TheReformation, also known as theProtestant Reformation or theEuropean Reformation,[1] was a time of majortheological movement inWestern Christianity in 16th-centuryEurope that posed a religious and political challenge to thepapacy and the authority of theCatholic Church hierarchy. Towards the end of theRenaissance, the Reformation marked the beginning ofProtestantism. It is considered one of the events that signified the end of theMiddle Ages and the beginning of theearly modern period in Europe.[2]
In general, the Reformers argued thatjustification wasbased on faith in Jesus alone and not both faith and arisingcharitable acts, as in the Catholic view.[3]: 23 In the Lutheran, Anglican and Reformed view, good works were seen as fruits of living faith and part of the process ofsanctification which was distinct from justification.[4][5] Protestantism also introduced newecclesiology. The general points of theological agreement by the different Protestant groups have been more recently summarized as thethreesolae, though various Protestant denominations disagree on doctrines such as the nature of thereal presence of Christ in the Eucharist, with Lutherans accepting a corporeal presence and theReformed accepting a spiritual presence.[6][7]
The spread ofGutenberg'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 SwissHuldrych Zwingli and the FrenchJohn Calvin developed theContinental Reformed tradition. Within a Reformed framework,Thomas Cranmer andJohn Knox led theReformation in England and theReformation in Scotland, respectively, giving rise to Anglicanism and Presbyterianism.[8][9][10] The period also saw the rise of non-Catholic denominations with quite different theologies and politics to theMagisterial Reformers (Lutherans, Reformed, and Anglicans): so-calledRadical Reformers such as the variousAnabaptists, who sought to return to the practices of early Christianity.[11][12][13] TheCounter-Reformation comprised the Catholic response to the Reformation, with theCouncil of Trent clarifying ambiguous or disputed Catholic positions and abuses that had been subject to critique by reformers.[14] The consequentEuropean wars of religion saw the deaths of between seven and seventeen million people.
In the 16th-century context, the term mainly covers four major movements:Lutheranism,Calvinism, theRadical Reformation, and theCatholic Reformation orCounter-Reformation. Since the late20th century, historians often use the plural of the term to emphasize that the Reformation was not a uniform and coherent historical phenomenon but the result of parallel movements.[15]
Anglican theologianAlister 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". HistorianJohn Bossy criticized the term Reformation[16] 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."[17] 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."[18]
"Catholic Reformation" is distinguished by the historian Massimo Firpo fromCounter-Reformation. In his view, Catholic Reformation was "centered on the care of souls ..., episcopal residence, the renewal of the clergy, together with the charitable and educational roles of the new religious orders", whereas Counter-Reformation was "founded upon the defence of orthodoxy, the repression of dissent, the reassertion of ecclesiastical authority".[20]
Several aspects of the Reformation, such as changes in the arts, music, rituals, and communities are frequently presented in specialised studies.[22]
The historianPeter 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".[note 2] Medieval examples include theCluniac Reform in the10th–11th centuries, and the 11th-centuryGregorian Reform,[24] both striving againstlay influence over church affairs.[25][26] 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.[27]
When considered as a historical time period, both the starting and ending date of the Reformation have always been debated.[28] The most commonly used starting date is 31 October 1517—the day when the German theologianMartin Luther (d. 1546) allegedly nailed up a copy of hisdisputation paper onindulgences and papal power known as theNinety-five Theses to the door of thecastle church inWittenberg inElectoral Saxony.[note 3][31] Calvinist historians often propose that the Reformation started when the Swiss priestHuldrych Zwingli (d. 1531) first preached against abuses in the Church in 1516.[32] The end date of the Reformation is even more disputed: considered as political/martial strife, 25 September 1555 (when thePeace 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 themodern era from theMiddle Ages.[33]
Funeral Mass with priest, choristers, bearers or mourners, and a beggar receiving alms (c. 1460–1480)
Europe experienced a period of dreadful calamities from the early14th century. These culminated in a devastatingpandemic known as theBlack Death, which killed about one-third of Europe's population.[35] Around 1500, the population of Europe was about60–85 million people—no more than75 percent of the mid-14th-century demographic maximum.[36] Due to a shortage of workforce, the landlords began to restrict the rights of their tenants which led to rural revolts that often ended with a compromise.[37]
The constant fear of unexpected death was mirrored by popular artistic motifs, such as the allegory ofdanse macabre ('dance of death'). The fear also contributed to the growing popularity ofMasses for the dead.[38] Already detectable amongearly Christians, these ceremonies indicated a widespread belief inpurgatory—a transitory state for souls that needed purification before enteringheaven.[39] Fear of malevolent magical practice was also growing, andwitch hunts intensified.[40]
At the end of the15th century, thesexually transmitted infection known assyphilis spread throughout Europe for the first time. Syphilis destroyed its victims' looks withulcers and scabs before killing them. Along with theFrench invasion of Italy, syphilis contributed to the success of the charismatic preacherGirolamo Savonarola (d. 1498) who called for a moral renewal inFlorence. He was arrested and executed forheresy, but hismeditations remained a popular reading.[41]
HistorianJohn Bossy (as summarized byEamon Duffy[43]) emphasized that "medieval Christianity had been fundamentally concerned with the creation and maintenance of peace in a violent world. 'Christianity' in medieval Europe denoted neither an ideology nor an institution, but a community of believers whose religious ideal—constantly aspired to if seldom attained—was peace and mutual love."[note 4][45]
The Catholic Church taught that entry intoheaven required dying in astate of grace.[39] Based onChrist's parable on theLast Judgement, the Church emphasized the performance ofcharitable acts by the baptized faithful, such as feeding the hungry and visiting the sick, as an important co-condition of salvation.[46]
New religious movements promoted the deeper involvement of laity in religious practices. The communal fraternities of theBrethren of the Common Life did not encourage lay brothers to become priests[57] and often placed their houses under the protection of urban authorities.[58] They were closely associated with thedevotio moderna, a new method ofCatholic spirituality with a special emphasis on the education of laypeople.[59] A leader of the movement the DutchWessel Gansfort (d. 1489) attacked abuses of indulgences.[60]
Church buildings were richly decorated with paintings, sculptures, andstained glass windows. WhileRomanesque andGothic art made a clear distinction between the supernatural and the human, Renaissance artists depictedGod and the saints in a more human way.[61] 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'.[62]
The sources of religious authority included the Bible and its authoritative commentaries,apostolic tradition, decisions by ecumenical councils,scholastic theology, and papal authority. Catholics regarded theVulgate as the Bible's authentic Latin translation. Commentators applied several methods of interpretations to resolve contradictions within the Bible.[note 8] Apostolic tradition verified religious practices with unclear Biblical foundations or which required deduction, such asinfant baptism.[64]: 22, 23, 28 The ecumenical councils' decisions were binding to all Catholics. The crucial elements of mainstream Christianity had been first summarised in theNicene Creed in 325. Its western text contained aunilateral addition which contributed to theschism between Catholicism andEastern Orthodoxy.[65] The Creed contained the dogma ofTrinity about one God uniting three equal persons:Father,Son, andHoly Spirit.[66][67] Church authorities acknowledged that an individual might exceptionally receive directrevelations from God but maintained that a genuine revelation could not challenge traditional religious principles.[note 9][69] Preaching was animportant part of bishops' and priests' responsibilities.[note 10]
From 1309 to 1417, the papacy was in turmoil: various election controversies resulted in theWestern Schism (1378-1417) leading to, at the end, three rival claimant Popes. At theCouncil of Constance, one of the three popes resigned, his two rivals were deposed, and the newly electedMartin V (r. 1417–1431) was acknowledged as the legitimate pope throughout Catholic Europe.[85] The relative authority ofpopes and ecumenical councils was in contest.
In the earlyAge of Exploration, a succession of popes (Nicholas V,Sixtus IV,Alexander VI) successfully arbitrated territorial disputes between Spain and Portugal outside Europe, notably with thepapal bullInter caetera (1493) drawing a line through South America to separate their trade and colonial regions.[87][88] The Spanish and Portuguese conquests and developing trade networks contributed to the global expansion of Catholicism.[note 15][89]
The necessity of a church reformin capite et membris ('in head and limbs') was frequently discussed at the ecumenical councils from the late13th century. However, many high stakeholders—popes, prelates, abbots and kings—preferred thestatus quo because they did not want to lose privileges or revenues.[91] The system of papal dispensations proved a continual obstacle to the implementation of each revived reform attempt, as theHoly See had regularly granted privileges or immunities.[78]
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.[note 16] Reformist bishops tried to discipline their clergy through regularcanonical visitations but their attempts mainly failed due to the resistance of autonomous institutions such ascathedral chapters. Neither could they exercise authority over non-resident clerics who had received their benefice from the papacy.[93] On the eve of the Reformation, theFifth 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.[94]
A new intellectual movement known asHumanism emerged in theLate Middle Ages. The Humanists' sloganad fontes! ('back to the sources!') demonstrated their enthusiasm forClassical texts andtextual criticism.[95] Therise of the Ottoman Empire led to the mass immigration ofByzantine scholars to Western Europe, and many of them broughtmanuscripts previously unknown to western scholarship. This led to therediscovery of the Ancient Greek philosopherPlato (347/348 BC). Plato's ideas about an ultimate reality lying beyond visible reality posed a serious challenge to scholastic theologians' rigorous definitions. Textual criticism called into question the reliability of some of the fundamental texts of papal privilege: humanist scholars, likeNicholas of Cusa (d. 1464) proved that one of the basic documents of papal authority, the allegedly 4th-centuryDonation of Constantine was a medieval forgery.[96]
As themanufacturing of paper from rags and the printing machine withmovable type were spreading in Europe, books could be bought at a reasonable price from the15th century.[note 17] Demand for religious literature was especially high.[98] The German inventorJohannes Gutenberg (d. 1468) first published atwo-volume printed version of the Vulgata in the early 1450s.[99]High andLow 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.[100] Laypeople who read the Bible could challenge their priests' sermons, as it happened already in 1515.[101]
Completed byJerome (d. 420), the Vulgate contained theSeptuagint version of theOld Testament.[102] The systematic study of Biblical manuscripts revealed that Jerome had sometimes misinterpreted his sources of translation.[note 18][103] A series of Latin-Greekeditions of the New Testament was completed by the Dutch humanistErasmus (d. 1536). These new Latin translations challenged some scripturalproof texts for some Catholic dogmas.[note 19][106]
AfterArianism—aChristological doctrine condemned asheresy at ecumenical councils—disappeared in the late7th century, no major disputes menaced the theological unity of the Western Church. Religious enthusiasts could organise their followers into nonconformist groups but they disbanded after their founder died.[note 20] TheWaldensians were a notable exception. Due to their efficient organisation, they survived not only the death of their founderPeter Waldo (d.c. 1205), but also a series ofanti-heretic crusades. They rejected the clerics' monopoly of public ministry, and allowed all trained members of their community, men and women alike, to preach.[108]
TheWestern Schism reinforced a general desire for church reform. TheOxford theologianJohn Wycliffe (d. 1384) was one of the most radical critics.[109] He attacked pilgrimages, the veneration of saints, and the doctrine of transubstantiation.[110] He regarded the Church as an exclusive community of those chosen by God to salvation,[111] and argued that the state could seize the corrupt clerics' endowments.[112] Known asLollards, Wycliffe's followers rejected images, clerical celibacy and thepurchase of indulgences by crusading lords. TheParliament of England passed alaw against heretics, but Lollard communities survived the purges.[111][113]
Wycliffe's theology had a marked impact on thePrague academicJan 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 kingSigismund of Luxemburg (r. 1410–1437) had granted him safe conduct, Hus was sentenced to death for heresy andburned at the stake on 6 July 1415. His execution led to anationwide religious movement inBohemia, and the papacy called for aseries of crusades against Hus's followers. The moderateHussites, mainlyCzech aristocrats and academics, were known asUtraquists for they taught that the Eucharist was to be administeredsub utraque specie ('in both kinds') to the laity. The most radical Hussites, calledTaborites after their new town ofTábor, held their property in common. Theirmillenarianism shocked the Utraquists who destroyed them in theBattle of Lipany in 1434.[114][115] 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 theUnion of Bohemian Brethren. They rejected the separation of clergy and laity, and condemned all forms of violence and oath taking.[116]
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."[109] 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 ideasola scriptura ('by theScriptures alone'), although prominent scholastic theologians were also convinced that Scripture, interpreted reasonably and in accord with the Church and theChurch Fathers,[117] contained all knowledge necessary for salvation.[note 21][120]
The Reformation in Germanic countries was instigated by Martin Luther, however historians note that many of his ideas were pre-dated by Wycliff, Huss,Erasmus,Zwingli and others, both heretic and orthodox. HistorianPeter Marshall has noted "In recent decades, scholars have become increasingly acclimatized to the idea that the Reformation was in important respects a continuation and intensification of trends within later medieval Catholicism, rather than simply a wholesale rejection of it."[62]
Pope Leo X (r. 1513–1521) decided to complete the construction of the new St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, which had already started in 1506 underPope Julius II..[121] As the sale of certificates of indulgences had been a well-established method of papal fund raising, he announced a new plenary indulgence in the papal bullSacrosanctis in 1515, intending to finance the construction. On the advice of the bankerJakob Fugger (d. 1525), he appointed the pluralist prelateAlbert of Brandenburg (d. 1545) to supervise the sale campaign in Germany.[note 22] The Dominican friarJohann Tetzel (d. 1519), the commissioner of indulgences in the dioceses of Magdeburg and Halberstadt since January 1517, applied unusually aggressive marketing methods. A slogan attributed to him famously claimed that "As soon as the coin into the box rings, a soul from purgatory to heaven springs".[123][124]Frederick the Wise,Prince-elector of Saxony (r. 1486–1525) forbade the campaign because theSacrosanctis suspended the sale of previous indulgences, depriving him of revenues that he had spent on his collection ofrelics.[note 23][60]
The campaign's vulgarity shocked many serious-minded believers,[60] among them Martin Luther, a theology professor at theUniversity of Wittenberg in Saxony.[124][126] Born into a middle-class family, Luther entered anAugustinian 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.[127] His studies on the works of the Late Roman theologianAugustine of Hippo (d. 430) convinced him that those whom God chose as his elect received a gift of faith independently of their acts.[128] He first denounced the idea of justification through human efforts in hisDisputatio contra scholasticam theologiam ('Disputation against Scholastic Theology') in September 1517.[129]
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 hisNinety-five Theses to it. He questioned the efficacy of indulgences for the dead, although also stated "If ... indulgences were preached according to the spirit and intention of the pope,all ... doubts would be readily resolved".[130] Archbishop Albert ordered the theologians at theUniversity of Mainz to examine the document. Tetzel, and the theologiansKonrad Wimpina (d. 1531) andJohann 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.[131] Pope Leo remained uninterested, and mentioned the case as "a quarrel among friars".[124][132]
Christians should be exhorted to seek earnestly to follow Christ, their Head, through penalties, deaths, hells. And let them thus be more confident of entering heaven through many tribulations rather than through a false assurance of peace.
