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The Reformation, also known as the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation,
The Reformation is usually dated from Martin Luther's publication of the Ninety-five Theses in 1517, which gave birth to Lutheranism. Prior to Martin Luther and other Protestant Reformers, there were earlier reform movements within Western Christianity. The end of the Reformation era is disputed among modern scholars.
In general, the Reformers argued that justification was sola fide and not both faith and good works, as in the Catholic view. In the Lutheran, Anglican and Reformed view, good works were seen as fruits of living faith and part of the process of sanctification.
The spread of Gutenberg's printing press provided the means for the rapid dissemination of religious materials in the vernacular. The initial movement in Saxony, Germany, diversified, and nearby other reformers such as the Swiss Huldrych Zwingli and the French John Calvin developed the Continental Reformed tradition. Within a Reformed framework, Thomas Cranmer and John Knox led the Reformation in England and the Reformation in Scotland, respectively, giving rise to Anglicanism and Presbyterianism.
The consequent European wars of religion saw the deaths of between seven and seventeen million people.
Anglican theologian Alister McGrath explains the term "Reformation" as "an interpretative category—a way of mapping out a slice of history in which certain ideas, attitudes, and values were developed, explored, and applied". Historian John Bossy criticized the term Reformation Christianity in the West 1400-1700 (review) for "wrongly implying that bad religion was giving way to good," but also because it has "little application to actual social behaviour and little or no sensitivity to thought, feeling or culture." A French scholar has noted "no Reformation term is indisputable" and that "Reformation studies has revealed that “Protestants” and “Catholics” were not as homogenous as once thought."
Specific terminology includes:
Several aspects of the Reformation, such as changes in the arts, music, rituals, and communities are frequently presented in specialised studies.
The historian Peter Marshall emphasizes that the "call for 'reform' within Christianity is about as old as the religion itself, and in every age there have been urgent attempts to bring it about". Charlemagne employed a "rhetoric of reform". Medieval examples include the Cluniac Reform in the , and the 11th-century Gregorian Reform, both striving against Catholic laity influence over church affairs. When demanding a church reform, medieval authors mainly adopted a conservative and utopian approach, expressing their admiration for a previous "golden age" or "apostolic age" when the Church had allegedly been perfect and free of abuses.
When considered as a historical time period, both the starting and ending date of the Reformation have always been debated. The most commonly used starting date is 31 October 1517—the day when the German theologian Martin Luther (d. 1546) allegedly nailed up a copy of his disputation paper on indulgences and papal power known as the Ninety-five Theses to the door of the castle church in Wittenberg in Electoral Saxony. Calvinist historians often propose that the Reformation started when the Swiss priest Huldrych Zwingli (d. 1531) first preached against abuses in the Church in 1516. The end date of the Reformation is even more disputed: considered as political/martial strife, 25 September 1555 (when the Peace of Augsburg was accepted), 23 May 1618 and 24 October 1648 (when the Thirty Years' War began and ended, respectively) are the most commonly mentioned terminuses. The Reformation has always been presented as one of the most crucial episodes of the early modern period, or even regarded as the event separating the modern era from the Middle Ages.
The term Protestant, though initially purely political in nature, later acquired a broader sense, referring to a member of any Western church that subscribed to the main Reformation (or anti-Catholicism) principles. Six princes of the Holy Roman Empire and rulers of fourteen Imperial Free Cities, who issued a protest (or dissent) against the edict of the Diet of Speyer (1529), were the first individuals to be called Protestants. The edict reversed concessions made to the Lutheranism with the approval of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V three years earlier.
The constant fear of unexpected death was mirrored by popular artistic motifs, such as the allegory of danse macabre ('dance of death'). The fear also contributed to the growing popularity of Requiem. Already detectable among early Christians, these ceremonies indicated a widespread belief in purgatory—a transitory state for souls that needed purification before entering heaven. Fear of malevolent magical practice was also growing, and intensified.
At the end of the , the sexually transmitted infection known as syphilis spread throughout Europe for the first time. Syphilis destroyed its victims' looks with ulcers and scabs before killing them. Along with the French invasion of Italy, syphilis contributed to the success of the charismatic preacher Girolamo Savonarola (d. 1498) who called for a moral renewal in Florence. He was arrested and executed for heresy, but his meditations remained a popular reading.
The Catholic Church taught that entry into Beatific vision required dying in a . Based on Christ's parable on the Last Judgement, the Church emphasized the performance of good works by the baptized faithful, such as feeding the hungry and visiting the sick, as an important co-condition of salvation.
Villagers and urban laypeople were frequently members of confraternities (such as the Archconfraternity of the Gonfalone), mutual-support guilds associated with a saint, or religious fraternities (such as the Third Order of Saint Francis). The faithful made pilgrimages to saints' , but the proliferation in the saints' number undermined their reputation. There was a strong non-theological Biblical awareness, especially of the Gospels and Psalms.
New religious movements promoted the deeper involvement of laity in religious practices. The communal fraternities of the Brethren of the Common Life did not encourage lay brothers to become priests and often placed their houses under the protection of urban authorities. They were closely associated with the devotio moderna, a new method of Catholic spirituality with a special emphasis on the education of laypeople. A leader of the movement the Dutch Wessel Gansfort (d. 1489) attacked abuses of indulgences.
Church buildings were richly decorated with paintings, sculptures, and stained glass windows. While Romanesque art and Gothic art made a clear distinction between the supernatural and the human, Renaissance artists depicted God and the saints in a more human way. Historian Caroline Walker Bynum has written of 'a sort of religious materialism' in the period: 'a frenzied conviction that the divine tended to erupt into matter'.
The clergy consisted of two major groups, the regular clergy and the secular clergy. Regular clerics lived under a monastic rule within the framework of a religious order; secular clerics were responsible for pastoral care. The Church was a hierarchical organisation. The pope was elected by high-ranking clergymen, the cardinals, and assisted by the professional staff of the Roman Curia. Secular clerics were organised into territorial units known as , each ruled by a bishop or archbishop. Each diocese was divided into parishes headed by parish priests who administered most to the faithful. These were sacred rites thought to transfer divine grace to humankind. The Council of Florence declared baptism, confirmation, marriage, extreme unction, penance, the Eucharist, and priestly ordination as the seven sacraments of the Catholic Church. Women were not ordained priests but could live as in after taking the three monastic vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience.
From 1309 to 1417, the papacy was in turmoil: various election controversies resulted in the Western Schism (1378-1417) leading to, at the end, three rival claimant Popes. At the Council of Constance, one of the three popes resigned, his two rivals were deposed, and the newly elected Martin V () was acknowledged as the legitimate pope throughout Catholic Europe. The relative authority of Conciliarism was in contest.
The Renaissance popes were also secular rulers: as princes of the Papal States in Italy, the popes were deeply involved in the power struggles of the peninsula, and the Italian noble houses vied for election. These popes frequently caused scandal: Pope Alexander VI () appointed his relatives, among them his own illegitimate sons to high offices; Pope Julius II () took up arms to recover papal territories lost during his predecessors' reign, prompting the underground satire Julius Excluded from Heaven.
In the early Age of Exploration, a succession of popes (Nicholas V, Sixtus IV, ) successfully arbitrated territorial disputes between Spain and Portugal outside Europe, notably with the papal bull Inter caetera (1493) drawing a line through South America to separate their trade and colonial regions. The Spanish and Portuguese conquests and developing trade networks contributed to the global expansion of Catholicism.
The popes were generous patrons of art and architecture. ordered the demolition of the ruined 4th-century St. Peter's Basilica in preparation for the building of a new Renaissance basilica, creating a financial problem.
Within regular clergy, the so-called "congregations of strict observance" spread. These were monastic communities that returned to the strict interpretation of their order's rule. Reformist bishops tried to discipline their clergy through regular canonical visitations but their attempts mainly failed due to the resistance of autonomous institutions such as cathedral chapters. Neither could they exercise authority over non-resident clerics who had received their benefice from the papacy. On the eve of the Reformation, the Fifth Council of the Lateran was the last occasion when efforts to introduce a far-reaching reform from above could have achieved but it was dissolved in 1517 without making decisions on the issues that would soon come to the fore.
