THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION
During the second half of the fifteenth century, Christian humanist Desiderius
Erasmus paved the way for Martin Luther’s reform movement. Political instability in
the Holy Roman Empire allowed Lutheranism, the first Protestant faith, to spread. The
Peace of Augsburg formally accepted the division of Christianity in Germany—
Lutheranism and Catholicism.
Prelude to Reformation
The Protestant Reformation is the name given to the religious reform movement
that divided the western Church into Catholic and Protestant groups. Although Martin
Luther began the Reformation in the early 1500s, earlier developments set the stage
for religious change.
Christian Humanism
One such development grew from widespread changes in intellectual thought.
During the second half of the fifteenth century, the new classical learning that was part
of Italian Renaissance humanism spread to northern Europe. From that came a
movement called Christian humanism, or Northern Renaissance humanism. The
major goal of this movement was the reform of the Catholic Church. The Christian
humanists believed in the ability of human beings to reason and improve themselves.
They thought that if people read the classics, and especially the basic works of
Christianity, they would become more pious. This inner piety, or inward religious
feeling, would bring about a reform of the Church and society. Christian humanists
believed that in order to change society, they would first have to change human beings.
The best-known Christian humanist was Desiderius Erasmus (ih•RAZ•muhs). He
called his view of religion “the philosophy of Christ.” By this, he meant that Christianity
should show people how to live good lives on a daily basis, not just provide beliefs for
them to be saved. Stressing the inwardness of religious feeling, Erasmus thought the
external forms of medieval religion (pilgrimages, fasts, relics) were not all that
important.
To reform the Church, Erasmus wanted to spread the philosophy of Christ,
provide education in the works of Christianity, and criticize the abuses in the Church.
In his work The Praise of Folly, written in 1509, Erasmus humorously criticized aspects
of his society that he believed were most in need of reform. He singled out the monks
for special treatment. Monks, he said, “insist that everything be done in precise detail.
. . . Just so many knots must be on each shoe and the shoelace must be of only one
color.” Erasmus sought reform within the Catholic Church. He did not wish to break
away from it. His ideas, however, did prepare the way for the Reformation. As people
of his day said, “Erasmus laid the egg that Luther hatched.”
Need for Reform
Why the call for reform? Corruption was one reason. From 1450 to 1520, a series
of popes—known as the Renaissance popes— failed to meet the Church’s spiritual
needs.
The popes were supposed to be the spiritual leaders of the Catholic Church. As
leaders of the Papal States, however, they were all too often more concerned with
Italian politics and worldly interests than with spiritual matters. Julius II, the fiery
“warrior-pope,” personally led armies against his enemies. This disgusted Christians
who viewed the pope as a spiritual, not a military, leader. Many Church officials used
their church offices to advance their careers and their wealth. At the same time, many
ordinary parish priests seemed ignorant of their spiritual duties. People wanted to
know how to save their souls, and many parish priests were unwilling or unable to offer
them advice or instruction. While the leaders of the Church were failing to meet their
responsibilities, ordinary people desired meaningful religious expression and
assurance of their salvation, or acceptance into Heaven. As a result, for some, the
process of obtaining salvation became almost mechanical. Collections of relics grew
more popular as a means to salvation. According to Church practice at that time,
through veneration of a relic, a person could gain an indulgence—release from all or
part of the punishment for sin. Frederick the Wise, Luther’s prince, had amassed over
5,000 relics. Indulgences attached to them could reduce time in purgatory by 1,443
years. The Church also sold indulgences. Other people sought certainty of salvation
in the popular mystical movement known as the Modern Devotion. The Modern
Devotion downplayed religious dogma and stressed the need to follow the teachings
of Jesus. This deepening of religious life was done within the Catholic Church.
However, many people soon found that the worldly-wise clergy had little interest in the
spiritual needs of their people. This environment helps to explain the tremendous
impact of Luther’s ideas.
Martin Luther
Martin Luther was a monk and a professor at the University of Wittenberg, in
Germany, where he lectured on the Bible. Through his study of the Bible, Luther
arrived at an answer to a problem—the certainty of salvation—that had bothered him
since he had become a monk. Catholic teaching had stressed that both faith and good
works were needed to gain personal salvation. In Luther’s opinion, human beings were
powerless in the sight of an almighty God and could never do enough good works to
earn salvation. Through his study of the Bible, Luther came to believe that humans are
not saved through their good works but through their faith in God. This idea, called
justification by faith alone, became the chief teaching of the Protestant Reformation.
