AP Euro 4 Idiots

The Reformation was a period of European history during the early 1500s characterized by the rise and spread of Protestantism.

(GREAT SITE!!! http://historysage.com/jcms/images/stories/Euro_PDFs/04-Reformation.pdf)

Causes

Christian (a.k.a. Northern) Renaissance Humanism

• focused on the sources of early Christianity, the Holy Scriptures, and the writings of church fathers such as Augustine, Ambrose, and Jerome
• believed religion was distorted during the Middle Ages
• developed reform program based on the belief that humans could instill an inward religious feeling that would bring about a reform of the church and society
• felt education was very important and supported schools
• believed the Latin version of the Bible contained errors

Desiderius Erasmus (1466-1536)

• born in Holland
• created and popularized the reform program of Christian humanism
• Handbook of the Christian Knight (1503) emphasized inner piety and deemphasized the sacraments, pilgrimages, fasts, and the veneration of saints and relics
• edited Latin version of the Bible, known as the Vulgate, in 1516 because he felt it contained errors
• The Praise of Folly (1511) criticized corruption in society, especially within the clergy
• had no intention of breaking away from the Catholic Church but, rather, wanted to reform it
• modern historians believe that “Erasmus laid the egg that Luther hatched“

Thomas More (1478-1535)

• born in London, England
• trained in law but was very interested in classical learning
• friend of Erasmus
• very religious
• Utopia (1516) describes an idealistic community without the problems of society (greed, corruption, etc.)
• serving with King Henry VIII exposed him to the abuses and corruptions he writes about in Utopia
• was executed after opposing England’s break from the Catholic church

Printing Press

• Johann Gutenberg was the first to use moveable type printing in Europe
• Gutenberg Bible (1455 or 1456)  was the first full-sized book to be printed in Europe using a printing press
• books printed in vernacular languages, allowing more people access to the Bible
• literacy increased as access to literature increased
• reformers called on people to read the Bible
• pamphlets and reformation ideas spread faster than before

Corruption 

• Renaissance popes failed to provide spiritual leadership
• nepotism (giving church offices to family members) led to corruption (ex. Pope Alexander VI)
• popes were too involved in war and politics and not involved enough in religious affairs (ex. Pope Julius II)
• nobles and the wealthy held most high positions in the church
• church officials took more than one office (pluralism) and ignored their duties (absenteeism)
• clergy sold church offices (simony)
• clergy lived in extreme luxury 
• selling of indulgences became very corrupt as some of the clergy took the money to fund their own endeavors

Other Reasons

• Modern Devotion movement stressed the need to follow the teaching of Jesus rather than collecting relics that were supposed to grant salvation (ex. Frederick the Wise of Saxony collected over nineteen thousand relics that were believed to grant salvation before the movement)
•  Thomas a Kempis’s The Imitation of Christ stressed the importance of living a simple religious life and making religion more personal (mysticism)
• people wanted meaningful religious expression and certainty in salvation

  

Martin Luther (1483-1546) and the Start of the Reformation

• born in Germany
• trained to become a lawyer, but enrolled in a monastery after pledging his devotion to God in order to save him during a thunderstorm
• was concerned with the selling of indulgences and the sacraments
• believed salvation was granted not through good works but through faith in God (justification by grace through faith alone)
• claimed the Bible was the sole authority in religious affairs
• was angered by such people as Dominican preacher Johann Tetzel, who promoted the sale of indulgences to support the construction of Saint Peter’s Basilica with the slogan, “As son as the coin in the coffer rings, the soul from purgatory springs”
• his Ninety-Five Theses discussed the abuses in selling indulgences and how the pope refused to clarify the use of indulgences
• Pope Leo X referred to Luther as “a drunken German who will amend his ways when he sobers up”,  but soon the Ninety-Five Theses were printed, spread throughout Germany, and were received with sympathy
• at Leipzig Debate in 1519, Luther was forced by Catholic theologian Johann Eck to deny the authority of the pope and, in turn, separate from the Catholic church (proclaimed, “Farewell, unhappy, hopeless, blasphemous Rome!”)
• three pamphlets published in 1520 moved toward a more definite break from the Catholic church: Address to the Nobility of the German Nation called on German princes to overthrow the papacy in Germany; The Babylonian Captivity of the Church attacked the sacramental system and claimed that the clergy should have the right to marry and that monasticism should be reformed;  On the Freedom of a Christian Man stated that faith alone, not good works, granted salvation
• was excommunicated in 1521 and was summoned to appear at the Diet of Worms by Emperor Charles V
• Luther refused to recant his beliefs at the Diet of Worms, and the Edict of Worms made him an outlaw within the empire and made his works illegal
• after a period of hiding under the protection of Frederick the Wise, Luther returned to organize his reformed church
• Luther’s translation of the Bible into the vernacular influenced the development of the German language and made Lutheranism appealing
• the return to the original messages of the Bible and the use of music during services made Lutheranism widely appealing and allowed it to spread quickly
• pamphlets with woodcuts that insulted the Catholic church helped promote Lutheranism
• Lutheranism spread throughout Northern Germany, but didn’t take hold in many states due to crises and opposition
• Philipp Melanchton joined Martin Luther and wrote the Augsburg Confession, an attempted compromise meant to unite the Lutheran and Catholic princes of the Holy Roman Empire, which later became the constitution of the Reformation
• German princes felt politically motivated to separate from the Hole Roman Empire, leading them to convert to Lutheranism
• The Peasants’ War of the 1520s, stemming from high taxation and new demands, provided a great challenge to Luther, who sided with the nobles in order to gain their support and called for them to “smite, slay, and stab” the rebels in his pamphlet Against the Robbing and Murdering Hordes of Peasants
• relied on princes and other authorities to lead and guide Lutheran churches