As the Paper mill from rags and the printing machine with movable type were spreading in Europe, books could be bought at a reasonable price from the . Demand for religious literature was especially high. The German inventor Johannes Gutenberg (d. 1468) first published a Gutenberg Bible of the Vulgata in the early 1450s. High and Low German, Italian, Dutch, Spanish, Czech and Catalan translations of the Bible were published between 1466 and 1492; in France, the Bible's abridged French versions gained popularity. Laypeople who read the Bible could challenge their priests' sermons, as it happened already in 1515.
Completed by Jerome (d. 420), the Vulgate contained the Septuagint version of the Old Testament. The systematic study of Biblical manuscripts revealed that Jerome had sometimes misinterpreted his sources of translation. A series of Latin-Greek editions of the New Testament was completed by the Dutch humanist Erasmus (d. 1536). These new Latin translations challenged some scriptural proof texts for some Catholic dogmas.
The Western Schism reinforced a general desire for church reform. The Oxford theologian John Wycliffe (d. 1384) was one of the most radical critics. He attacked pilgrimages, the veneration of saints, and the doctrine of transubstantiation. He regarded the Church as an exclusive community of those chosen by God to salvation, and argued that the state could seize the corrupt clerics' endowments. Known as Lollards, Wycliffe's followers rejected images, clerical celibacy and the by crusading lords. The Parliament of England passed a law against heretics, but Lollard communities survived the purges.
Wycliffe's theology had a marked impact on the Prague academic Jan Hus (d. 1415). He delivered popular sermons against the clerics' wealth and temporal powers, for which he was summoned to the Council of Constance. Although the German king Sigismund of Luxemburg () had granted him safe conduct, Hus was sentenced to death for heresy and burned at the stake on 6 July 1415. His execution led to a nationwide religious movement in Bohemia, and the papacy called for a Hussite Wars against Hus's followers. The moderate Hussitism, mainly Czech nobility and academics, were known as Utraquism for they taught that the Eucharist was to be administered sub utraque specie ('in both kinds') to the laity. The most radical Hussites, called Taborites after their new town of Tábor, held their property in common. Their millenarianism shocked the Utraquists who destroyed them in the Battle of Lipany in 1434. By this time, the remaining Catholic communities in Bohemia were almost exclusively German-speaking. The lack of a Hussite church hierarchy enabled the Czech aristocrats and urban magistrates to assume control of the Hussite clergy from the 1470s. The radical Hussites set up their own Church known as the Union of Bohemian Brethren. They rejected the separation of clergy and laity, and condemned all forms of violence and oath taking.
Marshall writes that the Lollards, Hussites and conciliarist theologians "collectively give the lie to any suggestion that torpor and complacency were the hallmarks of religious life in the century before Martin Luther." Historians customarily refer to Wycliffe and Hus as "Forerunners of the Reformation". The two reformers' emphasis on the Bible is often regarded as an early example of one of the basic principles of the Reformation—the idea sola scriptura ('by the Scriptures alone'), although prominent scholastic theologians were also convinced that Scripture, interpreted reasonably and in accord with the Church and the Church Fathers, contained all knowledge necessary for salvation.
The campaign's vulgarity shocked many serious-minded believers, among them Martin Luther, a theology professor at the University of Wittenberg in Saxony. Born into a middle-class family, Luther entered an Augustinian monastery after a heavy thunderstorm dreadfully reminded him the risk of sudden death and eternal damnation, but his anxiety about his sinfulness did not abate. His studies on the works of the Late Roman theologian Augustine of Hippo (d. 430) convinced him that those whom God chose as his elect received a gift of faith independently of their acts. He first denounced the idea of justification through human efforts in his Disputatio contra scholasticam theologiam ('Disputation against Scholastic Theology') in September 1517.
On 31 October 1517, Luther addressed a letter to Albert of Brandenburg, stating that the clerics preaching the St. Peter's indulgences were deceiving the faithful, and attached his Ninety-five Theses to it. He questioned the efficacy of indulgences for the dead, although also stated " indulgences were preached according to the spirit and intention of the pope, doubts would be readily resolved". Archbishop Albert ordered the theologians at the University of Mainz to examine the document. Tetzel, and the theologians Konrad Wimpina (d. 1531) and Johann Eck (d. 1543) were the first to associate some of Luther's propositions with Hussitism. The case was soon forwarded to the Roman Curia for judgement. Pope Leo remained uninterested, and mentioned the case as "a quarrel among friars".
Urged by Luther's opponents, Pope Leo appointed the jurist Girolamo Ghinucci (d. 1541) and the theologian Sylvester Mazzolini (d. 1527) to inspect Luther's teaching. Mazzolini argued that Luther had questioned papal authority by attacking the indulgences, while Luther concluded that only a fundamental reform could put an end to the abuse of indulgences. Pope Leo did not excommunicate Luther because Leo did not want to alienate Luther's patron Frederick the Wise. Instead, he appointed Cardinal Thomas Cajetan (d. 1534) to convince Luther to withdraw some of his theses. Cajetan met with Luther at Augsburg in October 1518. The historian Berndt Hamm says that the meeting was the "historical point at which the opposition between the Reformation and Catholicism first emerged", as Cajetan thought that believers accepting Luther's views of justification would no more obey clerical guidance.
Luther first expressed his sympathy for Jan Hus at a Leipzig Debate in June 1519. His case was reopened at the Roman Curia. Cajetan, Eck and other papal officials drafted the papal bull Exsurge Domine ('Arise, O Lord') which was published on 15 June 1520. It condemned Luther's forty-one theses, and offered a sixty-day-long grace period to him to recant. Luther's theology quickly developed. In a Latin treatise On the Babylonian Captivity of the Church, he stated that only baptism and the Eucharist could be regarded as sacraments, and priests were not members of a privileged class but servants of the community (hence they became called ministers from the Latin word for servant). His German manifesto To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation associated the papacy with the Antichrist, and described the Holy See as "the worst whorehouse of all whorehouses" in reference to the funds flowing to the Roman Curia. It also challenged the Biblical justification of clerical celibacy. Luther's study On the Freedom of a Christian consolidated his thoughts about the believers' inner freedom with their obligation to care for their neighbours although he rejected the traditional teaching about good works. The study is a characteristic example of Luther's enthusiasm for paradoxes.
The papal nuncio Girolamo Aleandro (d. 1542) ordered the burning of Luther's books. In response, Luther and his followers burned the papal bull along with a copy of the Corpus Juris Canonici—the fundamental document of medieval ecclesiastic law—at Wittenberg. The papal bull excommunicating Luther was published on 3 January 1521. The newly elected Holy Roman Emperor Charles V () wanted to outlaw Luther at the Diet of Worms, but could not make the decision alone. The Holy Roman Empire was a confederation of autonomous states, and authority rested with the Imperial Diets where the assembled. Frederick the Wise vetoed the imperial ban against Luther, and Luther was summoned to Worms to defend his case at the Diet in April 1521. Here he refused to recant stating that only arguments from the Bible could convince him that his works contained errors.
After Luther and his supporters left the Diet, those who remained sanctioned the imperial ban, threatening Luther's supporters with imprisonment and confiscation of their property. To save Luther's life but also to hide his involvement, Frederick arranged Luther's abduction on 4 May. During his ten-month-long staged captivity at Frederick's castle of Wartburg, Luther translated the New Testament to High German. The historian Diarmaid MacCulloch describes the translation as an "extraordinary achievement that has shaped the German language ever since", adding that "Luther's gift was for seizing the emotion with sudden, urgent phrases". The translation would be published at the 1522 Leipzig Book Fair along with Luther's treatise On Monastic Vows that laid the theological foundations of the dissolution of monasteries. Luther also composed religious hymns in Wartburg. They would be first published in collections in 1524. During Luther's absence, his co-workers, primarily Philip Melanchthon (d. 1560) and Andreas Karlstadt (d. 1541) assumed the leadership of Reformation in Wittenberg. Melanchthon consolidated Luther's thoughts into a coherent theological work titled Loci communes ('Common Places').
