The Protestant Reformation, often referred
to simply as the Reformation, was the schism
within Western Christianity initiated by Martin
Luther, John Calvin, and other early Protestant
Reformers. Although there had been significant
attempts to reform the Roman Catholic Church
before Luther—notably those of John Wycliffe
and Jan Hus—the date most usually given
for the start of the Reformation is 1517,
when Luther published The Ninety-Five Theses.
Luther started by criticizing the relatively
recent practice of selling indulgences started
by the Roman Catholic Church, partially to
fund the construction of the St. Peter's Basilica;
he attacked the indulgence system, insisting
that the pope had no authority over purgatory
and that the doctrine of the merits of the
saints had no foundation in the gospel. The
debate widened until it touched on many of
the doctrines and devotional Catholic practices.
The Reformation is generally considered to
have concluded in 1648 with the Peace of Westphalia
that ended the Thirty Years' War and a wider
conflict known as the European wars of religion.
The Reformation movement within Germany diversified
almost immediately, and other reform impulses
arose independently of Luther. The largest
groupings were the Lutherans and Calvinists;
Lutheran churches were founded mostly in Germany,
the Baltics and Scandinavia, while Reformed
churches were founded in France, Switzerland,
the Netherlands and Scotland. The new movement
influenced the Church of England decisively
after 1547 under Edward VI and Elizabeth I,
although the national church had been made
independent under Henry VIII in the early
1530s for political rather than religious
reasons. There were also reformation movements
throughout continental Europe known as the
Radical Reformation which gave rise to the
Anabaptist, Moravian, and other pietistic
movements.
Although the core motivation behind these
changes was theological, many other factors
played a part, including the rise of nationalism,
the Western Schism which eroded people's faith
in the Papacy, the corruption of the Curia,
and the new learning of the Renaissance which
questioned much traditional thought. On a
technological level the invention of the printing
press proved extremely significant in that
it provided the means for the rapid dissemination
of new ideas.
The Roman Catholic Church responded with a
Counter-Reformation initiated by the Council
of Trent and spearheaded by the new order
of the Jesuits specifically organized to counter
the Protestant movement. In general, Northern
Europe, with the exception of most of Ireland,
came under the influence of Protestantism.
Southern Europe remained Roman Catholic, while
Central Europe was a site of a fierce conflict,
culminating in the Thirty Years' War, which
left it severely devastated.
The Protestant Reformation shaped the culture
and history of the Western world, leaving
a legacy of 800 million adherents of Protestant
churches, or nearly forty percent of Christians
worldwide.
History and origins
Background
The oldest Protestant Churches, such as the
Unitas Fratrum, Moravian Church date their
origins to Jan Hus in the early 15th century.
As it was led by a Bohemian noble majority,
and recognised, for a time, by the Basel Compacts,
the Hussite Reformation was Europe's first
"Magisterial Reformation" because the ruling
magistrates supported them; unlike the "Radical
Reformation", which the State did not support.
The later Protestant Churches generally date
their doctrinal separation from the Roman
Catholic Church to the 16th century. The Reformation
began as an attempt to reform the Roman Catholic
Church, by priests who opposed what they perceived
as false doctrines and ecclesiastic malpractice—especially
the teaching and the sale of indulgences or
the abuses thereof, and simony, the selling
and buying of clerical offices—that the
Reformers saw as evidence of the systemic
corruption of the Church's hierarchy, which
included the pope.
Earlier schisms
Unrest due to the Great Schism of Western
Christianity excited wars between princes,
uprisings among the peasants, and widespread
concern over corruption in the church. New
perspectives came from John Wycliffe at Oxford
University, then from Jan Hus at the University
of Prague. Hus objected to some of the practices
of the Roman Catholic Church and wanted to
return the church in Bohemia and Moravia to
early Byzantine-inspired practices: liturgy
in the language of the people, having lay
people receive communion in both kinds, married
priests, and eliminating indulgences and the
idea of Purgatory. Hus rejected indulgences
and adopted a doctrine of justification by
grace through faith alone. The Roman Catholic
Church officially concluded this debate at
the Council of Constance. The conclave condemned
Hus, who was executed by burning in spite
of a promise of safe-conduct. Wycliffe was
posthumously condemned as a heretic and his
corpse exhumed and burned in 1428.