Lutheran Beliefs and Practices

• salvation is granted not through good works but through faith in God alone (justification by grace through faith alone)
• selling of indulgences is improper
• Bible is the sole authority in religious affairs
• clergy should have the right to marry
• only two sacraments: baptism and the Lord’s Supper
• denies the Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation (bread and wine are changed to the body and blood of Jesus)
• worship service of a vernacular liturgy that focused on Bible readings rather than Catholic Mass
• all people are their own priests and should read and study the Bible

  

Charles V (1519-1556)

• king of Spain (as Charles I) and grandson of Emperor Maximilian 
• elected Holy Roman Emperor in 1519 as Charles V 
• empire consisted of Spain, Spanish possessions in the New World, Austrian Habsburg land, Bohemia, Hungary, the Low Countries, and the kingdom of Naples
• worked to preserve Catholicism in his empire
• faced four major problems: the French, the Papacy, the Turks, and internal struggles in Germany

The French 

• Valois king Francis I of France and Charles disputed over territories in southern France, the Netherlands, the Rhineland, northern Spain, and Italy
• Habsburg-Valois Wars (1521-1544) prevented Charles from concentrating on stopping the spread of Lutheranism in Germany

The Papacy

• Charles V needed papal support in order to deal with Lutheran heresy
• Pope Clement VII (1523-1534) joined sides with France during the second Habsburg-Valois War out of fear that Charles V had too much power in Italy
• Charles sent his imperial army to sack Rome in 1527, forcing Clement to return to the Habsburgs and giving Charles supremacy over Italy by 1530

The Turks

• the Ottoman Turks under Suleiman the Magnificent (1520-1566) defeated and killed Charles’s brother-in-law Louis of Hungary at the Battle of Mohács in 1526
• the Turks overran Hungary, moved into Austria, and advanced to Vienna before being repulsed in 1529

Politics in Germany

• Germany was divided into hundreds of territorial states that were all loyal to the emperor but were independent from imperial authority
• Charles attempted to settle the Lutheran problem at the Diet of Augsburg in 1530, but instead wound up demanding Lutherans return to the Catholic church
• fearful of Charles, eight princes and eleven imperial cities, all Lutheran, formed the Schmalkaldic League and vowed to assist each other in times of need
• after making peace with the Turks and French by 1545, Charles was free to finally resolve his problem in Germany
• Luther’s death ended all hopes of peaceful compromise
• Charles sent imperial troops to battle the Protestants, starting the Schmalkaldic Wars (1546-1547)
• the imperial army defeated the Lutherans at the Battle of Mühlberg, increasing Charles’s power
• the Schmalkaldic League was reestablished, became allied with the new French king, Henry II (1547-1559), and forced Charles to negotiate a truce
• Charles, exhausted by his efforts to maintain religious unity in his empire, retired to his estate in Spain in 1556 and abandoned German affairs to his brother Ferdinand
• The Peace of Augsburg in 1555 ended religious warfare in Germany by acknowledging equal legal standings between Lutherans and Catholics and allowing German princes the chance to choose between Lutheranism and Catholicism which religion would be practiced within their

  

