Chapter 13: Reformations and Religious Wars

Approximate Time Period: 1500-1600

  • Catholic used to be the only gig in town

  • New developments led to the Protestant reformations

    • Lutheran

    • Ang/Ep.

    • Calvinism

    • Anabaptists

Setting the Stage

  • Pluralism vs. unity

    • How do you make sure your state is controlled?

    • Allow different religious or not?

    • Pluralism = same religious beliefs in the same geographical area

  • Religion overlapped with political or economical conflicts

  • Pop shifts & commerce strained traditional structures

    • Chain gang (feudalism) → locked

    • New developments strain feudalism and brings some freedoms to people

    • Movement of people for socio-economic reasons

  • Sovereignty and Secularlism created new political institutions

    • Undercurrent of new ideas of secularlism, undermining religion

    • Average farmer stays the same, witches burned, etc.

Luther Nails It!

  • Martin Luther complained about immorality, ignorance, pluralism (multiple jobs), absenteeism

  • Wrote it down and nailed it on the church’s door

  • 95 Thesis: complaints coming from a priest

    • Church sold “tickets to heaven”, aka indulgences

      • Invented for crusaders who died for war initially, but eventually morphed into inappropriate use

    • Supports supremacy of scripture over any person

      • Anyone can read the Bible and get new ideas

      • Terrified pope

    • Salvation by faith alone (no good works like in Catholocism)

    • Ecclesiastical = secular vocations (equal merit)

    • All of these occurs in the GRE because it is decentralized.

  • Eucharist debate: transubstantiation vs. consubstantiation

    • Trans: bread and blood have transformed and ARE of Christ

    • Cons: bread and blood are REPRESENTATIONS of Christ

    • Protestants called Catholics as cannibals

  • Luther refused to recant after Diet of Worms (meeting at Worms), scripture trumped Pope

    • “Take back everything you said”

    • “Stick it!”

    • Luther gets excommunicated from the Catholic church

  • Eventually starts a new branch of Christianity: German Lutheran

A Fire is Lit

  • HRE decentralized = perfect climate for reformation

  • Authorities feared secular and economic dislocation

    • Will upend Catholic occupations with Protestants

  • Separation of church and state (depending on conditions)

  • Luther was religious revolutionary, not social revolutionary

    • He sided against 1525 peasant revolt; 75k slaughtered

  • Laity (laymen) gained more power and influence in the Protestant reformation

  • HRE rulers embraced reformation for political, religious, and/or economical gain

  • 1555 Peace of Augsburg

    • People started to kill each other over religion

    • Leaders of each state ended up choosing a religion for their small state

    • Civil war and pluralism weakened and fractured German unity even more

  • Huguenots, Puritans, and Polish nobles used Protestantism to challenge sitting monarchs, gaining power

Calvin’s Final Destination

  • Calvinist = Huguenot = Presbyterian (founded in Scotland)

  • Theocracy created in Geneva

    • Theological governance, religion governs the state

    • Combination of church and state (difference from Lutheran)

  • Predestination

    • Calvinism

      • God has the power to choose heaven or hell for you

      • The way you behave shows if you were chosen

    • Lutheran

      • Individuals just needed good faith to get to heaven

    • Catholicism

      • A bit of both, incorporates good works

  • Hard work and activism

    • Civic humanism

    • Some lived in active small communities

  • Wealth was a sign of God’s favor

    • No negative view of wealth

    • Don’t show off wealth

  • Believed that church and state were meant to be together

    • “Refused subordination to church and state”

  • John Knox took Calvinism to Scotland, creates Presbyterianism

    • Same as Calvinism, just different areas

  • French Civil War: Huguenots (Calvinism in France) vs. Catholics

    • Pockets of Huguenots throughout France, Catholics all over the place

    • Becomes a religious civil war of slaughter

Henry VIII Gets Personal

  • Has a devoutly Catholic daughter (Bloody Mary) but then wanted a divorce

  • Lack of son → request divorce with Catherine of Aragon

    • Catherine was tied to Spain

    • Marries her older sister, produces one daughter, no son

    • Had to ask Pope to divorce, but Pope was related to Catherine

  • Pope refused divorce (Catherine was aunt of Charles V of HRE)

    • Pope allows → loses control of HRE

  • Act of Supremacy → throws out pope, makes Henry VIII both king and pope of England, lets Henry VIII mary Anne Boleyn, and creates the Anglican/Episcopal church

    • Anglican → more Catholic feel

    • Episcopalian → de-Catholicized

  • Henry VIII gets tax/land gains, seizes Catholic lands

    • By getting rid of the pope, the average Catholic gets upset

    • This starts some social unrest

  • Anglican Church increased Henry VIII’s power, but Irish Catholics challenge this (plagues the British for a really long time)