The Council of Constance confirmed and strengthened
the traditional medieval conception of church
and empire. It did not address the national
tensions, or the theological tensions stirred
up during the previous century. The council
could not prevent schism and the Hussite Wars
in Bohemia.
Sixtus IV established the practice of selling
indulgences to be applied to the dead, thereby
establishing a new stream of revenue with
agents across Europe. Pope Alexander VI was
one of the most controversial of the Renaissance
popes. He fathered seven children, including
Lucrezia and Cesare Borgia, by at least two
mistresses. Fourteen years after his death,
the corruption of the papacy that Pope Alexander
VI exemplified—particularly the sale of
indulgences—prompted Luther to write The
Ninety-Five Theses, which he nailed to the
door of a church at Wittenberg in Saxony.
Early Reformation in Germany
The protests against the corruption emanating
from Rome began in Germany when reformation
ideals developed in 1517-1521 with Martin
Luther expressing doubts over the legitimacy
of indulgences and the plenitudo potestatis
of the pope. The Reformation was born of Luther's
dual declaration – first, the discovering
of Jesus and salvation by faith alone; and
second, identifying the Papacy as the Antichrist.
The highly educated Reformation leaders used
prophecies of the Bible as their most powerful
weapon in appealing to committed believers
to break from Babylon, the fallen church,
and to split from the Antichrist who had assumed
the place of God. The Protestant Reformers
were unanimous in agreement and this understanding
of prophecy furnished importance to their
deeds.
It was the rallying point and the battle cry
that made the Reformation nearly unassailable.
The Reformation is often dated to 31 October
1517, All Hallows' Eve, in Wittenberg, Saxony,
where Luther nailed his Ninety-Five Theses
on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences to
the door of the Castle Church. The theses
debated and criticised the Church and the
papacy, but concentrated upon the selling
of indulgences and doctrinal policies about
purgatory, particular judgment, and the authority
of the pope. He would later in the period
1517-1521 write works on the Catholic devotion
to Mary, the intercession of and devotion
to the saints, the sacraments, mandatory clerical
celibacy, monasticism, further on the authority
of the pope, the ecclesiastical law, censure
and excommunication, the prerogatives of secular
rulers in religious matters, the relationship
between Christianity and the Law, Good Works,
and the sacraments. The Reformers made heavy
use of inexpensive pamphlets so there was
swift movement of both ideas and documents.
Magisterial Reformation
Parallel to events in Germany, a movement
began in Switzerland under the leadership
of Ulrich Zwingli. These two movements quickly
agreed on most issues, but some unresolved
differences kept them separate. Some followers
of Zwingli believed that the Reformation was
too conservative, and moved independently
toward more radical positions, some of which
survive among modern day Anabaptists. Other
Protestant movements grew up along lines of
mysticism or humanism, sometimes breaking
from Rome or from the Protestants, or forming
outside of the churches.
After this first stage of the Reformation,
following the excommunication of Luther and
condemnation of the Reformation by the Pope,
the work and writings of John Calvin were
influential in establishing a loose consensus
among various groups in Switzerland, Scotland,
Hungary, Germany and elsewhere.
The Reformation foundations engaged with Augustinianism;
both Luther and Calvin thought along lines
linked with the theological teachings of Augustine
of Hippo. The Augustinianism of the Reformers
struggled against Pelagianism, a heresy that
they perceived in the Roman Catholic Church
of their day. In the course of this religious
upheaval, the German Peasants' War of 1524–1525
swept through the Bavarian, Thuringian and
Swabian principalities, including the Black
Company of Florian Geier, a knight from Giebelstadt
who joined the peasants in the general outrage
against the Roman Catholic hierarchy. Luther,
however, condemned the revolt, thus contributing
to its eventual defeat. Some 100,000 peasants
were killed.
Even though Luther and Calvin had very similar
theological teachings, the relationship between
their followers turned quickly to conflict.
Frenchman Michel de Montaigne told a story
of a Lutheran pastor who declared over dinner
that he would rather hear a hundred Masses
than take part in one of Calvin's sacraments.