As the historianLyndal Roper notes, the "Reformation proceeded by a set of debates and arguments".[134] Luther presented his views in public at theobservant Augustinians' assembly inHeidelberg on 26 April 1518.[135] Here he explained his "theology of the Cross" about a loving God who hadbecome frail to savefallen humanity, contrasting it with what he saw as the scholastic "theology of glory" that in his view celebrated erudition and human acts.[132] It is uncertain when Luther's concept ofjustification by faith alone—a central element of his theology—crystallised. He would later attribute it to his "tower experience"[note 24] (1519),[137] when he comprehended that God could freely declare even sinners righteous while he was thinking about the words ofPaul the Apostle (d. 64 or 65)—"the just shall live by faith".[138][139]
Urged by Luther's opponents, Pope Leo appointed the juristGirolamo Ghinucci (d. 1541) and the theologianSylvester Mazzolini (d. 1527) to inspect Luther's teaching.[140] 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.[141] Pope Leo did not excommunicate Luther because Leo did not want to alienate Luther's patron Frederick the Wise.[note 25] Instead, he appointed CardinalThomas Cajetan (d. 1534) to convince Luther to withdraw some of his theses. Cajetan met with Luther atAugsburg in October 1518.[29] The historian Berndt Hamm says that the meeting was the "historical point at which the opposition between the Reformation and Catholicism first emerged",[note 26] as Cajetan thought that believers accepting Luther's views of justification would no more obey clerical guidance.[142][143]
Luther first expressed his sympathy for Jan Hus at adisputation in Leipzig in June 1519. His case was reopened at the Roman Curia. Cajetan, Eck and other papal officials drafted the papal bullExsurge 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.[144] Luther's theology quickly developed. In a Latin treatiseOn the Babylonian Captivity of the Church (October 1520), he stated that only baptism and theEucharist could be regarded as sacraments, and priests were not members of a privileged class but servants of the community (hence they became calledministers from the Latin word for servant). His German manifestoTo the Christian Nobility of the German Nation (August 1520) associated the papacy with theAntichrist, and described the Holy See as "the worst whorehouse of all whorehouses" in reference to the funds flowing to the Roman Curia.[145][146] It also challenged the Biblical justification of clerical celibacy.[147] Luther's studyOn the Freedom of a Christian (November 1520) consolidated his thoughts about the believers' inner freedom withtheir obligation to care for their neighbours although he rejected the traditional teaching about good works.[148] The study is a characteristic example of Luther's enthusiasm for paradoxes.[note 27][149]
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.[155] To save Luther's life but also to hide his involvement, Frederick arranged Luther's abduction on 4 May.[153] During his ten-month-long[155] staged captivity at Frederick's castle ofWartburg, Luther translated theNew Testament to High German. The historianDiarmaid 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".[156] The translation would be published at the 1522Leipzig Book Fair along with Luther's treatiseOn Monastic Vows that laid the theological foundations of the dissolution of monasteries.[157] Luther also composedreligious hymns in Wartburg. They would be first published in collections in 1524.[158] During Luther's absence, his co-workers, primarilyPhilip Melanchthon (d. 1560) andAndreas Karlstadt (d. 1541) assumed the leadership of Reformation in Wittenberg. Melanchthon consolidated Luther's thoughts into a coherent theological work titledLoci communes ('Common Places').[159]
Woodcuts byLucas Cranach the Elder from thePassional of Christ and Antichrist, contrasting Christ who wears theCrown of Thorns and is mocked(on the left), with the pope crowned with atiara and adored by bishops and abbots(on the right)
Roper argues that "the most important reason why Luther did not meet with Hus's fate was technology: the new medium of print". Luther was publishing his views in short but pungent treatises that gained unexpected popularity: he was responsible for about one-fifth of all works printed in Germany in the first third of the16th century.[note 28][161] German printing presses were scattered in many urban centers which prevented their control by central authorities.[162] Statistical analysis indicates a significantcorrelation between the presence of a printing press in a German city and the adoption of Reformation.[note 29][165]
Reformation spread through the activities of enthusiastic preachers such asJohannes Oecolampadius (d. 1531) andKonrad Kürsner (d. 1556) inBasel,Sebastian Hofmeister (d. 1533) inSchaffhausen, andMatthäus Zell (d. 1548) andMartin Bucer (d. 1551) inStrasbourg.[166] They were called "Evangelicals" due to their insistence on teaching in accordance with theGospels (orEvangelion).[167] Luther and many of his followers worked with the artistLucas 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.[168] Cranach'swoodcuts together with itinerant preachers' explanations helped the mainly illiterate people to understand Luther's teaching.[169] The illustrated pamphlets were carried from place to place typically by peddlers and merchants.[170] Laypeople started to discuss various aspects of religion in both private and public all over Germany.[171]
The self-governingfree imperial cities were the first centers of the Reformation.[172] The Evangelical preachers emphasized that many well-established church practices had no precedent in the Bible, which they considered necessary. They offered the Eucharist to the laity in both kinds,[173] and denied the clerics' monopolies, which resonated with popular anti-clericalism.[174] It was not unusual that their supporters attacked clerics and church buildings.[175] Violent iconoclasm was common.[note 30]In some cities such as Strasbourg andUlm, the urban magistrates supported the Reformation; in the cities of theHanseatic League the affluent middle classes enforced changes in church life.[177] 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,[178] or of neighbours who had rejected Catholicism.[179]
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.[180] Evangelical town councils usually prohibited begging but established a common chest forpoverty 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 traditionalmonastic andcathedral schools.[181]
Resistance to Evangelical preaching was significant inFlanders, theRhineland,Bavaria and Austria.[183] Here the veneration of local saints was strong, and statistical analysis indicates that cities where indigenous saints' shrines served as centers of vivid communal cults less likely adopted Reformation.[note 31][185] Likewise, cities with an episcopal see or monasteries more likely resisted Evangelical proselytism.[186][187]
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".[188] Luther's works were burned in most European countries.[189] Emperor Charles initiated the execution of the first Evangelical martyrs, the Augustinian monksJan van Essen and Hendrik Vos. They were burned in Brussels on 1 July 1523.[190] Charles was determined to protect the Catholic Church, but theOttoman Turks' expansion towards Central Europe often thwarted him.[191][192] TheSpanish Inquisition prevented the spread of Evangelical literature in that country, and suppressed the spiritual movement of theAlumbrados ('Illuminists') who put a special emphasis on personal faith. Some Italian men of letters, such as the Venetian noblemanGasparo Contarini (d. 1542) and the Augustinian canonPeter Martyr Vermigli (d. 1562) expressed ideas resembling Luther's theology of salvation but did not quickly break with Catholicism.[note 32] They were part of a group known asSpirituali.[195][196]
Correspondence betweenLuke 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, andPoland, Luther's theology spread in the local German communities. KingLouis of Bohemia and Hungary (r. 1516–1526) ordered the persecution of Evangelical preachers although his wifeMary of Austria (d. 1558) favoured the reformers.Sigismund I the Old, King of Poland and Grand Duke ofLithuania (r. 1506–1548) banned the import of Evangelical literature.[200]Christian II, who ruled theKalmar Union of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway (r. 1513–1523), was sympathetic towards the Reformation but his despotic methods led to revolts. He was replaced by his uncleFrederick I in Denmark and Norway (r. 1523–1533), and by a local aristocratGustav I Vasa in Sweden (r. 1523–1560).[201]
Andreas Karlstadt accelerated the implementation of Reformation in Wittenberg. On Christmas Day 1521, he administered the Eucharist in common garment; the next day he announced his engagement to a fifteen-year-old noble girl Anna von Mochau.[202] He proclaimed that images were examples of "devilish deceit" which led to the mass destruction of religious art. Enthusiasts began swarming to Wittenberg. TheZwickau prophets, who had been incited by the radical preacherThomas Müntzer (d. 1525), claimed that they had received revelations from God.[203][204] They rejected transubstantiation and attacked infant baptism. Luther defended art as a proof of the beauty of theCreation, maintained that Christ's Body and Blood werephysically present in the Eucharist,[note 33] and regarded infant baptism as a sign of membership in the Christian community.[note 34] To put an end to the anarchy, Frederick the Wise released Luther in March 1522. Luther achieved the Zwickau prophets' removal from Wittenberg, calling them fanatics.[207] Karlstadt voluntarily left Wittenberg forOrlamünde where the local congregation elected him its minister. Luther visited most parishes in the region to prevent radical reforms, but he was often received by verbal or physical abuses. When he wanted to dismiss Karlstadt, the parishioners referred to his own words about the congregations' right to freely elect their ministers, and Karlstadt called him a "perverter of the Scriptures". Karlstadt was expelled from Electoral Saxony without a trial on Luther's initiative.[208]
Luther condemned violence but some of his followers took up arms.Franz von Sickingen (d. 1523), animperial knight from the Rhineland, formed an alliance with his peers againstRichard von Greiffenklau,Archbishop-elector of Trier (r. 1511–1531), allegedly to lead the Archbishop's subjects "to evangelical, light laws and Christian freedom".[209] Sickingen had demanded the restitution of monastic property to the grantors' descendants, stating that thesecularisation of church property would also improve the poor peasants' situation.[210] Sickingen and his associatesattacked the archbishopric but failed at the siege of Trier. Sickingen was mortally wounded while defending hisNanstein Castle against the Archbishop's troops.[209] Luther denounced Sickingen's violent acts.[211] According to his "theory of two kingdoms", true Christians had to submit themselves to princely authority.[212]
The Swiss Humanist priest Huldrych Zwingli would claim that he "began to preach the Gospel of Christ in 1516 long before anyone in our region had ever heard of Luther". He came to prominence whenattended a meal of sausages inZürich duringLent 1522, breaching the rules offasting.[213] He held disputations with the urban magistrates' authorization to discuss changes in church life, and always introduced them with the magistrates' support. In 1524, all images were removed from the churches, and fasting and clerical celibacy were abolished. Two years later, a German communion service replaced the Latin liturgy of theMass, and the Eucharist (or Lord's Supper) was administered on a plain wooden table instead of an embellishedaltar.[213][214] Two new institutions were organised in Zürich: theProphezei (a public school for Biblical studies), and the Marriage and Morals Court (a legal court and moral police consisting of two laymen and two clerics). Both would be copied in other towns.[215] Zwingli's interpretation of the Eucharist differed from both Catholic theology and Luther's teaching. He denied Christ's presence in the sacramental bread and wine, and regarded the Eucharist as acommemorative ceremony in honor of thecrucified Jesus.[216] The disagreement caused a bitter pamphlet war between Luther and Zwingli.[217] They both rejected intermediary Eucharistic formulas coined by Bucer.[218]
Zwingli's cautious "Magisterial Reformation" outraged the more radical reformers, among themConrad Grebel (d. 1526), a Zürich patrician's son who had fallen out with his family for marrying a low born girl. The radicals summarized their theology in a letter to Müntzer in 1524. They identified the Church as an exclusive community of the righteous, and demanded its liberation from the state. They deplored all religious practices that had no Biblical foundations, and endorsedbelievers' (or adult) baptism.