Spread of the Protestant Reformation

Lutheranism in Scandinavia

• Union of Kalmar in 1397 unified Denmark, Sweden, and Norway under Dutch rule but failed to achieve any real social or political unity
• Gustavus Vasa of Sweden (1523-1560) overthrew the Dutch monarch and, by the 1530s,  established the Swedish Lutheran National Church
• Frederick I (1523-1533) and Christian III (1534-1559) of Denmark helped spread Lutheranism in Denmark and Norway
• Scandinavia became a Lutheran stronghold by the 1540s
• Scandinavian monarchs, like German princes, helped establish state-run churches

Ulrich Zwingli (1484-1531) and the Zwinglian Reformation

• in the 16^th century, the Swiss Confederation, composed of thirteen self-governing cantons, was divided into six democratic “forests” cantons and seven oligarchic “urban” cantons (ex. Zürich, Bern, Basel)
• Ulrich Zwingli was influenced by Christian humanist while studying in Vienna and Basel, becoming a priest in 1506, accepting the post of Great Minister of Zürich in 1518, and beginning the Reformation in Switzerland
• Zwingli’s preaching of the gospel led to unrest and, in 1523, a public disputation was held, where Zwingli was awarded the victory and allowed to continue teaching
• evangelical reforms were promoted by the city council of Zürich, which was highly influenced by Zwingli
• Zwingli attempted  to make an alliance with Luther in order to counteract the danger of the Catholic forest cantons forming an alliance with the Habsburgs
• Martin Bucer (1491-1551) spread a mixture of Zwinglian and Lutheran ideas to southern Germany, making an alliance seem possible
• The Marburg Colloquy (1529) was held to resolve the difference between Luther and Zwingli, but differences over the interpretation of the Last Supper (Luther took it literally, Zwingli took it symbolically) led to no agreement and no evangelical alliance
• war erupted between Swiss protestants and the Catholic cantons in 1531, and  Zwingli was killed in battle
• the Swiss civil war of 1531 shows how differences in religious opinion can led to violence 

Reforms in Zürich

• relics and images were abolished
• the Mass was replaced with a new liturgy consisting of Scripture readings, prayer, and sermons
• monasticism, pilgrimages, veneration of saints, clerical celibacy, and papal authority were all abolished

Anabaptists and Radical Reformers

• protestants who favored more radical reform movements were called Anabaptists
• Anabaptists were regarded as  dangerous radicals that threatened sixteenth century society
• the ideas of the Swiss Brethren, an Anabaptist group, spread throughout southern Germany, Austrian Habsburg land, and Switzerland as Anabaptists were persecuted and repressed
• Münster, a city in Westphalia, was overtaken in 1534 by millenarian Anabaptists, who believed the world was coming to an end
• Münster was renamed New Jerusalem, polygamy was instituted, and all books other than the Bible were burned
• John of Leiden was named the king of New Jerusalem, but was executed by Catholic and other Protestant forces that recaptured the city
• Dutch Anabaptists returned to calm practices, as evident in the work of Menno Simmons (1496-1561), who dedicated his life to the spread of peaceful, evangelical Anabaptism that stressed separation from the world in order to emulate the life of Jesus
• Mennonites (followers of Menno) spread throughout Europe and the New World
• Luther did not believe Anabaptists were legitimate
• the Mennonites and the Amish, another Anabaptist group, maintain communities in the United States and Canada today

Anabaptist Beliefs

• adult baptism is advocated
• no one should be forced to accept the Bible
• the practices and spirit of early Christianity are followed
• all people were considered equal
• all people are considered their own priests, although churches choose their own ministers
• church services are simple and contain only early church aspects
• church and state are completely separate
• human law has no power over real Christians
• people cannot hold political office or bear arms

English Reformation

Henry VIII (1509-1547)

• grew up a devote Catholic and was even titled “Defender of the Faith”
• wanted a divorce from his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, after she failed to produce a male heir to the English throne
• Pope Clement VII refused to annul Henry’s marriage because he didn’t want to offend Charles V, Catherine of Aragon’s nephew
• Henry VIII, who grew impatient with the process of getting an annulment, dismissed his lord chancellor, Cardinal Wolsey, in 1529 and obtained two new advisors: Thomas Cranmer and Thomas Cromwell
• Thomas Cranmer ruled the king’s marriage to Catherine null in 1533 and validated his marriage to Anne Boleyn, whom Henry had secretly married after impregnating
• the Act of Supremacy and the Treason Act were passed in 1534, completing England’s break from Rome, making the English monarch the leader of the Church of England, and making it illegal to deny that the king was the head of the church
• Cromwell helped solve some of England’s financial problems by seizing church land and selling it to nobles
• little changed occurred as far as doctrine and beliefs, as evident in the Statute of the Six Articles, when the Church of England first split with the papacy
• Henry VIII had a total of six wives: Catherine of Aragon (mother of Mary), Anne Boleyn (mother of Elizabeth; divorced and beheaded for adultery), Jane Seymour (mother of Edward VI; died twelve days after giving birth), Anne of Cleves (German princess; married for political reasons), Catherine Howard (beheaded after committing adultery), and Catherine Parr (outlived Henry)

