Transcript Corruption in the Church

THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION
3 Factors contributed to religious upheaval:
1. The poor - saw Church as wealthy, oppressive ruling class
2. Middle classes - wanted same autonomy in Religion as they
had in economics and politics
3. Kings & princes - fought Church over taxes, territories
Reformation = Revolution -Goal was change, not reform - Church
itself was wrong in principle
Corruption in the Church:
- Pope Alexander VI :
- Bribed Cardinals to get elected, used Church funds to support
his illegitimate son’s wars
- Accused of incest w/ his daughter, Lucrezia Borgia
- Initiated wars to enlarge Papal lands in central Italy
- Pope Leo X – Luther’s opponent – a member of the Medici
banking family of Florence
Martin Luther and the Holy Roman Empire
- (1483-1546) An Augustinian monk who felt that he
still was not on track for salvation
- He felt that ONLY FAITH could save you - good
deeds had nothing to do with it - you could not buy
your way in to heaven by your actions or w/ $$
- He believed faith was a gift given by God alone
- Indulgences - Luther rejected the Church’s
practice of selling forgiveness for the living &
deceased. He also rejected the sacrament of
Penance, where a priest hears & forgives sins
95 Theses - in 1517, Luther nailed his complaints on
a church door - they were quickly printed &
circulated throughout the Holy Roman Empire
Luther Cont’d
- He believed that only the Bible contained the teachings necessary for
salvation - you did not need the Pope/clergy’s interpretations to help
save your soul
- He supported the German nobility &
called on them to support him against
the Church - many nobles supported
him as a way to resist the centralizing
power of the HRE
- illiterate lower class also backed him
- shared his apocalyptic, end-of-days
view
John Tetzel - a friar authorized by the
Church to sell indulgences - he was a
focal point of Luther’s anger
- Social, nationalist, religious protests fused w/ lower class resentment
of the wealthy Church – reflected the Czech revolt that emerged w/
Jan Hus’ protest against the Church
- Diet of Worms, 1521 - meeting called by HRE Charles V to address
Luther’s issues
- “Here I stand...” - Luther professed his desire not to reform
the Church, but to reject the Catholic hierarchy entirely - he was
excommunicated as a result and became an outlaw in the HRE –
avoided Hus’s fate due to the protection of a German noble
Frederick the Wise, elector of Saxony
Diet of Worms- 1521
Lower Class Reaction:
Peasant War of 1525 - peasants & artisans fought against the
Catholics and Landed Nobility - Luther disagreed w/ fight
against nobility
- Luther - religion is separate - all must obey civil authority despite
differences of faith
- Catholic Church - largest land-owner in German states (1/7th of the land)
- Peasants & artisans paid taxes to Church & nobility
- Cath. & Prot. nobles united to crush it, Luther supported Nobles
- 100,000 killed, many more wounded or maimed
- Nobles were winners - they simultaneously defeated peasants &
confronted the HRE’scentralized authority over them
Upper Class Reaction -The German Princes and Lutheranism:
- Resented Church’s taxes which drained German lands of wealth
- Popes were almost always Italian, Cardinals were Italians, Frenchmen,
and Spaniards
- Luther knew he needed the Princes, so he supported their confiscation
of Church lands, encouraged peasants to obey them
- Many princes openly converted to they could collect their own
religious taxes, eliminate power of church courts, and wipe out
church territorial boundaries that divided their lands (dioceses)
- Some free cities did the same for the same reasons
Huldrych Zwingli & John Calvin
-Huldrych Zwingli (1484-1531) - Swiss preacher from Zurich who
attacked Church corruption & other Church dogma
- differed with Luther on concept of Transubstantiation- idea that
Christ is literally present in the bread (Eurcharist) and wine - that it is
miraculously transformed through the mass into the
actual body and blood of Christ:
- Luther believed it, Zwingli believed
the bread & wine were SYMBOLS of
Christ’s union w/ believers
- attempts to reconcile their opposing
views failed – other rifts formed that
split the Reform movement into
several different sects
Huldyrch Zwingli
CALVINISM
JOHN CALVIN - French clergyman, humanist, lawyer - a
generation younger than Luther
*Agreed with most Lutheran thought
Institutes of the Christian Religion his most famous work - denounced
Church, professed his views
Calvin’s key focus:
PREDESTINATION - your salvation/damnation is already known by an
omniscient God. You cannot “earn” salvation -
LUTHER VS. CALVIN
1. Calvin more obsessed w/ predestination - believed very few were
saved - piety was a sign that you were saved.
