The Reformation Essay Example for Free

The Reformation Essay Gabriel Mà ¼tzenburg in his article Calvin and the Swiss Reformers ( p442 The Lion Handbook of Christian Belief) says that :- The Reformation was a reawakening. It was not basically an attempt at theoretical speculation and research. It was experience. Long before the well known reformers Martin Luther and John Calvin came along there had been criticism of the church. In 1378 there came the great Schism , one of the results of which was that Christians saw for the first time that it was possible to go to war against someone whom others saw as the true Pope. In 1418 the church was united under one pope once more, but damage to papal authority had been severe. Authority was too centralized and the granting of benefices had come to depend much more on the petitioner involved rather than the needs of the faithful church members. John Huss, a Bohemian, had been burned at the stake in 1415 for his opposition to the church when he taught that ordinary men and women could , by living virtuous lives, be more truly priests than some ordained to that position. His followers turned away from shrines and worship of the crucifix as being merely manmade rather than worthy of true worship. According to McNair in his article ‘Seeds of Renewal’ the problem had been building up for at least one hundred years. The church was seen as too rich, when many church goers were poor. The sacraments of baptism, marriage and funerals were considered essential by the church, but these processes were expensive for those who wanted them. There was corruption both in individual priests, even popes, and in the system as a whole, where corruption was condoned. In the upper ranks of the clergy many were worldly and ambitious, and had little time to spare for such tasks as the care of souls while the lower ranks contained those who were idle and ignorant. These were the facts in the late middle ages. This criticism came from within the church and what was wanted was reform. However this eventually led to the outright rebellion we now call the Reformation. Not that the church was wholly corrupt, there was much good work going on, but from this distance in time it is difficult to perceive the piety and goodness that was also present. Having said that many bishops and abbots were also secular rulers and this became the dominant feature of their lives in lots of cases. The church at this time was under other threats to its stability in the form of attacks from the Muslim Turks and from the Black Death, both of which occurred from the mid-fourteenth century and were seen by many as God’s punishment for the failings of the Catholic church. Another important development was the rise of the Devotio Moderna movement. This was a form of spiritual revival in the church of Northern Europe which concentrated upon personal involvement and social action. I t consisted of groups of men and women who lived together in poverty and obedience, but without taking any form of vows. In this group ordinary working people found that they could express their religious life. Thomas à   Kempis was a member of one such collective. They modelled themselves on the example of the apostles. The teaching of this movement, freely available to all who could read, prepared the way for the Reformation of the church. People at the time had a very real fear of punishment that they believed they would receive in Purgatory, for the church taught that before ascending to heaven the soul must be cleansed of every sin. At the same time they accepted the authority of the Pope as having been handed down through Christ to St Peter and his successors. But the Pope and his church taught that those who sinned in life would spend many years in Purgatory before they reached Heaven. It is no wonder that they sought Indulgences – a means on earth to reduce their time in Purgatory. Johann Tetzel was sent to Germany to sell indulgences in 1516. According to the theology of the time an indulgence was remission of punishment for sin – the sinner confesses and receives absolution. In October 1517 Martin Luther wrote to his local archbishop complaining about the sale of such indulgences. He enclosed what became known as the 95 theses – a series of scholarly arguments about the practices then current in the church. When he nailed these same theses to the door of Witternberg church it was a symbolic act of protest. This was not so much an act of rebellion as a plea for reform from within. Luther felt that forgiveness was God’s prerogative, not that of men to be bought and sold. What he wanted was a deepening of spirituality within the church. He is quoted by James Atkinson in The Lion book of Christian Belief ( page 439) as saying ‘I simply say that true Christianity had ceased to exist among those who should have preserved it – the bishops and scholars.’ He eventually came to feel that the Reformation was much more than a protest against corruption, but a battle for the truth of the Gospel. So important was this to him that he stated that he would give up every point to the Pope, if only the Pope affirmed the truth of the Gospel and in particular the doctrine of justification by faith i.e. that Christ’s own goodness is imputed to believers and on this ground alone do they receive salvation. Indeed he describes himself as, before this matter had arisen, as ‘one of the right frantic and raving papists’ in his book of 1545, ‘Doctor Martin Luther to the Christian Reader’. By criticizing the church on this one point, the sale of indulgences, he endangered the whole basis of the authority of the church. If it was wrong on this one point who could say on which other points it might also be wrong. Its riches for instance were not only in contrast to what the majority had, they were in contrast to what Christ had had, and with what he had taught. This idea of putting Christ first, rather than the works of men, rather weakened the power of the priest as mediator and weighed heavily against the systems of church at that time. Luther was urged to recant, but refused to do so and went into hiding at Wartburg, which is where he translated the whole New Testament in a very short time. The word quickly spread and in several countries of Western Europe the authority of the church came into question. Ordinary people who came to believe in this spiritual freedom of the individual also came to think that it might mean political freedom and took up arms to fight for such freedom in 1525. This time the secular as well as religious powers took up the arguments. Lay men, the princes and rulers of German states, were for the first time ready to clash with the church and eventually reject it altogether. According to ‘The Christian World’ p.172, historians have argued too that the new merchant class that had gradually emerged in the middle ages had no political role and needed to create one. New ideas, in particular humanistic ones, were going about which vied with the church’s dogmatic approach. Luther’s appeal to the Bible, to the will of God and to man’s individual relationship with God, led to steps that he would never have originally dreamt of. One of those steps was Calvinism, with its strict doctrines of election i.e. God has pre-ordained people for salvation. Another was the Puritanism that developed in England a little later, which according to the dictionary was a form of extreme moral vigour with an hostility to social pleasures and indulgences. Luther began a new translation of the Bible into German in 1517 despite the fact that Archbishop Berthold of Mainz had, in 1486, banned all unauthorized printing of sacred books in his diocese, as he felt that the German language was unsuited to the task., and that lay people, who did not have knowledge of the Latin and Greek needed to read the Latin and Greek Bible available, would not be able to understand the Bible anyway. When this new Bible became available many thought that if the Bible contained the word of God why should not its readers, the laity, decide for themselves about religious matters. Luther firmly believed in the importance of the scriptures being available to all. At night always carry in your heart something from Holy Scriptures to bed with you, meditate upon it like a ruminant animal, and go softly to sleep; but this must not be too much, rather a little that may be well pondered and understood, that you may find a remnant of it in your mind when you rise in the morning. As a result of such thinking for many private devotion became the centre of their Christian life, rather than the sacraments of the church. It served another rather different purpose as this common use of language eventually bought about a united Germany from the many tiny states then present. Over the next 25 years Luther produced many books in powerful and vivid German that could be understood by ordinary people. His translation of the Bible served to convince many that his arguments were sound. Protestant ideas spilled over into neighbouring states such as the cantons of Switzerland. One of these, Zurich, was where Ulrich Zwingli , 1484 – 1531, also led a campaign in opposition to indulgences. Although a Catholic priest he bought in Luther’s ideas and by 1523 the canton was the first Protestant state outside Germany. His theology was based on one principle, if something wasn’t in the scriptures then it should not be believed or practised. It was on this principle that he based his argument against indulgences. His theology involved a literal reading of the scriptures so that there could be only one meaning ascribed. It also meant that those practices which were contained in scripture were to be followed uncritically. It is on the basis of such thoughts that the first pilgrims set out for America and such ideas persist in society to this day. Zwingli was priest during a terrible attack of plague. I t bought him to believe that though his flock were in great physical danger from the disease they were in even greater danger because of their spiritual weakness. Luther was not Zwingli and there were differences in their beliefs. Luther was not willing to give up Catholic ceremonies and on the subject of the nature of the Eucharist they totally disagreed. Luther held to the Catholic view that the bread and wine literally became the body and blood of Christ whereas Zwingli held that it was merely a symbol. The Protestant churches tended to emphasise the spirituality of Christ and felt that this idea of actual body and blood over emphasised his humanity. This dispute led to Philip of Hesse, who wanted an alliance with Switzerland, calling the two together in 1519 at his Marburg castle. However the differences were irreconcilable and the reformed church , within a few decades, had split into dozens of tiny pieces. Zwingli was eventually killed in battle with those Swiss cantons who had decided to remain part of the Catholic church. John Calvin 1509 – 1564, a French man from Picardy, came along a little later. He went even further than both Luther and Zwingli, basing his theology on the total subservience of man’s will to that of God’s. God preordained, for his own glory and the display of His attributes of mercy and justice, a part of the human race, without any merit of their own, to eternal