In January 1525, a former Catholic priestGeorge Blaurock (d. 1529) asked Grebel torebaptize him, and after his request was granted they rebaptized fifteen other people.[219] For this practice, they were calledAnabaptists ('rebaptizers').[220] As a featuring element ofDonatism and other heretic movements, rebaptism had been acapital offence since the Late Roman period. After the magistrates had some radicals imprisoned, Blaurock called Zwingli the Antichrist.[221] The town council enacted a law that threatened rebaptizers with capital punishment, and the AnabaptistFelix Manz (d. 1527) was condemned to death and drowned in theLimmat River.[222] 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 hadsuffered martyrdom for their faith. The most radicals took inspiration from theBook of Daniel and theBook of Revelation for apocalyptic prophesies. Some of them burnt the Bible reciting St Paul's words, "the letter kills".[223] InSt. 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.[224]
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 whichErasmus is the principle mediator."[225]: 292
Title page of theTwelve Articles, a manifesto by Swabian peasants in March 1525
MacCulloch says that the Reformation "injected an extra element of instability" into the relationship between the peasants and their lords, as it raised "new excitement and bitterness against established authority".[226] Public demonstrations in theBlack Forest area indicated a general discontent among the southern German peasantry in May 1524. The Anabaptist preacherBalthasar Hubmaier (d. 1528) was one of the peasant leaders, but most participants never went beyond traditional anti-clericalism. In early 1525, the movement spread towardsUpper Swabia. The radical preacher Cristopher Schappler and the pamphleteerSebastian Lotzer summarized the Swabian peasants' demand in a manifesto known asTwelve Articles. The peasants wanted to control their ministers' election and to supervise the use of church revenues, but also demanded the abolition of the tithe on meat. They reserved the right to present further demands against non-Biblical seigneurial practices but promised to abandon any of their demands that contradicted the Bible, and appointed fourteen "arbitrators" to clarify divine law on the relationship between peasants and landlords. The arbitrators approached Luther, Zwingli, Melanchthon and other leaders of the Reformation for advice but none of them answered.[227] Luther wrote a treatise, equally blaming the landlords for the oppression of the peasantry and the rebels for their arbitrary acts.[228]
Georg Truchsess von Waldburg (d. 1531), commander of the army of the aristocraticSwabian League, achieved the dissolution of the peasant armies either by force or through negotiations. By this time the peasant movements reachedFranconia andThüringia. The Franconian peasants formed alliances with artisans and petty nobles such asFlorian Geyer (d. 1525) against the patricians and thePrince-Bishopric of Würzburg but Truchsess forced them into submission.[229] In Thüringia, Müntzer convinced 300 radicals that they were invincible but they were annihilatedat Frankenhausen byPhilip the Magnanimous,Landgrave of Hesse (r. 1509–1567) andGeorge, Duke of Saxony (r. 1500–1539). Müntzer who had hidden in an attic before the battle was discovered and executed.[230][231] News of atrocities by peasant bands and meetings with disrespectful peasants during a preaching tour outraged Luther while he was writing his treatiseAgainst the Murderous, Thieving Hordes of Peasants. In it, he urged the German princes to "smite, slay, and slab" the rebels.[232] Moderate observers felt aggrieved at his cruel words. They regarded as an especially tasteless act that Luther marriedKatharina von Bora (d. 1552), a former nun while the punitive actions against the peasantry were still in process.[233] 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.[234]
At theDiet 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".[241] In practice, they sanctioned the principlecuius regio, eius religio ('whose realm, their religion'), acknowledging the princes' right to determine their subjects' religious affiliation.[242] Fully occupied with theWar of the League of Cognac against France and its Italian allies, Emperor Charles had appointed his brotherFerdinand I, Archduke of Austria (r. 1521–1564) 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 theBattle of Mohács. In 1527, Charles's mutinous[193] troopssacked Rome and tookPope Clement VII (r. 1523–1534) 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".[241]
After his experiences with radical communities, Luther no more wrote of the congregations' right to elect their ministers (orpastors). Instead, he expected that princes acting as "emergency bishops" would prevent the disintegration of the Church.[242] Close cooperation between clerics and princely officials at church visitations paved the way for the establishment of the new church system.[243] In Electoral Saxony, princely decrees enacted the Evangelical ideas.[244] Liturgy was simplified, the church courts' jurisdiction over secular cases was abolished, and state authorities took control of church property.[243] The Evangelical equivalent to bishop was created with the appointment of a former Catholic priestJohannes Bugenhagen (d. 1558) assuperintendent in 1533.[244] The church visitations convinced Luther that the villagers' knowledge of the Christian faith was imperfect.[note 35] To deal with the situation, he completed twocathecisms—theLarge Catechism for the education of priests, and theSmall Catechism for children.[245] Records from Brandenburg-Ansbach indicates that Evangelical pastors often attacked traditional communal activities such as church fairs andspinning bees for debauchery.[246]
Evangelical Imperial Estates on their protestation at the Diet of Speyer
"In matters concerning God's honor and our soul's salvation everyone must stand before God and answer by himself, nobody can excuse himself in that place by the actions of decisions of others whether they be a minority or majority."
Taking advantage of Emperor Charles' victories in Italy,Ferdinand I achieved the reinforcement of the imperial ban against Luther at theDiet of Speyer in 1529. In response, five imperial princes and fourteen imperial cities[note 36] presented a formalprotestatio. They were mocked as "Protestants", and this appellation would be quickly applied to all followers of the new theologies.[note 37][249] To promote Protestant unity, Philip the Magnanimousorganised a colloquy (or theological debate) between Luther, Melanchton, Zwingli and Oecolampadius at Marburg early in October 1529,[250] but they could not coin a common formula on the Eucharist.[251] 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", as they regarded themselves as the true reformers.[252]
In 1526, the villagers of the autonomousGraubünden region inSwitzerland agreed that each village could freely choose between Protestantism and Catholicism, setting a precedent for the coexistence of the two denominations in the same jurisdiction.[253] Religious affiliation in the Mandated Territories (lands jointly administered by the Swiss cantons) became the subject of much controversy between Protestant and Catholic cantons. The Protestant cantons concluded a military alliance early in 1529, the Catholic cantons in April.[254][255] After a bloodlessarmed conflict, the Mandated communities were granted the right to choose between the two religions by a majority vote of the male citizens. Zwingli began an intensive proselityzing campaign which led to the conversion of most Mandated communities to Protestantism. He set up a council of clergymen and lay delegates for church administration, thus creating the forerunners ofpresbyteries.[256] Zürich imposed an economic blockade on the Catholic cantons but the Catholicsrouted Zürich's army in 1531. The Catholics' victory stopped the Protestant expansion in Switzerland.[255][257]
Zwingli was killed in the battlefield, and succeeded by a former monkHeinrich 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.[note 38][259]
Title page of theSchleitheim Articles passed at the pacifist Anabaptists' assembly in 1527
The historianCarter Lindberg states that the "Peasants' War was a formative experience for many leaders of Anabaptism".[260]Hans Hut (d. 1527) continued Müntzer's apocalypticism but others rejected all forms of violence.[261]
The pacifistMichael Sattler (d. 1527) took the chair at an Anabaptist assembly atSchleitheim in February 1527. Here the participants adopted an anti-militarist program now known as theSchleitheim 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. Forit is written: Thou shalt not kill."[262][263]
Total segregation was alien to Hübmaier who tried to achieve a peaceful coexistence with non-Anabaptists.[264] Expelled from Zürich, he settled in theMoravian domains of Count Leonhard von Liechtenstein at Nikolsburg (nowMikulov, 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 onFerdinand I's orders. His execution inaugurated a period of intensive purge against rebaptisers. His followers relocated to Austerlitz (nowSlavkov u Brna, Czech Republic) where refugees from Tyrol joined them. After the TyrolianJakob Hutter (d. 1536) assumed the leadership of the community, they began to held their goods in common. The Bohemian Brethren symphatised with theHutterites which facilitated their survival in Moravia.[265]
Back in Germany in January 1530,Charles V asked the Protestants to summarize their theology at the following Diet inAugsburg. As the imperial ban prevented Luther from attending the Diet, Melanchthon completed the task. Melanchthon sharply condemned Anabaptist ideas and adopted a reconciliatory tone towards Catholicism but did not fail to emphasize the most featuring elements of Evangelical theology, such as justification by faith alone. The twenty-eight articles of theAugsburg Confession were presented at the Diet on 25 June. Four south German Protestant cities—Strasbourg, Constance, Lindau, and Memmingen—adopted a separate confessional document, theTetrapolitan Confession because they were influenced by Zwingli's Eucharistic theology. On Charles's request, Eck and other Catholic theologians completed a response to theAugsburg Confession, calledConfutatio ('refutation'). Charles ordered the Evangelical theologians to admit that their argumentation had been completely refuted. Instead, Melanchthon wrote a detailed explanation for the Evangelical articles of faith, known as theApology of the Augsburg Confession.[251][266]
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 ajust war.[267] TheSchmalkaldic League—the Protestant Imperial Estates' defensive alliance—was signed by five princes and fourteen cities on 27 February 1531.[note 39] As anew Ottoman invasion prevented the Habsburgs from waging war against the Protestants, a peace treaty was signed at Nuremberg in July 1532.[269]
Relationship between the papacy and the Scandinavian kingdoms was tense, as bothFrederick I of Denmark and Norway, andGustav I of Sweden appointed their own candidates to vacant episcopal sees.[270] In 1526, the Danish Parliament prohibited the bishops to seek confirmation from the Holy See, and declared all fees payable for their confirmation as royal revenue.[271] The formerHospitaller knightHans Tausen (d. 1561) delivered Evangelical sermons inViborg under royal protection from 1526. Four years later, the Parliament rejected the Catholic prelates' demand to condemn Evangelical preaching.[272] After Frederick's death the bishops and conservative aristocrats prevented the election of his openly Protestant sonChristian as his successor.[273]Christopher, Count of Oldenburg (r. 1526–1566) took up arms on the deposedChristian II's behalf, but the war known asCount's Feud ended with the victory of Frederick's son who ordered the arrest of the Catholic bishops.Christian III (r. 1534–1559) was crowned king by Bugenhagen. Bugenhagen also ordained seven superintendents to lead theChurch of Denmark. Christian declared theAugsburg Confession as the authoritative articles of faith in 1538,[274] but pilgrimages to the most popular shrines continued, and the Eucharistic liturgy kept Catholic elements, such as kneeling.[275]
In the Danish dependencies of Norway and Iceland, the Reformation required vigorous governmental interventions.[276] The last CatholicArchbishop of Nidaros in NorwayOlav Engelbrektsson (d. 1538) was a staunch opponent of the changes, but was succeeded by the EvangelicalGjeble Pederssøn (d. 1557) as superintendent.[277] 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.[note 40][279]
Gustav I of Sweden appointed the Evangelical preacherLaurentius Andreae (d. 1552) as his chancellor, and the Evangelical scholarOlaus 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 popularanti-Protestant literature under the auspices ofHans Brask (d. 1538),Bishop of Linköping. Gustav also expelled the radical German pastorMelchior Hoffman (d.c. 1543) from Sweden foriconoclastic propaganda.[280][281] The royal treasury needed extra funds to repay the loans borrowed from the Hanseatic League to finance thewar againstChristian II. Gustav persuaded thelegislative assembly tosecularise church property by threatening the delegates with his abdication.[281] 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.[282] 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 theologiansGeorg Norman (d. 1552/1553) andMikael Agricola (d. 1557).[283] In 1539, Norman was appointed as supertindent of theChurch of Sweden, and Gustav took the title of "Supreme Defender of the Church".[284]
The religious upheaval in Germany and thesack of Rome (1527) further convinced many Catholics that the Church was in need of a profound reform.Pope Paul III (r. 1534–1549) appointed prominent representatives of the Catholic reform movement as cardinals, among them Contarini,Reginald Pole (d. 1558), andGiovanni Pietro Caraffa (d. 1559). Theycompleted a report condemning the corruption of church administration and the waste of church revenues.[note 41] Contarini, Pole and otherSpirituali were ready to make concessions to the Protestants but their liberalism shocked Caraffa and other conservative prelates.[286]
Negotiations between moderate Catholic and Protestant theologians were not unusual. In 1541, Bucer and the Catholic theologianJohann Gropper (d. 1559) drafted a compromise formula onjustification.[note 42] The draft was discussed along with other issues at a colloquy during theDiet of Regensburg but no compromise was reached, not least due to opposition by both Luther and the Holy See.[287] Contarini, who represented the papacy at the Diet, died in 1541; manySpirituali such as Vermigli fled from Italy to avoid persecution.[288]Hermann of Wied,Archbishop-elector of Cologne (r. 1515–1546) completed a reform program with Bucer's assistance, criticising prayers to the saints and traditional Eucharistic theology, and proposing sermons about justification by faith.[289] The canons of theCologne Cathedral requested Gropper to write a critical response to it,[290] and achieved Hermann's deposal by the Roman Curia.[291]
The spread of new monastic orders was an important element of the Catholic reform movement. Most new orders placed great value on pastoral care.[note 43] Among them, theSociety of Jesus (or Jesuits) became the most influential.[294] Its founderIgnatius of Loyola (d. 1556) was born to a Basque noble family. He chose a military career but abandoned it after being woundedduring a siege. He started to write a devotional guide, theSpiritual Exercises, during his ascetic retreatat a cave.[295]His mysticism arouse the Spanish Inquisition's suspicion but theSpirituali supported him.Paul III sanctioned the establishment of the Jesuits on Contarini's influence in 1540.[296] The new order quickly developed: when Loyola died, the Society had about 1,000 members; in less than a decade, it numbered around 3,500. The maintenance of a well organised schooling system was the Jesuits' most prominent feature. TheirRoman collegium prepared future priests to discuss and reject Protestant theologies primarily in Germany, Bohemia, Poland, and Hungary.[297]