Reformation spread through the activities of enthusiastic preachers such as Johannes Oecolampadius (d. 1531) and Konrad Pellikan (d. 1556) in Basel, Sebastian Hofmeister (d. 1533) in Schaffhausen, and Matthäus Zell (d. 1548) and Martin Bucer (d. 1551) in Strasbourg. They were called "Evangelicals" due to their insistence on teaching in accordance with the (or Evangelion). Luther and many of his followers worked with the artist Lucas Cranach the Elder (d. 1553) who had a keen sense of visualising their message. He produced Luther's idealised portrait setting a template for further popular images printed on the covers of books. Cranach's together with itinerant preachers' explanations helped the mainly illiterate people to understand Luther's teaching. The illustrated pamphlets were carried from place to place typically by peddlers and merchants. Laypeople started to discuss various aspects of religion in both private and public all over Germany.
The self-governing free imperial cities were the first centers of the Reformation. The Evangelical preachers emphasized that many of the well-established church practices had no precedent in the Bible. They offered the Eucharist to the laity in both kinds, and denied the clerics' monopolies, which resonated with popular anti-clericalism. It was not unusual that their supporters attacked clerics and church buildings. Violent iconoclasm was common.In some cities such as Strasbourg and Ulm, the urban magistrates supported the Reformation; in the cities of the Hanseatic League the affluent middle classes enforced changes in church life. Cities located closer to the most important ideological centers of the Reformation—Wittenberg and Basel—adopted its ideas more likely than other towns. This indicates the significance either of student networks, or of neighbours who had rejected Catholicism.
The sociologist Steven Pfaff underlines that "ecclesiastical and liturgical reform was not simply a religious question ... since the sort of reforms demanded by Evangelicals could not be accommodated within existing institutions, prevailing customs, or established law". After their triumph, the reformers expelled their leading opponents, dissolved the monasteries and convents, secured the urban magistrates' control of the appointment of priests, and established new civic institutions. Evangelical town councils usually prohibited begging but established a common chest for poverty relief by expropriating the property of dissolved ecclesiastic institutions. The funds were used for the daily support of orphans, old people and the sick, but also for low-interest loans to the impoverished to start a business. Luther was convinced that only educated people could effectively serve both God and the community. Under his auspices, public schools and libraries were opened in many towns offering education to more children than the traditional monastic school and .
Luther's ideas were rejected by most representatives of the previous generation of Humanists. Erasmus stated that Luther's "unrestrained enthusiasm carries him beyond what is right". Jacob van Hoogstraaten (d. 1527) compared Luther's theology of salvation "as if Christ takes to himself the most foul bride and is unconcerned about her cleanliness". Luther's works were burned in most European countries. Emperor Charles initiated the execution of the first Evangelical martyrs, the Augustinian monks Jan van Essen and Hendrik Vos. They were burned in Brussels on 1 July 1523. Charles was determined to protect the Catholic Church, but the Ottoman Empire expansion towards Central Europe often thwarted him. The Spanish Inquisition prevented the spread of Evangelical literature in that country, and suppressed the spiritual movement of the Alumbrados ('Illuminists') who put a special emphasis on personal faith. Some Italian men of letters, such as the Venetian nobleman Gasparo Contarini (d. 1542) and the Augustinian canon Peter Martyr Vermigli (d. 1562) expressed ideas resembling Luther's theology of salvation but did not quickly break with Catholicism. They were part of a group known as Spirituali.
The English king Henry VIII () commissioned a team of theologians to defend the Catholic dogmas against Luther's attacks. Their treatise titled The Assertion of the Seven Sacraments was published under Henry's name, and the grateful Pope awarded him with the title Defender of the Faith. In Scotland, the first Evangelical preacher Patrick Hamilton (d. 1528) was burned for heresy. In France, the theologians of the Sorbonne stated that Luther "vomited up a doctrine of pestilence". Guillaume Briçonnet (d. 1534), Bishop of Meaux, also condemned Luther but employed reform-minded clerics like Jacques Lefèvre d'Étaples (d. 1536) and William Farel (d. 1565) to renew religious life in his diocese. They enjoyed the protection of Marguerite of Angoulême (d. 1549), the well-educated sister of the French king Francis I (). The Parlement of Paris only took actions against them after Francis was captured in the Battle of Pavia in 1525, forcing many of them into exile.
Correspondence between Luke of Prague (d. 1528), leader of the Bohemian Brethren, and Luther made it clear that their theologies were incompatible even if their views about justification were similar. In Bohemia, Hungary, and Poland, Luther's theology spread in the local German communities. King Louis of Bohemia and Hungary () ordered the persecution of Evangelical preachers although his wife Mary of Austria (d. 1558) favoured the reformers. Sigismund I the Old, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania () banned the import of Evangelical literature. Christian II, who ruled the Kalmar Union of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway (), was sympathetic towards the Reformation but his despotic methods led to revolts. He was replaced by his uncle Frederick I in Denmark and Norway (), and by a local aristocrat Gustav I Vasa in Sweden ().
Luther condemned violence but some of his followers took up arms. Franz von Sickingen (d. 1523), an imperial knight from the Rhineland, formed an alliance with his peers against Richard von Greiffenklau, Archbishop-elector of Trier (), allegedly to lead the Archbishop's subjects "to evangelical, light laws and Christian freedom". Sickingen had demanded the restitution of monastic property to the grantors' descendants, stating that the secularisation of church property would also improve the poor peasants' situation. Sickingen and his associates attacked the archbishopric but failed at the siege of Trier. Sickingen was mortally wounded while defending his Nanstein Castle against the Archbishop's troops. Luther denounced Sickingen's violent acts. According to his "theory of two kingdoms", true Christians had to submit themselves to princely authority.
In January 1525, a former Catholic priest George Blaurock (d. 1529) asked Grebel to Rebaptism him, and after his request was granted they rebaptized fifteen other people. For this practice, they were called Anabaptism ('rebaptizers'). As a featuring element of Donatism and other heretic movements, rebaptism had been a capital offence since the Late Roman period. After the magistrates had some radicals imprisoned, Blaurock called Zwingli the Antichrist. The town council enacted a law that threatened rebaptizers with capital punishment, and the Anabaptist Felix Manz (d. 1527) was condemned to death and drowned in the Limmat River. He was the first victim of religious persecution by reformist authorities. The purge convinced many Anabaptists that they were the true heirs to early Christians who had suffered martyrdom for their faith. The most radicals took inspiration from the Book of Daniel and the Book of Revelation for apocalyptic prophesies. Some of them burnt the Bible reciting St Paul's words, "the letter kills". In St. Gallen, Anabaptist women cut their hair short to avoid arousing sexual passion, while a housemaid Frena Bumenin proclaimed herself the New Messiah before announcing that she would give birth to the Antichrist.
According to Dr Kenneth R. Davis, "the Anabaptists can best be understood as, apart from their own creativity, a radicalization and Protestantization not of the Magisterial Reformation but of the lay-oriented, ascetic reformation of which Erasmus is the principle mediator."
Georg Truchsess von Waldburg (d. 1531), commander of the army of the aristocratic Swabian League, achieved the dissolution of the peasant armies either by force or through negotiations. By this time the peasant movements reached Franconia and Thüringia. The Franconian peasants formed alliances with artisans and petty nobles such as Florian Geyer (d. 1525) against the patricians and the Prince-Bishopric of Würzburg but Truchsess forced them into submission. In Thüringia, Müntzer convinced 300 radicals that they were invincible but they were annihilated at Frankenhausen by Philip the Magnanimous, Landgrave of Hesse () and George, Duke of Saxony (). Müntzer who had hidden in an attic before the battle was discovered and executed. News of atrocities by peasant bands and meetings with disrespectful peasants during a preaching tour outraged Luther while he was writing his treatise Against the Murderous, Thieving Hordes of Peasants. In it, he urged the German princes to "smite, slay, and slab" the rebels. Moderate observers felt aggrieved at his cruel words. They regarded as an especially tasteless act that Luther married Katharina von Bora (d. 1552), a former nun while the punitive actions against the peasantry were still in process. Further peasant movements began in other regions in Central Europe but they were pacified through concessions or suppressed by force before the end of 1525.
At the Diet of Speyer in 1526, the German princes agreed that they would "live, govern, and act in such a way as everyone trusted to justify before God and the Imperial Majesty". In practice, they sanctioned the principle cuius regio, eius religio ('whose realm, their religion'), acknowledging the princes' right to determine their subjects' religious affiliation. Fully occupied with the War of the League of Cognac against France and its Italian allies, Emperor Charles had appointed his brother Ferdinand I, Archduke of Austria () to represent him in Germany. They both opposed the compromise, but Ferdinand was brought into succession struggles in Bohemia and Hungary after their brother-in-law King Louis died in the Battle of Mohács. In 1527, Charles's mutinous troops sacked Rome and took Pope Clement VII () under custody. Luther stated that "Christ reigns in such a way that the emperor who persecutes Luther for the pope is forced to destroy the pope for Luther".
