Notes on the Age of Reformation

Contextualizing 16th- and 17th-Century Challenges and Developments

• The Catholic Church faced discontent and challenges to its doctrine, hierarchy, and politics from its inception.
• Prior to the Middle Ages, numerous Christian sects existed, which the Church considered heresies and worked to eliminate.
• In the 11th century, religious and political differences led to the split of Christianity into Eastern Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism.
• In the 14th century, John Wycliffe challenged Catholic doctrines and translated the Bible into English, inspiring later reformers like Jan Hus and Martin Luther.
• The Reformation in the 16th century caused a religious revolution, dividing Europe as Protestant reformers questioned Catholic practices, leading to religious pluralism.
• The Catholic Reformation revitalized Catholicism without reconciling with Protestants; this religious division influenced culture and wealth concepts.
• Some reformers challenged secular control over religious institutions, leading to religious tensions and political conflicts between nobility and monarchy.
• Religious conflicts disrupted state relationships politically and economically, resulting in wars over individual conscience rights.
• Commercial and agricultural capitalism emerged, gradually replacing medieval economic institutions.
• Cities expanded, populations migrated, and work roles of men and women changed, although the nuclear family remained central.
• Women's education became a topic of debate as women entered the workforce in limited roles.
• Culture and leisure remained tied to religion and the agricultural calendar, with traditional folk ideas shaping community standards.
• European secular legal systems led to sovereign states, supplanting medieval universal Christendom, resulting in centuries of territorial and sovereignty struggles.

Luther and the Protestant Reformation

• Martin Luther sought religious reform due to concerns over the Catholic Church's sale of indulgences, which he viewed as the buying of forgiveness and a drain on the poor.
• Reformers questioned Catholic practices like papal infallibility, leading to the Reformation and the fracturing of Christian unity.
• Luther, influenced by Christian Humanism and the slogan “back to the source,” emphasized God's grace after studying the book of Romans.
• Luther opposed the belief that good works led to salvation, particularly the sale of indulgences.
• Luther presented his 95 Theses against indulgences after Pope Leo X proclaimed a Jubilee Indulgence to fund the restoration of St. Peter’s Basilica.
• Johann Tetzel, an indulgence preacher, famously said, “As soon as the gold in the casket rings, the rescued soul to heaven springs.”
• Luther likely intended to prompt discussion among scholars about reforms within the Church rather than incite a popular uprising, but the theses were translated into German and spread widely due to printing press.
• Luther's objections included:
  • simony—the buying and selling of Church appointments and offices
  • pluralism—the holding of multiple Church positions at the same time
  • nepotism—the appointment of family and friends to Church positions
  • immorality—the decline in moral standards of clergy and monks
• Catholic officials accused Luther of heresy, and he was ordered to recant at the Diet of Augsburg in 1518, which he refused.
• A debate in Leipzig in 1519 further fueled the Reformation; the pope demanded that Luther recant or face excommunication.
• In 1521, at the Diet of Worms, Luther refused to recant, leading to his excommunication and Charles V declaring him an outlaw.
• Luther was supported by German rulers who sought to reduce Rome’s political power; Frederick III protected him at Wartburg Castle.
• Luther's key ideas included:
  • Primacy of scripture (sola scriptura): The Bible is the ultimate authority, not church traditions. Popes, officials, and councils can err, but the Bible is infallible.
  • Luther translated the New Testament into German to increase accessibility.
  • Salvation (sola fide): Faith in God is the only path to salvation through God's grace. Good works are beneficial but do not guarantee salvation.
  • Access to God: All Christians can access God directly, without needing priests, bishops, or the pope. This is known as “the priesthood of all believers.”
  • Consubstantiation: Luther believed that in communion, the bread and wine are both bread and wine and the body and blood of Christ, differing from the Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation where bread and wine actually became the body and blood of Christ.
• Luther called for harsh treatment during the Peasants’ War of 1524-25 and later expressed antisemitic views.
• Views on Salvation:
  • Luther: Salvation by faith alone, although faith leads to good works.
  • Catholic Teachings: Faith and good works.
• Source of Religious Authority:
  • Luther: The Bible alone; primacy of scripture.
  • Catholic Teachings: The Bible, the pope, and centuries of religious interpretation.
• Organization of the Clergy:
  • Luther: Pastors are independent.
  • Catholic Church: Strict hierarchy.
• Role of Mary:
  • Luther: Honored, but not considered holy.
  • Catholic Church: Revered as holy.

Calvin Brings New Interpretations

• Huldrych Zwingli initiated the Reformation in Switzerland, criticizing numerous Catholic issues.
• Zwingli and Luther differed on the presence of Christ in the Eucharist; Zwingli believed the bread and wine were symbolic, similar to John Calvin's beliefs.