Paul III decided to convoke the nineteenth ecumenical council to handle the crisis caused by the Reformation. TheCouncil of Trent met in a series of sessions from December 1545 to 1548, 1521 to 1522, and 1562 to 1563.[note 44][298] The topics dealt with included the Creed, the Sacraments including transubstantiation and ordination,[299] justification, and improvement in the quality of priests by diocesan seminaries and annual canonical visitations.[300] 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,[note 45] rejecting two important elements of Luther's theology.[302] Before being closed in December 1563, the Council mandate the papacy to revise liturgical books and complete a new catechism.[303]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.[304] After the council, papal authority was reinforced through the establishment of central offices known ascongregations. One of them became responsible for thelist 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.[305]
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.[306]
Portrait ofKing Henry VIII (early 1530s) byJoos van Cleve
In England, reformist clerics such asThomas Bilney (d. 1531) andRobert Barnes (d. 1540) spread Luther's theology among Cambridge and Oxford scholars and students.[307] The young priestWilliam Tyndale (d. 1536) translated the New Testament to English using Erasmus'sLatin-Greek edition.[308] By around 1535, more than 15,000 copies of his translation had been distributed in secret.[309] Tyndale's biographerDavid Daniell (d. 2016) writes that the translation "gave the English language a plain prose style of the very greatest importance", and his "influence has been greater than any other writer in English".[310]
The Lord Chancellor CardinalThomas Wolsey (d. 1530) had strong links to the Roman Curia, he was unable to achieve theannulment of the marriage ofHenry VIII and the middle-agedCatherine of Aragon (d. 1536).[note 46][312] They had needed a papal dispensation to marry because Catherine was the widow of Henry's brotherArthur, Prince of Wales (d. 1502). As she had not produced a male heir, Henry became convinced that theirincestuous marriage drew thewrath of God.[313]
Henry charged a group of scholars includingThomas 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 theBook of Leviticus forbade marriage between a man and his brother's widow in all circumstances.[314] 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 advisorThomas Cromwell (d. 1540) argued that the marriage could be annulled without papal interference.[311] Henry who had fallen in love with Catherine's lady-in-waitingAnne Boleyn (d. 1536) decided to marry her even if the marriage could lead to a total break with the papacy.[315] During a visit in Germany, Cranmermarried but kept his marriage in secret. On his return to England, Henry appointed him as the newArchbishop of Canterbury, and the Holy See confirmed the appointment.[316]
The links between the English Church and the papacy were severed by Acts of Parliament.[note 47][318] In April 1533, theAct 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".[319][320] A special church court annulled the marriage of Henry and Catherine, and declared their only daughterMary (d. 1558)illegitimate in May 1533.[321]Pope Clement VII did not sanction the judgement and excommunicated Henry.[322] Ignoring the papal ban, Henry married Anne, and she gave birth to a daughterElizabeth (d. 1603).[323] Anne was a staunch supporter of the Reformation, and mainly her nominees were appointed to the vacant bishoprics between 1532 and 1536.[316] In 1534, theAct of Supremacy declared the king the "only supreme head of theChurch of England".[318] Many of those who refused to swear a special oath of loyalty to the king—65 from about 400 defendants—were executed. More andJohn Fisher,Bishop of Rochester (d. 1535) were among the most prominent victims.[323] Cromwell gradually convinced Henry that a "purification" of church life was needed. The number offeast days was reduced by about 75 per cent, pilgrimages were forbidden,all monasteries were dissolved and their property was seized by the Crown.[309]
TheParliament of Ireland passed similar acts but they could only be fully implemented in thelands under direct English rule. Resistance against the Reformation was vigorous. In 1534, the powerfulLord Thomas FitzGerald (d. 1537) staged a revolt. Although it was crushed, thereafter Henry's government did not introduce drastic changes in theChurch of Ireland.[324] In England, the dissolution of monasteries caused a popular revolt known as thePilgrimage of Grace. The "pilgrims" demanded the dismissal of "heretic" royal advisors but they were overcame by royalist forces.[325][326] The principal articles of faith of the Church of England were summarized in theSix Articles in 1539. It reaffirmed several elements of traditional theology, such as transubstantiation and clerical celibacy.[327]
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 sonEdward (d. 1553) was born to Henry's third wifeJane Seymour (d. 1537). In 1543, anAct of Parliament returned Mary and Elizabeth to the line of the succession behind Edward.[328][329] Henryattacked Scotland to enforce the marriage of Edward and the infantMary, Queen of Scots (r. 1542–1567) but her motherMary of Guise (d. 1560) reinforced Scotland'straditional alliance with France.[330] The priestGeorge Wishart (d. 1546) was the first to preach Zwinglian theology in Scotland. After he was burned for heresy, his followers, among themJohn Knox (d. 1572), assassinated CardinalDavid Beaton,Archbishop of St Andrews (d. 1546), but French troops crushed their revolt.[331]
Having been banished from Sweden, Hoffman was wandering in southern Germany and the Low Countries. He turned Anabaptist[332] but suspended adult baptism to avoid persecution.[333] He denied that Christ had become flesh,[note 48] and preached that144,000 elect were to gather in Strasbourg to witnessChrist's return in 1533.[332] His followers known as Melchiorites swarmed into the city, presenting an enormous challenge for its charity provisions. Hoffman also came to Strasbourg, but the authorities arrested him. After the deadline for Christ's return passed uneventfully, many disappointed Melchiorites accepted the leadership of a charismatic Dutch bakerJan Matthijszoon (d. 1534). He blamed Hoffman for the suspension of adult baptism, and proclaimed the city ofMünster as theNew Jerusalem. Although Münster was anepiscopal see, the town council had installed a Protestant pastorBernhard Rothmann (d.c. 1535) in clear defiance to the new prince-bishopFranz von Waldeck (r. 1532–1553). Those who expected a radical social transformation from the Reformation flocked to Münster. The radicals assumed full control of the town in February 1534.[335]
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 newZion". Church and state were united, and all sinners were executed.[336] Leiden legalizedpolygyny, 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 priestMenno Simons (d. 1561).[337] He associated the Anabaptist communities with the New Jerusalem. His followers would be known asMennonites.[338] Nearly all Anabaptist communities were destroyed in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland,[339] but moderate Anabaptist groups survived inEast Frisia,[340] and were mainly tolerated in England.[341]
Calvin and theInstitutes of the Christian Religion
The future reformerJohn Calvin (d. 1564) was destined to a church career by his father, a lay administrator of theBishopric of Noyon in France.[note 49] He studied theology at the Sorbonne, and law atOrléans andBourges. He read treatises by Lefèvre and Lefèvre's disciples at the newly establishedCollège Royal, and abandoned Catholicism under the influence of his Protestant friends, particularly the physicianNicolas Cop (d. 1540).[343] The persecution of French Protestants intensified after the so-calledAffair of the Placards. In October 1534, placards (or posters) attacking the Mass were placed at many places, including the door to the royal bedchamber inChâteau d'Amboise. In retaliation, twenty-four Protestants were executed, and many intellectuals had to leave France.[344]
Calvin was one of the French religious refugees. He settled in Basel and completed the first version of his principal theological treatise, theInstitutes of the Christian Religion in 1536. He would be rewriting and expanding it several times until 1559. As the historianCarlos 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".[345] With Eire's words, Calvin "revivedthe jealous God of the Old Testament". He warned French KingFrancis I that the persecution of the faithful would incur the wrath of God upon him but sharply distanced moderate Protestants from Anabaptists.[note 50][347][348] Already the first edition of theInstitutes contained references to two distinguishing elements of Calvin's theology, both traceable back to Augustine: his conviction that theoriginal 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,[349] and God did not only decide who were saved but also those who were destined to damnation.[350][351]
In 1536, Farel convinced Calvin to settle inGeneva. 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.[352] 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.[353] 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.[353]
Calvin on the "double pedestrination"
No one who wishes to be thought religious dares simply deny predestination, by which God adopts some to hope of life, and sentences others to eternal death...For all are not created in an equal condition; rather eternal life is fore-ordained for some, eternal damnation for others.
John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion (1559)[354]
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 enactedThe Ecclesiastical Ordinances, a detailed regulation summarizing Calvin's proposals for church administration.[355] TheOrdinances established four church offices. The pastors were responsible for pastoral care and discipline; the doctors instructed believers in the faith; theelders (or presbyters) were authorized to "watch over the life of each person" and to report those who lived a "disorderly" life to the pastors; anddeacons 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 asblasphemy, 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.[356] Resistance against theOrdinances was significant. Many continued visit shrines and pray to saints, while many patricians insisted on liberal traditional customs for which Calvin called them "Libertines".[357]
Henry VIII died on 27 January 1547. His nine-year-old sonEdward VI (r. 1547–1553) succeeded him, and Edward's maternal uncleEdward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset (d. 1552) assumed power asLord 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 PolishJan Łaski (d. 1560) and the SpanishCasiodoro de Reina (d. 1594). Most of them adhered to Reformed theology.[358] 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 (orchantries) were confiscated. With the introduction of Cranmer'sBook of Common Prayer, the Mass was replaced by a vernacular liturgy.[note 51][360]
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 revoltsin Devon and Cornwall and other places but they were quickly suppressed, just like the riot against the dissolution of chantries in East Yorkshire. Evenin Norfolk, where the peasants adopted a Protestant rhetoric, they assembled under the banners of their parish saints.[361] Somerset's opponents take advantage of the unrest to get rid of him. He was replaced byJohn Dudley (d. 1553) who was madeDuke of Northumberland.[359] Cranmer continued the liturgical reforms, and thenew version of theBook of Common Prayer rejected the dogma of transubstantiation.[362] He completed theForty-two Articles, a new confessional document combining elements of Reformed and Evangelical theologies.[363]
Edward died of tuberculosis on 6 July 1553. He had designated his Protestant relativeJane 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,Mary I (r. 1553–1558) took advantage of her royal prerogatives to dismiss married clergy, appoint Catholic priests to bishoprics, and restore the Mass.[364] 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 asPaul IV (r. 1555–1559).[365] 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.[366] Her marriage withPhilip II of Spain was unpopular, and she died childless on 17 November 1558.[367]
Mary's sister and successorElizabeth I (r. 1558–1603) sought avia media ('middle way') between religious extremists. Herfirst Parliament restored the royal leadership of the Church of England, and introduced amodified version of theBook 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 subsequentThirty-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 calledPuritans. 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.[368]
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.[369]
Title page of theRestoration of Christianity (1553) byMichael Servetus
The first radicals who rejected the dogma of Trinity were put on trial in Augsburg in 1527. A scholar fromNavarreMichael Servetus (d. 1553) adoptedantitrinitarian theology in the 1530s. MacCulloch proposes that Servetus rejected the Trinity, a dogma extremely offensive to Jews and Muslims, because he wanted to present Christianity as auniversal religion.[370] After studying medicine and anatomy in Paris,[note 52] Servetus became the court physician of the elderlyCatholic archbishop of Vienne in southern France. While inVienne, he sent the first (unpublished) versions of his theological work, theRestoration of Christianity to Calvin. He disrespectfully described the Trinity as a three-headedCerberus, attacked infant baptism, and denied original sin. He also wrote insulting comments on Calvin'sInstitutes. TheRestoration was published anonymously in Lyon in 1553, but the Catholic Inquisition identified Servetus as its author by using documents from Calvin's personal files. Servetus fled from France but attended a church service delivered by Calvin in Geneva. He was recognised and arrested, and the urban authorities sentenced him to death with Calvin's consent. He was burned at the stake on 27 October 1553.[371][372]
Bucer, Melanchthon and other leading Protestant theologians agreed with Servetus's execution. Only the Basel-based schoolmaster and Bible translatorSebastian Castellio (d. 1563) condemned it in a manifesto for religious toleration. He also addressed a letter to Calvin, echoing Erasmus hisposthumous benefactor, stating "To burn a heretic is not to defend a doctrine, but to kill a man".[373] Erasmus was a Trinitarian himself, but had noted that the theological formulation haddeveloped from the time of the Apostles, which fueled many subsequent antitrinitarians who took this to mean it that the idea was unbiblical.[note 53]
Antitrinitarian theology survived among Italian exiles in Basel.Lelio Sozzini (d. 1562), a scholar fromSiena, 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) rejectedoriginal sin and thetheory of satisfaction (the concept that Christ's sufferings brought about atonement to God the Father for the original sin). Their followers became known asSocinians.[375]
After Servetus's execution Calvin strengthened his position as the leading figure of Reformed Protestantism.[376] In Geneva, the Libertines rose up but they were quickly overcame, and forced into exile or executed. The confiscation of the property of the wealthyAmi 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 aseminary for Reformed ministers. Calvin's chief assistantTheodore 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.[377]
Portrait of EmperorCharles V at the 1547 Battle of Mühlberg (1548) byTitian