Edward VI (1547-1553) and Mary (1553-1558)

• Edward VI was only nine when he became king, allowing Archbishop Cranmer to push England in a more protestant direction (allowed clergy to marry, forbid images, revised liturgy, instituted new prayer book known as Book of Common Prayer)
• Mary Tudor intended to restore Catholicism in England, but was opposed by those who disliked her husband, Philip II of Spain, and those who disapproved of her burning of more than three hundred Protestant heretics (leading to her nickname, “bloody Mary”)
• by the end of her reign, Mary had actually made England more Protestant than before because people began associating Protestantism with resistance to Spanish interference
• Mary’s death ended the Catholic restoration in England

John Calvin (1509-1564) and Calvinism

• a French theologian who abandoned his life as a humanist and became one of the major leaders of Protestantism
• experienced a religious crisis that led him to write his Institutes of the Christian Religion, a mix of Protestant thoughts, in 1536
• stood very close to Martin Luther
• belief in predestination made Calvinists very active, dynamic, and, eventually, militant
• achieved a major success in 1541 when the city council of Geneva accepted his new church constitution (known as the Ecclesiastical Ordinances), which created a theocracy and  set up the Consistory, a special body for enforcing moral discipline
• success in Geneva enabled the city to prosper and drew praise from such people as John Knox, the Calvinist reformer of Scotland and founder of Presbyterianism, who called it “the most perfect school of Christ on Earth”
• promoted hard work and financial success as a sign that God was pleased
• was the most influencial sect of Protestanism

Calvinist Ideas

• believes in justification by faith alone
• places emphasis on predestination
• believes salvation could determined by three tests: openly professing faith, living a godly life, and participating in the sacraments of baptism and communion
• keeps the sacraments of baptism and communion
• stresses that there is no absolute certainty of salvation
• believes in the real presence of Jesus in communion, but only spiritually

  

The Catholic Counter-Reformation

Revival of the Old

• during the Catholic reformation, the best features of medieval Catholicism were revived and adjusted to meet new conditions
• mysticism and monasticism were revived
• Saint Teresa of Avila, a mystic nun, experienced visions that she claimed resulted in the union of her soul with God
• religious orders such as the Benedictines, the Dominicans, the Capuchins, the Franciscans, the Theatines, the Ursalines, and the Oratory of Divine Love all helped to revive and restore Catholicism
• the most influential religious order was The Society of Jesus (the Jesuits)

 The Society of Jesus and the Jesuits

• founded by Spanish nobleman Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556), who vowed to be a soldier of God after injuries cut short his military career
• The Spiritual Exercises by Ignatius of Loyola was a training manual for spiritual development that emphasized following the will of God using the Catholic church
• was officially recognized as a religious order in 1540
• was grounded on the principles of absolute obedience to the papacy, a strict hierarchal order for society, and the use of education to achieve goals
• resembled military command
• absolute vow to the pope made them an important aspect of papal policy
• they established highly disciplined schools, spread Catholicism to the East (by such people as Francis Xavier and Mateo Ricci), and fought Protestantism
• were successful in restoring Catholicism to parts of Germany, parts of eastern Europe, and Poland

A Revived Papacy

• Renaissance papacy was corrupt and didn’t serve as a strong religious center
• Pope Paul III recognized a need for reform and summoned the Council of Trent
• Cardinal Caraffa and other Catholic leaders refused to compromise with Protestants
• Cardinal Caraffa was chosen pope as Paul IV and was called the “first true pope of the Catholic Counter-Reformation”
• Paul VI increased the power of the Inquisition and created the Index of Forbidden Books that Catholics were not allowed to read

The Council of Trent

• Pope Paul III called for a council on Catholicism in 1542, but it wasn’t until 1545 that a group of cardinals and other church leaders initiated the Council of Trent
• the council met intermittently in three major sessions between 1545 and 1563
• reaffirmed traditional Catholic teachings in opposition to Protestant beliefs
• made Scripture and tradition equal authorities in religious matters
• made it only acceptable for the church to interpret Scripture
• declared both faith and good works necessary for salvation
• upheld the seven sacraments, the doctrine of transubstantiation, and clerical celibacy
• belief in purgatory and indulgences was affirmed
• led to a clear body of doctrine and a unified church