Literacy
The Reformation was a triumph of literacy
and the new printing press. Luther's translation
of the Bible into German was a decisive moment
in the spread of literacy, and stimulated
as well the printing and distribution of religious
books and pamphlets. From 1517 onward, religious
pamphlets flooded Germany and much of Europe.
By 1530, over 10,000 publications are known,
with a total of ten million copies. The Reformation
was thus a media revolution. Luther strengthened
his attacks on Rome by depicting a "good"
against "bad" church. From there, it became
clear that print could be used for propaganda
in the Reformation for particular agendas.
Reform writers used pre-Reformation styles,
clichés, and stereotypes and changed items
as needed for their own purposes. Especially
effective were writings in German, including
Luther's translation of the Bible, his Small
Catechism for parents teaching their children,
and his Larger Catechism, for pastors.
Using the German vernacular they expressed
the Apostles' Creed in simpler, more personal,
Trinitarian language. Illustrations in the
German Bible and in many tracts popularised
Luther's ideas. Lucas Cranach the Elder, the
great painter patronised by the electors of
Wittenberg, was a close friend of Luther,
and illustrated Luther's theology for a popular
audience. He dramatised Luther's views on
the relationship between the Old and New Testaments,
while remaining mindful of Luther's careful
distinctions about proper and improper uses
of visual imagery.
Reformation outside Germany
Switzerland
Zwingli
Parallel to events in Germany, a movement
began in the Swiss Confederation under the
leadership of Huldrych Zwingli. Zwingli was
a scholar and preacher who moved to Zurich
– the then-leading city state – in 1518,
a year after Martin Luther began the Reformation
in Germany with his 95 Theses. Although the
two movements agreed on many issues of theology,
as the recently introduced printing press
spread ideas rapidly from place to place,
some unresolved differences kept them separate.
A long-standing resentment between the German
states and the Swiss Confederation led to
heated debate over how much Zwingli owed his
ideas to Lutheranism. Although Zwinglianism
does hold uncanny resemblance to Lutheranism,
historians have been unable to prove that
Zwingli had any contact with Luther's publications
before 1520, and Zwingli himself maintained
that he had prevented himself from reading
them. The German Prince Philip of Hesse saw
potential in creating an alliance between
Zwingli and Luther, seeing strength in a united
Protestant front. A meeting was held in his
castle in 1529, now known as the Colloquy
of Marburg, which has become infamous for
its complete failure. The two men could not
come to any agreement due to their disputation
over one key doctrine. Although Luther preached
consubstantiation in the Eucharist over transubstantiation,
he believed in the spiritual presence of Christ
at the mass. Zwingli believed that the mass
was only representative and memorial – Christ
was not present. Luther became so angry that
he famously carved into the meeting table
'Hoc Est Corpus Meum' – a Biblical quotation
from the Last Supper meaning 'this is my body'.
Some followers of Zwingli believed that the
Reformation was too conservative, and moved
independently toward more radical positions,
some of which survive among modern day Anabaptists.
One famous incident illustrating this was
when radical Zwinglians fried and ate sausages
during Lent in Zurich city square by way of
protest against the Church teaching of good
works. Other Protestant movements grew up
along lines of mysticism or humanism, sometimes
breaking from Rome or from the Protestants,
or forming outside of the churches.
John Calvin
Following the excommunication of Luther and
condemnation of the Reformation by the Pope,
the work and writings of John Calvin were
influential in establishing a loose consensus
among various groups in Switzerland, Scotland,
Hungary, Germany and elsewhere. After the
expulsion of its Bishop in 1526, and the unsuccessful
attempts of the Berne reformer Guillaume Farel,
Calvin was asked to use the organisational
skill he had gathered as a student of law
to discipline the 'fallen city' of Geneva.
His 'Ordinances' of 1541 involved a collaboration
of Church affairs with the City council and
consistory to bring morality to all areas
of life. After the establishment of the Geneva
academy in 1559, Geneva became the unofficial
capital of the Protestant movement, providing
refuge for Protestant exiles from all over
Europe and educating them as Calvinist missionaries.
These missionaries dispersed Calvinism widely,
and formed the French Huguenots in Calvin's
own lifetime, as well as causing the conversion
of Scotland under the leadership of the cantankerous
John Knox in 1560. The faith continued to
spread after Calvin's death in 1563 and reached
as far as Constantinople by the start of the
17th century.
