Welcome back to History 1122, the second half
of Western Civ.
We’re going to discuss the Protestant Reformation
here for a few moments.
The context here, there are probably a few,
but I’ll give you one good one that kind
of fits in with out course.
We’re making a transition over time, and
it will take some time, a few centuries.
But we’re moving from feudalism to modern
nation states, and the reformation is one
of the key elements in this transition.
We’ll talk about feudalism in more detail
as well.
Significances?
There are a lot of significances for the reformation.
First and foremost and the one thing you should
remember the rest of your life is that the
reformation shattered the Christian unity
of Europe.
It also began the wars of religion that will
dominate the 16th and into the 17th centuries.
It initiates witch hunts; people tend to be
frightened when the world around them is changing
dramatically, and they look for scapegoats.
So we see the emergence of witches, upon which
people can blame their problems.
Other significances – We see a rash of martyrs,
Protestant martyrs especially, being sacrificed,
being persecuted and oppressed by the Catholic
authorities, and these martyrs of course,
have a choice.
They don’t have to die; they can recant
and rejoin the orthodoxy, the right way to
think.
But quite often they don’t, and these martyrs
are viewed as – what did one church Father
say?
‘the martyrs are the seeds of the church’
– because they impress the audience that’s
watching people die for their faith.
Other significances – We see the beginning,
or the emergence of science here; the scientific
method; thinking outside the box of the old
authorities, the Bible, and the ancient writers
like Aristotle and others.
You see the emergence beginning here of reason
over faith.
This may seem strange because this is a religious
conflict, but it’s going to have unexpected
consequences.
You’re also going to see – in the Reformation
– the emergence of widespread literacy.
The printing press is created in, I think
it’s 1453 by Guttenberg in Germany.
The printing press, of course, the first that’s
going to be replicated is the Bible, and the
Bible is going to be disseminated widely in
vernacular languages.
Widespread literacy is going to accompany
this, and this is going to help both foster
the Reformation and to prolong it.
Now, a definition, the Reformation is a religious
revolution in the 16th century.
I’ll go a little further.
It begins as an attempt to reform the Catholic
Church, instead it shatters the Christian
unity of Europe and creates just a wide variety
of Protestant sects around Europe that will
then be disseminated across the world during
the age of exploration – the Lutherans,
and the Calvinists, and the Presbyterians,
and the Anglicans, and so on and so on.
Let’s talk about some origins of the Reformation,
and then we’ll talk about the case that’s
made against the church by the reformers.
One of the origins of the Reformation is the
papal schism; this is in the 14th and early
15th centuries.
Here we have two popes, one in Rome and one
in Avignon in France.
This diminishes peoples respect for the church
because the church apparently has more interest
in politics than it does in salvation.
The cause of this is the Hundred Years War
between England and France, and both sides
are seeking legitimacy from the church.
The consequences of this are obvious, half
the Christian world holds the other half of
the Christian world to be heretical and excommunicate;
these are very serious charges.
Other long-term causes – Well the Black
Death is going to contribute because it’s
going to decimate Latin speakers in Europe.
Latin, of course, is the overarching language
of Europe, spoken by the priests, and by other
educated men.
The Black Death is going to wipe out a lot
of Latin speakers.
This is going to help open the door for vernacular
languages, the local provincial languages
of the people.
Church corruption – So let’s make the
case – or let’s review – some of the
arguments that the reformers made against
the church.
The church is corrupt.
The church has lost its way.
The church has ceased to practice Imitatio
Christi, which we’ve already talked about
in the context of the Black Death.
Sources of wealth – The reformers charge
that the church is more interested in accruing
wealth than it is in acting in the way of
the Lord.
How does the church acquire its wealth?
In a number of ways.
The church essentially sells fire insurance
to its parishioners.
This is not fire insurance for your home;
this is fire insurance against eternal damnation
and hell.
What happens is that you bequeath your property
to the church, and the church intercedes on
your behalf to keep you from Satan.
The church also sells what today we might
call long-term disability insurance.
Again, it works the same way, you bequeath
your property to the church and then upon
your death your property goes to the church,
and in exchange the church takes care of you
as you become older and perhaps feeble or
blind or lame or suffering from other maladies.
