Chapter 14 Reform and Renewal in the Christian Church Cover Slide.

Chapter 14

Reform and Renewal in

the Christian Church

Cover Slide

The Protestant Reformation

• In the 1500s, calls for reform unleashed forces that would shatter Christian unity. The movement is known as the Protestant Reformation.

• People who joined the movement for reform called themselves Protestants, for those who “protested” papal authority.

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Abuses in the Church• Beginning in the late Middle Ages, the

Church had become increasingly caught up in worldly affairs.– Popes competed with Italian princes for political

power. – Popes fought long wars to protect the Papal

States against invaders.– Some clergy promoted the sale of indulgences.– Popes led lavish lifestyles and spent a great deal

of money on the arts. – The Church increased fees for services such as

weddings and baptisms to finance worldly projects.

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The Condition of the Church (ca 1400–1517)

• Signs of Disorder– Clerical immorality - priests frequently violated their vows of

celibacy. They were also accused of drunkenness, gambling, and other vices.

– Clerical ignorance - many priests could barely read or write. They were less educated than most educated laity.

– Clerical absenteeism and pluralism - especially in higher-level Church officials who were often absent from their sees. Many held more than one office at a time, and some had bought their offices.

– Many Italian officials in Rome held benefices in England, France, or Germany, drawing income there from, but doing little for their sees.

– Upper levels of the Church hierarchy were dominated by aristocrats who lived well.

Benefices, Pluralism and Simony• Under pre-Reformation Cannon Law Benefices came to

mean an income enjoyed — often linked to some land administered — by a priest in chief of an ecclesiastical office.

• Over time, the benefice system was abused throughout Europe. As benefices came to priests due to feudal patronage and political considerations, priests occasionally held more than one benefice, called pluralism. This pluralism quite often resulted in absenteeism, where the priest would not take care of his benefice.

• Pluralism was often seen as a good investment for a family that could afford to buy a position (Simony) for a younger son or other protégé. The position would allow the family to curry favor in the Church and serve to guarantee a future for the appointee.

In his painting St. Sebastian Interceding for the Plague-Stricken, the Flemish artist Josse Lieferinxe portrays an outbreak of the plague. One dying man seems to be falling terrified to the ground while a female bystander in the background screams in alarm. In the foreground the body of a dead person, carefully shrouded, is attended by a priest and other clerics bearing a cross. In the background is a cart transporting the dead to common graves. At the top of the painting, Christ listens to the prayers of Saint Sebastian (pierced by arrows). (The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore)

St. Sebastian and the Plague-stricken

The Condition of the Church (ca 1400–1517)

• Signs of Vitality– In Holland the Brethren of the Common Life

lived simply, aided the poor, and taught in local schools.

• An example of pre-reformation church reform

– Church attendance and church donations remained high.

– Pope Julius II summoned an ecumenical council to discuss Church reform (1512–1517).

Josse Lieferinxe, a French painter of the Provencal school, was active in Marseilles from 1493 to 1508. This ancon (devotional object), decorated with eight scenes from the life of St. Sebastian, was commissioned in 1497 for the church of Notre Dame des Accoules in Marseilles. Lieferinxe took over the painting when the original artist died before finishing the work. This panel was from the right section of the great ancon. Here we see Christians, especially those who are ill or handicapped, flocking to the Tomb of St. Sebastian. (Scala/Art Resource, NY)

Lieferinxe, Pilgrims at the Tomb of St.

Sebastian

Martin Luther and the Birth of Protestantism

• Luther’s Early Years– Luther was a conscientious friar, but

observance of the religious routine did not bring him a sense of security in salvation.

– Eventually he concluded that only simple faith in Christ led to salvation.

The Teachings of Martin Luther• Salvation is achieved through faith alone.

– Luther rejected Church doctrine that good deeds were necessary for salvation.

– Doctrine of Indulgences does not agree in this

• The Bible is the sole source of religious truth.– Luther denied other authorities, such as Church

councils or the pope.

• All Christians have equal access to God through faith and the Bible.– Luther rejected the idea that priests and Church

officials had special powers.

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Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472-1553) is known for his portraits. He painted the dual portraits of Martin Luther and his wife Katharine von Bora, who married in 1525 and had an exceptionally happy union. (Scala/Art Resource, NY)

Luther and his wife Katherine

The massive figure of John Frederick, Elector of Saxony, who protected and supported Luther, dominates this group portrait of Martin Luther and the Wittenberg Reformers by Lucas Cranach the Younger. Luther is on the far left; his associate Philipp Melanchthon is in the front row on the right. Luther's face shows a quiet determination. (The Toledo Museum of Art, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey)

Cranach, Luther and the Wittenberg

Reformers

• The Ninety-five Theses– In Luther’s home of Wittenburg in 1517 the Church

was selling indulgences to raise money for the construction of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome

– By the 1500s common people believed that when they purchased an indulgence, they were purchasing from the Church full remission of penalties for sin.

