutheranism was heresy, wrong belief, and the heretics had to be killed! So Charles went out to fight the "Lutheran heretics". Meantime, the Lutherans had decided the Catholics were "heretics". So there began a religious war. This war lasted for 30 years, from 1525-1555.
The Peace of Augsburg
In 1555, the parties involved in the war agreed to a peace called the Peace of Augsburg. This was a very important peace treaty. It said that rulers might choose the religion of their people. It recognized two churches, Catholic and Lutheran. While it looked good on the surface, the treaty had many shortcomings. What if you were not the religion of your ruler? Did he have the right to make you change religions? If you refused to change, did he have the right to punish you, up to and including death? Some of the rulers did not take religion seriously. They changed religions according to what was fashionable. How did that affect their subjects? Did they have to change every time the ruler did? Also, the peace only recognized Catholics and Lutherans. By 1555, there were already some other churches. What about them?
Almost immediately, there was fallout from the treaty. Rulers would pick a religion, and then they equated loyalty to themselves with being the same religion as they were. They called it treason if you were not the "right" religion. Most of the rulers, if they caught you being the "wrong" religion executed you - either by hanging or in some cases, burning the "heretic" alive. If you wanted to be a different religion from your ruler, you didn't have too many options. One was to hide and hope they didn't catch you; another was to convert; not many people in those days when religion was such a serious matter, were willing to even think about that. Another was to move where they did have your religion but that sometimes meant going to a place which was not your homeland or your culture; the Pilgrims, for example, went to Holland; this was not satisfactory because even though their religion was tolerated, they were made to feel like strangers there because they were English. The last option became increasingly popular as ocean travel became easier: that was to leave Europe entirely, go somewhere else and found a colony for people of your faith. For the people of many religious faiths, particularly Englishmen, the place to go became England's land in America. Just to give you an indication of the seriousness of the religion choice problem, 6 out of England's 13 colonies in America were founded by religious groups looking for a place to be able to have their religious faith without interference. That's almost half of them! One would have thought that somebody would have seen that the answer was religious toleration; but no one did until later. Religion was just too serious a matter to let people be they wanted to be.
The Peace of Augsburg eventually led to more fighting in Europe. This was because, often, nations would pick a religion and then go after nations that weren't that religion! Europe fought over religion (at least, that's the excuse they gave!) until 1648. Now, if you'll do a little math, beginning with the year of the first religious war, you will see that Europeans fought over religion, off and on, for about 125 years. That's almost five generations of people! The issue didn't die completely then either - there was just a little less fighting over it.
The end of Martin’s life
Martin Luther, after founding his own church, married and raised a family. He wrote a catechism and more hymns. He died of old age in 1546. While he had not always considered the implications of what he said and did, his was the first effective challenge to the supremacy of Rome in religious matters. His was the first departure from the church in the West, and he was the first to found a new church in the West. He broke the unity of Western Christendom, and the church has never been the same since.
Why did Luther succeed in his revolt against the church?
This is an interesting question. Luther was not the first to say what he had said. Other reformers had said it and had died for their trouble. We need to see what conditions were present at the time of Martin Luther that were not there earlier.
First, there was the invention of the printing press. The other reformers had lived before its invention. Therefore it was easy for the church to get hold of their writings and destroy them. With Martin that was not possible. The 95 Theses was translated and copied thousands of times before the church was even real aware of what was going on. The paper had been circulated all over Germany. It was too late for the church to try to collect all of the copies, even if they could have. People had read the 95 Theses and the ideas were already in their heads. The other reformers had been burned along with their writings. It would have done the church no good to have killed Martin once the 95 Theses had circulated. They would only have made a martyr of him, added to the popularity of his views, and made themselves look worse, like they really did have something to be ashamed of. Therefore, he was allowed to live.