The Reformation foundations engaged with Augustinianism.
Both Luther and Calvin thought along lines
linked with the theological teachings of Augustine
of Hippo. The Augustinianism of the Reformers
struggled against Pelagianism, a heresy that
they perceived in the Roman Catholic Church
of their day. Unfortunately, since Calvin
and Luther disagreed strongly on certain matters
of theology, the relationship between Lutherans
and Calvinists was one of conflict.
Scandinavia
See also: Reformation in Denmark-Norway and
Holstein, Reformation in Iceland, Reformation
in Norway, Reformation in Sweden
All of Scandinavia ultimately adopted Lutheranism
over the course of the 16th century, as the
monarchs of Denmark and Sweden converted to
that faith.
In Sweden, the Reformation was spearheaded
by Gustav Vasa, elected king in 1523. Friction
with the pope over the latter's interference
in Swedish ecclesiastical affairs led to the
discontinuance of any official connection
between Sweden and the papacy from 1523. Four
years later, at the Diet of Västerås, the
king succeeded in forcing the diet to accept
his dominion over the national church. The
king was given possession of all church property,
church appointments required royal approval,
the clergy were subject to the civil law,
and the "pure Word of God" was to be preached
in the churches and taught in the schools—effectively
granting official sanction to Lutheran ideas.
Under the reign of Frederick I, Denmark remained
officially Roman Catholic. But though Frederick
initially pledged to persecute Lutherans,
he soon adopted a policy of protecting Lutheran
preachers and reformers, of whom the most
famous was Hans Tausen. During his reign,
Lutheranism made significant inroads among
the Danish population. Frederick's son, Christian,
was openly Lutheran, which prevented his election
to the throne upon his father's death. In
1536, the authority of the Roman Catholic
bishops was terminated by national assembly.
The next year, following his victory in the
Count's War, he became king as Christian III
and continued the Reformation of the state
church with assistance of Johannes Bugenhagen.
England
Church of England
The separation of the Church of England from
Rome under Henry VIII, beginning in 1529 and
completed in 1537, brought England alongside
this broad Reformation movement; however,
religious changes in the English national
church proceeded more conservatively than
elsewhere in Europe. Reformers in the Church
of England alternated, for centuries, between
sympathies for ancient Catholic tradition
and more Reformed principles, gradually developing
into a tradition considered a middle way between
the Roman Catholic and Protestant traditions.
The English Reformation followed a different
course from the Reformation in continental
Europe. There had long been a strong strain
of anti-clericalism and England had already
given rise to the Lollard movement of John
Wycliffe, which played an important part in
inspiring the Hussites in Bohemia. Lollardy
was suppressed and became an underground movement,
so the extent of its influence in the 1520s
is difficult to assess. The different character
of the English Reformation came rather from
the fact that it was driven initially by the
political necessities of Henry VIII.
Henry had once been a sincere Roman Catholic
and had even authored a book strongly criticising
Luther, but he later found it expedient and
profitable to break with the Papacy. His wife,
Catherine of Aragon, bore him only a single
child that survived infancy, Mary. As England
had recently gone through a lengthy dynastic
conflict, Henry feared that his lack of a
male heir might jeopardise his descendants'
claim to the throne. However, Pope Clement
VII, concentrating more on Charles V's sack
of Rome, denied his request for an annulment.
Had Clement granted the annulment and therefore
admitted that his predecessor, Julius II,
had erred, Clement would have given support
to the Lutheran assertion that Popes replaced
their own judgment for the will of God.
King Henry decided to remove the Church of
England from the authority of Rome. In 1534,
the Act of Supremacy made Henry the Supreme
Head of the Church of England. Between 1535
and 1540, under Thomas Cromwell, the policy
known as the Dissolution of the Monasteries
was put into effect. The veneration of some
saints, certain pilgrimages and some pilgrim
shrines were also attacked. Huge amounts of
church land and property passed into the hands
of the Crown and ultimately into those of
the nobility and gentry. The vested interest
thus created made for a powerful force in
support of the dissolutions.