– Luther rejected the notion that good works, such as donating money to the Church through an indulgence, could lead to salvation. He was disturbed that Church friars were misleading the common people and wrote to his archbishop in protest.


In this woodcut by Matthias Gerung (Spottblatt auf die katholische Geistlichkeit) the sale of indulgences is viciously satirized. With one claw in the holy water symbolizing the rite of purification, and the other claw resting on the coins paid for indulgences, the church, in the form of a rapacious eagle with its right hand stretched out for offerings, writes out an indulgence with excrement--which represents its worth. Fools, in a false security, sit in the animal's gaping mouth, representing hell.(Kunstsammlung der Veste Coburg)

Matthias Gerung, Folly of Indulgences

This woodcut by Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472-1553) was designed to make clear the distinction between the evangelical church and the papacy. On one side Christ and his sacrifice are clearly at the center; on the other the pope and innumerable church officials are caught in the flames of hell. (Kunstsammlung, Dresden)

Cranach, True Church and False

• The Ninety-five Theses– In 1519 Luther challenged the authority of the Pope

(and of a general church council) in public debate. He was excommunicated.

– Holy Roman Emperor Charles V declared Luther an outlaw.

• Demanded that he appear before the Diet of Worms

• Duke Frederick of Saxony sheltered him.

– Ulrich Zwingli, a Swiss priest, joined the Reformation in 1519, denouncing indulgences, monasticism, Mass and celibacy. Like Luther, Zwingli insisted the laity should read the Bible.


Pope Clement VII's coronation of Charles V as emperor of the Holy Roman empire on February 24, 1530, shown in this painting, added a significant dimension to Charles's formidable stature. Charles grips a sword and an orb, symbols of the political and military power he already holds. The ceremony took place in San Petronio, a church remodeled during the Renaissance to recall the architecture of the Roman Empire.

Coronation of Charles V in Bologna

• Protestant Thought – Luther maintained that God’s grace alone, without

any element of individual good works, saved people.– Luther held that religious authority resided in

Scripture alone, not Scripture in combination with traditional Church teachings.

– Luther asserted that the Church consisted of the whole community of believers, not just the clergy.

– Luther emphasized the invisible Church of all believers, not the visible hierarchy culminating in the Pope.

– Luther argued that there were only three, not seven, sacraments - baptism, penance, and the Eucharist.


One of the most popular ideas among Protestants was that true religion should be taught and preserved in the Christian family, presided over by the father. The detail in this painting shows not only the interior of a Flemish home but also the role of the father and the symbolic importance of meals eaten together. (The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust)

Everyday Holy Household

• Protestant Thought– The Catholic Church claimed transubstantiation -

that is, that the bread and wine of the Eucharist literally became Christ’s body and blood—but Luther disagreed.

• Luther argued for consubstantiation - that Christ was really present in the host in spirit, but that the bread and wine were not transformed.

• Zwingli argued that the Eucharist was a memorial of the Last Supper and nothing more.

• John Calvin believed with Luther in consubstantiation.


• The Social Impact of Luther’s Beliefs– Even before Luther city governments in

Germany had been expressing resentment of clerical privilege and immunities.

– Even before Luther town burghers, disgusted with the poor quality of priestly teaching, had endowed preacherships to support good preachers.


• The Social Impact of Luther’s Beliefs– Luther’s writing that “a Christian man is the

most free lord of all” contributed to peasant unrest in Germany.

– Following crop failures in 1523 and 1524, Swabian peasants in 1525 listed Grievances through the Twelve Articles and demanded an end to death taxes, new rents, and noble seizure of village common lands.

– Luther initially backed the peasants.


• Summary of the Twelve Articles of the Peasants in Swabia, 1525

• The right of each community to choose and depose its own pastor • An end to the small tithes of cattle for lay and ecclesiastical lords. • Release from serfdom. • Free access to fish and game. • Free access to firewood as needed. • An investigation of excessive tenural services. • Strict observance by the lords of the agreements made with their

servants. • New rent assessments, based on equity and justice. • The basing of legal judgments, that is, punishments, on customary law

rather than on constantly appearing arbitrary new laws. • The return of expropriated common fields. • Abolition of the death tax. • The Bible and "divine law" justifies these demands.


Luther’s ideas spread quickly in northern Germany and Scandinavia.