 

The French Wars of Religion (1562-1598)

Causes

• Calvinism and Catholicism became militant religions dedicated to spreading their interpretations of the word of God
• French kings tried to stop the spread of Calvinism by persecuting French Calvinists known as Huguenots
• up to 50% of the French nobility, including the house of Bourbon, was Calvinist
• only about 10% of the French population was Calvinist, but they were strong-willed and well-organized
• Henry II of France was killed accidently in a tournament and was succeeded by a series of weak sons dominated by their mother, Catherine de’ Medici (1519-1589)
• Catherine looked to religious compromise to ease tensions between the ultra-Catholics (lead by the Guise family) and the Huguenots
• resentment towards the growing power of the monarchy also led to revolts

***one who places politics before religion and believes that no religion is worth a civil war is called a politique*** 

Events of the Wars

• war started in 1562 when Henry, duke of Guise, massacred a peaceful congregation of Huguenots
• Huguenots held their own, even though they were too small a group to defeat the French
• the marriage of king Charles IX’s sister to Henry of Navarre of the Bourbon family was supposed to  reconcile the differences between the Catholics and Calvinists
• the Guise family persuaded Catherine de’ Medici that the Huguenots that gathered for the royal wedding posed a threat
• Charles IX decided to eliminate the Huguenot leaders by having them massacred on August 24^th, 1572 in Paris
• The Saint Bartholomew’s Day Massacre lasted three days and left three thousands Huguenots dead while discrediting the Valois dynasty without ending the conflict
• Henry of Navarre escaped from Paris by promising to convert to Catholicism
• the fighting continued and the Huguenots rebuilt strength

The War of Three Henries (1588-1589)

• ultra-Catholics formed a holy league in 1576 and vowed to seat Henry, duke of Guise, on the French throne instead of Henry III, Charles IX’s brother
• Henry, duke of Guise, seized Paris and forced King Henry III to make him his chief minister
• Henry III had Henry, duke of Guise, assassinated and joined with Henry of Navarre (who converted back to Calvinism) to crush the Catholic Holy League and retake Paris
• Henry III retakes Paris but is assassinated in 1589 by a Catholic monk
• Henry of Navarre claimed the French throne as Henry IV and converted again to Catholicism, ending the French Wars of Religion in 1594
• Edict of Nantes in 1598 acknowledged Catholicism as the official religion of France but guaranteed the right of Huguenots to worship in selected places, enjoy all political privileges, and hold public offices

 

Philip II of Spain (1556-1598)

• son of Charles V
• empire consisted of Spain, Spanish possessions in the New World and Italy, and the Netherlands
• known as the “Most Catholic King”
• enforced strict conformity to Catholicism and established strong monarchial authority
• wanted to save Catholic Christians from Protestant heretics
• made monarchy less dependant on aristocracy
• micromanaged and failed to delegate properly, falling weeks behind on state correspondences
• wanted to make Spain a dominant power in Europe
• large amounts of silver and gold being imported from the New World initially caused a prosperous economy but eventually led to inflation, a declining economy, very high taxes, and debt
• defeated the Muslim Turkish fleets at the Battle of Lepanto in 1571

Revolt of the Netherlands

• the Netherlands consisted of seventeen provinces; seven Germanic northern provinces and ten southern provinces tied to France
• the Netherlands became prosperous from trade and commerce
• Philip II was out of touch with the traditions and culture of the Netherlands
• high taxes and persecution of Calvinists by Philip II led to revolts in the Netherlands starting in 1566, when Calvinists destroyed church statues and windows
• Philip sent the duke of Alva and an army of ten thousand to crush the rebellion
• William of Nassau, prince of Orange, (a.k.a. William the Silent) wished to unify all seventeen provinces with the Pacification of Ghent, which called on the provinces to stand together under William’s leadership, respect each other’s religious differences, and demand the removal of Spanish troops from the Netherlands
• Pacification of Ghent failed when the duke of Parma used religious differences between the provinces to split them
• the southern provinces formed the Catholic Union of Arras in 1579 and accepted Spanish control, while the northern provinces formed the Protestant Union of Utrecht and opposed Spanish rule
• Twelve-Year Truce ended the war in the Netherlands in 1609, virtually recognized the independence of the northern provinces (a.k.a. The United Provinces) that eventually became the Dutch Republic, and left the ten southern provinces in Spanish possession
• the United Provinces were formally recognized as independent in 1648