There were some notable opponents to the Henrician
Reformation, such as St. Thomas More and Bishop
St. John Fisher, who were executed for their
opposition. There was also a growing party
of reformers who were imbued with the Zwinglian
and Calvinistic doctrines now current on the
Continent. When Henry died he was succeeded
by his Protestant son Edward VI, who, through
his empowered councillors the Duke of Somerset
and the Duke of Northumberland, ordered the
destruction of images in churches, and the
closing of the chantries. Under Edward VI
the reform of the Church of England was established
unequivocally in doctrinal terms.
Yet, at a popular level, religion in England
was still in a state of flux. Following a
brief Roman Catholic restoration during the
reign of Mary 1553–1558, a loose consensus
developed during the reign of Elizabeth I,
though this point is one of considerable debate
among historians. Yet it is this "Elizabethan
Religious Settlement" which largely formed
Anglicanism into a distinctive church tradition.
The compromise was uneasy and was capable
of veering between extreme Calvinism on the
one hand and Roman Catholicism on the other,
but compared to the bloody and chaotic state
of affairs in contemporary France, it was
relatively successful until the Puritan Revolution
or English Civil War in the 17th century.
Puritan movement
The success of the Counter-Reformation on
the Continent and the growth of a Puritan
party dedicated to further Protestant reform
polarised the Elizabethan Age, although it
was not until the '40s that England underwent
religious strife comparable to what its neighbours
had suffered some generations before.
The early Puritan movement was Reformed or
Calvinist and was a movement for reform in
the Church of England. Its origins lay in
the discontent with the Elizabethan Religious
Settlement. The desire was for the Church
of England to resemble more closely the Protestant
churches of Europe, especially Geneva. The
Puritans objected to ornaments and ritual
in the churches as idolatrous, which they
castigated as "popish pomp and rags". They
also objected to ecclesiastical courts. They
refused to endorse completely all of the ritual
directions and formulas of the Book of Common
Prayer; the imposition of its liturgical order
by legal force and inspection sharpened Puritanism
into a definite opposition movement.
The later Puritan movement were often referred
to as dissenters and nonconformists and eventually
led to the formation of various reformed denominations.
The most famous and well-known emigration
to America was the migration of the Puritan
separatists from the Anglican Church of England,
who fled first to Holland, and then later
to America, to establish the English colony
of Massachusetts in New England, which later
became one of the original United States.
These Puritan separatists were also known
as "the Pilgrims". After establishing a colony
at Plymouth in 1620, the Puritan pilgrims
received a charter from the King of England
that legitimised their colony, allowing them
to do trade and commerce with merchants in
England, in accordance with the principles
of mercantilism. This successful, though initially
quite difficult, colony marked the beginning
of the Protestant presence in America, and
became a kind of oasis of spiritual and economic
freedom, to which persecuted Protestants and
other minorities from the British Isles and
Europe fled to for peace, freedom and opportunity.
The Pilgrims of New England disapproved of
Christmas and celebration was outlawed in
Boston from 1659 to 1681. The ban was revoked
in 1681 by Sir Edmund Andros, who also revoked
a Puritan ban against festivities on Saturday
night. Despite the removal of the ban, it
wouldn't be until the middle of the 19th century
that Christmas would become a popular holiday
in the Boston region.
The original intent of the colonists was to
establish spiritual Puritanism, which had
been denied to them in England and the rest
of Europe, to engage in peaceful commerce
with England and the native American Indians,
and to Christianize the peoples of the Americas.
Scotland
The Reformation in Scotland's case culminated
ecclesiastically in the establishment of a
church along reformed lines, and politically
in the triumph of English influence over that
of France. John Knox is regarded as the leader
of the Scottish reformation
The Reformation Parliament of 1560 repudiated
the pope's authority by the Papal Jurisdiction
Act 1560, forbade the celebration of the mass
and approved a Protestant Confession of Faith.
It was made possible by a revolution against
French hegemony under the regime of the regent
Mary of Guise, who had governed Scotland in
the name of her absent daughter Mary, Queen
of Scots.
The Scottish reformation decisively shaped
the Church of Scotland and, through it, all
other Presbyterian churches worldwide.
A spiritual revival also broke out among Roman
Catholics soon after Martin Luther's actions,
and led to the Scottish Covenanters' movement,
the precursor to Scottish Presbyterianism.
This movement spread, and greatly influenced
the formation of Puritanism among the Anglican
Church in England. The Scottish covenanters
were persecuted by the Roman Catholic Church.