salvation, and another part, in just punishment of their sin, to eternal damnation. He arrived in Geneva in 1535, fresh from studies in the universities of France – studies that would have included new humanistic ideas. He was such a dedicated ascetic that eventually he ruined his health. Though still only a young man, he set about turning it into a city of God on earth. It was later described as ‘The Protestant Rome’ by Mà ¼tzenberg. After much persecution he was forced to flee to Basel, which is where he wrote his famous ‘Institutes of the Christian Religion.’, first published in 1536 and later expanded. This he addressed in a preface to King Francis I on behalf of the French Hugenots. It was this great work, added to throughout his life, that set Calvin up as a great leader. Calvin’s reforms meant that churches changed physically. The pulpit, where God’s word was declaimed, and applied to the life of the community became the centre of worship rather than the alter. There were three essential parts to their worship – baptism, preaching and the sharing of communion. Also in Switzerland at the time was John Oecolampadius from Basel, who was very determined upon the independence of the church from the state. He had some influence upon Calvin, but was closer to Zwingli. Calvin believed in marriage rather than clerical celibacy and married the widow of an Anabaptist. The Anabaptists were so named because of their practice of re-baptising those who had been baptised in infancy, when, as adults they confessed to a personal faith. They considered infant baptism as being invalid because the child concerned had no say in the matter. Luther on the other hand held that infants had hidden faith, just as adults were still saved when they were unconscious or asleep. Anabaptists were considered to be among the more radical of the dissenting groups. They saw the New Testament church as basically congregational and so urged that each group of believers be independent of the others and held that they should be totally free from state, either in the form of support or control. It seems that Calvin really treasured his wife and even considered her a helper in his ministry. The five points of Calvinism which carry his name were in fact produced by the Synod of Nort. They do however reflect his idea that God is able to save everyone on whom he has mercy and this does not depend upon their abilities. Calvin suffered such poor health that he was at times actually carried to the pulpit and even preached from his bedroom. Anabaptist was also used as a general term of abuse for those seen as in opposition to the church. Calvin was succeeded by Theodore Beza ( 1519 -1605) After announcing that he was a Protestant in 1559 Beza was made professor of Greek at Lausanne University. He became a leading advisor to the Huguenots in France. His aim was to establish the Reformed faith across Europe, but especially in France. In the Netherlands Luther and his writing were an inspiration to many. As early as 1523 people were being martyred for their adherence to the new faith. Those who accepted adult baptism despite having been baptized as infants were among them. Later it was Calvin’s influence with his doctrine of predestination that would rule. But Spain ruled the Low Countries at that time and the king of Spain was firmly opposed to Protestantism. This lead to a call for independence and 100,000 people were said to have died in the struggle, but eventually in 1584 the northern Netherlands formed a Federation under the rule of William the Silent. This new church however soon split because of the teaching of Arminius (1560 – 1609) professor of theology at Leiden. He said that though God wanted all to be saved he still allowed man to have free will. At first he was condemned for this, but he insisted that his view was a Biblical one and eventually such thoughts became tolerated and in 1795 were officially accepted by the Syndod. This was a big move from Calvin’s predestination of only the elect.. John Huss’s followers supported Luther at first, but most soon switched to Calvinism. In Poland the two sides managed to reach an amicable understanding. There were however internal rumblings, some caused by the ideas of Socinus, who among other things went so far as denying the deity of Christ. An important figure there was Menno Simons, a former Catholic priest and founder of the Mennonites. As a priest he conducted the mass, baptized infants, heard confessions and prayed. What the did not do was read the scriptures as he had been taught, according to Ronald Gordon, that only the Pope could correctly interpret the Bible. He first began to have doubts about papal infallibility with regard to the doctrine of Transubstantiation i.e. the belief that during the mass the bread and wine actually become the body and blood of Christ. This had first become an official doctrine in 1215 and affirmed in the 16th century during the Council of Trent which was convened on several occasions in response to the Protestant Reformation. Menno was one of many who could see with their own eyes that bread remained bread and wine the produce of the grape, though he acknowledged the huge symbolism of these elements. He was influenced by his readings of Luther’s works and came to believe that the Scriptures were more important than any man made laws, even if that man be the pope himself. He could find no evidence for infant baptism in scripture, though others claimed that it was the equivalent of circumcision and meant that the parents would vow to bring up the child in a Christian home. Yet for some time he continued to baptise babies – an example of the