After his experiences with radical communities, Luther no more wrote of the congregations' right to elect their ministers (or ). Instead, he expected that princes acting as "emergency bishops" would prevent the disintegration of the Church. Close cooperation between clerics and princely officials at church visitations paved the way for the establishment of the new church system. In Electoral Saxony, princely decrees enacted the Evangelical ideas. Liturgy was simplified, the church courts' jurisdiction over secular cases was abolished, and state authorities took control of church property. The Evangelical equivalent to bishop was created with the appointment of a former Catholic priest Johannes Bugenhagen (d. 1558) as superintendent in 1533. The church visitations convinced Luther that the villagers' knowledge of the Christian faith was imperfect. To deal with the situation, he completed two —the Large Catechism for the education of priests, and the Small Catechism for children. Records from Brandenburg-Ansbach indicates that Evangelical pastors often attacked traditional communal activities such as church fairs and spinning bees for debauchery.
Taking advantage of Emperor Charles' victories in Italy, achieved the reinforcement of the imperial ban against Luther at the Diet of Speyer in 1529. In response, five imperial princes and fourteen imperial cities presented a formal protestatio. They were mocked as "Protestants", and this appellation would be quickly applied to all followers of the new theologies. To promote Protestant unity, Philip the Magnanimous Marburg Colloquy (or theological debate) between Luther, Melanchton, Zwingli and Oecolampadius at Marburg early in October 1529, but they could not coin a common formula on the Eucharist. During the discussion, Luther remarked that "Our spirit has nothing in common with your spirit", expressing the rift between the two mainstream versions of the Reformation. Zwingli's followers started to call themselves the "Reformed Church", as they regarded themselves as the true reformers.
Zwingli was killed in the battlefield, and succeeded by a former monk Heinrich Bullinger (d. 1575) in Zürich. Bullinger developed Zwingli's Eucharistic formula in an attempt to reach a compromise with Luther, saying that the faithful made spiritual contact with God during the commemorative ceremony.
The pacifist Michael Sattler (d. 1527) took the chair at an Anabaptist assembly at Schleitheim in February 1527. Here the participants adopted an anti-militarist program now known as the Schleitheim Articles. The document ordered the believers' separation from the evil world, and prohibited oath-taking, bearing of arms and holding of civic offices. Facing Ottoman expansionism, the Austrian authorities considered this pacifism as a direct threat to their country's defense. Sattler was quickly captured and executed. During his trial, he stated that "If the Turks should come, we ought not to resist them. For Thou shalt not kill."
Total segregation was alien to Hübmaier who tried to achieve a peaceful coexistence with non-Anabaptists. Expelled from Zürich, he settled in the Moravian domains of Count Leonhard von Liechtenstein at Nikolsburg (now Mikulov, Czech Republic). He baptised infants on the parents' request for which hard-line Anabaptists regarded him as an evil compromiser. He was sentenced to death and burned at the stake for heresy on 's orders. His execution inaugurated a period of intensive purge against rebaptisers. His followers relocated to Austerlitz (now Slavkov u Brna, Czech Republic) where refugees from Tyrol joined them. After the Tyrolian Jakob Hutter (d. 1536) assumed the leadership of the community, they began to held their goods in common. The Bohemian Brethren symphatised with the Hutterites which facilitated their survival in Moravia.
Charles wanted to attack the Protestant princes and cities but the Catholic princes did not support him fearing that his victory would strengthen his power. The Diet passed a law prohibiting further religious innovations and ordering the Protestants to return to Catholicism until 15 April 1531. Luther had previously questioned the princes' right to resist imperial power, but by then he had concluded that a defensive war for religious purposes could be regarded as a just war. The Schmalkaldic League—the Protestant Imperial Estates' defensive alliance—was signed by five princes and fourteen cities on 27 February 1531. As a new Ottoman invasion prevented the Habsburgs from wage war against the Protestants, a peace treaty was signed at Nuremberg in July 1532.
In the Danish dependencies of Norway and Iceland, the Reformation required vigorous governmental interventions. The last Catholic Archbishop of Nidaros in Norway Olav Engelbrektsson (d. 1538) was a staunch opponent of the changes, but was succeeded by the Evangelical Gjeble Pederssøn (d. 1557) as superintendent. In Iceland, Jón Arason, Bishop of Hólar (d. 1550)—the last Nordic Catholic bishop—took up arms to prevent the Reformation, but he was captured and executed by representatives of royal authority.
of Sweden appointed the Evangelical preacher Laurentius Andreae (d. 1552) as his chancellor, and the Evangelical scholar [[Olaus Petri]] (d. 1552) as a minister at Stockholm. Petri translated the Gospels to Swedish. On his advice, Gustav dissolved a Catholic printing house that published popular anti-Protestant literature under the auspices of [[Hans Brask]] (d. 1538), Bishop of Linköping. Gustav also expelled the radical German pastor [[Melchior Hoffman]] (d. 1543) from Sweden for [[iconoclastic|Iconoclasm]] propaganda. The royal treasury needed extra funds to repay the loans borrowed from the Hanseatic League to finance the war against . Gustav persuaded the [[legislative assembly|Riksdag]] to secularise church property by threatening the delegates with his abdication. The peasantry remained very cautious about changes in church life. This together with heavy taxation led to uprisings. To appease the rebels, Gustav declared that he had not sanctioned the changes, and dismissed Andreae in 1531, Petri in 1533. He continued the transformation of church life in Sweden and Finland after the Reformation was fully introduced in Denmark. He was assisted by two Evangelical theologians [[Georg Norman]] (d. 1552/1553) and [[Mikael Agricola]] (d. 1557). In 1539, Norman was appointed as supertindent of the Church of Sweden, and Gustav took the title of "Supreme Defender of the Church".
Negotiations between moderate Catholic and Protestant theologians were not unusual. In 1541, Bucer and the Catholic theologian Johann Gropper (d. 1559) drafted a compromise formula on justification. The draft was discussed along with other issues at a colloquy during the Diet of Regensburg but no compromise was reached, not least due to opposition by both Luther and the Holy See. Contarini, who represented the papacy at the Diet, died in 1541; many Spirituali such as Vermigli fled from Italy to avoid persecution. Hermann of Wied, Archbishop-elector of Cologne () completed a reform program with Bucer's assistance, criticising prayers to the saints and traditional Eucharistic theology, and proposing sermons about justification by faith. The canons of the Cologne Cathedral requested Gropper to write a critical response to it, and achieved Hermann's deposal by the Roman Curia.
decided to convoke the nineteenth ecumenical council to handle the crisis caused by the Reformation. The Council of Trent met in a series of sessions from December 1545 to 1548, 1521 to 1522, and 1562 to 1563."It ran in two tracks: alongside the reformulation of Catholic doctrine in contrast to Protestant teaching stood the many general…reform decrees which would influence the life of Catholicism for centuries to come.(2013). 9783525550335 ISBN 9783525550335The topics dealt with included the Creed, the Sacraments including transubstantiation and ordination, justification, and improvement in the quality of priests by diocesan seminaries and annual canonical visitations. The council reaffirmed that apostolic tradition was as authentic a source of faith as the Bible, and emphasized the importance of good works in salvation, rejecting two important elements of Luther's theology. Before being closed in December 1563, the Council mandate the papacy to revise liturgical books and complete a new catechism. [[Carlo Borromeo]], Archbishop of Milan (d. 1582) adopted a more practical approach. He completed a handbook covering everyday details of church life, including the delivery of sermons, arrangement of church interiors, and hearing confessions. After the council, papal authority was reinforced through the establishment of central offices known as congregations. One of them became responsible for the list of forbidden literature. All church officials and university teachers were required to take a Tridentine confessional oath that included an oath of "true obedience" to the papacy.
Lindberg suggests that (following Trent) the "spirituality of Catholic reform was the ascetic, subjective, and personal piety", as expressed in public processions, the "perpetual" adoration of the Eucharist, and the reaffirmed veneration of Mary the Virgin and the saints.
