Renaissance Reformation Spread in Europe.

Renaissance Reformation

The reformation may be perceived as a religious movement which brought about a revolt against the supremacy of the Roman Catholic Church and established a new form of Christianity called Protestantism. As a consequence, papal authority was fully cast off in countries where the Reformation had been successfully introduced. Reformation, swept the whole of Europe and loosened the hold of the Church. In the Middle Ages, the Church controlled every aspect of man's life and activity. Political institutions, economic, literary, and artistic activities were dictated by the Church. It was a period of absolute and unquestioned faith in the Church and whatever the Church preached was followed blindly. There were a few individuals who protested mildly against the Church but they could do nothing to improve the situation. With the onset of the Renaissance, the doctrines and ways of the Church were subjected to scientific inquiry - ideas of absolute faith were scared and reformers like Wyclif, Huss, Luther and Knox located the ideas of a need for change.

 causes of reformation

The beginning of the Reformation were closely related to the Renaissance. they criticized the Roman Church for deviating from it. 

The Church exerted an overpowering influence on political as well. Along with political power, the Church acquired economic power as well. With the emergence of the Holy Roman Empire. Popes became haughty and vain because of their unlimited power. The Church overstepped its boundaries and assumed control of the political activity of the princes and kings. In England, Spain and France, powerful monarchies grew, and the rulers tried to limited the powers of the Church so as to minimise its interference in the political affairs of their kingdoms. To assert their authority, ruler began to disobey papal orders and levied tax on Church property Prior to this, the clergy had been exempted from taxation, and were not subject to the jurisdiction of the royal court, but at the same time were empowered to set up courts and impose punishments. The kings and princes did not enjoy sharing their secular powers with clergy.

The Renaissance gave rise to a nationalistic feeling in Europe. As a result, people began to resent the spiritual authority of foreigners - the Roman Church. They hated contributing money for the papal court, and for the buildings which were constructed to beautify Rome. The practice of the sale of pardons and Indulgences, and other forms of ecclesiastical revenue proved to be a burden on the treasury of most of the countries in Europe. Intelligent men rebelled against this outflow of money from their countries to Rome. Moreover, when it was realized by the people that the Church was not able to lead them morally and spiritually, they withdrew all financial aids to the Church. The reformation, like the Renaissance , spread slowly and gradually and culminated only in the sixteenth century. As early as the thirteenth century, the French king, Philip IV ( 1288-1314) tried to undermine the importance of the papal authority. He wanted to impose taxes on the clergy and also wanted them to be under the jurisdiction of the royal court. Pope Boniface VII tried to retort by holding out threats of ex-communication but had to give in when the king stopped the outflow of gold and silver from France to Rome. Pope Boniface VII was succeeded by the king's friend who instead of living in Rome, lived in France and made Avignon his headquarters. From 1309 - 1377, the Pope lived at Avignon under French control. The Popes,  though humiliated, still led a debauched life. During the year 1378 to 1417 , the Church had two Popes - one in Rome and the other at Avignon and there was considerable rivalry between them, historians have called this the Great Schism.

In English, John Wycliffe ( 1320 - 1385) denounced the degrading agreement contracted by king John to pay tribute to the Pope. Wycliffe was a Professor at Oxford and had a large following. He deemed the Pope unworthy of being the representative of Christ. Wycliffe considered the state higher than the Church because he was aware of the shortcoming of the Church and the malpractices of the clergy. His followers were called 'Lollards' meaning the poor priests. Some writers have named Wycliffe the Morning Star of the Reformation because he was the first man to openly voice his feelings against the Church.

Erasmus, a Dutchman, born in 1469, also criticized the Church through his vitriolic writing. Jestingly, he exposed the ills of the Church in his famous book In Praise of Folly. He wanted to reach out to the masses and educate them so that they may become aware of the incapacity of the Church to act as their moral and spiritual mentor. In spite of his criticism, he remained loyal to the Church till the end. He himself admitted that he 'laid the egg' of the Reformation but Luther hatched a bird of quite a different breed. Erasmus considered Luther's pronouncements against the Church as heresy.

Even in Czechoslovakia, in the fifteenth century, John Huss had opposed the Church and criticised the corrupt practices of the clergy. Huss was declared a heretic and was burnt alive in 1415. This death led to a revolt in Czechoslovakia. All these factors were responsible for the open attach against the Church, and the people felt that it was essential to reform the church. 

Martin Luther : Martin Luther was born in 1483. Once when walking through a forest with a friend, a sudden streak of lightning struck his friend and killed him, Luther survived, and felt that God had saved his life. This induced him to become a monk, but for a long time he remained unhappy leading the life of  a monk. Eventually, he became a Professor in the University of Wittenberg Luther was brutally Frank, both as a teacher and as a monk. He had placed great hopes in the Church but when he came to close contact with it, he realized that the clergy were very corrupt. Disillusioned, he began to propagate ideas which were quite contrary to the Roman Church and its theology.