confusion that resulted in honest men when radical new ideas were met for the first time. Menno was aware of men dying for their faith, while he continued to practise what he no longer really believed. In 1536 he finally resigned as priest and became an Anabaptist, but had to immediately go into hiding for a year, a time which he used to mediate upon the doctrines involved. Eventually he was asked to become leader of the Anabaptists in the Netherlands. In later years he married and formulated a theology that was in many ways orthodox, but did not include practises that were not scriptural. The modern huge denomination of Baptists began with a single congregation in Amstersdam made up of exiled English people. The Baptist soon split into those ( the Arminians) who believed that Christ died for all , and those ( the Calvinists) who believed in salvation only for the elect. In Germany Anabaptists, led by the Dutchman John of Leyden, forcibly took over the running of the town of Muenster, which they did according to what they felt were Christian principles. The changes were not welcomed and anarchy followed, forcing many to flee to Holland. In England the Reformation took a rather different course. Henry VIII wanted a divorce from his wife Catherine of Aragon in order to marry the younger, and still fertile Anne Boleyn. The Pope refused, but the Archbishop granted the divorce and in 1534 Henry was made supreme head of the Church by an act of Parliament. There were few to oppose him and so the country broke away from the power of the pope. The monasteries held much of the wealth of the Catholic church in the country and so the monks became seen as enemies of the king. He decided to get rid of them – an act now known as the Dissolution of the Monasteries. Wherever there was any sign of corruption such as married monks or pregnant nuns this gave him his excuse. It became a nationwide scourge starting with the small monasteries and eventually moving to the larger ones. A few leading churchmen were executed , but most received pensions – the Abbot of the huge Fountains Abbey in Yorkshire received  £100 a year for life according to Chris Trueman – a huge sum at the time. The only real opposition to this wholesale destruction was the Pilgrimage of Grace led by lawyer Robert Aske in 1536. Henry promised to look into the complaints of the many thousands of pilgrims, but nothing was actually done and Aske was starved to death in chains. In some ways there was little immediate change in the church – most prayers were still in Latin and priests were still not allowed to marry, unlike the Protestant clergy in other lands. These changes took much longer to come about. We can see from all this that the Reformation was no the result of one man’s, or even several men’s actions, but came about because of a number of very different factors. It is also obvious that though various groups were influenced by others, especially by Luther and Calvin, the resulting manifestations of the Reformed church varied considerably, both in their beliefs and practices. Some of these have persisted and other have been modified with time, but either way there has been no going back to many of the practices of medieval Catholicism. Changes were necessary, but need not have resulted in such splintering and diversity if Catholic church had properly addressed the problems within at the time. Some changes were for purely religious reasons, others had political overtones and yet others were as a result of more personal reasons as in the case of Henry VIII. Between them these changes altered forever the religious political, geographical and even linguistic face of Europe. When the church started out in the first century people had to make a deliberate choice to become Christians, often this meant turning their backs on the faith they had been born to, but as time went on had , for some at least, just become an automatic occurrence – your parents were Christian and so you were. With the Reformation once again Faith became something one was no longer born into, but was the result of a personal relationship with God. Bibliography and Works Cited Barraclogh, G. editor The Christian World, New York, Harry N. Abrams Inc. Publishers, 1981 Calvin , J. The Institutes of the Christian Religion published in Latin in1536 and later expanded by him. English, D.et al, editors, The Lion Handbook of Christian Belief, Tring, Hertfordshire, Lion Books, 1988 McNair, P. Seeds of Renewal article in The History of Christianity, Tring, Hertfordshire, Lion Books, 1977 Electronic Sources Calvin, J. Quotations found 24th May 2007 at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/j/john_calvin.html Gordon, R. Menno Simons found 25th May 2007 at http://www.cob-net.org/text/history_menno.htm Hooker, R. Zwingli, Ulrich found 23rd May 2007 at http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/REFORM/ZWINGLI.HTM Luther, M. Doctor Martin Luther to the Christian Reader, 1545 found 25th May 2007 at http://www.iclnet.org/pub/resources/text/wittenberg/luther/luther-reader.txt Luther, M. Quotations found 24t5h May 2007 at http://www.quotationspage.com/search.php3?Search=Author=Martin+LutherC =colesC=lindslyC=poorcC=netC=devilsC=contribpage=2 Martin Luther found 25th May 2007 at http://www.educ.msu.edu/homepages/laurence/reformation/Luther/Luther.htm Puritanism, definition, found 23rd May 2007 at http://www.answers.com/Puritanism Trueman,C. The Reformation found 25th May 2007 at http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/reformation.htm Schaff, P. Luther’s translation of the Bible found 23rd May 2007 at http://www.bible-researcher.com/luther02.html