Scandals and internal conflicts weakened the Protestants' position in Germany in the early 1540s.[291] Philip the Magnanimous committedbigamy by secretly marrying alady-in-waiting of his court althoughhis wife was still alive. Bucer, Luther, and Melanchthon had discretely sanctioned the bigamious marriage allegedly to prevent adultery.[291][378] In 1542, Philip and John the Constant's successor,John Frederick I (r. 1532–1547) invaded theDuchy of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel which brought disapproval from other princes. Disputes over lands renewed the old rivalry between theErnestine and Albertine branches of theWettin dynasty of Saxony. Taking advantage of the situation, Emperor Charles built a broad coalition of Catholic and Evangelical princes against Hesse and Electoral Saxony. The coalition included the Albertine dukeMaurice of Saxony (r. 1541–1553). During the ensuingSchmalkaldic War, Charles and his allies won a decisive victory, and Maurice was rewarded with John Frederick's title of elector.[379]
The triumphantCharles V regulated religious issues with an imperial edict known as theAugsburg Interim. TheInterim sanctioned clerical marriage and the communion in both kinds in Protestant territories, but denied further concessions. Maurice issued an alternative regulation called theLeipzig Interim for Saxony which ordered the clergy to wearsurplices. Melanchthon supported theLeipzig Interim, stating that such issues were "matters indifferent" but uncompromising Lutheran theologians such asNicolaus von Amsdorf (d. 1565) andMatthias 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 asPhilippists, and their opponents, calledGnesio-Lutherans ('authentic Lutherans') in the 1550s. TheAugsburg Interim was only implemented in the southern German Protestant cities. This led to the expulsion of recalcitrant clerics, including Bucer from Strasbourg.[380][381] Alarmed by Charles's triumph, Calvin and Bullinger agreed on a consensual Eucharistic formula, now known asConsensus 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 theConsensus.[note 54] The rift between Evangelical and Reformed Protestants widened to the extent that Reformed refugees faced an unfriendly reception at Evangelical countries.[383] In Bohemia, Hussite and Evangelical aristocrats and townspeople rose up againstKing Ferdinand I. 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.[384]
Distrusting Emperor Charles, Maurice brokered a coalition of Evangelical princes, and promised four prince-bishoprics to KingHenry II of France (r. 1547–1559) for financial support. Maurice and his alliesinvaded the Habsburgs' domains, forcing Charles to flee. Signed on 10 August 1552, thePeace 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 thePeace of Augsburg on 25 September. The document reaffirmed the principlecuius regio, eius religio, but the Imperial Estates could only choose between Catholicism and theAugsburg Confession. Evangelical imperial free cities had to tolerate the existence of Catholic communities within their walls, and prince-bishopricscould not be secularised in case the bishop abandoned the Catholic faith.[385][386] Charles, who did not sign the peace treaty, abdicated, ceding his imperial title to Ferdinand, and his vast empire to his sonPhilip II of Spain (r. 1556–1598).[387]
Many French Protestants did not risk to profess their faith in public. They were known asNicodemites afterNicodemus, aPharisee who visited Jesus in secret. Calvin condemned this practice describing those who attended the Mass as soldiers "in the army of Antichrist". Under his influence, the French Protestants started to stay away from Catholic church services. They were calledHuguenots for uncertain reason.[388] The poetClément Marot (d. 1544) provided them with popular stirring songs by translating forty-nine Psalms to French.[389]Francis I promised to exterminate heresy in France in apeace treaty withCharles V in 1544. Next year, Waldensianswere massacred in theLuberon region. In 1547,Henry II established a special court for heresy cases, namedla chambre ardente ('the burning chamber'). The lawyerJean Crespin (d. 1572) completed acatalogue of martyrs to commemorate the victims of the purges, and it gained immense popularity in the Protestant communities all over Europe.[390] After around 1555, prominent French aristocrats converted to Protestantism, including Marguerite of Angoulême's daughter,Jeanne d'Albret, (d. 1572), Jeanne's husbandAntoine de Bourbon (d. 1562), andGaspard II de Coligny (d. 1572),admiral of France. Their patronage encouraged less distinguished Huguenots to express their faith in public.[391] In 1559, delegates from seventy-two congregations attended the first synod of theReformed Church of France, representing about 1.5–2 million believers. The synod adopted theGallican Confession, a confessional document drafted by Calvin.[392][393]
Fully preoccupied with anew war against Emperor Charles,Henry II did not take severe measures against the Huguenot nobility.[394] After his sudden death after an accident, his eldest sonFrancis II (r. 1559–1560) ascended the throne. His wife, Mary, Queen of Scots was the niece ofFrancis, Duke of Guise (d. 1563) andCharles, Cardinal of Lorraine (d. 1574), two leaders of the most resolute Catholic faction of the nobility.[395] The queen motherCatherine de' Medici (d. 1589) distrusted them but the persecution of Huguenots intensified under their influence.[394] When Francis died by an ear infection, Calvin considered his fate as divine deliverance. Francis was succeeded by his brotherCharles IX (r. 1560–1574) under Catherine's regency.[396] Sheenacted the Huguenots' right to freely attend church services and hold public assemblies because she wanted to avoid a civil war along religious lines.[397]
Uncompromising Catholics and Huguenots considered their confrontation inevitable.[300] The first of theFrench Wars of Religion—a series of armed conflicts between Catholics and Huguenots—began after Guise's retainersmassacred more than fifty Huguenots atVassy on 1 March 1562.[397][398] As Antoine de Bourbon had returned to Catholicism, his brotherLouis I, Prince of Condé (d. 1569) assumed the leadership of a Huguenot revolt.[398][399] They concluded atreaty with England in September 1562.[400] To achieve a reconciliation, Catherine de'Medici married off her daughterMargaret of Valois (d. 1615) to the Protestant son of Jeanne d'Albret and Antoine de Bourbon,Henry de Bourbon, King of Navarre (r. 1572–1610). Mutual mistrust between Catholics and Huguenots, and the Parisians' determination to cleanse their city of heresy led to theSt. 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.[401] 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.[402] Known as "Malcontents", moderate Catholics concluded that only concessions to the Huguenots could restore peace.[403]
Charles IX died in May 1574 leaving an almost empty treasury to his brotherHenry III (r. 1574–1567).[401] Henry adopted a moderate religious policy but the uncompromising Catholics established theCatholic League in 1576. They entered into asecret alliance withPhilip II of Spain to prevent the spread of Protestantism. In 1589, the monkJacques 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.Henry IV 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 theEdict of Nantes. Among others, they were allowed to attend religious services in many places, and their right to hold public offices was confirmed.[404]
More Protestants fell victim to persecution in the seventeen provinces ofHabsburg Netherlands than in any other country between 1523 and 1555.[note 55][406] The ruthless persecution prevented the establishment of Evangelical congregations although Luther's ideas were widely discussed inFlemish communities.[407] Reformed theology spread among theWalloons through individuals' correspondence with Calvin and the Genevan academy from the 1540s. Nicodemism was not unusual but uncompromising Protestants disturbed Catholic ceremonies.[note 56][409] The preacherGuido de Bres (d. 1567) established the first permanent Reformed congregations.[405] He was a main contributor to theBelgic Confession, a confessional document based on theGallican Confession, first published inWalloon in 1561, and in Dutch in 1562. TheConfession sharply criticised the Anapabtists, and emphasized the importance of church discipline.[405][410]
In 1566,300 nobles requestedPhilip II'sgovernorMargaret of Parma (d. 1586) to moderate anti-heretic legislation. Although the petitioners were mocked as "beggars",[411] Margaret was open to a compromise. Protestant refugees returned from abroad, and religious enthusiasts stirred up public demonstrations.[412] On the night of 20–21 August 1566, a Protestant mob sacked theAntwerp Cathedral, introducing apopular iconoclastic movement that spread all over the Netherlands.[413][414] In 1567, Philip appointedFernando 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.[411] A prominent aristocratWilliam the Silent,Prince of Orange (d. 1584) assumed the leadership of the resistance. His "Sea Beggars"—a squadron of privateers—seized the provinces ofHolland andZeeland by 1572,[415] although the Reformed communities were in the minority in most towns.[note 57][416]
Philip II's government faced bankruptcy and his unpaid Spanish troopssacked Antwerp in 1576. This led to ageneral revolt against Spanish rule. The Catholic aristocratPhilippe 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, andrenounced allegiance to Philip. In the south, Margaret of Parma's sonAlessandro Farnese crushed the revolts,[417] forcing about 100,000 Protestants to seek refugee in the north.[418] Developed from the union of seven northern provinces, theDutch Republic remained under the loose leadership of theHouse of Orange.[417] 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.[419] Heterodox theologies could also spread, such as the views ofJacobus Arminius (d. 1609) who argued that an individual could resist divine grace. AlthoughArminianism was rejected at the internationalSynod of Dort in 1619, it continued to influence Protestant theologians.[420]
After King Louis's death at Mohács, two claimantsJohn Zápolya (r. 1526–1540) and Ferdinand I of Habsburg (r. 1526–1564) competed for the Hungarian throne.[421] They were Catholic but neither of them risked to alienate potential supporters by anti-Protestant purges.[422] TheTransylvanian Saxon leaderMarkus Pemfflinger (d. 1537) promoted Evangelical preaching in the Saxon metropolis Hermanstadt (Sibiu, Romania) from around 1530. Evangelical teaching spread among ethnic Hungarians, Slovaks, and Croats after Protestant aristocrats started to appoint Evangelical preachers to the churches under theirpatronage in the 1530s. After Zápolya's death, the Ottomansconquered central Hungary, his widowIsabella Jagiellon (d. 1559) assumed the regency for their infant sonJohn Sigismund Zápolya (r. 1540–1571) ineastern Hungary under Ottoman suzerainty, and Ferdinand ruledRoyal Hungary in the north and west.[423] Often in need of funds, Ferdinand seized church revenues, while Isabella and her treasurer the Catholic bishopGeorge Martinuzzi (d. 1551) secularised the estates of theTransylvanian bishopric.[424] The Transylvanian Saxons adopted theAugsburg Confession in 1544; five years later,five free royal boroughs accepted an Evangelical confession in Royal Hungary.[425]
Two former Catholic priestsMátyás Dévai Bíró (d. 1547) andMihály 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 theDiet in Royal Hungary in 1548.[426] John Sigismund was open to religious innovations. Under the influence of his court chaplainFerenc Dávid (d. 1579), he adhered to Reformed theology from 1562, and accepted antitrinitarian views during the last years of his life.[note 58] TheEdict of Torda legalised three Protestant denominations—Evangelical, Reformed andUnitarian—in eastern Hungary in 1568.[429] Eastern Hungary transformed into the autonomousPrincipality of Transylvania under Ottoman suzeraintyin 1570. The coexistence of four officially recognised churches—Catholicism and the three legalised Protestant denominations—remained a lasting feature of religious politics in Transylvania.[430] The most radical antitrinitarians rejected the New Testament and held Saturday (orSabbath) as weekly holiday; hence they were calledSabbatarians.[431]
As the Bohemian Brethren were famed for their diligence, manyPolish aristocrats eagerly settled them on their estates.[432] Ethnic Poles became receptive to Protestant ideas, especially to Calvin's theology from the 1540s. TheHetmanJan Tarnowski (d. 1561) entered into correspondence with Calvin in 1540; in 1542,Jan Łaski (d. 1560) converted althoughhis uncle (and namesake) had been thePrimate of Poland. In 1548, Sigismund the Old's tolerant sonSigismund II Augustus (r. 1548–1572) ascended the throne. Two years later, the first synod of thePolish Reformed Church assembled atPińczów.[433] Proposals for the introduction of vernacular liturgy and communion in both kinds, and the abolition of clerical celibacy were forwarded by Sigismund Augustus to the Holy See butPope Paul IV (r. 1555–1559) rejected them.[434] The Catholic prelates tried to put Protestant nobles and married priests on trial for heresy but the legislative assembly, orSejm suspended such persecutions on the initiative of the ProtestantMarshal of the SejmRafał Leszczyński and Tarnowski in 1552.[433] In 1556, Łaski organised a synod in the hope of reuniting all non-Lutheran Protestants but failed. At the meeting,Piotr of Goniądz (d. 1573) openly attacked infant baptism and the doctrine of Trinity.[435] The antitrinitarianPolish Brethren established their own church, known as Minor Church in contrast with the Reformed Major Church.[436] From 1565, Polish nobles could no more be persecuted on religious grounds which allowed them to freely choose between competing theologies.[433] By this time, around one-fifth of the nobility had converted to the Reformed faith, and most secular members of theSenate were Protestant. Relationship between Poland and Lithuania was redefined by the 1569Union of Lublin which created thePolish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.[437] After Sigismund Augustus died, the Sejm passed theWarsaw Confederation prescribing that only candidates who promised to protect religious freedom could be elected king.[433]
The continuous expansion of Protestantism stopped in Germany after the Peace of Augsburg. TheBavarian dukeAlbert V (r. 1550–1579) took the lead of recatholicisation. He overcame the opposition of Evangelical nobles, and exiled all clerics who refused to take the Tridentine oath.[438] With Albert's support, the Jesuits opened a college inIngolstadt that accepted Evangelical and Hussite students.[439]Emperor Ferdinand I's eldest son and successor,Maximilian II (r. 1564–1576) pursued a tolerant religious policy but his brothers,Ferdinand II of the Tyrol (r. 1564–1595) andCharles II of Inner Austria (r. 1564–1590) were determined to subdue their Protestant subjects. After the predominantly Evangelical Estates of Inner Austria who controlled taxation extracted concessions fromCharles II, he promoted Catholicism by appointing Catholics to state offices even if he needed to hire Bavarian and Tyrolian nobles.[440]
Charles II's son and successorFerdinand II (r. 1590–1637) 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 (mainlySlovenian) peasantry.[443][444] His cousinEmperor Rudolf II (r. 1576–1612) introduced anti-Protestant measures in Royal Hungary and Transylvania,provoking a rebellion. The Ottomans supported the rebels whose leader, the Reformed aristocratStephen Bocskai was proclaimed prince of Transylvania (r. 1605–1606). Rudolph appointed his brotherMatthias to conduct negotiations with Bocskai, and thepeace treaty sanctioned the freedom of the Evangelical and Reformed Churches in Royal Hungary in 1606.[445][446] Rudolph was forced to cede Hungary, Austria and Moravia to Matthias in 1608, and toconfirm religious freedom in Bohemia in 1609.[447]
The seal of theDiocese of Turku (Finland) during the 16th and 17th centuries featured the finger of St Henry. The post-Reformation diocese included the relic of a pre-Reformation saint in its seal.