• Many clergy saw Luther’s reforms as the answer to Church corruption.

• German princes hoped to throw off the rule of both the Church and the Holy Roman emperor.

• Germans supported Luther because of feelings of national loyalty.

• Peasants hoped that Luther would support social and economic change.

• The Social Impact of Luther’s Beliefs– When the peasants turned to violence, however, Luther

egged the lords on as they crushed the rebellions.– Lutheranism came to exalt the state and subordinate

church to the secular rulers.– Luther owed his success to the printing press, which

helped him to spread his message, and to his own rhetorical skill.

– Luther’s claim that all vocations have equal merit, the Protestant rejection of monasticism and celibacy, the insistence that all laity (including women) should read the Bible, and Luther’s acceptance of sexual desire (within marriage) all contributed to some improvement in women’s circumstances.


The German peasants believed Martin Luther's call for individual freedom of conscience included economic and political freedom. Their revolt of 1524-1525 struck terror in the hearts of German rulers. This sixteenth-century German woodcut--the title page of an anonymous pamphlet from the Peasants' War, 1525--shows that the peasant army was lightly armed; many peasants carried only tools, pitchforks, flails, and scythes.

Peasant Freedom

Map: Reform in Germany, 1517-1555

Reform in Germany, 1517-1555The pattern of religious reform in Germany was complex. Although some territorial princes, such as the dukes of Bavaria, rejected the reform, most free towns, particularly those in the southwest, adopted it. (Copyright (c) Houghton Mifflin. All rights reserved.)

Germany and the Protestant Reformation

• The Rise of the Habsburg Dynasty– In 1477 the marriage of Maximilian I of the House

of Habsburg and Mary of Burgundy united the Austrian Empire with Burgundy and the Netherlands, making the Habsburgs the strongest ruling family in the Holy Roman (German) Empire.

– The Habsburg Charles V (1500–1558) inherited Spain, and Spanish possessions in Italy, Sicily, and Sardinia, in addition to the lands mentioned above.

– In 1519 Charles was elected Holy Roman Emperor. He believed that it was his duty to maintain the unity of Christendom.

Map: The Global Empire of Charles V

The Global Empire of Charles VCharles V exercised theoretical jurisdiction over more European territory than anyone since Charlemagne. He also claimed authority over large parts of North and South America. (Copyright (c) Houghton Mifflin Company. All Rights Reserved.)

Germany and the Protestant Reformation

• The Rise of the Habsburg Dynasty– Many German princes converted to Lutheranism

because it allowed them to seize Church property.

– Charles V focused his attention elsewhere, and he needed the help of Protestant princes—for example, to fight off the Turkish attack on Vienna in 1529.

– In the Peace of Augsburg (1555) Charles accepted the religious status quo in Germany.

• People of Germany became either Lutheran or Catholic depending on the preference of their prince.

In this woodcut of the Augsburg Confession being read to Charles V, the artist has included text and images of the Lutheran teachings on the sacraments and the nature of salvation in the background. In contrast are the images on the left of a papal ceremony and court hierarchy in which, the artist implies, Christ is not present. (Kunstsammlung Veste Coburg)

Augsburg Confession

The Growth of the Protestant Reformation

• Calvinism– Much of northern Europe broke with the Roman Church by 1555.– Calvinism was the most important new form of Protestantism.– Proceeding from the idea of God’s absolute sovereignty and his

omnipotence, the founder of Calvinism, John Calvin, concluded that human beings could do nothing to save themselves. God decided at the beginning of time who would be saved and who would not (predestination).

– Predestination did not lead to fatalism. Rather, Calvinists, convinced they were saved, were ready to endure great hardship in the struggle against evil.

– Calvin and the city government of Geneva attempted to regulate people’s conduct in order to create a godly city on earth. Card playing, dancing, and so on were banned.

– The Genevan government (Hated dissent and would not tolerate it) prosecuted heretics, burning fifty-eight at the stake between 1542 and 1546, including the Spanish heretic Servetus.

– The Calvinist ethic of “the calling” glorified all vocations as pleasing to God. This doctrine encouraged hard work and vigorous activism.

The most important Protestant reformer to follow Martin Luther was John Calvin.

• Calvin followed most of the teachings of Martin Luther. He also preached predestination, the idea that God had long ago determined who would gain salvation. – Made Calvinists confident of their salvation

• In 1541, Calvin set up a theocracy in Geneva. A theocracy is a government run by Church leaders. – Religion was integrated into the Civil government of Geneva – The Elect of the Church were individuals chosen for salvation – The Geneva Consistory severely regulated conduct

• By the late 1500s, Calvinism had taken root in Germany, France, the Netherlands, England, and Scotland.