Second, there was the political situation in Germany. As you have already read, Germany was part of the Holy Roman Empire. It was divided into many little states, all held together loosely by the empire. The Empire was ruled by the Holy Roman Emperor. He in turn was under the influence of the Pope. The Pope considered the Holy Roman Empire to be like his plaything - he could do with it whatever he wanted. The thing he wanted to do the most in the 1500's, due to rising prices, was collect money. The Germans resented this; they didn't want to pay the money, and they did not see what they got out of it. They were willing to support a man with the courage to attack the church for the luxurious way its clergy lived, as well as the other things Martin said in the paper.
Third, there was a growing feeling of nationalism in most of the European countries. This word, nationalism, means a love for and a feeling of belonging to a nation, which is a group of people who all speak the same language and have the same customs. The church was an international organization; this means it is in all countries, and no country is considered any better than another. The people of the 1500's didn't want their money to go to an international organization. They wanted their money to help their own country. They also resented the church's special privileges, such as owning land that it did not have to pay taxes on, and the way it sheltered fugitives from the law. People supported their kings in these quarrels, not the church. Martin seemed to be a spokesperson for Germany. He supported the German people instead of the Pope. Therefore, he became like a national hero, and they all supported him. Had the church killed him, they might well have had revolution on their hands.
Fourth, there was the middle class. You learned about them a few chapters back. This is the merchants and craftsmen, remember. You will remember that they don't like feudalism because they get nothing out of it, and it makes it hard for them to do business. They didn't much care for the church either. It took a tenth of their income, and as far as they were concerned, gave back nothing. The middle class, remember, does not like to waste money! They considered the church to be a big waste of money, especially when they saw how lavishly the higher clergy lived. They were also happy to have someone attack the church for wasteful way its clergy lived, so they became supporters of Martin. Besides that, he was one of their own, a middle class person himself.
Fifth, there was the Renaissance. The Renaissance man was confident in his own ability to solve problems and to find the answers to questions. He no longer felt that he needed guidance on every little thing the way he had in the Middle Ages. He no longer felt he needed the church; in fact, in some cases, it was a hindrance to his learning. Also, there was the fact that those who had studied and who were still studying the ancient Greek and Hebrew texts of the Bible were finding that the texts didn't always say what the church said they did. Also, there was the fact that the Bible was slowly being translated into peoples' languages and it was being printed so people could have their own Bibles and read them for themselves. These two things led to doubt of the church. If the church was wrong about one thing, they could be wrong about others. These feelings of doubt made people more willing to believe Martin in what he had to say.
Sixth, there was the economic situation. Prices were rising; there was inflation and the princes and kings needed ways to get more cash to spend. They thought about that tenth of their income that the church got from everyone and they were mad. They wanted that money. They felt they needed it worse. They also thought how they’d like to be able to tax the church's land. This was no small deal. In France alone, the church owned 20% of the land. Suppose the kings and princes could tax that? They'd get a lot more money, that's for sure. The poor wanted not to have to pay the tenth; that much was hard for them to get together. Also a number of poor peasants worked for the church because the church was their landlord. They wanted more payment for their services. This was another reason princes, kings and the poor supported Martin.
Lastly, there was the fact that Martin was right about a good deal of what he was saying. The church had gradually become more and more corrupt. A church can only be as good as the people in it, and human beings don't handle all power very well. We seem to need some kind of system of brakes to stop us when we get carried away and the church didn't really have this. For a long time, they did a pretty good job of 'policing' themselves but then the Renaissance came along and it was just too much of a temptation to get involved in worldly things that the church should have had no part of. Lots of these worldly things cost a lot of money, so the church was driven to dishonesty (for example, the indulgence Martin objected to) to get it. It is difficult for people when their authorities 'don't walk the way they talk' as the saying goes. People expect their authorities to do what they tell others to do, and to refrain from doing what they tell the people not to do. If the authorities don't obey their own code, we say they are hypocrites. The people felt let down by the church; they felt betrayed and they were angry. This was another reason they were willing to support Martin.
