1000 word Journal - Due in 8 Hours

Below is an example of a very good Week One journal that perhaps can serve as an exemplar for future journals. I have marked out the student’s name. The writing is clear and sophisticated; the student demonstrates a solid grasp of the major historical factors that led to the outbreak of the early phases of the Reformation, including the critical political factors, which I noticed were missing in many other journals. Without the rise of the Hapsburg family, and especially Charles V, and the very great fear of the German Princes that they would lose the traditional autonomy they enjoyed as rulers of their own principalities, it is doubtful that the Reformation would have ever occurred. Luther’s ideas were in no way new, nor all that revelatory. The Princes supported him because he was useful to them politically as a foil against the creeping power of the Emperor, which was allied closely to the Church. This of course also explains why Luther turned against the peasants—he knew very well who was buttering his bread and the peasants wanted to overthrow all higher authority, which would have included the Princes. If Luther had spoken supportively of the peasant revolt, the Princes might have seen Luther as a social revolutionary and withdrawn their protection, whereupon he could count on being arrested and burned at the stake on the order of the Church authorities. My criticisms of this journal are slight, although I note that the use of the term “Dark Ages” is unfortunate. One of the myths of early modern European history I would like to combat is the idea that the Medieval era was horrific and that things got better with the Renaissance and Reformation. Quite the contrary, I think. Matters were much worse in many ways. Even the weather was colder and malnutrition more common. Also, the Reformation movement may have implied “freedom of religion,” but in fact it very often did not lead to any greater freedom at all; and in any case it led to very horrible wars, much worse than those of the earlier era. Another slight criticism would be in the discussion of the primary sources, where a clear summary could be improved with quotations directly from the primary sources that illustrate the main points. Otherwise, this journal is excellent, concise, clearly written—and can hopefully illustrate a good way (perhaps not the only way) to approach the weekly journals. --Dr. A. Week One Reading Journal HIST1112 Matthew Ruggles The Protestant Reformation was born out of a general crisis of authority that had been building throughout Europe over the middle ages and up through the

Renaissance. Prior to the Reformation, the European world was wrought with war and plague. The Latin Church held a monopoly on Truth, claiming and exercising their authority to determine what is and what isn’t true in the natural and spiritual world. This authority was beginning to be challenged on multiple fronts and for many different reasons, and ultimately led to a complete break from the Latin Church’s traditional teachings and doctrines, and a fracturing of European religious unity that forever changed the course of history. The Renaissance period in Europe was marked by a desire to rediscover the Truth held within the great works of art and writings, and philosophy of the ancients. There was a push to seek out knowledge through direct study of the art and culture that preceded the Dark Ages, and to question the very ideas of Truth that were held within the society of the day. Intellectual thought began to spread as people became more aware of the different modes of thinking about the world and humanity’s place within it. Spurring this spread of knowledge was the invention of the printing press, which made writings available on an increasingly larger scale. The rise of the philosophy of Humanism emphasized the individual worth and dignity of people regardless of their lots in life. Critics and Satirists disseminated works in the vernacular of the day that called into question the righteousness of the contemporary authorities. The spread of knowledge and criticisms of the clerical authority surprisingly did not inspire people to become less spiritual, but stoked the desire of many to have direct access to the Christian Gospels, which called into question the need for the Latin Church and the Papacy as the middleman between the people and God’s Salvation. The Latin Church at this time was mired in corruption. The Great Schism in 1414 resulted in the Papacy being taken over and controlled by wealthy bankers who were more interested in political power and the gaining of personal wealth than in the sincere administration of God’s word and will. Architectural projects and wars waged by the Popes during this period meant that fundraising was necessary for the Church. One Church practice to raise money was the selling of Indulgences. Indulgences were get-out-of-purgatory-free cards, backed by the Church’s claim that they had the authority to issue such forgiveness to anyone who purchased the merits. Many people criticized this practice, including a German Monk named Martin Luther.