• In several of these countries, Calvinists faced opposition and persecution from other religious groups.

John Calvin's theology was in most respects similar to Luther's. Both reformers gave primary importance to the authority of the Bible and to the idea of predestination. This portrait of John Calvin is attributed to the German artist Hans Holbein the Younger (ca. 1497-1543). It was painted around 1538, when the 29-year-old reformer was at the beginning of his career in Geneva, where he stayed to participate in the reform of the city, and then remained for the rest of his life. (H. Henry Meeter Center for Calvin Studies, Calvin College and Calvin Theological Semnary)

John Calvin

This painting, the Temple of Lyons, was attributed to Jean Perrissin (ca. 1565). The temple was constructed in 1564 on land near the town hall and paid for by the Protestant community of Lyons. This picture of a simple Calvinist service was probably brought to Geneva by a refugee, for the temple disappeared after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. Although Calvin's followers believed in equality and elected officials administered the church, here men and women are segregated. Beside the pulpit an hourglass hangs to time the preacher's sermon.

Calvinist worship

• The Anabaptists (for-runners of the Quakers) – Anabaptists believed in adult baptism, religious

tolerance, and separation of church and state. They shared property and admitted women as ministers.

– Catholics, Lutherans, Calvinists, and Zwinglians all recognized the doctrine of separation of church and state as pointing toward a secular society, and they persecuted Anabaptists.

– Others wanted use violence to speed up judgment day.

– Most called for religious tolerance and separation of Church and state.


Another great reformer, the Swiss Pierre Viret (1511-71) exercised his ministry at Orbe, Payerne, and Lausanne before taking refuge in Geneva. In this Limoges enamel plaque, Viret preaches before Calvin and others on the fourth petition of the Lord's Prayer, "Give us this day our daily bread." (Louvre/R.M.N./Art Resource, NY)

Pierre Virer preaching before Calvin

• The English Reformation– The Catholic Church was vigorous in early sixteenth

century England and there was less of a gap between clergy and educated laypeople than elsewhere in Europe.

– In 1534, in order to legitimize his divorce and subsequent marriage to Anne Boleyn, English King Henry VIII convinced Parliament to approve the Act of Supremacy, making him head of the English Church.

– Later, Henry seized monasteries (because he wanted the money) and distributed their lands to the upper classes.

– Elizabeth I (r. 1558–1603), daughter of Henry VIII, steered a middle course between Catholicism and the “Puritans” who wanted a “pure” church free of Catholic influences.


England and the Church

In 1528, King Henry VIII asked the pope to annul, or cancel, his marriage.

The pope refused Henry’s request.

Henry took the Church from the pope’s control and created the Church of England.

Protestant King Edward VI brought Protestant reforms to England.

Queen Mary wanted to restore Catholicism to England. She had English Protestants burned at the stake.

Queen Elizabeth forged a compromise between Protestants and Catholics.

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This portrait of Henry VIII, painted by Hans Holbein the Younger in 1540, is the best known of all of Henry's portraits. Although the king is painted half-length, Holbein has successfully captured Henry's regal bearing, finely detailed dress, the impact of his 6′2" frame, and his imperturbable, aloof expression.

Holbein, portrait of Henry VIII

In this allegorical painting by an unknown artist, Henry VIII, on his deathbed, points to his heir, Edward, who is surrounded by Protestant worthies, as the wave of the future. The pope collapses, monks flee, and through the window iconoclasts knock down statues, symbolizing terror and superstition. Since the new order lacked broad popular support, propagandistic paintings like this were meant to sway public opinion. (Reproduced by courtesy of the Trustees, National Portrait Gallery, London)

Henry VIII on death-bed

• The Establishment of the Church of Scotland– Scottish nobles tended to support the Reformation,

while the monarchs, King James V and his daughter Mary (r. 1560–1567), opposed it.

– James Knox, a minister who studied in Geneva with Calvin, was instrumental in getting the Scottish Parliament to set up a Calvinist church as the official state church of Scotland (Presbyterianism).

• Protestantism in Ireland– Although the English tried to impose their church

on Ireland, the Irish resisted and remained Roman Catholic.


• Lutheranism in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark– In Sweden, Norway, and Denmark, monarchs

took the lead in initiating the Reformation.– The sixteenth century saw the establishment of

Lutheranism and the consolidation of the Swedish monarchy.

– Christian III of Denmark and Norway secularized church property and set up a Lutheran church.