Because of all these reasons, Martin lived through his revolt against the church, and he started the process by which many new churches were formed. We will now learn about another reformer. There were many other reformers, but we are doing this one because of his relevance to our history here in the United States.
John Calvin
John’s life
John Calvin was born in 1509 in Noyon, France. Like Martin Luther, he studied law and gave it up for something else. Only John Calvin took up a literary career instead of monastic life. He was influenced by humanism and came to the revolution a true intellect. He had a conversion in about the year 1533. He continued his literary career and in 1536, he published The Institutes of the Christian Religion. In this he outlined his beliefs. He agreed with Luther in reducing the number of sacraments, denying the necessity of penances, pilgrimages and images, denying that good works could save you, and like Luther, he believed that men and women were sinners separated from God.
The differences between the two men were that Calvin emphasized the majesty of God more than Luther; God could and did know everything that would happen from the beginning of time, including your fate. Calvin also thought religion should translate into social action, which Martin didn't necessarily think was necessary. Martin thought too much worldly contact had corrupted the Roman Catholic Church; he didn't want to see that happen to his church. Calvin thought the church should try to reform the world.
Beliefs of Calvinism
Associated most closely with Calvinism was the idea that God knew from the beginning of time whether a person was saved or not. This idea is often known as predestination. Certain people had already been chosen, before they were born, to be saved; others were not. The saved were called the 'elect'. There was nothing the individual could do about the matter. The individual did not know which group he belonged to; he was supposed to spend his life trying to find out. To find out, a person did a lot of soul-searching and Bible reading. He also looked for "signs": good behavior, for example, or success in life. If a person was lucky, God would tell him in a "conversion experience".
Calvinists also rejected the Roman Catholic Church and the Lutherans, whom they said had just made a compromise and hadn't carried things far enough. To emphasize this, Calvinist meeting houses were "purified" of anything that resembled a Catholic church or service. Their churches were plain and unadorned. There were no stained glass windows, or decorated altar coverings. The ministers dressed plainly. The people sat on hard wooden benches. The Calvinists didn't want anything that was even slightly like a Catholic Church because they considered the Catholic Church sinful.
Calvinists believed you should focus your life on religion and God. Anything that distracted you from serving God was sinful. In the English colonies of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut and New Hampshire, we can see what this meant on a daily basis. Calvinists wore simple clothes and all dressed similarly. Everyone, both men and women, wore black and brown and white. To wear other colors was distracting, it took your mind off God; therefore, it was sinful! Women were allowed no jewelry, makeup or fancy hair decorations; in fact, they had to keep their hair covered under a simple cap. A lot of the kinds of entertainment that we consider fun and perfectly acceptable things to do Calvinists considered distraction from God and therefore sinful. Some examples would be dancing, singing (except hymns, of course), card playing, games, and reading books not about religion. Calvinists had a very strict moral code: you could not drink, for example; or ever say vulgar words, in addition to the other Ten Commandments. Theater was unheard of, and of course, you found no pubs or bars in the town. Their homes were plain, too. In Calvinist communities, people actually did watch you to see that you behaved; part of being Calvinist was to try to make everyone be good. They honestly believed they were chosen to reform the world.
For a short while Calvin ruled Geneva, Switzerland, setting an example for the way he thought the state should be run. Calvin considered religion to be higher than the state. Therefore, religion should rule the state. He set up what is called a theocracy in Geneva. The political leaders of Geneva were the religious leaders as well. Calvin also believed that the church needed some organization and leadership: pastors to preach, minister and give the sacraments; doctors to instruct the faithful in doctrine and to educate children for careers in the ministry and civil government; elders to help discipline the church membership, and deacons to help the poor and do charitable work.
Calvinists were strong believers in education as long as it was religiously oriented. They believed everyone needed to read the Bible so they made sure their children learned to read. Again, in the English colonies mentioned earlier, you could see this belief put in practice. Calvinists began the first "free"(which means tax-supported; you didn't pay extra money to attend school) public schools in this country in their little communities. There was what was called the dame school that taught all the children of the community the basic skills. In Geneva, you saw this belief in practice in the numbers of Protestants that went to study with Calvin there.