This persecution by the Catholics drove some
of the Protestant covenanter leadership out
of Scotland, and into France and later, Switzerland.
France
Protestantism also spread from the German
lands into France, where the Protestants were
nicknamed Huguenots; this eventually led to
decades of civil warfare.
Though not personally interested in religious
reform, Francis I initially maintained an
attitude of tolerance, in accordance with
his interest in the humanist movement. This
changed in 1534 with the Affair of the Placards.
In this act, Protestants denounced the Catholic
Mass in placards that appeared across France,
even reaching the royal apartments. The issue
of religious faith having been thrown into
the arena of politics, Francis came to view
the movement as a threat to the kingdom's
stability. This led to the first major phase
of anti-Protestant persecution in France,
in which the Chambre Ardente was established
within the Parlement of Paris to deal with
the rise in prosecutions for heresy. Several
thousand French Protestants fled the country,
most notably John Calvin, who emigrated to
Basel in 1535 before eventually settling in
Geneva in 1536.
Calvin continued to take an interest in the
religious affairs of his native land and,
from his base in Geneva, beyond the reach
of the French kings, regularly trained pastors
to lead congregations in France. Despite heavy
persecution by King Henry II of France, the
Reformed Church of France, largely Calvinist
in direction, made steady progress across
large sections of the nation, in the urban
bourgeoisie and parts of the aristocracy,
appealing to people alienated by the obduracy
and the complacency of the Catholic establishment.
French Protestantism, though its appeal increased
under persecution, came to acquire a distinctly
political character, made all the more obvious
by the conversions of nobles during the 1550s.
This established the preconditions for a series
of destructive and intermittent conflicts,
known as the Wars of Religion. The civil wars
gained impetus with the sudden death of Henry
II in 1559, which began a prolonged period
of weakness for the French crown. Atrocity
and outrage became the defining characteristics
of the time, illustrated at their most intense
in the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre of August
1572, when the Roman Catholic party annihilated
between 30,000 and 100,000 Huguenots across
France. The wars only concluded when Henry
IV, himself a former Huguenot, issued the
Edict of Nantes, promising official toleration
of the Protestant minority, but under highly
restricted conditions. Roman Catholicism remained
the official state religion, and the fortunes
of French Protestants gradually declined over
the next century, culminating in Louis XIV's
Edict of Fontainebleau — which revoked the
Edict of Nantes and made Roman Catholicism
the sole legal religion of France. In response
to the Edict of Fontainebleau, Frederick William
I, Elector of Brandenburg declared the Edict
of Potsdam, giving free passage to Huguenot
refugees, and tax-free status to them for
ten years.
In the late 17th century many Huguenots fled
to England, the Netherlands, Prussia, Switzerland,
and the English and Dutch overseas colonies.
A significant community in France remained
in the Cévennes region. A separate Protestant
community, of the Lutheran faith, existed
in the newly conquered(1639- ) province of
Alsace, its status not affected by the Edict
of Fontainebleau.
Spain
Between 1530 and 1540, the Protestants in
Spain were able to gain followers with the
New Testament translated into Spanish by Francisco
de Enzinas by 1543; however any gains were
short-lived and Protestantism was stamped
out by the Spanish inquisition by 1557 during
the reign of King Phillip II of Spain. Those
who refused to recant such as Rodrigo de Valer
were condemned to life imprisonment.
Netherlands
The Reformation in the Netherlands, unlike
in many other countries, was not initiated
by the rulers of the Seventeen Provinces,
but instead by multiple popular movements,
which in turn were bolstered by the arrival
of Protestant refugees from other parts of
the continent. While the Anabaptist movement
enjoyed popularity in the region in the early
decades of the Reformation, Calvinism, in
the form of the Dutch Reformed Church, became
the dominant Protestant faith in the country
from the 1560s onward.
Harsh persecution of Protestants by the Spanish
government of Philip II contributed to a desire
for independence in the provinces, which led
to the Eighty Years' War and eventually, the
separation of the largely Protestant Dutch
Republic from the Roman Catholic-dominated
Southern Netherlands.
Hungary
Much of the population of the Kingdom of Hungary
adopted Protestantism during the 16th century.