The Lord Chancellor Cardinal Thomas Wolsey (d. 1530) had strong links to the Roman Curia, he was unable to achieve the annulment of the marriage of and the middle-aged Catherine of Aragon (d. 1536). They had needed a papal dispensation to marry because Catherine was the widow of Henry's brother Arthur, Prince of Wales (d. 1502). As she had not produced a male heir, Henry became convinced that their marriage drew the wrath of God.
Henry charged a group of scholars including Thomas Cranmer (d. 1556) with collecting arguments in favour of the annulment. They concluded that the English kings had always had authority over the clergy, and the Book of Leviticus forbade marriage between a man and his brother's widow in all circumstances. In 1530, the Parliament limited the jurisdiction of church courts. Wolsey had meanwhile lost Henry's favour and died, but More tried to convince Henry to abandon his plan about the annulment of his marriage. In contrast, Cranmer and Henry's new chief advisor Thomas Cromwell (d. 1540) argued that the marriage could be annulled without papal interference. Henry who had fallen in love with Catherine's lady-in-waiting Anne Boleyn (d. 1536) decided to marry her even if the marriage could lead to a total break with the papacy. During a visit in Germany, Cranmer married but kept his marriage in secret. On his return to England, Henry appointed him as the new Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Holy See confirmed the appointment.
The links between the English Church and the papacy were severed by Acts of Parliament. In April 1533, the Act of Appeals decreed that only English courts had jurisdiction in cases of last wills, marriages and grants to the Church, emphasizing that "this realm of England is an Empire". A special church court annulled the marriage of Henry and Catherine, and declared their only daughter Mary (d. 1558) illegitimate in May 1533. did not sanction the judgement and excommunicated Henry. Ignoring the papal ban, Henry married Anne, and she gave birth to a daughter Elizabeth I (d. 1603). Anne was a staunch supporter of the Reformation, and mainly her nominees were appointed to the vacant bishoprics between 1532 and 1536. In 1534, the Act of Supremacy declared the king the "only supreme head of the Church of England". Many of those who refused to swear a special oath of loyalty to the king—65 from about 400 defendants—were executed. More and John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester (d. 1535) were among the most prominent victims. Cromwell gradually convinced Henry that a "purification" of church life was needed. The number of feast days was reduced by about 75 per cent, pilgrimages were forbidden, all monasteries were dissolved and their property was seized by the Crown.
The Parliament of Ireland passed similar acts but they could only be fully implemented in the The Pale. Resistance against the Reformation was vigorous. In 1534, the powerful Lord Thomas FitzGerald (d. 1537) staged a revolt. Although it was crushed, thereafter Henry's government did not introduce drastic changes in the Church of Ireland. In England, the dissolution of monasteries caused a popular revolt known as the Pilgrimage of Grace. The "pilgrims" demanded the dismissal of "heretic" royal advisors but they were overcame by royalist forces. The principal articles of faith of the Church of England were summarized in the Six Articles in 1539. It reaffirmed several elements of traditional theology, such as transubstantiation and clerical celibacy.
As Anne Boleyn did not give birth to a son, she lost Henry's favour. She was executed for adultery, and Elizabeth was declared a bastard. Henry's only son Edward VI (d. 1553) was born to Henry's third wife Jane Seymour (d. 1537). In 1543, an Act of Parliament returned Mary and Elizabeth to the line of the succession behind Edward. Henry Rough Wooing to enforce the marriage of Edward and the infant Mary, Queen of Scots () but her mother Mary of Guise (d. 1560) reinforced Scotland's Auld Alliance with France. The priest George Wishart (d. 1546) was the first to preach Zwinglian theology in Scotland. After he was burned for heresy, his followers, among them John Knox (d. 1572), assassinated Cardinal David Beaton, Archbishop of St Andrews (d. 1546), but French troops crushed their revolt.
Bishop Franz and his allies, among them Philip of Hessen, attacked Münster but could not capture it. Under Matthijszoon's rule, private property and the use of money was outlawed in the town. Believing that God would protect him, Matthijszoon made a sortie against the enemy, but he was killed. Another charismatic Dutchman, John of Leiden (d. 1536)—a former tailor—succeeded him. Leiden announced that he was receiving revelations from God, and proclaimed himself "king of righteousness" and "the ruler of the new Zion". Church and state were united, and all sinners were executed. Leiden legalized polygyny, and ordered all women who were twelve or older to marry. The protracted siege demoralized the defenders, and Münster fell through treason on 25 June 1535. After the fall of Münster, most Anabaptist groups adopted a pacifist approach under the leadership of a former priest Menno Simons (d. 1561). He associated the Anabaptist communities with the New Jerusalem. His followers would be known as Mennonites. Nearly all Anabaptist communities were destroyed in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, but moderate Anabaptist groups survived in East Frisia, and were mainly tolerated in England.
Calvin was one of the religious refugees. He settled in Basel and completed the first version of his principal theological treatise, the Institutes of the Christian Religion in 1536. He would be rewriting and expanding it several times until 1559. As the historian Carlos Eire writes, "Calvin's text was blessed with a lawyer's penchant for precision, a humanist's love for poetic expression and rhetorical flourishes, and a theologian's respect for paradox". With Eire's words, Calvin "revived the jealous God of the Old Testament". He warned King Francis that the persecution of the faithful would incur the wrath of God upon him but sharply distanced moderate Protestants from Anabaptists. Already the first edition of the Institutes contained references to two distinguishing elements of Calvin's theology, both traceable back to Augustine: his conviction that the original sin had completely corrupted human nature, and his strong belief in "double predestination". In his view, only strict social and ecclesiastic control could prevent sins and crimes, and God did not only decide who were saved but also those who were destined to damnation.
In 1536, Farel convinced Calvin to settle in Geneva. Their attempts to implement radical reforms in discipline brought them into conflicts with those who feared that the new measures would lead to clerical despotism. After they refused to acknowledge the urban magistrates' claim to intervene in the process of excommunication, they were banished from the town. Calvin moved to Strasbourg where Bucer made a profound impact on him. Under Bucer's influence, Calvin adopted an intermediate position on the Eucharist between Luther and Zwingli, denying Christ's presence in it but acknowledging that the rite included a real spiritual communion with Christ.
After Calvin and Farel left Geneva, no pastors were able to assume the leadership of the local Protestant community. Fearing of a Catholic restoration, the urban magistrates convinced Calvin to come back to Geneva in 1541. Months after his return, the town council enacted The Ecclesiastical Ordinances, a detailed regulation summarizing Calvin's proposals for church administration. The Ordinances established four church offices. The pastors were responsible for pastoral care and discipline; the doctors instructed believers in the faith; the elders (or presbyters) were authorized to "watch over the life of each person" and to report those who lived a "disorderly" life to the pastors; and were appointed to administer the town's charity. All townspeople were obliged to regularly attend church services. Calvin established a special court called the consistory to hear cases of moral lapse such as blasphemy, adultery, disrespect to authorities, gossiping, witchcraft and participation in rites considered superstitious by church authorities. The consistory was composed of the pastors, the elders, and an urban magistrate, and the townspeople were encouraged to report sinful acts to it. First-time offenders mainly received lenient sentences such as fines, but repeat offenders were banished from the town or executed. Resistance against the Ordinances was significant. Many continued visit shrines and pray to saints, while many patricians insisted on liberal traditional customs for which Calvin called them "Libertines".
died on 27 January 1547. His nine-year-old son () succeeded him, and Edward's maternal uncle Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset (d. 1552) assumed power as [[Lord Protector]]. Somerset halted the persecution of religious dissidents, making England a safe haven for religious refugees from all over Europe. They established their own congregations, served by prominent pastors, such as the Polish Jan Łaski (d. 1560) and the Spanish Casiodoro de Reina (d. 1594). Most of them adhered to Reformed theology. Cranmer introduced further religious reforms: images were removed from the churches, the doctrine of purgatory was rejected, and all endowments for prayers for the dead (or [[chantries|chantry]]) were confiscated. With the introduction of Cranmer's ''Book of Common Prayer'', the Mass was replaced by a vernacular liturgy.