Last among the Calvinist beliefs was that the lay people (those who are not clergy) should have a large role in political affairs. Calvin thought lay people could determine the will of God sometimes better than governments. Again, in the English colonies mentioned earlier, we see this belief put into practice in the town meetings, which were held every week to deal with the affairs of the community as a whole.
Calvinism as a religion was made to order for the middle class. Calvin asserted the idea of the 'calling' and saw all honest occupations, including trade and commerce, as acceptable. He said nothing about its being sinful to make a tidy profit as long as you gave your tenth to the church. Also the Calvinist religion seemed to say that hard work and success were signs of salvation. This seemed to the middle class to be telling them they were on the right track, because they believed in those things, too. Also, Calvinism put down too much luxury and fancy living, seeming, by that, to praise the middle class’ belief of not spending money wastefully. Lastly, the middle class liked the idea of having some say in the government of the community.
Calvinism is in a way was much more aggressive than Lutheranism. Calvinists went out to try to change people to their beliefs. They spread the faith from Switzerland to Germany, France (where the Calvinists were known as Huguenots), England (where they were called Puritans to make fun of them), and Holland and to Scotland. Calvinists, because of their strong beliefs, were likely to find themselves persecuted or at the least, ridiculed. Their enthusiasm for their faith, however, dictated that they would never change, no matter what happened to them. They were persecuted and harassed in England in the early part of the 1600's, and that is why they left England in large numbers and came to the New World. Here, in America, on England's land, Calvinists founded colonies where they could live and believe as they pleased. They had a great influence on the other English colonies and on the decision to split from England in 1776. Some of the Founding Fathers of this nation were Calvinist. Their moral views had a great influence on the United States; an influence that has just begun to lessen in this century.
The Catholic Reformation
The success of the Protestant movement caused the Roman Catholic Church to take a hard look at itself. It was losing too many people. One thing for certain was that they needed to know what constituted Catholic faith so that they could better defend their faith. Accordingly, the Council of Trent was held beginning in 1545 and continued to meet off and on, for the next twenty years. They were often interrupted by the wars of religion but they persisted anyway.
The Council of Trent took a stand on doctrine that ruled out any kid of compromise or reconciliation with Protestants. It reaffirmed the role of the priesthood; it asserted once more that there were seven sacraments; it asserted again the necessity of faith and good works; it maintained that both the Bible and the religious spokesmen were authorities on belief. It also maintained as it had all along that in Communion, the bread and wine actually turned into the body and blood of Christ.
The council then turned its attention to the abuses that had been going on - the things Martin Luther had so strongly objected to. The council insisted on strict observance of clerical vows and on the end of such abuses as the buying of church offices. It called for better training for the priests. It imposed censorship on a large scale to promote discipline among the laity (people who are not clergy). It issued something called the Index, which listed all the books Catholics were not supposed to read because of the peril to their faith. Under Pius V, a standard catechism (this is what every Catholic needs to know theology-wise) and a prayer book were made up. In short, the structure of the church was tightened up and given new spirit.
The Catholic Reformation then went out and tried to reconvert people to Catholicism. In this, it was aided by Catholic monarchs and a new order of monks called the Jesuits. The Jesuits were founded by Ignatius Loyola who had at one time been a soldier. He turned to religion after receiving a fairly severe wound. What made the Jesuits different is that they had almost a military structure and they had military discipline imposed on them within the order. They went out to convert people to Catholicism by persuasion if they could, but by force if they thought it necessary. They won back many people to the faith; they were as enthusiastic about Catholicism as the Calvinists were about Calvinism.
The success of the Catholic Reformation can be measured by the fact that after it, the Protestants made few further territorial gains. The line dividing Catholic from Protestant was (figuratively) drawn by 1650. There was little change after that.
Extra Credit Projects and Questions
Chapter Three- Scientific Revolution