Calvinism Takes Root

• In 1536, John Calvin published Institutes of the Christian Religion, advocating religious and political reform.
• Calvin agreed with Luther's criticisms but introduced predestination and the concept of the elect.
• Predestination: God knows who will be saved, and a person’s fate is predetermined at birth.
• The elect: Those chosen by God to be saved, living piously as a sign of their election.

Calvinism and Wealth

• Calvin's teachings aligned with the rise of capitalism, emphasizing that accumulating wealth through hard work was a sign of God’s favor.
• Calvin encouraged ethical banking practices and saw each job as a calling to serve God and the community.
• Puritans in England later advanced these ideas, which took root in banking centers like Geneva and Amsterdam.

Responses to Luther and Calvin

• Luther and Calvin's teachings led to unintended responses, including religious radicals.
• Anabaptists, for example, rejected infant baptism, believing only adults could decide to believe, and sought more radical reforms.
• German Peasants applied Luther’s teachings to advocate social change in the German states.

German Peasants’ War

• Peasants used Luther's teachings to challenge social and political hierarchies, protesting taxes, rents, and labor demands.
• In 1524 and 1525, they formed groups, sacking abbeys and attacking nobles, leading to The Twelve Articles, demanding more control over churches and reduced burdens.
• The nobles suppressed the rebellion, resulting in approximately 100,000 peasant deaths.
• Luther did not support the peasants, advocating for nobles to swiftly end the rebellion to maintain social order.

Anabaptists and the Radical Reformation

• In 1525, Anabaptists emerged in Zurich, believing Luther and Calvin's reforms were insufficient.
• Leaders like Jakob Hutter and Menno Simons sought radical changes based on the New Testament.
• Anabaptists' beliefs challenged Catholic and Protestant tenets, including:
  • Sin throughout the secular world.
  • Avoidance of secular affairs.
  • Strict adherence to scripture.
• Both Catholics and other Protestant groups persecuted Anabaptists, prompting migration to North America.

HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES: HOW GERMAN WAS LUTHER?

• G. R. Elton viewed Luther in the context of German cultural heritage and rebellion against exploitation by a Roman-based church, emphasizing the political support of German princes.
• Lyndal Roper portrayed Luther as focused on personal life and connected to German identity through friendships with Protestant artists, reflecting an intellectual trend of German pride.

Luther and the protestant reformation

• Marilyn J. Boxer and Jean H. Quataert discuss the Reformation's limited impact on women, noting that while it stressed individual responsibility and affirmed women's ability to find truth, it did not fundamentally transform their place in society.

Protestant Reform Continues

• The printing press aided the spread of Reformation ideas as people challenged Catholic practices, and some reformers confronted secular governments.
• Puritans and Huguenots opposed monarchy in determining religious practices, while some groups sought seclusion, leading to the Reformation challenging the secular state.

The Printing Press Spreads Reformation Ideas

• Northern humanists focused on religious concerns, and by 1500, half of published titles were religious works, spreading Reformation ideas through vernacular Bibles.
• Martin Luther's reform call emphasized the Bible's importance for individual interpretation; his ideas and translations spread rapidly via pamphlets and printed Bibles.

Religious Challenges to Monarchical Power

• Luther's challenge to religious authority inadvertently prompted challenges to political authority.

Nobles in Poland

• The ideas of Calvin, Luther, and Zwingli spread to Poland through Polish nobles despite initial rejection by the monarchy; nobles continued to follow Protestant paths.
• In 1573, the Warsaw Confederation Act allowed religious toleration but was short-lived due to the Catholic Reformation.

Puritans Challenge the English Crown

• In 1534, Henry VIII broke with the Roman Catholic Church, becoming the head of the Church of England.
• Puritans sought to purify Anglicanism of lingering Catholic elements, adhering to Calvinist ideas such as predestination.
• Elizabeth I attempted to balance religious turmoil, but Puritans remained unsatisfied.
• Tensions between Puritans and the Stuart monarchy led to the English Civil War and the execution of Charles I in 1649.

Monarchs Initiate Religious Reform and Control

• While Henry VIII and Elizabeth I established a new state religion in England, others allowed religious pluralism, and Philip II of Spain advocated for Catholicism.

France’s Agreement with the Pope

• In 1516, Francis I signed the Concordat of Bologna, granting the Catholic Church income while allowing the king to tax clergy and appoint bishops.
• By 1562, French Calvinists known as Huguenots grew to represent 10 percent of the country’s population, and their political struggle led to decades of conflict.