Martin Luther’s revolutionary views regarding the limits of Church authority sprang forth from an epiphany he had while studying St. Paul’s epistle to the Romans. Luther came to believe that God’s Salvation was available through faith alone, and through the reading of the scriptures alone. This was a heretical philosophy that denied the Church’s claim that the Pope himself was the Vicar of Christ who held the keys to Heaven. In 1517, Luther wrote and disseminated his Ninety-Five Theses. This list of 95 bullet points outlining his stance against the Church’s sale of indulgences spread like wildfire after the writings were translated into German, and pressed en masse. This moment in history stands as the symbolic starting point of the Protestant Reformation.

As you read Luther’s manifesto, it is not hard to see why the Church

authorities reacted poorly to his ideas. He writes passionately, laying out his reasons for believing that the Pope has no power to divvy out God’s true justice of salvation, as is claimed by the Church through the sale of indulgences. Luther does pay reverence to the Pope in the writing, seemingly indicating that his own objection to indulgences is in a way born out of a desire to shield the Pope from scorn and the questioning by the laity of the day. Luther failed to sway the Church and was excommunicated after he refused Pope Leo X’s call for him to recant a large number of his Theses. Luther turned to northern German Princes for protection, and began to enact his plans for a new church under German Aristocratic rule.

Luther set forth the idea that the Pope and Latin Church have no authority

within the physical world, and as such justified the German Noble’s confiscation of Church properties and holdings within their realms. This coincided with the rise in power of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, and gave the German Nobles a convenient apparatus with which they could oppose the Emperor’s influence. Luther translated the Bible into German and established his own Christian religion that came to be known as Lutheranism. Although Luther ascribed to the idea that Salvation and Truth are available to anyone who has faith and can read the scripture, he was not a social revolutionary and he was definitely not against the secular authority of the Nobles. Luther handed the reigns and the right to rule Lutherans to the German Nobility, branding Lutheranism as an establishment religion, and he excoriated the people who would take his ideas and interpret them differently than he himself had. Luther however, had no power to limit the spread of new and different interpretations of these ideas and the continued evolution of his Christian theology resulted in the further splintering of Christian thought and practice throughout Europe.

Although Luther was not a social revolutionary, radicals who envisioned the

toppling of the social order to uplift the peasantry of Europe took up his ideas and began to stoke the flames of rebellion. The German Peasant’s Revolt of 1524 and 1525 saw armed German peasants fighting against secular and clerical authority, including against the German Princes that Luther was so friendly with. The Twelve Articles of the Peasants gives a view into the desire of the peasants to have more control over their spiritual and secular lives. The requests seem very humble by modern standards. The peasants request the right to hunt and harvest firewood from the forested lands that are owned by the lords, and the right to choose and appoint their own pastors, along with relief from serfdom and unholy tithes. The Articles were an attempt to explain the Christian reasoning behind their demands, a goal much like Martin Luther’s with his 95 Theses. It is fascinating that Luther’s response to the demands of the peasants was to call upon the German Nobles to take up the sword and slaughter all of them in the name of God. Luther’s lack of support helped to quell the rebellion, and its leader was executed.

Protestantism continued to morph and spread throughout society. Influencial thinkers like John Calvin took Luther’s ideas and reinterpreted them, creating different sects of Christian belief. Many of these religions continued to exist as an extension of secular and political authority. Most of the new religious thinkers continued to teach and spread the doctrine that social authority is granted by God, and therefore it is God’s will that the unwashed, huddled masses be subjugated. This of course resulted in the continued use of religion as a powerful tool of social control used to gain power and wealth by those in positions of authority.

The Latin Church also continued to evolve as new thinkers within the Church

helped to spur reforms from the inside. Christian Humanistic teachings and an emphasis on the education of the clergy resulted in the creation of new ecclesiastic orders such as the Ursulines and the Jesuits, all having the overriding goal of spreading their own particular doctrines of belief.

The crisis of authority that ignited the Protestant Reformation led to a

complete splintering of the religious unity that had existed in Europe for generations. Europe now lay as a hodgepodge of religious nations, each with their own interpretation of Truth and Justice.