So it’s an exchange for care, long-term
care in old age, for your property.
Church land, of course, is inalienable.
Once the church acquires property it’s very
difficult to take that property away from
it.
Church land is also quite often free from
taxation.
Again, factors in the church’s wealth.
The reformers charge that high church officials
– the cardinals and popes, bishops – are
chosen not for their piety, but for their
wealth and their political connections.
The reformers charge that these high church
officials act as almost like ambassadors of
a great empire, as opposed to servants of
God.
What’s the old saying?
The biggest bribes in Europe are paid at the
Vatican – indicating the corruption that
we’re talking about.
The reformers charge that the clergy’s morals
are suspect.
Some priests are illiterate, can’t even
read the Bible.
Others charged that the priests spend more
time in the tavern than they do in the chapel,
or that they are womanizers.
Just a variety of sinful behavior, and of
course, indulgences is probably the most famous
charge made against the church.
Here, donating money will hopefully lead to
salvation.
So indulgences are created by the church to
raise funds to build the great cathedrals
in St. Peter’s and on and on.
Indulgences are helpful to the church and
presumably helpful to the parishioner who
donates money instead of the usual penance
of prayers or alms or a pilgrimage or a crusade.
Here we’re simply donating money for salvation.
Let’s talk about Martin Luther for a moment.
Martin Luther, of course, is the German priest
who sort of triggered this Reformation.
He was born in 1483 in Germany, ordained as
a priest in 1507.
He took the vows of poverty, chastity, and
obedience, and in 1517 he nails his so-called
95 Theses to the door of a local church there
in Wittenberg.
Let’s talk about the 95 Theses then, what
was their impact?
Luther makes the case that Christians are
justified, or saved, by their faith and their
faith alone.
The traditional Catholic doctrine says people
are justified by their works, by what they
do here on Earth, and Luther says – no,
that’s quite wrong – that you are justified
wholly by your faith in God.
This is a serious charge and a serious challenge
to Catholic orthodoxy.
The 95 Theses are, of course, posted on All
Saints Day, this is early November.
This is a celebration of the harvest.
Today we call it Halloween.
This is a terribly important time in the average
European’s life.
If the harvest is unsuccessful, then people
are going to starve.
So the harvest – hopefully – is brought
in, it is successful, and the villagers will
gather, the farmers will gather, in a town
or village to celebrate this harvest; it’s
a festival.
Now during this festival, the church and the
local noblemen may display their religious
relics.
This could be a lock of hair from a saint
or a bone from some holy figure or clothing
from some legendary Christian.
Many of you have probably heard of probably
the most famous relic of all, the so-called
Shroud of Turin – the clothing that Jesus’
corpse was wrapped in.
I think it’s been demonstrated through science
that this is a hoax, but nevertheless, you
get the point.
I heard on historian say that there was a
time when every church in Europe claimed to
have a piece of the cross upon which Jesus
was crucified.
This, of course, is nonsense but you have
to ask yourself – why would a church make
this claim?
For the obvious reason, to draw parishioners;
parishioners come to the church, perhaps they
will die; perhaps they will join the church.
We should emphasize Luther did not consider
himself a heretic or someone breaking with
the Catholic faith.
He thought of himself as a good Catholic priest,
but Luther believed that selling indulgences
made sin a trivial matter that could be resolved
with money.
Luther believed that indulgences were a sign
of the church’s moral decay.
Luther believed that indulgences demonstrated
that the church had taken on powers that only
God possessed.
Now, consequences of these 95 Theses – Remember
the middle of the 15th century, the printing
press?
Well, the printing press takes 95 Theses are
turns them from a local, small controversy
into continental-wide controversy because
they spread rapidly.
You can imagine the Pope the first time he
got a look at these.
Other consequences of the 95 Theses – And
again, these are sort of big, general conclusions.
We talked earlier about this is going to help
in that transition from feudalism to the modern
nation state and to absolute and very powerful
monarchs.
The feudal economy is going to begin to transition
into what today we would recognize as capitalism,
and of course, it’s also going to trigger
a response by the church that we call the
Catholic Counter-Reformation, and we’ll
talk about that next time.
Thank you.