  • Henry VIII has a son, Edward VI, but is sick and dies young (20s)

    • He consolidated Protestantism, de-Catholicized Anglican church

  • Lady Jane Grey only ruled for 9 days

    • Related to Henry VIII indirectly

  • Mary I (1553-1558) brought back Catholicism (married Philip II of Spain)

    • Reverses de-Catholicism progress

    • Killed a bunch of Protestants

  • Elizabeth I compromised Protestant/Catholic extremes, never marries

    • Uses her availability to her advantage

    • Still slaughters people to stay in control

Elizabeth’s Virgin Diplomacy

  • Extreme Catholics and Puritans opposed moderation

  • Scottish Calvinists ousted Elizabeth’s cousin, Mary, Queen of Scots

    • Catholics tried to use Mary to attempt to oust Elizabeth, for Mary, who is more pro-Catholics

  • Mary fled to England because Presbyterians threw her out of Scotland; placed under house arrest; beheaded

  • Elizabeth gives secret aid to French Huguenots and Dutch Calvinists in their respective civil war

  • This angers Philip (he owns Netherlands), so his Spanish Armada invaded English, but fails (1588)

  • Failed Spanish invasion saved Protestantism and Elizabeth

Philip’s Militant Catholicism

  • Spain was an enigma in Europe, focused on homologous religion instead of religious unrest

  • Son of Charles V

    • Charles quits, divides his empire

    • Gives son Spain (+Netherlands), brother HRE

  • Top-down micromanager; married Bloody Mary I of England

  • Embedding Catholicism in everything

  • Militant Catholicism → forcing everyone to either leave or be Catholic

  • Gold/silver from Spanish America creates severe inequality in Spain, via inflation

    • Philip waged costly wars, exacerbating the situation

    • Philip inherits an economically unstable nation

  • Success: 1571 victory over Turks at Lepanto, granting Spanish control of Mediterranean

    • Halted Ottoman expansion into Christian Europe

    • Keeps Ottomans behind on naval power

  • Failure: 1588 Armada defeat against English

    • Lose war = lose money

    • Philip mad at Elizabeth for supporting Dutch and being a centrist

    • Big ships tried to sail through narrow English Channel; sunk

  • 1566: Dutch Calvinists revolted against Spanish rule

    • Independence moment: lead by William of Orange

    • William unified Protestant North, Catholics unified the south

  • It took until 1648 for Spain to admit the Dutch were independent

    • The Netherlands (as a geographical region) were very contested in this time period

    • Dutch Republic: pluralistic, culturally free, inclusive, liberal

The Catholic Reformation

  • aka counter-reformation

  • Pope Paul III was a reform Pope, issues edicts to address issues in the Catholic church

  • Catholic schools

    • Benedicts (old-school)

    • Jesuits (reformer men)

      • Francis I

    • Ursuline (nuns)

  • Council of Trent (1545-1563)

    • Discussion about Catholic reforms

    • Addressed the following

      • Education

      • Stop pluralisms

      • Morals

      • Selling offices

      • Absenteeism

    • Human issues addressed, doctrine not changed = cemented divisions (Ca/Pr)

    • Anabaptists

  • Roman Inquisition: tribunals to root out and punish heretics (anyone not Catholic)

    • Spanish love it (military catholicism)

  • Index of Prohibited Books to never read; abandoned in the 1960s

The Wars of Religion - A French Civil War: Catholics v. Huguenots (1562-1598)

  • Catherine de' Medici - mother of three kings

  • ~40% of nobility became Huguenots (seen as peasants converting)

  • Henry II’s death → Catherine de’ Medici’s regency over three young sons

    • Regent - the adult who is really in control over baby kings

    • Dauphine - heir in waiting (son or brother)

    • Francis II (1560) → Charles IX (1574) → Henry III (1589)

  • Henry of Bourbon (H) v. Guise Family (C) v. Catherine (C)

    • Henry of Navarre v. Henry of Guise v. Henry III

  • 1572 Catherine launched St. Bartholomew Day massacre to keep power (Huguenots killed)

    • Slaughter ensued on both sides

    • Example of big government at its worst

  • Politiques called for secular compromise

    • Signaling Age of Reason

    • Influence from Italian Renaissance

Henri³

  • 1589: Henry III and Henry of Guise were assassinated → Henry of Navarre becomes Henry IV

    • Bourbons rule France for a long time

  • Catholics elevated a pretender (pretend Catholics’ king, Henry III relative) & called Spain

    • Spain recognizes pretend-king, creating political havoc and power struggle

    • This keeps France chaotic and weak, strengthening Spain in Europe

    • European countries kept “messing” with each other

  • 1593: Henry IV converted to Catholicism, issuing ➡Edict of Nantes⬅

    • Allowed areas of France to choose their religions (just like the Peace of Augsburg!)