In 1517, a man named Tetzel set out on a tour of Germany to sell Indulgence to raise funds for rebuilding St. Peter's Church in Rome. Tetzel took advantage of the superstitious nature of the people and amassed a lot of money. Luther was disgusted with the idea of selling Indulgences. When he realized that some of his own followers were buying pardons, Luther decided to raise his voice against this evil practice. He nailed up on the Church door of Wittenberg Ninety-five Thesis condemning the practice of Indulgence. He also challenged the opposing views of the theologians. Through the medium of the printing press, Luther's ideas spread all over Germany and the neighbouring countries. The people in Germany were greatly impressed by Luther who they felt had the courage to protest against what was wrong. Prince, knights, merchants, townsfolk and peasants supported his movement. Tetzel was mobbed and was forced to give up selling Indulgence. People were so critical of the clergy that in some German towns the Bishop and the clergy were actually afraid of being seen in their clerical dress.

When Pope Leo X found his authority threatened by the teachings of Luther of excommunication. Luther remained undaunted and publicly burnt the Bull. Emperor Charles V, who professed to be a follower of the Roman Catholic Church ordered Luther to defend his thesis before a grand Diet, a council of princes and high dignitaries, in the city of Worms in 1512. Luther faced the trial heroically. He refused to recant saying. It is neither safe nor right to act against one's conscience. Luther departed from Worms unharmed but before long, there was an imperial order to arrest him and to ban his books. Luther too, would have been burnt alive like Huss,  but the Elector of Saxony hid him in the Castle of Wartburg. From the castle, he continued writing pamphlets. The most famous was Appeal to the Christian Nobility of the  German Nation published in1520. With publication of this pamphlet, Luther's  following  increased and included people from all the classes in Germany. He translated the Bible into German, believing that people should be able to read the scriptures in their own language. Luther's version of the Bible became very popular. The followers of Luther were called Lutheran or Protestants, because they protested against the teaching of the Church . Instead of recognizing the authority of Pope, they considered the Bible as the word of God. The great religious movement started by Luther split Europe into two camps - protesting and Catholics.

Charles V, who became the king of Spain. Archduke of Austria, ruler of the Netherlands and other dependencies was also elected to the sovereignty of  the Holy Roman Empire and as a result he wanted to maintain Catholicism in his dominions. He could have suppressed the revolt in the very beginning if he had used all his forces against the Lutherans, but he was busy fighting Francis I of France and the Turks under Suleiman I. Eventually, when the religious war broke out, the Emperor defeated the Protestant princes and imprisoned some of them. For a short while it appeared that the movement initiated by Luther was finally suppressed. As Charles V became more powerful, the Pope became apprehensive and tried to maintain his supremacy against the Emperor. Meanwhile, the Protestants once again regained power. A struggle ensued and the Emperor was captured by the Protestants, and made to abandon the struggle. In 1555, he  signed the Peace of Augsburg. This agreement gave liberty to every prince and every free city in Germany to follow either religion, Catholicism or Protestantism. The subjects had to follow the religion prescribed by the ruler. This agreement gave religious liberty to the states but  curbed the freedom of the individual. Lutheranism came to be formally recognized with the Peace of Augsburg. The northern states of Germany were mostly Protestant while the southern states remained Catholic. Lutheranism was successful in Norway and Sweden as the king himself, was a staunch follower of the movement.

The Reformation in other European Countries

In Switzerland , the revolt against the Catholic Church was led  by Zwingli whose doctrines differed somewhat from those of Martin Luther. Zwingli made Zurich the headquarters of his movement. Zwingli linked religion with politics and fought against the Catholic neighbours. In the battle of Kappel in 1531, Zurich was defeated and Zwingli was killed. The centre of the Protestant movement in Switzerland was then shifted from Zurich to Geneva.

Another great Protestant leader was John V Calvin (1509-1564). He was a French  lawyer who came to Switzerland so as to escape persecution on the charges of heresy in his native country.  From Geneva, he preached Protestantism and it spread quickly to Holland, Scandinavia, England, Scotland and France. The Protestants in France were called Huguenots.

John Knox who was a disciple of Calvin, converted more than half the population of Scotland to Calvinism. This form of Protestantism established by Calvin was called 'Presbyterianism' as the Church was supposed to be managed by the Presbyters or Elders. In 1560, Knox issued the confession of faith which established the sovereign authority of the Presbyterian Church of Scotland in all matters.