All ofScandinavia ultimately adopted Lutheranism over the course of the 16th century, as the monarchs of Denmark (who also ruled Norway and Iceland) and Sweden (who also ruled Finland) converted to that faith.
Luther's influence had already reachedIceland before King Christian's decree. TheGermans fished near Iceland's coast, and theHanseatic League engaged in commerce with the Icelanders. These Germans raised a Lutheran church inHafnarfjörður as early as 1533. Through German trade connections, many youngIcelanders studied inHamburg.[448] In 1538, when the kingly decree of the new Church ordinance reached Iceland, bishopÖgmundur and his clergy denounced it, threatening excommunication for anyone subscribing to the German "heresy".[449] In 1539, the King sent a new governor to Iceland,Klaus von Mervitz, with a mandate to introduce reform and take possession of church property.[449] Von Mervitz seized a monastery inViðey with the help of his sheriff,Dietrich of Minden, and his soldiers. They drove the monks out and seized all their possessions, for which they were promptly excommunicated by Ögmundur.
TheEnglish Reformation is a complex historical series of events and reversals, whose nature and effect has been debated by historians.[450][451]: 23 The results of the reformation included anestablished church with a "Prayer Book consciously aligned with Swiss theology,...(but) the most elaborate liturgy of any Protestant Church in Europe" practiced in Cathedrals, with plain, sermon-centred services in parish churches,[452]: 30 politically imposed by a "literate Protestant elite".[451]: 28
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.[453] Popular revolts by grassroots Catholics against the changes, such as thePrayer Book Rebellion in the South and thePilgrimage of Grace andBigod's rebellion in the North, were ruthlessly put down by government forces with the loss of thousands of lives.
The most famous emigration to America was the migration of Puritan separatists from the Anglican Church of England. They fled first to Holland, and then later to America to establish the Englishcolony of Massachusetts in New England, which later became one of the original United States. These Puritan separatists were also known as "thePilgrims". After establishing a colony atPlymouth (which became part of the colony of Massachusetts) in 1620, the Puritan pilgrims received a charter from theKing of England that legitimised their colony, allowing them to do trade and commerce with merchants in England, in accordance with the principles ofmercantilism.
The Pilgrims held radical Protestant disapproval of Christmas, and its celebration was outlawed in Boston from 1659 to 1681.[454] The ban was revoked in 1681 by the English-appointed governorEdmund Andros, who also revoked a Puritan ban on festivities on Saturday nights.[454] Nevertheless, it was not until the mid-19th century that celebrating Christmas became fashionable in the Boston region.[455]
BishopRichard Davies and dissident Protestant clericJohn Penry introduced Calvinist theology to Wales. In 1588, the Bishop of Llandaff published the entire Bible in theWelsh language. The translation had a significant impact upon the Welsh population and helped to firmly establish Protestantism among theWelsh people.[456] The Welsh Protestants used the model of theSynod of Dort of 1618–1619. Calvinism developed through the Puritan period, following the restoration of the monarchy under Charles II, and within Wales'Calvinistic Methodist movement. However few copies of Calvin's writings were available before the mid-19th century.[457]
John Knox was a leading figure in the Scottish Reformation
The Reformation in Scotland's case culminated ecclesiastically in the establishment of a church alongreformed lines, and politically in the triumph of English influence over that of France.John Knox is regarded as the leader of the Scottish reformation.
Although Protestantism triumphed relatively easily in Scotland, the exact form of Protestantism remained to be determined. The 17th century saw a complex struggle betweenPresbyterianism (particularly theCovenanters) andEpiscopalianism. The Presbyterians eventually won control of theChurch of Scotland, which went on to have an important influence on Presbyterian churches worldwide, but Scotland retained a relatively largeEpiscopalian minority.[458]
Catholicism remained the official state religion, and the fortunes of French Protestants gradually declined over the next century, culminating in Louis XIV'sEdict of Fontainebleau (1685), which revoked the Edict of Nantes and made Catholicism the sole legal religion of France, leading some Huguenots to live asNicodemites.[459] In response to the Edict of Fontainebleau,Frederick William I, Elector of Brandenburg declared theEdict of Potsdam (October 1685), giving free passage to Huguenot refugees and tax-free status to them for ten years.
In the late 17th century, 150,000–200,000 Huguenots fled to England, the Netherlands, Prussia, Switzerland, and the English and Dutch overseas colonies.[460] A significant community in France remained in theCévennes region. A separate Protestant community, of theLutheran faith, existed in the newly conquered province ofAlsace, its status not affected by the Edict of Fontainebleau.
In the early 16th century, Spain had a different political and cultural milieu from its Western and Central European neighbours in several respects, which affected the mentality and the reaction of the nation towards the Reformation. Spain, which had only recently managed to complete the reconquest of the Peninsula from theMoors in 1492, had been preoccupied with converting the Muslim and Jewish populations of the newly conquered regions through the establishment of theSpanish Inquisition in 1478. The rulers of the nation stressed political, cultural, and religious unity, and by the time of the Lutheran Reformation, the Spanish Inquisition was already 40 years old and had the capability of quickly persecuting any new movement that the leaders of the Catholic Church perceived or interpreted to be religious heterodoxy.[461]Charles V did not wish to see Spain or the rest of Habsburg Europe divided, and in light of continual threat from the Ottomans, preferred to see the Catholic Church reform itself from within. This led to aCounter-Reformation in Spain in the 1530s. During the 1520s, the Spanish Inquisition had created an atmosphere of suspicion and sought to root out any religious thought seen as suspicious. As early as 1521, the Pope had written a letter to the Spanish monarchy warning against allowing the unrest in Northern Europe to be replicated in Spain. Between 1520 and 1550, printing presses in Spain were tightly controlled and any books of Protestant teaching were prohibited.
Contemporary illustration of theauto-da-fé ofValladolid, in which fourteen Protestants were burned at the stake for their faith, on 21 May 1559
Between 1530 and 1540, Protestantism in Spain was still able to gain followers clandestinely, and in cities such asSeville andValladolid adherents would secretly meet at private houses to pray and study the Bible.[462] Protestants in Spain were estimated at between 1000 and 3000, mainly among intellectuals who had seen writings such as those ofErasmus. Notable reformers included Juan Gil and Juan Pérez de Pineda who subsequently fled and worked alongside others such asFrancisco de Enzinas to translate the GreekNew 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. UnderPhilip 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 asGeneva, where some of them embracedCalvinist teachings. Those who fled to England were given support by theChurch of England.[citation needed]
Upon the arrival of the Protestant Reformation, Calvinism reached someBasques through the translation of the Bible into theBasque language byJoanes Leizarraga. As Queen of Navarre, Jeanne III commissioned the translation of theNew Testament into Basque[note 59] andBéarnese for the benefit of her subjects.
Waldensian symbolLux lucet in tenebris ("Light glows in the darkness")
Word of the Protestant reformers reached Italy in the 1520s but never caught on. Its development was stopped by the Counter-Reformation, the Inquisition and popular disinterest. Not only was the Church highly aggressive in seeking out and suppressing heresy, but there was a shortage of Protestant leadership. No-one made a new Protestant translation of the Bible into Italian to compete with the existing Catholic vernacular translations; few tracts were written. No core of Protestantism emerged. The few preachers who did take an interest in "Lutheranism", as it was called in Italy, were suppressed, or went into exile to northern countries where their message was well received. As a result, the Reformation exerted almost no lasting influence in Italy, except for strengthening the Catholic Church and pushing for an end to ongoing abuses during the Counter-Reformation.[463][464]
In 1532, theWaldensians, who had been already present centuries before the Reformation, aligned themselves and adopted the Calvinist theology. TheWaldensian Church survived in theWestern Alps through many persecutions and remains a Protestant church in Italy.[466][page needed]
Primož Trubar is notable for consolidating theSlovene language and is considered to be the key figure of Slovenian cultural history, in many aspects a major Slovene historical personality.[467] He was the key figure of the Protestant Church of theSlovene Lands, as he was its founder and its first superintendent. The first books in Slovene,Catechismus andAbecedarium, were written by Trubar.[468]
The Protestant teachings of the Western Church were also briefly adopted within the Eastern Orthodox Church through theGreekPatriarchCyril Lucaris in 1629 with the publishing of theConfessio (Calvinistic doctrine) inGeneva. Motivating factors in their decision to adopt aspects of the Reformation included thehistorical rivalry and mistrust between theGreek Orthodox and the Catholic Churches along with their concerns ofJesuit priests entering Greek lands in their attempts to propagate the teachings of theCounter-Reformation to the Greek populace. He subsequently sponsoredMaximos of Gallipoli'stranslation of the New Testament into theModern Greek language and it was published in Geneva in 1638. Upon Lucaris's death in 1638, the conservative factions within the Eastern Orthodox Church held two synods: the Synod of Constantinople (1638) andSynod of Iași (1642) criticising the reforms and, in the 1672 convocation led byDositheos, they officially condemned the Calvinistic doctrines.
Religious fragmentation in Central Europe at the outbreak of theThirty Years' War (1618).
The Reformation spread throughout Europe beginning in 1517, reaching its peak between 1545 and 1620. The greatest geographical extent of Protestantism occurred at some point between 1545 and 1620. In 1620, theBattle of White Mountain defeated Protestants in Bohemia (now the Czech Republic) who sought to have the 1609Letter of Majesty upheld.
TheThirty 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 theThirty Years' War concluded with thePeace of Westphalia, the FrenchWars of the Counter-Reformation continued, as well as the expulsion of Protestants in Austria.
Approximation of the Reformation at its peak, superimposed on modern European borders.Approximations of the Reformation & theCounter-Reformation at the commonly-used end year of 1648, superimposed on modern European borders.
According to a 2020 study in theAmerican 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.[470]
There is no universal agreement on the exact or even the approximate date the Reformation ended. Various interpretations emphasise different dates, entire periods, or argue that the Reformation never really ended.[471] However, there are a few popular interpretations. ThePeace of Augsburg in 1555 officially ended the religious struggle between the two groups and made the legal division of Christianity permanent within theHoly Roman Empire, allowing rulers to choose eitherLutheranism or Catholicism as the officialconfession of their state. It could be considered to end with the enactment of theconfessions of faith. Other suggested ending years relate to theCounter-Reformation or the 1648Peace of Westphalia. From one Catholic perspective, theSecond Vatican Council ended the Counter-Reformation.[472]
The Reformation and Counter-Reformation era conflicts are termed theEuropean wars of religion. In particular, theThirty Years' War (1618–48) devastated much ofGermany, killing between 25 and 40% of its population.[473] The CatholicHouse of Habsburg and its allies fought against the Protestant princes of Germany, supported at various times by Denmark, Sweden andFrance. The Habsburgs, who ruled Spain, Austria, theCrown of Bohemia,Hungary,Slovene Lands, theSpanish Netherlands and much of Germany and Italy, were staunch defenders of the Catholic Church.
Two main tenets of thePeace of Westphalia, which ended the Thirty Years' War, were:
All parties would now recognise thePeace of Augsburg of 1555, by which each prince would have the right to determine the religion of his own state, the options being Catholicism, Lutheranism, and now Calvinism (the principle ofcuius regio, eius religio).
Christians living in principalities where their denomination wasnot the established church were guaranteed the right to practice their faith in public during allotted hours and in private at their will.