Because Luther had arrived at his understanding of salvation by studying the Bible,
the Bible became for Luther, as for all other Protestants, the only source of religious
truth. The Ninety-five Theses Luther did not see himself as a rebel, but he was greatly
upset by the widespread selling of indulgences. Especially offensive in his eyes was
the monk Johann Tetzel, who sold indulgences with the slogan: “As soon as the coin
in the coffer [money box] rings, the soul from purgatory springs.” People, Luther
believed, were simply harming their chances for salvation by buying these pieces of
paper. On October 31, 1517, Luther, who was greatly angered by the Church’s
practices, sent a list of Ninety-five Theses to his church superiors, especially the local
bishop. The theses were a stunning attack on abuses in the sale of indulgences.
Thousands of copies of the Ninety-five Theses were printed and spread to all parts of
Germany. Pope Leo X did not take the issue seriously, however. He said that Luther
was simply “some drunken German who will amend his ways when he sobers up.”
A Break with the Church
By 1520, Luther had begun to move toward a more definite break with the
Catholic Church. He called on the German princes to overthrow the papacy in
Germany and establish a reformed German church. Luther also attacked the Church’s
system of sacraments. In his view, they were the means by which the pope and the
Church had destroyed the real meaning of the gospel for a thousand years. He kept
only two sacraments—baptism and the Eucharist (also known as Communion). Luther
also called for the clergy to marry. This went against the long-standing Catholic
requirement that the clergy remain celibate, or unmarried. Through all these calls for
change, Luther continued to emphasize his new doctrine of salvation. It is faith alone,
he said, and not good works, that justifies and brings salvation through Christ.
Unable to accept Luther’s ideas, the Church excommunicated him in January
1521. He was also summoned to appear before the imperial diet—or legislative
assembly—of the Holy Roman Empire, which was called into session at the city of
Worms by the newly elected emperor Charles V. The emperor believed he could
convince Luther to change his ideas. However, Luther refused. The young emperor
was outraged. “A single friar who goes counter to all Christianity for a thousand years,”
he declared, “must be wrong!” By the Edict of Worms, Martin Luther was made an
outlaw within the empire. His works were to be burned and Luther himself captured
and delivered to the emperor. However, Luther’s ruler, Frederick, the elector of Saxony,
was unwilling to see his famous professor killed. He sent Luther into hiding and then
protected him when Luther returned to Wittenberg at the beginning of 1522.
The Rise of Lutheranism
Luther’s religious movement soon became a revolution. Many German rulers
who supported Luther took control of the Catholic churches in their territories, forming
state churches supervised by the government. As part of the development of these
state-dominated churches, Luther also set up new religious services to replace the
Catholic mass. These services consisted of Bible readings, preaching of the word of
God, and song. Luther’s doctrine soon became known as Lutheranism and the
churches as Lutheran churches. Lutheranism was the first Protestant faith. In June
1524, Luther faced a political crisis. German peasants revolted against their lords and
looked to Luther to support their cause. Luther instead supported the lords. To him,
the state and its rulers were called by God to maintain the peace necessary to spread
the Gospel. It was the duty of princes to stop all revolt. By the following spring, the
German princes had crushed the peasant revolts. Luther found himself even more
dependent on state authorities for the growth of his church.
Politics in the German Reformation
From its very beginning, the fate of Luther’s movement was tied closely to
political affairs. Charles V, the Holy Roman emperor (who was also Charles I, the king
of Spain), ruled an immense empire consisting of Spain and its colonies, the Austrian
lands, Bohemia, Hungary, the Low Countries, the duchy of Milan in northern Italy, and
the kingdom of Naples in southern Italy. Politically, Charles wanted to keep this
enormous empire under the control of his dynasty—the Hapsburgs. Religiously, he
hoped to preserve the unity of his empire by keeping it Catholic. However, a number
of problems kept him busy and cost him both his dream and his health. These same
problems helped Lutheranism survive by giving Lutherans time to organize before
having to face the Catholic forces. The chief political concern of Charles V was his
rivalry with the king of France, Francis I. Their conflict over disputed territories in a
number of areas led to a series of wars that lasted more than 20 years. At the same
time, Charles faced opposition from Pope Clement VII. Guided by political
considerations, the pope had joined the side of the French king. The invasion of
Ottoman Turks into the eastern part of the empire forced Charles to send forces there
as well.
Finally, the internal political situation in the Holy Roman Empire was not in
Charles’s favor. Germany was a land of several hundred territorial states. Although all
owed loyalty to the emperor, many individual rulers of the German states supported
Luther as a way to assert their own local authority. By the time Charles V brought
military forces to Germany, the Lutheran princes were well organized. Unable to defeat
them, Charles was forced to seek peace. An end to religious warfare in Germany came
in 1555 with the Peace of Augsburg. This agreement formally accepted the division of
Christianity in Germany. The German states were now free to choose between
Catholicism and Lutheranism. Lutheran states were to have the same legal rights as
Catholic states. However, the right of each German ruler to determine the religion of
his subjects was accepted, but not the right of the subjects to choose their own religion.