The Holy Roman Emperor Implements Peace

• Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, failed to eradicate Lutheranism; he established the Peace of Augsburg in 1555, allowing German rulers to choose the religion of their state.
• The Peace of Augsburg did not acknowledge Calvinism or Anabaptism.

Protestants and the State

• While some monarchies consolidated power, Anabaptists and Calvinists refused to subordinate the church to the state.

Anabaptists Reject the Secular World

• Anabaptists excluded themselves from society due to their belief in pervasive sin, conflicting with governments by refusing service, leading to persecution.

Calvin in Geneva

• In Geneva, Calvin's doctrines transformed Christianity and government; the Bible was the city's highest law, and sin was a civil offense.
• Calvin established the Genevan Consistory to enforce Calvinist doctrine, requiring denunciation of Catholicism and attendance at church services, with punishments for non-compliance.
• These laws mandated social services for the poor and sick.

Religious and political factors influence each other from 1450 to 1648

• Religious tension heightened conflicts between nobility and monarchy.
• Monarchs sought to consolidate power as the middle class grew economically.
• Nobility used religion to protest their diminished roles, causing monarchs to embrace religious pluralism or enforce complete control.

Conflicts Among Religious Groups

• Religious tensions between Catholics, Lutherans, Calvinists, and Anabaptists brought warfare, resulting in millions of deaths from conflict.

The French Wars of Religion

• The French monarchy persecuted the Huguenots, resulting in escalating religious violence and nine civil wars from 1562 to 1589.

Origins of the Religious Conflict

• Upon the death of two monarchs, Charles IX ascended the throne, causing a power vacuum that intensified religious and political persecution.
• With religious and political motivations, the Fench Wars of Religion continued to escalate, leading to nine civil wars from 1562 to 1589.

Religious Violence

• In 1562, French Calvinists retaliated against a massacre of Huguenots, looting Catholic churches; tensions peaked in 1572 at the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre, killing 10,000 to 20,000.

Political Rivalry

• The War of the Three Henrys involved Henry III of Valois, Henry of Navarre, and Henry of Guise, settled by assassinations, leading to Henry IV (of Navarre) ascending the throne.

Political Ending

• Henry IV converted to Catholicism in 1593 to unite France, demonstrating Politique values by prioritizing unity over religion.
• Henry IV enacted the Edict of Nantes in 1598 to promote religious toleration, recognizing Catholicism as France's official religion while allowing Huguenots to worship freely.
• Despite this, Henry IV faced rejection and was assassinated in 1610.

The Habsburg Dynasty

• Charles V controlled territories throughout Europe; Philip II took control of the Spanish Habsburgs, and Ferdinand controlled the Austrian Habsburgs.

Confronting the Ottoman Empire

• The Ottoman Empire expanded into Central and Eastern Europe, besieging Vienna in 1683, marking the end of Ottoman expansion and decline in dominance.

Confronting Christian Disunity

• Philip II aimed to restore Catholicism, sparking wars with the Netherlands and England.
• In the Spanish Netherlands, many converted to Calvinism, leading to persecution in 1566 after iconoclasts destroyed statues.
• William of Orange led the Dutch resistance, and in 1581, the seven northern provinces declared independence forming the Calvinist Dutch Republic, which permitted religious pluralism.
• Philip II attacked England, but his Spanish Armada was defeated, allowing Protestant groups to gain strength.

Habsburg-Valois Wars

• The Habsburg-Valois Wars were a series of wars were fought between the Spanish Habsburgs and France from 1494 to 1559 for control of the Italian peninsula.

The Thirty Years’ War

• Religious conflicts persisted in central Europe due to the exclusion of Calvinists from the 1555 Peace of Augsburg.

The Events of the Thirty Years War

• The Thirty Years' War began in 1618 when Bohemia reverted to Ferdinand II, evolving through four phases:
  • Bohemian Phase (1618–1625): Ferdinand II defeated Frederick I, reimposing Catholicism.
  • Danish Phase (1625–1630): Christian IV of Denmark was defeated, while Ferdinand issued the Edict of Restitution to reclaim Catholic lands.
  • Swedish Phase (1630–1635): Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden reversed Catholic gains, funded by Cardinal Richelieu.
  • French Phase (1635–1648): France supported Protestants against the Habsburgs, leading to French dominance.

The Peace of Westphalia

• The 1648 Peace of Westphalia weakened the Holy Roman Empire and ended Christian unification hopes, officially recognizing Dutch and Swiss independence, strengthening French, Swedish, and German rulers, removing Italian regions, confirming Peace of Augsburg terms, and recognizing Calvinism.