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 briefZelo Domus Dei. European sovereigns, Catholic and Protestant alike, ignored his verdict.[474][page needed]
In nations that remained Catholic, or reverted to it, remaining Protestants sometimes lived ascrypto-Protestants, also calledNicodemites, contrary to the urging of John Calvin, who wanted them to live their faith openly.[475] Somecrypto-Protestants have been identified as late as the 19th century after immigrating to Latin America.[476]
In Britain from the Elizabethan period, dissenters calledRecusants included both Catholic families andEnglish Dissenters (Quakers, Ranters, Diggers, Grindletonians, etc.): almost the entire Irish population were recusants from the imposed Protestant Church of Ireland.[477]
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."[478] Two prolonged series of conflicts, theFrench Wars of Religion (1562–1598) and theThirty Years' War (1618–1648) resulted in betweensix 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 centuryAge of Enlightenment. For example, thePopery Acts (1699 and 1704) disallowed Irish Catholic schooling and purchase of land, and changed inheritance law; it was repealed by the 1778 and 1791Catholic Relief Acts. TheQuebec Act (1774) re-allowed Catholics to worship and hold public office, but was one of theIntolerable Acts that precipitated theAmerican Revolutionary War. In the countries of theHoly Roman Empire, thePatent of Toleration (1781, 1782) allowed religious toleration for non-Catholic Christians and Jews. In France, theEdict 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 theBritish Monarch.[479]
In parts of Germany, Switzerland, and Austria, a majority sympathised with the Radical Reformation despite intense persecution.[480] Although the surviving proportion of the European population that rebelled against Catholic,Lutheran andZwinglian churches was small, Radical Reformers wrote profusely and the literature on the Radical Reformation is disproportionately large, partly as a result of the proliferation of the Radical Reformation teachings in the United States.[481]
Despite significant diversity among the early Radical Reformers, some "repeating patterns" emerged among many Anabaptist groups. Many of these patterns were enshrined in theSchleitheim Confession (1527) and includebelievers' (or adult) baptism, memorial view of theLord's Supper, belief that Scripture is the final authority on matters of faith and practice, emphasis on theNew Testament and theSermon on the Mount, interpretation of Scripture in community, separation from the world and atwo-kingdom theology,pacifism andnonresistance, 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, theban (i.e., shunning), salvation through divinization (Vergöttung) and ethical living, and discipleship (Nachfolge Christi).[482]
By 1530, over 10,000 publications are known, with a total of ten million copies. The Reformation was thus a media revolution.[490] 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 CatholicCongregatio 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.[488][page needed] Especially effective were writings in German, including Luther's translation of the Bible, hisSmaller Catechism for parents teaching their children, and hisLarger 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.[491]
Protestants have to some extent developedtheir own culture, with major contributions in education, the humanities and sciences, the political and social order, the economy and the arts and many other fields.[492] Various outcomes of the Reformation have been suggested by scholars: improvedhuman capital formation, the disputedProtestant work ethic, improvedeconomic development, the modern state, and "dark" outcomes:[493]
Katharina von Bora played a role in shaping social ethics during the Reformation.
Claims include:
Different levels of income tax revenue per capita, % of labor force in manufacturing and services, and incomes of male elementary school teachers.[494]
And general Protestantism—broadly defined to also include Evangelical, Pentecostal, non-conformist and non-denominationalists[note 63]—constitutes thesecond-largest form of Christianity (after Catholicism), with between 850,000 and 1.17 billion adherents worldwide (between 40% and 45% of all Christians)[527][note 64] divided into an estimated 45,000 denominations.[529]
Witch trials became more common in regions or other jurisdictions where Protestants and Catholics contested the religious market.[530]
Christopher J. Probst, in his bookDemonizing the Jews: Luther and the Protestant Church in Nazi Germany (2012), shows that a large number of German Protestant clergy and theologians duringNazi Germany used Luther's hostile publications towards the Jews and Judaism to justify at least in part the anti-Semitic policies of the National Socialists.[531]
In its decree onecumenism, theSecond Vatican Council of Catholic bishops declared that by contemporary dialogue that, while still holding views as the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church, between the churches "all are led to examine their own faithfulness to Christ's will for the Church and accordingly to undertake with vigor the task of renewal and reform" (Unitatis Redintegratio, 4).
Beer production switched from using herbs to hops.[532]
Margaret C. Jacob argues that there has been a dramatic shift in the historiography of the Reformation. Until the 1960s, historians focused their attention largely on the great leaders and theologians of the 16th century, especially Luther, Calvin, and Zwingli. Their ideas were studied in depth. However, the rise of thenew social history in the 1960s led to looking at history from the bottom up, not from the top down. Historians began to concentrate on the values, beliefs and behavior of the people at large. She finds, "in contemporary scholarship, the Reformation is now seen as a vast cultural upheaval, a social and popular movement, textured and rich because of its diversity."[533]
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;[note 65][note 66] and sin was re-cast from theseven deadly sins —wrong because antisocial— to transgressions of theTen Commandments —wrong as affronts to God.
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.[534]
^HistorianHendrik Enno van Gelder suggested that the Reformations of Luther and Calvin were minor affairs compared to the Reformation of Erasmus and the humanists, "which propelled Christianity further than (the others) could do, away from medieval Catholicism and towards the modern world." HistoriansEdward Gibbon andHugh Trevor-Roper also wrote of a "third church".[21]: 149
^"This 'rhetoric of reform' crops up in a variety of sources all of which originated in the royal court of Charlemagne and his successors. Subsequently, words such ascorrigere,emendare,renovare,reformare and their synonyms, readily became the instruments for achieving unity, and unity gave the Christian empire of Charlemagnepax,caritas andconcordia."[23]: 158
^As Wittenberg academics regularly published their disputation papers by posting it to the door of the castle church, the story is quite probable even if it was first mentioned years after the events.[29][30]
^Bossy's economic argument was that feudalism was largely a zero-sum economy where the advantage of one people or class could only be obtained by disadvantaging some other people or class, frequently using or resulting in violence, in contrast to later mercantile and capitalist economies.[44]
^According to historian Konrad Eisenbichler, "After the State and the Church, the most well-organised membership system of medieval and early modern Europe was the confraternity—an association of lay persons who gathered regularly to pray and carry out a charitable activity. In cities, towns, and villages it would have been difficult for someone not to be a member of a confraternity, a benefactor of a confraternity's charitable work, or, at the very least, not to be aware of a confraternity's presence in the community."[49] Another historian notes that confraternities were "the most sweeping and ubiquitous movement of the central and later Middle Ages".[50]
^Saints were often supposed to assist those who faithfullysupplicated andvenerated them. There were occurrences where disappointed farmers who thought that an agricultural saint had unjustly failed to assist the weather or harvest dragged down his or her statue or spattered it with mud.[52]
^Historian Frans van Liere asserts that "One cannot understand the medieval world without appreciating the scope of medieval people's engagement with biblical stories, characters, and images.[...]It is a common misconception, especially in Protestant circles, that people (or, at least, the "common" people) in the Middle Ages did not read the Bible." Even in the early Middle Ages, "many people, clergy and laity alike, may have been able to read but not write, and even those who could not were not entirely cut off from the written word, because they could have others read it to them.[...]There was both more illiteracy among the clergy, and more literacy among the laity, than is often supposed.[...]Most medieval Christians came to know the Bible not by reading, but by hearing it."[54]: xi, 177, 179, 199, 208 Historian Eyal Poleg "rejects the Reformers' image of a medieval laity denied access to the Bible. Mediation provided all groups in society, lay and clerical both, with an approach to the Bible, though the understanding of what the Bible was differed for different groups."[55] For historian Andrew Gow, "the circulation of vernacular Bibles in late medieval Germany was abundant and ample and thanks to a well-organised manuscript production and the early success of printed press highly accessible to lay people, in particular those living in an urban environment."[56]: 173
^For instance, Catholic commentators read theLaw of Moses in a symbolic or mystical sense thinking that the Jewish ceremonies and laws were irrelevant for Christians.[63]
^A notable example was the Dominican nunCatherine of Siena (d. 1380) whose revelations convinced PopeGregory XI to return his seat from Avignon to Rome.[68]
^There are over 140,000 sermons, given or transcribed into Latin, still extant just from 1150 to 1350.[54]: 214
^The medieval Church operated its own legal system and Roman-law-derivedlaws and procedures in parallel with the local secular state's legal system: bishops had courts, officers, guards, prisons, etc. Theseecclesiastical courts protected priests and religious in various ways from the reach of the distrusted local secular courts and laws, or dealt with laity on issues relating to sacraments, notably marriage and divorce. As well, the Church claimed, but was not always allowed, jurisdiction "over any dispute that arose because one person allegedly wronged another, jurisdiction to protect the poor and unbefriended, and jurisdiction to compensate for the failure of the civil authorities to do justice,[...]and over hard and doubtful cases."[71] On many issues, appeals could be made to the Pope. In England, a parallel parliament for the clergy even arose, largely to keep their taxes independent, but distinct from the citizens' Parliament: theConvocations of Canterbury and York.[72]
^For instance, religious orders were regularly exempted of the authority of the bishops, or elderly laypeople could be released of the obligation offasting.[78]
^A good example is the Benedictine congregation that began with the reform of monastic life at theAbbey of Santa Giustina inPadua under the auspices of the Venetian noblemanLudovico Barbo (d. 1443). By 1505, the congregation included nearly 50 abbeys, and had an effect on the reform of further monasteries, such asFontevraud Abbey andMarmoutier Abbey in France.[92]
^The price of the books decreased by about 85 per cent after printing machines started to work.[97]
^The Vulgate text ofExodus 34 is a well known case of Jerome's mistranslations: the Hebrew text writes ofMoses's shining face when narrating the revelation of theTen Commandments whereas Jerome describes Moses as wearing a pair of horns as he mistook a Hebrewfunction word.[103]
^For instance, Erasmus's translations did not support the traditionalproof text for the concepts ofinfused grace[104] and the treasury of merit, by choosing the adjectivegratiosa ('gracious') instead of the traditionalgratia plena ('full of grace') to address the Virgin Mary in the Latin text of theHail Mary.[105]
^For instance,Duns Scotus (d. 1308) stated that "theology does not concern anything except what is contained in Scripture, and what may be drawn from this," though this does not equate theology and Bibe study.[118] Theologians associated with theAugustinian Order such as Gregory of Rimini rarely cited other sources of faith.[119]
^A member of theHohenzollern dynasty, Albert ruled theArchbishoprics of Mainz andMagdeburg and theBishopric of Halberstadt simultaneously. He had borrowed money from Fugger to pay the fees to the Roman Curia for his appointment to thesee of Mainz, and his share in the revenues from the sale of indulgences was expected to allow him to repay the loan.[122]
^"Luther himselfhad said that he found his new insight "auff diser cloaca auff dem thurm" (on or over the toilet on the tower); however some historians dispute the account.[136]
^Luther's friendship with Frederick's secretaryGeorge Spalatin (d. 1545) secured him Frederick's favour, andLeo X wanted to influence the forthcomingimperial election with Frederick's assistance.[134]
^Historian Volker Leppin writes "anti-Catholicism does not lie at the root of Reformation, even if later on it obviously became part of the whole Reformation framework," but notes "the anti-Catholic tendency of Luther research".[136]
^For instance, he stated that "A Christian is a perfectly free lord of all, subject to none. A Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant of all, subject to all."[149]
^Between 1517 and 1520, Luther completed 30 treatises, and more than 300,000 of their copies were sold.[160]
^According to aneconometric analysis by the economist Jared Rubin, "the mere presence of a printing press prior to 1500 increased the probability that a city would become Protestant in 1530 by 52.1 percentage points, Protestant in 1560 by 43.6 percentage points, and Protestant in 1600 by 28.7 percentage points."[163] Cities with a competitive printing market were even more likely to accept new theologies.[164]
^"Sixteenth-century Protestants and Catholics knew that iconoclasm was not simply a byproduct of the Reformation, or a violent spasm, but its very essence."[176]
^Pfaff demonstrates in a study that the presence of a local saint's shrine in a city doubled the likelihood of resisting the Reformation.[184]
^Contarini, according to his own words, "changed from great fear and suffering to happpiness" when he concluded, after counsel from a saintly monk onHoly Saturday 1511, that reliance on asceticism or penances was insufficient, unnecessary and counter-productive[193] however he did not hold Luther's position on, e.g., the sinfulness of good works.[194]
^Luther compared the physical presence of the Body and Blood of Christ in the Eucharist to the heating of a piece of iron that changes its physical features.[205]
^Luther likened infant baptism to thecircumcision of Jewish male infantsprescribed in theBook of Genesis. His radical opponents would emphasize that the command of circumcision could not justify the baptism of infant girls.[206]
^Bishop Jón was arrested along with two of his sons by a royalist wealthy peasantDaði Guðmundsson (d. 1563). Their guards executed them because they feared that Catholic Icelanders would come to their bishop's rescue.[278]
^Among others, the report suggested the dissolution of most monastic orders, allowing only the strictest orders to survive.[285]
^The compromise included the statement that "the sinner is justified by a living and effectual faith".[193]
^TheTheatines offered pastoral care for the needy and the sick, especially for those who suffered from syphilis,[292] theCapuchins were itinerant friars also preaching to the poor and the sick.[293]
^"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.Campi, Emidio (19 June 2013). "Was the Reformation a German Event?".The Myth of the Reformation:9–31.doi:10.13109/9783666550331.9.ISBN978-3-525-55033-5.