Marshall notes, that it is "safe to say that the greater part of the population disliked what was taking place". The liturgical changes caused popular revolts in Devon and Cornwall and other places but they were quickly suppressed, just like the riot against the dissolution of chantries in East Yorkshire. Even in Norfolk, where the peasants adopted a Protestant rhetoric, they assembled under the banners of their parish saints. Somerset's opponents take advantage of the unrest to get rid of him. He was replaced by John Dudley (d. 1553) who was made Duke of Northumberland. Cranmer continued the liturgical reforms, and the new version of the Book of Common Prayer rejected the dogma of transubstantiation. He completed the Forty-two Articles, a new confessional document combining elements of Reformed and Evangelical theologies.
Edward died of tuberculosis on 6 July 1553. He had designated his Protestant relative Jane Grey (d. 1554) as his heir to prevent the succession of his Catholic sister Mary, but most English remained loyal to the Tudor dynasty. Initially, () took advantage of her royal prerogatives to dismiss married clergy, appoint Catholic priests to bishoprics, and restore the Mass. She had to make concessions to landowners who had seized church property to achieve the restoration of papal supremacy by the Parliament in November 1554. Cranmer was forced to sign six documents condemning his own acts but withdrew his recantations while being burned for heresy in public in March 1556. Reginald Pole was appointed as the new archbishop of Canterbury, but he was accused of heresy after his old enemy Carafa had been elected pope as (). The restoration of the altars and images gained popular support in many places, but recatholisation faced significant resistance—around 300 Protestants were burned, and about 1,000 were forced into exile during Mary's reign. Her marriage with of Spain was unpopular, and she died childless on 17 November 1558.
Mary's sister and successor () sought a via media ('middle way') between religious extremists. Her first Parliament restored the royal leadership of the Church of England, and introduced a modified version of the Book of Common Prayer. The Anglican liturgy retained elements of Catholic ceremonies, such as priestly vestments, and contained ambiguous sentences about the Eucharist, suggesting the real presence of Jesus's Blood and Body for conservatives, and a memorial service for reformers. Elizabeth supervised the revision of the Anglican articles of faith in person. The subsequent Thirty-nine Articles were formulated in a way that adherents to the major mainstream Protestant theologies could accept them. However, the most resolute Protestants were determined to purify the Church of England from the remnants of Catholic ceremonies, hence they were called Puritans. They were especially influential at the universities. Many of them rejected the authority of bishops, the Presbyterians emphasized the equal status of all priests, whereas the Congregationalists wanted to strengthen the position of local communities in church administration.
England's recatholisation contributed to the triumph of Reformation in Scotland. James Hamilton, 2nd Earl of Arran (d. 1575), heir presumptive to Queen Mary of the Scots, assumed the leadership of the Protestant lords. Incited by Knox's passionate sermons, anti-Catholic sentiments led to a popular revolt of elementary force in 1559, causing the destruction of monasteries and friaries.
Bucer, Melanchthon and other leading Protestant theologians agreed with Servetus's execution. Only the Basel-based schoolmaster and Bible translator Sebastian Castellio (d. 1563) condemned it in a manifesto for religious toleration. He also addressed a letter to Calvin, echoing Erasmus his posthumous benefactor, stating "To burn a heretic is not to defend a doctrine, but to kill a man". Erasmus was a Trinitarian himself, but had noted that the theological formulation had developed from the time of the Apostles, which fueled many subsequent antitrinitarians who took this to mean it that the idea was unbiblical.
Antitrinitarian theology survived among Italian exiles in Basel. Lelio Sozzini (d. 1562), a scholar from Siena, argued that Biblical texts calling Jesus "Son of God" did not refer to his divinity but to his faultless humanity. His nephew, Fausto Sozzini (d. 1604) rejected original sin and the theory of satisfaction (the concept that Christ's sufferings brought about atonement to God the Father for the original sin). Their followers became known as Socinians.
After Servetus's execution Calvin strengthened his position as the leading figure of Reformed Protestantism. In Geneva, the Libertines rose up but they were quickly overcame, and forced into exile or executed. The confiscation of the property of the wealthy Ami Perrin (d. 1561) and his family provided the city with funds to create an academy. It served both as a preparatory school for local youths and as a seminary for Reformed ministers. Calvin's chief assistant Theodore Beza (d. 1605) was appointed as its first rector. The academy quickly developed into a principal center of theologian training for students from all over Europe, earning Geneva the nickname "the Protestant Rome". It was especially popular among French Protestants.
The triumphant regulated religious issues with an imperial edict known as the Augsburg Interim. The Interim sanctioned clerical marriage and the communion in both kinds in Protestant territories, but denied further concessions. Maurice issued an alternative regulation called the Leipzig Interim for Saxony which ordered the clergy to wear . Melanchthon supported the Leipzig Interim, stating that such issues were "matters indifferent" but uncompromising Lutheran theologians such as Nicolaus von Amsdorf (d. 1565) and Matthias Flacius (d. 1575) rejected all concessions to imperial demands. Different views on justification and the Eucharist caused further heated debates between Melanchton's followers, known as Philippists, and their opponents, called Gnesio-Lutherans ('authentic Lutherans') in the 1550s. The Augsburg Interim was only implemented in the southern German Protestant cities. This led to the expulsion of recalcitrant clerics, including Bucer from Strasbourg. Alarmed by Charles's triumph, Calvin and Bullinger agreed on a consensual Eucharistic formula, now known as Consensus Tigurinus ('Consensus of Zürich'), emphasising that Christ "makes us participants of himself" in the Lord's Supper, but also stating that God "uses the ministry of the sacraments" without infusing divine power into them. Luther had died in 1546 but his followers rejected the Consensus. The rift between Evangelical and Reformed Protestants widened to the extent that Reformed refugees faced an unfriendly reception at Evangelical countries. In Bohemia, Hussite and Evangelical aristocrats and townspeople rose up against . Although Ferdinand crushed the revolt, he had to sanction religious plurality in Moravia as a reward for the Moravian Estates' loyalty during the Bohemian revolt.
Distrusting Emperor Charles, Maurice brokered a coalition of Evangelical princes, and promised four prince-bishoprics to King Henry II of France () for financial support. Maurice and his allies invaded the Habsburgs' domains, forcing Charles to flee. Signed on 10 August 1552, the Peace of Passau prescribed that the religious issues were to be discussed at the following Imperial Diet. The Diet was opened at Augsburg on 5 February 1555. Already exhausted, Charles appointed Ferdinand to represent him. Ferdinand's negotiations with the Evangelical princes ended with the Peace of Augsburg on 25 September. The document reaffirmed the principle cuius regio, eius religio, but the Imperial Estates could only choose between Catholicism and the Augsburg Confession. Evangelical imperial free cities had to tolerate the existence of Catholic communities within their walls, and prince-bishoprics could not be secularised in case the bishop abandoned the Catholic faith. Charles, who did not sign the peace treaty, abdicated, ceding his imperial title to Ferdinand, and his vast empire to his son Philip II of Spain ().
Fully preoccupied with a new war against Emperor Charles, did not take severe measures against the Huguenot nobility. After his sudden death after an accident, his eldest son Francis II () ascended the throne. His wife, Mary, Queen of Scots was the niece of Francis, Duke of Guise (d. 1563) and Charles, Cardinal of Lorraine (d. 1574), two leaders of the most resolute Catholic faction of the nobility. The queen mother Catherine de' Medici (d. 1589) distrusted them but the persecution of Huguenots intensified under their influence. When Francis died by an ear infection, Calvin considered his fate as divine deliverance. Francis was succeeded by his brother Charles IX () under Catherine's regency. She enacted the Huguenots' right to freely attend church services and hold public assemblies because she wanted to avoid a civil war along religious lines.