2. Role of the state - Luther revered civil authority, Calvin rejected it
outright.
3. Lutherans had leaders similar to Bishops, Calvinists had selfcontained communities that elected their own ministers
4. Calvinists - militant, uncompromising - called “Puritans” in Britain
and America
5. Luther retained music, altars, ritual, Eucharist – Calvin forbade
instrumental music, all sacraments, vestments, religious images
Anabaptists
- Laypeople of Zurich who took Zwingli’s lead and had
their own rebellion
- rejected infant baptism & insisted on adult baptism
- lead by the artisan class, supported by middle & lower classes
- radical pacifists who rejected civil authority
-
many executed by Zurich magistrates at Zwingli’s urging for
not swearing allegiance to him and bearing arms
- condemned by HRE, it spread rapidly in southern Germany
- They seized the city of Munster, abolished private property, created
a commune that allowed men to have multiple wives
- City retaken by combined Cath/Prot. army - leaders’ bodies
displayed in cages hung from the church tower
New Forms of Discipline:
- Peasant revolt scared people & turned middle class against the
chaos of the lower classes - they urged self-discipline through several
activities:
- Reading the Bible - part of daily life. It was translated into
the vernacular of multiple languages - protestants preferred it, the
Catholic Church eventually followed suit, contrary to past practice.
- Public Relief for the Poor - The states, often under converted
protestant leadership, sought to rid society of “vagabonds” through
public charity
- Reforming Marriage - Prot. reformers wanted to end clerical celibacy
and make marriage an official institution in both
civil and religious life - it was viewed as essential to a stable
society
The Anglican Church in England
HENRY VIII - “Defender of the Faith”
- Wanted a male heir to ensure stable
succession of the Tudor line
- Wanted divorce from Catherine of
Aragon, daughter of Ferd. & Isab. of
Spain, to marry Anne Boleyn
-C of A’s nephew was Charles V, HRE Pope could not afford to offend him,
refused annulment
ACTS OF SUPREMACY - HVIII established the Anglican Church with
himself as its spiritual head - still mainly Catholic in doctrine
Anglican impact on Catholic England:
- All Catholic tax revenue redirected to the crown
- All papal court appeals/authority dissolved
- Sir Thomas More – Chancellor to the king – executed for publicly
opposing Henry’s divorce
- Dissolved monasteries, confiscated all Church lands, redistributed it
- In Practice – not much changed – Anglicanism greatly resembled
Catholicism in doctrine and practice
Edward VI – Succeeded H8, influenced by reformists, radically changed
religious practice to emulate Calvinist/Protestant ideology
- Priests could marry, faith alone = salvation, English mass,
new version of the Bible, reduced sacraments to 2
Mary Tudor – H8’s daughter – succeeded E6 – daughter of Catherine
of Aragon
- Mad that Mom got the boot
- Reinstituted Catholicism
- Persecuted all Protestants – “Bloody Mary”
Elizabeth Tudor – Daughter of H8 & Anne Boleyn
The Elizabethan Compromise - Puritans (Eng. Calvinists) wanted Eliz. to eradicate all Catholic
ritual from Anglicanism
- 39 Articles of Religion - issued under Eliz., it included much
Catholic ritual along w/ Calvinist practices
- Puritans denounced it, under-cut Anglican authority by
setting up local Presbyteries -localized Puritan councils
that included the minister & town elders
- Puritans encouraged Bible reading, adopted King James Bible,
named after Mary Stuart’s (Scotland) son James
Catholic Reaction:
COUNCIL OF TRENT - 2 goals - reform & establish doctrine
of the Church
Major results included:
- Reaffirmation of salvation by Faith & Good Works
- Reaffirmation of Vulgate as the official Bible
- Reaffirmed transub., priesthood, conf. & absol., purgatory
- Reaffirmed practice of indulgences
- Cemented break w/ Protestants - eliminated hope of
compromise w/ them
New Religious Orders
- Society of Jesus - AKA the “Jesuits”:
- established by Ignatius Loyola, Sp. nobleman
- the most vigorous defenders of the Pope
- established hundreds of colleges in
Eur., As., Africa, eventually America
- their activities restored confidence in
the church’s power to Catholics
- became chief missionaries of the
Church