• The Reformation in Eastern Europe– Ethnic factors shaped the Reformation in Eastern Europe.– In Bohemia, ethnic grievances of the Czech majority fused

with resentment of the Roman church.– By 1500 most Czechs had adopted the utraqism position.– During the Counter-Reformation, a Catholic revival was

promoted in Bohemia.– By 1500 Poland and Lithuania were joined in a dynastic

union.– Luther’s ideas spread to the Baltic towns and then to the

University of Cracow.


• The Reformation in Eastern Europe– King Sigismund I of Poland banned Luther’s teachings,

limiting its success there.– The Polish szlachta found Calvinism appealing.– The Counter-Reformation cemented the identification of

Poland with Catholicism.– Lutheranism reached Hungary via Polish merchants.

• Military defeat at the battle of Mohács by the Ottomans left Hungary divided into three parts.– Many Magyar magnates accepted Lutheranism because of the

battle.– Recognition of Habsburg rule led to a Catholic restoration in

1699.


The Catholic Reformation and the Counter-Reformation

• The Slowness of Institutional Reform– Preoccupation with the Habsburg-Valois wars and

resistance to the idea of a council kept the popes from acting quickly to deal with the Reformation.

• The Council of Trent– The Council of Trent (1545–1563) reaffirmed the

equal authority of Scripture and of Church tradition. It reaffirmed also the seven sacraments and transubstantiation.

– The Council required bishops to reside in their own dioceses, ended pluralism and simony, and forbade the sale of indulgences.

– The Council ordered that for a marriage to be valid the vows had to be exchanged publicly.

This sixteenth-century painting by the School of Titian depicts a well-attended meeting of the Council of Trent. Since the early sessions were sparsely attended, this meeting seems to be a later session. Few bishops from northern Europe, however, ever attended. The Swiss guards (forefront) of the Vatican were founded by Pope Julius II in 1505 to defend the papacy. (Louvre/R.M.N./Art Resource, NY)

Council of Trent, School of Titian

• New Religious Orders– The new order of Ursuline nuns fought heresy with

religious education for girls.

– Ignatius of Loyola founded the Jesuit order to fight the Reformation, again largely through education.

• The Congregation of the Holy Office– In 1542 Pope Paul III created the Sacred

Congregation of the Holy Office to manage the Roman Inquisition’s battle against heresy.

– The Inquisition was a committee of six cardinals with authority to investigate, judge, and punish heretics. They had authority to execute.


Juan de Valdes Leal (Spanish; active mainly in Seville and Cordoba) was famous for grimly moralizing subjects. He also created moving religious paintings and fine portraits. This portrait of Ignatius Loyola is a reasonable likeness and that of Pope Paul III an idealization; in 1540 he was a very old man. When the Jesuit constitutions were read to him, the pope supposedly murmured, "There is the finger of God." (Institut Amatller d’Art Hispanic)

Pope approves Jesuit constitutions

Between 1562 and her death in 1582, Teresa of Avila founded or reformed fourteen houses of nuns--no small feat for a woman in a very sexist society. She was the first spiritual author to provide a scientific description of the life of prayer, from simple meditation to mystical union with God. But for all her mystical experiences, Teresa was a motherly, practical, and down-to-earth woman with a strong sense of humor. In her late thirties Teresa had profound mystical experiences: she heard voices and had visions in which Christ chastised her for her frivolous life and friends. This seventeenth-century cloisonneenamelwork illustrates one of Teresa of Avila's visions, where an angel seems to pierce her heart several times.

Teresa of Avila

• The Reformations: Revolution or Continuity?– Protestant historians stress that the

Reformation was a radical break with the past, as the Church fragmented.

– Catholic historians stress continuity, noting the reform efforts underway in the Church well before the Protestant Reformation that continued after it had taken hold.


Map: The Protestant and Catholic Reformations

The Protestant and Catholic ReformationsThe Reformations shattered the religious unity of Western Christendom. What common cultural traits predominated in regions where a particular branch of the Christian faith was maintained or took root? (Copyright (c) Houghton Mifflin. All rights reserved.)

Causes and Effects of the Protestant Reformation

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Immediate Effects

•Peasants’ Revolt

•Founding of Lutheran, Calvinist, Anglican, Presbyterian, and other Protestant churches

•Weakening of Holy Roman Empire

•Luther calls for Jews to be expelled from Christian lands

Long-Term Effects

•Religious wars in Europe

•Catholic Reformation

•Strengthening of the Inquisition

•Jewish migration to Eastern Europe

•Increased anti-semitism

Major European Religions about 16004

Chapter 14 Reform and Renewal in the Christian Church Cover Slide.

Documents

church ca

church hierarchy

higherlevel church officials

church increased fees

plaguestricken slide

protestant reformation

clerical absenteeism

reform unleashed forces