Uncompromising Catholics and Huguenots considered their confrontation inevitable. The first of the French Wars of Religion—a series of armed conflicts between Catholics and Huguenots—began after Guise's retainers massacred more than fifty Huguenots at Wassy on 1 March 1562. As Antoine de Bourbon had returned to Catholicism, his brother Louis I, Prince of Condé (d. 1569) assumed the leadership of a Huguenot revolt. They concluded a treaty with England in September 1562. To achieve a reconciliation, Catherine de'Medici married off her daughter Margaret of Valois (d. 1615) to the Protestant son of Jeanne d'Albret and Antoine de Bourbon, Henry de Bourbon, King of Navarre (). Mutual mistrust between Catholics and Huguenots, and the Parisians' determination to cleanse their city of heresy led to the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre after the wedding. On 24 August 1572, a fanatic mob slaughtered 2,000–3,000 Protestants in Paris, and by early October further 6,000–7,000 Huguenots fell victim to pogroms in other cities and towns. Many Huguenots returned to the Catholic Church or fled from France, and those who remained gathered in southern and southern-west France and continued the armed resistance. Known as "Malcontents", moderate Catholics concluded that only concessions to the Huguenots could restore peace.
died in May 1574 leaving an almost empty treasury to his brother Henry III (). Henry adopted a moderate religious policy but the uncompromising Catholics established the Catholic League in 1576. They entered into a secret alliance with of Spain to prevent the spread of Protestantism. In 1589, the monk Jacques Clément mortally wounded King Henry. He named Henry de Bourbon as his heir, but the League and many cities refused to obey to a Huguenot king. secured the support of moderate Catholics by converting to Catholicism. He defeated his French opponents and their Spanish allies, and put an end to the civil war early in 1598. He enacted many of the demands of the Huguenots, about fifteen per cent of the population, in the Edict of Nantes. Among others, they were allowed to attend religious services in many places, and their right to hold public offices was confirmed.
In 1566, requested governor Margaret of Parma (d. 1586) to moderate anti-heretic legislation. Although the petitioners were mocked as "Geuzen", Margaret was open to a compromise. Protestant refugees returned from abroad, and religious enthusiasts stirred up public demonstrations. On the night of 20–21 August 1566, a Protestant mob sacked the Antwerp Cathedral, introducing a Beeldenstorm that spread all over the Netherlands. In 1567, Philip appointed Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, 3rd Duke of Alba (d. 1582) to crush the riots. Alba arrived at the head of a 20,000-strong army, and introduced a reign of terror, leading to the execution of thousands of people. A prominent aristocrat William the Silent, Prince of Orange (d. 1584) assumed the leadership of the resistance. His "Sea Beggars"—a squadron of privateers—seized the provinces of Holland and Zeeland by 1572, although the Reformed communities were in the minority in most towns.
government faced bankruptcy and his unpaid Spanish troops sacked Antwerp in 1576. This led to a general revolt against Spanish rule. The Catholic aristocrat Philippe III de Croÿ, Duke of Aarschot (d. 1595), made an alliance with William the Silent but rivalry between Catholics and Protestants did not abate. In 1581, the northern provinces united under William's leadership, and renounced allegiance to Philip. In the south, Margaret of Parma's son Alessandro Farnese crushed the revolts, forcing about 100,000 Protestants to seek refugee in the north. Developed from the union of seven northern provinces, the [[Dutch Republic]] remained under the loose leadership of the House of Orange. The Reformed pastors were eager to transform the whole society along their ideas. They failed because William preferred a more tolerant approach, and significant Protestant groups associated church discipline with Catholicism. As a consequence, Evangelical, Annabaptist and Catholic communities survived in the Dutch Republic. Heterodox theologies could also spread, such as the views of [[Jacobus Arminius]] (d. 1609) who argued that an individual could resist divine grace. Although [[Arminianism]] was rejected at the international Synod of Dort in 1619, it continued to influence Protestant theologians.
Two former Catholic priests Mátyás Dévai Bíró (d. 1547) and Mihály Sztárai (d. 1575) were among the first Hungarian pastors to teach Zwinglian Eucharistic theology. "Sacramentarianism" (the denial of Christ's presence in the Eucharist) and rebaptism were outlawed by the Diet in Royal Hungary in 1548. John Sigismund was open to religious innovations. Under the influence of his court chaplain Ferenc Dávid (d. 1579), he adhered to Reformed theology from 1562, and accepted antitrinitarian views during the last years of his life. The Edict of Torda legalised three Protestant denominations—Evangelical, Reformed and Unitarian—in eastern Hungary in 1568. Eastern Hungary transformed into the autonomous Principality of Transylvania under Ottoman suzerainty in 1570. The coexistence of four officially recognised churches—Catholicism and the three legalised Protestant denominations—remained a lasting feature of religious politics in Transylvania. The most radical antitrinitarians rejected the New Testament and held Saturday (or Sabbath) as weekly holiday; hence they were called Sabbatarians.
Interreligious conflicts led to wars in many regions of Central Europe. The Cologne War broke out after Gebhard Truchsess von Waldburg, Archbishop-elector of Cologne (), abandoned Catholicism and married his Protestant lover Agnes von Mansfeld-Eisleben (d. 1637) in 1582. The war ended with the victory of his Catholic opponent Ernest (), a younger son of . The Strasbourg Bishops' War began when both the Catholic and Protestant canons of the Strasbourg Cathedral elected their own candidate to the see of Strasbourg in 1592. At the end, the Protestant candidate Johann Georg von Brandenburg (d. 1624) renounced in favor of his opponent Charles of Lorraine ().
son and successor Ferdinand II () set up "reformation commissions"—a group of clerics and state officials led by a senior clergyman—to visit the Inner Austrian parishes between 1598 and 1601. The commissioners seized and destroyed Evangelical churches, burned Protestant books and expelled Evangelical priests, often with the support of the local (mainly [[Slovenian|Slovenians]]) peasantry. His cousin Emperor Rudolf II () introduced anti-Protestant measures in Royal Hungary and Transylvania, [[provoking a rebellion|Bocskai uprising]]. The Ottomans supported the rebels whose leader, the Reformed aristocrat [[Stephen Bocskai]] was proclaimed prince of Transylvania (). Rudolph appointed his brother Matthias to conduct negotiations with Bocskai, and the peace treaty sanctioned the freedom of the Evangelical and Reformed Churches in Royal Hungary in 1606. Rudolph was forced to cede Hungary, Austria and Moravia to Matthias in 1608, and to confirm religious freedom in Bohemia in 1609.
According to political historian Gregory Slysz "The dissolution of the monasteries ... brought social catastrophe to England" for the next 50 or so years, due to the closure of the numerous associated urban almshouses for poor relief and hospitals, worsened by spiraling inflation and a doubling of the population. Popular revolts by grassroots Catholics against the changes, such as the Prayer Book Rebellion in the South and the Pilgrimage of Grace and Bigod's rebellion in the North, were ruthlessly put down by government forces with the loss of thousands of lives.
The Pilgrims held radical Protestant disapproval of Christmas, and its celebration was outlawed in Boston from 1659 to 1681.
The ban was revoked in 1681 by the English-appointed governor Edmund Andros, who also revoked a Puritan ban on festivities on Saturday nights. Nevertheless, it was not until the mid-19th century that celebrating Christmas became fashionable in the Boston region.
The Reformation Parliament of 1560 repudiated the pope's authority by the Papal Jurisdiction Act 1560, forbade the celebration of the Mass and approved a Protestant Confession of Faith. It was made possible by a revolution against French hegemony under the regime of the regent Mary of Guise, who had governed Scotland in the name of her absent daughter Mary, Queen of Scots (then also Queen consort of France).
Although Protestantism triumphed relatively easily in Scotland, the exact form of Protestantism remained to be determined. The 17th century saw a complex struggle between Presbyterianism (particularly the ) and Anglicanism. The Presbyterians eventually won control of the Church of Scotland, which went on to have an important influence on Presbyterian churches worldwide, but Scotland retained a relatively large Episcopalian minority.
In the late 17th century, 150,000–200,000 Huguenots fled to England, the Netherlands, Prussia, Switzerland, and the English and Dutch overseas colonies. 1685 and the French Revolution, Andrew Jainchill, The French Revolution in Global Perspective, ed. Suzanne Desan, Lynn Hunt, and William Max Nelson, (Cornell University Press, 2013), 57. A significant community in France remained in the Cévennes region. A separate Protestant community, of the Lutheranism faith, existed in the newly conquered province of Alsace, its status not affected by the Edict of Fontainebleau.