^Sixth Session, Canon I "If any one saith, that man may be justified before God by his own works, whether done through the teaching of human nature, or that of the law, without the grace of God through Jesus Christ; let him be anathema." Canon XI "If any one saith, that men are justified, either by the sole imputation of the justice of Christ, or by the sole remission of sins, to the exclusion of the grace and the charity which is poured forth in their hearts by the Holy Ghost, and is inherent in them; or even that the grace, whereby we are justified, is only the favour of God; let him be anathema." Canon XXIV "If any one saith, that the justice received is not preserved and also increased before God through good works; but that the said works are merely the fruits and signs of Justification obtained, but not a cause of the increase thereof; let him be anathema."[301]
^Charles V was Catherine's nephew, and after the sack of Rome by imperial troops PopeClement VII did not dare to offend Charles by annulling the marriage of his aunt.[311]
^In the preface to theInstitutes, addressed to Francis I, Calvin described the co-followers of his doctrine as examples of "chastity, generousity, mercy, continence, patience, modesty, and all other virtues",[346] whose enemies are priests, and contrasting them with the Anabaptists who in his view "only wished to govern themselves in accordance with their foolish brains, under the pretence of wishing to obey God"[347]
^The new Anglican liturgy was heavily influenced by Evangelical church services, and Archbishop Hermann of Cologne's liturgical proposals.[359]
^Erasmus' ideas also were re-expressed in Basel by exiled Italian reformerCælio Secondo Curione who in 1554 produced a book on God's mercyCoelii secundi curionis de amplitudine beati regni dei. Curiusly, this book was re-write of a re-re-translation of Erasmus' 1524De immensa Dei misericordia which presented analternative to the Lutheran/Calvinistic emphasis on pre-destination: God was not arbitrary but merciful.[374]
^The Evangelical pastorJoachim Westphal (d. 1574) described Calvin as "the cow" and Bullinger as "the bull" in a pamphlet against theConsensus in 1552.[382]
^Around 1,900 individuals were executed for heresy; about two-thirds of them were Anabaptists.[405]
^InTournai, a Protestant man seized the sacramental bread during the mass, condemning "papist idolatry". An other man called a Catholic cleric a false prophet inGhent.[408]
^For instance, Protestants made up less than 3 per cent of the population in the town ofAlkmaar in 1576.[416]
^An exceptionally flexible theologian, Ferenc Dávid was bishop of the Evangelical, Reformed and Unitarian Churches during his life. John Sigismund was also heavily influenced by his antitrinitarian court physicianGiorgio Biandrata (d. 1588).[427][428]
^See the wikipedia entry onJoanes Leizarraga, the priest who did the translation. His manuscript is considered to be a cornerstone in Basque literature, and a pioneering attempt towards Basque language standardization.
^In the end, while the Reformation emphasis on Protestants reading the Scriptures was one factor in the development of literacy, the impact of printing itself, the wider availability of printed works at a cheaper price, and the increasing focus on education and learning as key factors in obtaining a lucrative post, were also significant contributory factors.[485]
^In the first decade of the Reformation, Luther's message became a movement, and the output of religious pamphlets in Germany was at its height.[489]
^ Some historians restrict this to the Mercantile countries (Holland, England)[495] or the influence of theAge of Enlightenment.[496]
^Over half of this population are inModern Protestant denominations such as Pentecostal churches which are not derived from the historical Reformation denominations; and the remaining Historical denominations includeArminian denominations such asMethodists which do not hold to certain key Reformation doctrines, such assola fide.
^Most current estimates place the world's Protestant population in the range of 800 million to more than 1 billion. For example, author Hans Hillerbrand estimated a total Protestant population of 833,457,000 in 2004,[528] while a report by Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary – 1,170,803,000 (with inclusion of independents as defined in this article) in 2024.[526]
^"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."Duffy 2016 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFDuffy2016 (help).
^"Until the seventeenth century, …Christianity meant a body of people, but since then it refers only to a body of beliefs."Lewis, Eleanor V. (June 1986). "(Review) Christianity in the West, 1400–1700. By John Bossy. New York: Oxford University Press, 1985".Church History.55 (2):225–26.doi:10.2307/3167429.JSTOR3167429.S2CID162279854.
^Bray, Gerald (3 March 2021).Anglicanism. Lexham Press.ISBN978-1-68359-437-6.The doctrine of justification by faith alone was the central teaching of the Lutheran Reformation and is fully accepted by Anglicans.
^Bente, Friedrich (2 December 2021).Historical Introductions to the Symbolical Books of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. Litres.ISBN978-5-04-061695-4.In fact Calvin must be regarded as the real originator of the second controversy on the Lord's Supper between the Lutherans and the Reformed
^Nevin, John Williamson (19 April 2012).The Mystical Presence: And The Doctrine of the Reformed Church on the Lord's Supper. Wipf and Stock Publishers. p. xxviii.ISBN978-1-61097-169-0.InThe Mystical Presence Neven maintained that John Calvin, the foremost architect of Reformed doctrine, included the real spiritual presence of Christ in the Eucharist.
^Null, Ashley; Yates III, John W. (14 February 2017).Reformation Anglicanism (The Reformation Anglicanism Essential Library, Volume 1): A Vision for Today's Global Communion. Crossway.ISBN978-1-4335-5216-8.Therefore, Cranmer fully integrated justifictonsola fide et sola gratia into the doctrine and worship of the Church of England. His "Homily on Salvation" taught these principles to every parish in the country on a regular basis. Several of the Articles of Religion make the Protestant understanding of justification normative for Anglican doctrine (Articles 9-14, 17, 22).
^González, Justo L. (1987).A History of Christian Thought: From the Protestant Reformation to the twentieth century. Abingdon Press.ISBN978-0-687-17184-2.It is clear that, in rejecting Roman Catholic doctrine on this point, Cranmer has also rejected Luther's views and adopted Calvin's position. The sacrament is not merely a symbol of what takes place in the heart, but neither is it the physical eating of the body of Christ. This must be so, because the body of Christ is in heaven and therefore our participation in it can only be spiritual. Only the believers are the true partakers of the body and blood of Christ, for the unbelievers eat and drink no more than bread and wine—and condemnation upon themseves, for the profanation of the Lord's Table. These views are reflected in the Thirty-nine articles, of which the twenty-eighth says that "the Body of the Christ is given, taken, and eaten, in the Supper, only after an heavently and spiritual manner. The next article says of the wicked that "in no wise are they partakers of Christ," although "to their condemnation [they] do eat and rink the sign or Sacrament of so great a thing." This marked Calvinistic influence would prove very significant for the history of Christianity in England during the seventeenth century
^Fortson III, S. Donald (4 December 2017).The Presbyterian Story: Origins & Progress of a Reformed Tradition, 2nd Edition. Wipf and Stock Publishers. p. 117.ISBN978-1-7252-3817-6.in Scotland the story was a striking contrast as a national Sottish Presbyterian Church was the outcome. The Reformation in Sotland, in manifold ways, was the by-product of Herculean efforts by John Knox, "the Father of Presbyterianism."
^abShah, Timothy Samuel; Hertzke, Allen D. (26 April 2016).Christianity and Freedom: Volume 1, Historical Perspectives. Cambridge University Press.ISBN978-1-316-55285-8.... where nationally dominant magisterial Protestant churches (Lutheran, Anglican, and Presbyterian) became virtual "departments of state" in their governance, as one Reformation historian characterized them.
^abCremeens, Timothy B. (28 June 2018).Marginalized Voices: A History of the Charismatic Movement in the Orthodox Church in North America 1972-1993. Wipf and Stock Publishers. p. 157.ISBN978-1-5326-1708-9.The "magisterial" Protestant denominations (i.e., Lutheran, Reformed, and Anglican) all claimed to honor the ecumenical Councils of the undivided Church and give a modicum of authority to the Church Fathers
^Rudy, Kathryn M. (12 September 2024).Chapter 2: Confraternities of Laypeople. pp. 73–124.doi:10.11647/obp.0379.02.
^Eisenbichler, Konrad (30 January 2019).Introduction: A World of Confraternities, in A Companion to Medieval and Early Modern Confraternities. pp. 1–19.doi:10.1163/9789004392915_002.
^Bird, Jessalynn (14 June 2024). "Between Orders and Heresy: Rethinking Medieval Religious Movements, ed. Jennifer Kolpacoff Deane and Anne E. Lester".The English Historical Review.139 (596):222–225.doi:10.1093/ehr/ceae008.
^abvan Liere, Frans (31 March 2014).An Introduction to the Medieval Bible. Cambridge University Press.doi:10.1017/CBO9780511843051.008.
^O'Brien, Conor (October 2014). "Approaching the Bible in medieval England. By Eyal Poleg. (Manchester Medieval Studies.) Pp. xxi+263 incl. 9 figs, 2 music examples and 2 tables+7 colour plates. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2013. £65. 978 0 7190 8954 1".The Journal of Ecclesiastical History.65 (4):898–900.doi:10.1017/S0022046914001067.
^Eire, Carlos M.N. (October 1996). "Book reviews: Early Modern European. 'Voracious Idols and Violent Hands: Iconoclasm in Reformation Zurich, Strasbourg, and Basel' by Lee Palmer Wandel".Catholic Historical Review.82 (4):703–704.doi:10.1353/cat.1996.0153.ISSN0008-8080.
^Overell, M. Anne (29 November 2021). "The Cambridge Connection and the 'Strangeness' of Italian Reformers, 1547–1556".The Cambridge Connection in Tudor England:180–204.doi:10.1163/9789004382251_008.ISBN978-90-04-38225-1.
^Redworth, Glyn (October 1987). "Whatever happened to the English Reformation?".History Today.37:29–36.
^abKonkola, Kari; MacCulloch, Diarmaid (October 2003). "People of the Book: Success in the English Reformation".History Today.53 (10):23–29.
^MacCulloch, Diarmaid (July 1991). "The myth of the English reformation".History Today.41 (7):28–35.
^Slysz, Gregory (2018). "The impact of the dissolution of Westminster Abbey on the provision of social welfare, c. 1540-1600".American Benedictine Review.
^D. Densil Morgan, "Calvinism in Wales: c. 1590–1909,"Welsh Journal of Religious History (2009), Vol. 4, pp. 22–36
^Wormald, Jenny (1991).Court, kirk, and community: Scotland, 1470–1625. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.ISBN0-7486-0276-3.OCLC26132044.
^"Nicodemism",The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2000.
^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.
^Voglar, Dušan (30 May 2008)."Primož Trubar v enciklopedijah in leksikonih I" [Primož Trubar in Encyclopedias and Lexicons I].Locutio (in Slovenian). Vol. 11, no. 42. Maribor Literary Society. Retrieved7 February 2011.
^Ahačič, Kozma (2013)."Nova odkritja o slovenski protestantiki" [New Discoveries About the Slovene Protestant Literature](PDF).Slavistična Revija (in Slovenian).61 (4):543–555.Archived(PDF) from the original on 9 October 2022.
^Olson, Roger E. (21 August 2017)."Is the Protestant Reformation Over? Can The Schism End?".Ministry matters.Archived from the original on 20 January 2022.Protestant Reformation was a long process begun a century earlier by Bohemian priest John Hus and, at least according to many Protestants, is ever ongoing. "Reformed and always reforming" was the motto of many of the Reformation's leaders and remains a crucial ideal and challenge today.
^Eire, Carlos M. N. "Calvin and Nicodemism: A Reappraisal".Sixteenth Century Journal X:1, 1979.
^Martínez Fernández, Luis (2000). "Crypto-Protestants and Pseudo-Catholics in the Nineteenth-Century Hispanic Caribbean".Journal of Ecclesiastical History.51 (2):347–65.doi:10.1017/S0022046900004255.S2CID162296826.
^Burton, Edwin, Edward D'Alton, and Jarvis Kelley.1911 Catholic Encyclopedia, Penal Laws III: Ireland.
^Wandell, Lee Palmer (2011)The Reformation, Cambridge University PressapudLeithart, Peter (18 April 2017)."How the Reformation Failed".Theopolis Institute.
^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.
^Becker, Sascha O.; Woessmann, Ludger (1 December 2008). "Luther and the Girls: Religious Denomination and the Female Education Gap in Nineteenth-century Prussia".Scandinavian Journal of Economics.110 (4):777–805.doi:10.1111/j.1467-9442.2008.00561.x.ISSN1467-9442.S2CID146303270.
^Hayward, R. David; Kemmelmeier, Markus (1 November 2011). "Weber Revisited A Cross-National Analysis of Religiosity, Religious Culture, and Economic Attitudes".Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology.42 (8):1406–1420.doi:10.1177/0022022111412527.ISSN0022-0221.S2CID9101480.
^Cantoni, Davide (1 August 2015). "The Economic Effects of the Protestant Reformation: Testing the Weber Hypothesis in the German Lands".Journal of the European Economic Association.13 (4):561–98.doi:10.1111/jeea.12117.hdl:10230/11729.ISSN1542-4774.S2CID7528944.
^Nunziata, Luca; Rocco, Lorenzo (20 January 2016). "A tale of minorities: evidence on religious ethics and entrepreneurship".Journal of Economic Growth.21 (2):189–224.doi:10.1007/s10887-015-9123-2.ISSN1381-4338.S2CID55740195.
^Spater, Jeremy; Tranvik, Isak (1 November 2019). "The Protestant Ethic Reexamined: Calvinism and Industrialization".Comparative Political Studies.52 (13–14):1963–94.doi:10.1177/0010414019830721.ISSN0010-4140.S2CID204438351.
^Gorski, Philip S. (1 January 2000). "Historicizing the Secularization Debate: Church, State, and Society in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe, ca. 1300 to 1700".American Sociological Review.65 (1):138–67.doi:10.2307/2657295.JSTOR2657295.S2CID147029738.
^Pullan, Brian (1 January 1976). "Catholics and the Poor in Early Modern Europe".Transactions of the Royal Historical Society.26:15–34.doi:10.2307/3679070.JSTOR3679070.S2CID161899850.
^Heinrich August Winkler (2012),Geschichte des Westens. Von den Anfängen in der Antike bis zum 20. Jahrhundert, 3rd Ed., Munich (Germany),ISBN978-3-406-59235-5, pp. 290ff.
^"Status of Global Christianity, 2024, in the Context of 1900–2050"(PDF). Center for the Study of Global Christianity, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. Retrieved23 May 2024.Christian total 2,508,432,000; Catholics 1,278,009,000; Protestants 625,606,000; Independents 421,689,000; Orthodox 293,158,000; Unaffiliated 123,508,000
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