    • Pluralism introduced in France, officially

  • Laid the foundation for absolutism (king is absolute in power)

    • Lays foundation for all Bourbon kings after him to be absolute monarchs

    • English king is checked in power by Parliament, no check for French king’s power

    • Monarchs never called the Estates General (French Parliament) into session

    • “I am the state” - Louis XIV

  • Henry IV assassinated in 1610 by a (crazed) Catholic, his young son Louis XIII became king

    • Baby king controlled by regents

Charles V’s Religious Issues

  • 1519: Charles I of Spain became Charles V of Spain + HRE

    • Inherits HRE, but there was already a Charles I of HRE

    • Father of Philip II

  • Goals: keep empire and Catholicism

    • End up falling apart

  • Problems/Drama: Ottoman, French, papacy, decentralized HRE

    • French and Ottoman (via Spain and HRE) kept messing with Habsburgs

  • 1521-1544 Habsburg-Valois territorial wars took attention away from Luther

  • April 1531: Charles V demanded Lutherans return to Catholicism (to reunify HRE)

    • Failed, duh

  • Protestant defensive league formed: Schmalkaldic League

    • Protestant states within HRE unify mess with Charles even more

    • These states were far between, no connections

  • French and Turkish wars took advantage of internal upheaval within HRE

    • Saboteurs, stoking the flame of dissent

  • Schmalkaldic League was aided by Henry II of France, creates more tension & chaos

    • Catholic France helping Protestant HRE, all to weaken Germany

  • This led to the issuing of the Peace of Augsburg (1555)

  • 1556: Charles V quits (overwhelmed), son gets Spain (Philip II), brother HRE (Ferdinand I)

Decentralized HRE

  • By 1600, Lutherans became isolated, making intellectualism decline

    • Things are calm → no dialectical discussion between states (private)

  • Decentralized + Atlantic shift (Columbus) + Dutch control of Rhine = HRE no longer bankers of Europe

    • Fugger decay

    • Too decentralized → slippery slope

  • Calvinist infiltration of Palatinate (HRE elector state, one of seven)

    • Big deal to Catholic emperor, symbolic of disunity

    • Palaitinate formed Protestant union with Dutch, English, and French (want more power and weaken Germany)

      • HRE becomes “playground” for foreign powers

      • Monarch so weak they can’t do anything

  • Bavaria formed Catholic union with Spain → continued decentralization

  • Spain looked to crush Dutch independence (at this time they didn’t recognize Dutch independence)

  • French Goals: Protect Protestantism & Keep German states divided and weak

    • Catholic France is using Protestantism as a tool to keep Germany weak

    • Secular diplomacy for power balance, instead of based solely on religion

    • France slaughters its own Huguenots while helping German Protestants

  • So much decentralization leads to collapse

Wicked Witches

  • Population leveled off (stagnating) by 1620, decline in central/southern Europe

    • Population vs. food supply

    • Famine: too much people, not enough food

    • Social change

  • Mid 16th century - 2nd little ice age

  • Facilitated hysteria over witches (mostly in HRE)

    • Religious dissension → witch trials (fear)

    • Disagreement → blame

  • 110k trials, about 50% executed (75-80% of accused were women, mostly unmarried)

    • Why women? Fornicated with devil

  • By 17th century, governments became more tolerant of other religions and stabilize

    • Social issues caused by politics, economics, religion

La Querelle de Femmes (The Women Question)

  • Protestant/Catholics debate about women’s role as preachers

    • Protestant view is more tolerant so women drift towards it

  • Discussion did little to change traditional views

  • Progression: Intellectual roles to read the Bible in Protestantism

  • Witchcraft and demonic sex

    • Demonic sex = non-traditional intercourse (sodomy) (labido)

    • Same sax rejection → demonic

    • 50k-100k executed throughout all of Europe

  • Reformers elevated marriage over celibacy'

    • Celibacy is celebrated in Catholics

    • Protestants advocate for healthy sex life

    • Anabaptists and original sin

  • Maria of Antwerp (1719-1781): arrested twice for marrying a woman (dressed up as a man)

  • Catholic guilt (for sins) vs. protestant tolerance of sex

Regulating Morals

  • Secular laws regulating private life (retribution, punishment)

    • We value privacy in our lives in USA

    • Reforming prisoner treatment doesn’t occur until 19th centry

  • Stricter codes on prostitutes and beggars

    • Seeing beggars; they messed up so they are book

  • Charivari = punishing serenade to mock unpopular person (purity a big deal)

  • Purer → more desirable → live better life

  • Stocks (pillory)

    • Mutilation, public whipping, branding

  • Medics compare first birthday of new birth and day of marriage to find premarital sex