The Changing Nature of War

• The Thirty Years’ War ended with political and economic motivation overcoming religious motivation.
• France was more concerned with weakening their political foes, the Habsburgs, than with rolling back Protestantism.
• The Thirty Years’ War, which cost between three and six million lives was the last large religious war in Europe.
• The Peace of Westphalia was a turning point in European history.
• France became the dominant continental power and Calvinism joined Catholicism and Lutheranism as a major force.
• European rulers accepted that the continent would be home to various types of Christians.
• These rulers accepted religious pluralism - but not religious freedom.

The Catholic Reformation

• In response to the Reformation, the Catholic Church addressed its practices and beliefs in a movement known as the Catholic Reformation to revive itself, further ensuring religious division in Europe.

Division Among European Christians

• The Catholic Church established the Inquisition to defend official doctrines; the Roman Inquisition was introduced in 1542 and the Index of Prohibited Books in 1559 to stop Catholics from converting to Protestantism.

The Catholic Reformation Revives the Church

• Revival of the Church

New and Revamped Orders

• The Catholic Church responded by creating new religious orders and reforming misguided ones, leading to new leaders and doctrines.

The Jesuits

• In 1540, Ignatius Loyola established the Jesuits, focusing on helping people find God, and their life of prayer, study, and communal living.
• The Jesuits served as missionaries in the Americas and East Asia and are considered by many to be the most influential religious order of this period as they converted millions to Roman Catholicism.
• The Jesuits became known for their rigorous scholarship and founded prestigious universities.

Ursulines

• The Ursulines, an all-female order, focused on the Christian education of girls, crucial for family rejuvenation, establishing convents throughout Europe.

Teresa of Avila and the Carmelites

• Saint Teresa of Avila reformed the Carmelite Order, emphasizing personal prayer and complete poverty.

Council of Trent Confirms Catholic Doctrine

• Convened by Pope Paul III, the Council of Trent (1543-1563) reaffirmed Catholic doctrine while addressing Church issues, condemning abuses, and discussing official beliefs like clerical celibacy.
• The Council of Trent mostly reaffirmed established Catholic doctrine by:
  • emphasizing the need for the seven sacraments (baptism, confirmation, communion, penance, anointing the sick, matrimony, and holy orders)
  • stressing the role of both faith and good works
  • affirming Latin as the language of the Church
  • maintaining the art in churches
  • upholding the power of the papacy

16th-Century Society and Politics

• Renaissance, Reformation, and Exploration profoundly impacted European economic and intellectual movements, altering social norms and hierarchies.

16th Century Families and Households

• Families were the basic social unit and the nuclear family was the main institution for reproduction and the raising of children.
• Family units provided needed services such as care of land and resources, as well as tending to the sick, young, and aged.
• Family structure during the early modern period reflected the patriarchal structure of the larger social order.

Rural Households

• In rural areas, men and women were responsible for different complementary tasks to make the family unit self-sufficient.

Urban Households

• Towns were generally small in the 16th and 17th centuries, but urban households were starting to earn nonphysical labor.

Established Hierarchies

• People in 16th-century Europe understood their places in established hierarchies based on class, religion, and gender.

Class

• Traditionally, class was determined by birth and wealth and states regulated how family property could be divided.

Religion

• While religious pluralism was emerging, many regions embraced one faith as an instrument of of social control for the people.

Gender

• European society remained patriarchal, with women under the authority of fathers and husbands and the authority of men over society; but slowly women had increasing economic independence.

Women’s Intellect and Education

• As women’s roles started to change family units became more important than religious life.

The Woman Question

• An academic debate on women’s fit for university and broader questions about gender relations:
  • One side argued for female inferiority and male superiority due to the creation story.
  • The opposite side argued that men oppressed women which led to a lack of female education.

Limitation on Women

• Though this period provided more options for women, there were still many restrictions:
  • Single women might have been able to live outside of a convent, but were still not able to act as preachers.
  • Anabaptist churches were less patriarchal and were the most egalitarian of the new faiths.

Marriage and Childbirth

• The 14th century had been among the hardest on Europe's population, with disease killing millions, but the continent rebounded afterward.

Strains on Resources

• Catastrophic famines rose and marriage typically rose.
• The Black Death had killed over 20 million, or 1/3 of the population and there was a need to repopulate so the marriage rate rose and the age of marriage feel.
• Couples married at older ages as they acquired more resources and land.

Decline of Multigenerational Households

• It was less common to find several generation of one family living in the same household.

Influences on Family Size

• Several factors contributed to low live-birth rates, including cultural and economic factors.

Persistance of Folk Ideas

• Many held tightly to folk ideas and customs, escpecially in Germany.

Carnival

• Carnival served as a balance to the Christian period of Lent, but quickly became a target for anti-Catholic attacks.

Blood Sports

• Some popular entertainment in the early modern period were blood sports, also called