In England Henry VII ascended the throne, being young, he was proud of his comprehension of theological issues and he even wrote a tract against Luther. The Pope was so happy with him that he bestowed on him the title Defender of the Faith. Very soon however, there was a clash between Henry VIII and Church over a personal issue.

Henry VIII married Catherine of Aragon, the widow of his deceased elder brother. Though the Church did not approve of marrying one's brother's widow, the Pope granted a dispensation and upheld the marriage. Catherine could not give the king an heir to the throne. So Henry wanted to get rid of her and marry the beautiful Anne Boleyn. Only the Pope could grant him a divorce. Henry tried to obtain a divorce on the grounds that his marriage to Catherine was illegal. The Pope could not please Henry VIII by granting the divorce for fear of annoying Charles V, who was Catherine's nephew. The Pope decided to play it safe and tried to delay the question of divorce for years so as not to displease either king. Henry VIII decided to strip the Pope of his authority and the Act of Supremacy 1534 made the king the supreme head of the English Church. This move of his was backed by the support of the people who resented the corrupt practices and laxity of the monks. Henry distributed lands belonging to the Church among those people who had faithfully served the Tudor dynasty. The English Reformation was mainly political and the religion which the English king prescribed to his subjects was not much different from Roman Catholicism. After Henry VIII, there were  considerable shifts in the official policy of England, But it was stabilised under Elizabeth who firmly established the Anglican system.  

Counter Reformation

With the spread of Protestantism, the hold of the papal authority weakened. The Catholic Church in an attempt to reform itself, decided to remove the causes which led to its decadence. A Council was held at Trent in the Tyrol to decide on the measures to be adopted to strengthen the Church. At this Council, the clergy clarified the doctrines of Christianity, introduced reforms and compiled a list of books which the Catholics were not supposed to read. The practice of sale of Indulgences and simony were also condemned. Men worthy of holding high offices were given ecclesiastical posts after intensive screening. This self reform on the part of the Catholic Church is known as the Counter Reformation.

To check the further growth of Protestantism, a new religious order, called the Society Jesus was established in 1534 by Ignatius Loyola, a Spanish soldier, who was wounded in the war and who during his stay in hospital made up his mind to devote the rest of his life in the service of God. The Jesuits gave a great impetus to the Counter Reformation. The Jesuits took the vows that the monks had taken earlier but they did not renounce the world to shut themselves up in the monasteries, Instead, they engaged themselves in constructive activities and travelled all over Europe as teachers and missionaries. They struggled hard to win converts to the Catholic Church even in the countries which had a majority of Protestants. Their sincerity of purpose and their perseverance brought them success. They were able to revive Catholicism in Poland, and in some parts of Germany, Belgium, Czechoslovakia and Hungary and  introduced it in Chain, India and America. The Roman Catholic Church , revived and slowly gained ground. Another reason for the arrest of the Reformation was the dissensions among the Protestants. Martin Luther considered Zwingli, a heretic and Calvin  doubted all the non-Calvinists. People were confused because of conflicting doctrines.

Moreover, the Pope established an ecclesiastical court called the Holy office or the Inquisition which was supposed to try the heretics and punish them any one guilty of heresy was burnt alive. The Inquisition spread a wave of terror in Spain and Italy, people once again, chose to confine their doubts to themselves, rather than to pronounce them for fear of being branded as heretics.

The Effects of Reformation

The Reformation movement induced numerous people to claim freedom of thought in spiritual matters. This awakening brought about a revolt against the established Church which lost its age long hold on the lives of the people. The Reformation forced the Church tried to reform itself in what is termed as the Counter Reformation. With the advent of the Reformation, Christianity was liberalised and it became more rational. Catholic missionaries worked hard to purge the church of its evils.

With the Reformation, the Europe world was divided into two religious group- Catholics and  Protestants. Though it heralded the beginning of the modern age, yet the spirit of tolerance was still unknown, millions of people suffered because of their religion. In reality, the Reformation and the Counter Reformation ushered in a period of religious persecutions and religion wars. Protestants were persecuted by Philip II in Spain and by Bloody Mary in England. Catholic subjects were punished by their Protestant rulers in Germany. The Thirty Years' War between Catholics and Protestants in Germany caused much bloodshed and havoc. Intolerance appeared to be the by-product of the Reformation.

With the onset of the Reformation, monarchy acquired more power as compared to the Church. Henry VIII under the pretext of the Reformation deprived the Pope of his powers. The German princes were freed from the papal hold and other European kings build their monarchies without interference from the Church, Reformation gave a great momentum to the spirit of nationalism, which and recently germinated in Europe.

Liberated from the clutches of the orthodox Church, people felt free to pursue economic and creative activities. The tyranny of the Church came to an end and the Reformation brought about drastic changes in many fields.