Between 1530 and 1540, Protestantism in Spain was still able to gain followers clandestinely, and in cities such as Seville and Valladolid adherents would secretly meet at private houses to pray and study the Bible. Protestants in Spain were estimated at between 1000 and 3000, mainly among intellectuals who had seen writings such as those of Erasmus. Notable reformers included Juan Gil and Juan Pérez de Pineda who subsequently fled and worked alongside others such as Francisco de Enzinas to translate the Greek New Testament into the Spanish language, a task completed by 1556. Protestant teachings were smuggled into Spain by Spaniards such as Julián Hernández, who in 1557 was condemned by the Inquisition and burnt at the stake. Under Philip II, conservatives in the Spanish church tightened their grip, and those who refused to recant such as Rodrigo de Valer were condemned to life imprisonment. On May 21, 1559, sixteen Spanish Lutherans were burnt at the stake; 14 were strangled before being burnt, while two were burnt alive. In October another 30 were executed. Spanish Protestants who were able to flee the country were to be found in at least a dozen cities in Europe, such as Geneva, where some of them embraced Calvinism teachings. Those who fled to England were given support by the Church of England.
The Kingdom of Navarre, although by the time of the Protestant Reformation a minor principality territoriality restricted to southern France, had French Huguenot monarchs, including Henry IV of France and his mother, Jeanne III of Navarre, a devout Calvinist.
Upon the arrival of the Protestant Reformation, Calvinism reached some Basques through the translation of the Bible into the Basque language by Joanes Leizarraga. As Queen of Navarre, Jeanne III commissioned the translation of the New Testament into Basque and Béarnese for the benefit of her subjects.
Some Protestants left Italy and became notable activists of the Eastern European Reformation, mainly in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (e.g. Giorgio Biandrata, Bernardino Ochino, Giovanni Alciato, Giovanni Battista Cetis, Fausto Sozzini, Francesco Stancaro and Giovanni Valentino Gentile some of whom propagated Nontrinitarianism there and were chief instigators of the movement of Polish Brethren.Church "Literature of the Italian reformation" Journal of Modern History pp. 457–473) Some also fled to England and Switzerland, including Peter Vermigli.
In 1532, the Waldensians, who had been already present centuries before the Reformation, aligned themselves and adopted the Calvinist theology. The Waldensian Church survived in the Western Alps through many persecutions and remains a Protestant church in Italy.
In 2019, Christos Yannaras told Norman Russell that although he had participated in the Zoë movement, he had come to regard it as Crypto-Protestant.
The Thirty Years' War began in 1618 and brought a drastic territorial and demographic decline when the House of Habsburg introduced counter-reformational measures throughout their vast possessions in Central Europe. Although the Thirty Years' War concluded with the Peace of Westphalia, the French Wars of the Counter-Reformation continued, as well as the expulsion of Protestants in Austria.
According to a 2020 study in the American Sociological Review, the Reformation spread earliest to areas where Luther had pre-existing social relations, such as mail correspondents, and former students, as well as where he had visited. The study argues that these social ties contributed more to the Reformation's early breakthroughs than the printing press.
Two main tenets of the Peace of Westphalia, which ended the Thirty Years' War, were:
The treaty also effectively ended the Papacy's pan-European political power. Pope Innocent X declared the treaty "null, void, invalid, iniquitous, unjust, damnable, reprobate, inane, empty of meaning and effect for all times" in his apostolic brief Zelo Domus Dei. European sovereigns, Catholic and Protestant alike, ignored his verdict.
In Britain from the Elizabethan period, dissenters called Recusancy included both Catholic families and English Dissenters (Quakers, Ranters, Diggers, Grindletonians, etc.): almost the entire Irish population were recusants from the imposed Protestant Church of Ireland.Burton, Edwin, Edward D'Alton, and Jarvis Kelley. 1911 Catholic Encyclopedia, Penal Laws III: Ireland.
Travel and migration between countries became more difficult. "In 1500, a Christian could travel from one end of Europe to another without fear of persecution; by 1600, every form of Christianity was illegal somewhere in Europe."Wandell, Lee Palmer (2011) The Reformation, Cambridge University Press apud Two prolonged series of conflicts, the French Wars of Religion (1562–1598) and the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) resulted in between six and sixteen million deaths.
As well as wars, most countries and colonies of Europe enacted discriminatory legislation, these only winding down in the late 18th century Age of Enlightenment. For example, the (1699 and 1704) disallowed Irish Catholic schooling and purchase of land, and changed inheritance law; it was repealed by the 1778 and 1791 Catholic Relief Acts. The Quebec Act (1774) re-allowed Catholics to worship and hold public office, but was one of the Intolerable Acts that precipitated the American Revolutionary War. In the countries of the Holy Roman Empire, the Patent of Toleration (1781, 1782) allowed religious toleration for non-Catholic Christians and Jews. In France, the Edict of Toleration (1787) proposed the non-persecution of non-Catholics and Jews. However vestiges of Reformation-period legal discrimination continued: for example, currently, a Roman Catholic, or someone married to a Roman Catholic, may not be crowned the British Monarch.
Despite significant diversity among the early Radical Reformers, some "repeating patterns" emerged among many Anabaptist groups. Many of these patterns were enshrined in the Schleitheim Confession (1527) and include believers' (or adult) baptism, memorial view of the Eucharist, belief that Scripture is the final authority on matters of faith and practice, emphasis on the New Testament and the Sermon on the Mount, interpretation of Scripture in community, separation from the world and a two-kingdom theology, pacifism and nonresistance, communal ownership and economic sharing, belief in the freedom of the will, non-swearing of oaths, "yieldedness" ( Gelassenheit) to one's community and to God, the Shunning (i.e., shunning), salvation through divinization ( Vergöttung) and ethical living, and discipleship ( Nachfolge Christi).Andrew P. Klager, "Ingestion and Gestation: Peacemaking, the Lord's Supper, and the Theotokos in the Mennonite-Anabaptist and Eastern Orthodox Traditions", Journal of Ecumenical Studies 47, no. 3 (summer 2012): pp. 441–42.
By 1530, over 10,000 publications are known, with a total of ten million copies. The Reformation was thus a media revolution. Luther strengthened his attacks on Rome by depicting a "good" against "bad" church. From there, it became clear that print could be used for propaganda in the Reformation for particular agendas, although the term propaganda derives from the Catholic Congregatio de Propaganda Fide ( Congregation for Propagating the Faith) from the Counter-Reformation. Reform writers used existing styles, cliches and stereotypes which they adapted as needed. Especially effective were writings in German, including Luther's translation of the Bible, his Smaller Catechism for parents teaching their children, and his Larger Catechism, for pastors.
Illustrations in the German Bible and in many tracts popularised Luther's ideas. Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472–1553), the great painter patronised by the electors of Wittenberg, was a close friend of Luther, and he illustrated Luther's theology for a popular audience. He dramatised Luther's views on the relationship between the Old and New Testaments, while remaining mindful of Luther's careful distinctions about proper and improper uses of visual imagery.
And general Protestantism—broadly defined to also include Evangelical, Pentecostal, non-conformist and non-denominationalistsOver half of this population are in Modern Protestant denominations such as Pentecostal churches which are not derived from the historical Reformation denominations; and the remaining Historical denominations include Arminian denominations such as Methodists which do not hold to certain key Reformation doctrines, such as sola fide.—constitutes the second-largest form of Christianity (after Catholicism), with between 850,000 and 1.17 billion adherents worldwide (between 40% and 45% of all Christians) divided into an estimated 45,000 denominations.
For example, historian John Bossy characterized the Reformation as a period where Christianity was re-cast not as "a community sustained by ritual acts, but as a teaching enforced by institutional structures," for Catholics as well as Protestants;"But in the Renaissance era, and even more so in the Reformation period which followed, reliance on symbol and image gave way to the privileging of the printed or spoken word. Peace remained a fundamental Christian aspiration, but ritual and sacrament gave way to persuasion and instruction as the means to achieve it."."Until the seventeenth century, …Christianity meant a body of people, but since then it refers only to a body of beliefs." and sin was re-cast from the seven deadly sins —wrong because antisocial— to transgressions of the Ten Commandments —wrong as affronts to God.
Building
Literature
Musical forms
Liturgies
Hymnals
Secular music
Partly due to Martin Luther's love for music, music became important in Lutheranism. The study and practice of music was encouraged in Protestant majority countries. Songs such as the Lutheran hymns or the Calvinist Psalter became tools for the spread of Protestant ideas and beliefs, as well as identity flags. Similar attitudes developed among Catholics, who in turn encouraged the creation and use of music for religious purposes.
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