After the 1526 Battle of Mohács, the Hungarian
people were disillusioned by the ability of
the government to protect them and turned
to the faith they felt would infuse them with
the strength necessary to resist the invader.
They found this in the teaching of the Protestant
reformers such as Martin Luther. The spread
of Protestantism in the country was aided
by its large ethnic German minority, which
could understand and translate the writings
of Martin Luther. While Lutheranism gained
a foothold among the German- and Slovak-speaking
populations, Calvinism became widely accepted
among ethnic Hungarians.
In the more independent northwest the rulers
and priests, protected now by the Habsburg
Monarchy, which had taken the field to fight
the Turks, defended the old Roman Catholic
faith. They dragged the Protestants to prison
and the stake wherever they could. Such strong
measures only fanned the flames of protest,
however. Leaders of the Protestants included
Matthias Biro Devai, Michael Sztarai, and
Stephen Kis Szegedi.
Protestants likely formed a majority of Hungary's
population at the close of the 16th century,
but Counter-Reformation efforts in the 17th
century reconverted a majority of the kingdom
to Roman Catholicism. A significant Protestant
minority remained, most of it adhering to
the Calvinist faith.
In 1558 the Transylvanian Diet of Turda declared
free practice of both the Catholic and Lutheran
religions, but prohibited Calvinism. Ten years
later, in 1568, the Diet extended this freedom,
declaring that "It is not allowed to anybody
to intimidate anybody with captivity or expelling
for his religion". Four religions were declared
as accepted religions, while Orthodox Christianity
was "tolerated". During the Thirty Years'
War, Royal Hungary joined the Roman Catholic
side, until Transylvania joined the Protestant
side.
There were a series of other successful and
unsuccessful anti-Habsburg uprisings between
1604 and 1711; the uprisings were usually
organised from Transylvania. The constrained
Habsburg Counter-Reformation efforts in the
17th century reconverted the majority of the
kingdom to Roman Catholicism.
Ireland
The Reformation in Ireland was a movement
for the reform of religious life and institutions
that was introduced into Ireland by the English
administration at the behest of King Henry
VIII of England. His desire for an annulment
of his marriage was known as the King's Great
Matter. Ultimately Pope Clement VII refused
the petition; consequently it became necessary
for the King to assert his lordship over the
Roman Catholic Church in his realm to give
legal effect to his wishes. The English Parliament
confirmed the King's supremacy over the Church
in the Kingdom of England. This challenge
to Papal supremacy resulted in a breach with
the Roman Catholic Church. By 1541, the Irish
Parliament had agreed to the change in status
of the country from that of a Lordship to
that of Kingdom of Ireland.
Unlike similar movements for religious reform
on the continent of Europe, the various phases
of the English Reformation as it developed
in Ireland were largely driven by changes
in government policy, to which public opinion
in England gradually accommodated itself.
However, a number of factors complicated the
adoption of the religious innovations in Ireland;
the majority of the population there adhered
to the Roman Catholic Church. However in the
city of Dublin the reformation took hold under
the auspices of George Browne.
Italy
Word of the Protestant reformers reached Italy
in the 1520s, but never caught on. Its development
was stopped by the Counter-Reformation, the
Inquisition and also popular disinterest.
Not only was the Church highly aggressive
in seeking out heresy and suppressing it,
but there was a shortage of Protestant leadership.
No one translated them Bible into Italian;
few tracts were written. No core of Protestantism
emerged. The few preachers who did take an
interest in "Lutheranism," as it was called
in Italy. were suppressed or went into exile
to northern countries where their message
was well received. As a result the Reformation
exerted almost no lasting influence in Italy,
except for strengthening the Roman Catholic
Church and motivating the Counter-Reformation.
Some Protestants left Italy and became outstanding
activists of the European Reformation, mainly
in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth who
propagated Nontrinitarianism there and were
chief instigators of the movement of Polish
Brethren.
In 1532 the Waldensians adhered to the Reformation,
adopting the Calvinist theology. The Church
survived in the Western Alps through many
persecutions and remains a Protestant church
in Italy.
Polish – Lithuanian Commonwealth
In the first half of the 16th century, the
enormous Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was
a country of many creeds, but Roman Catholic
Church remained the dominating religion. Reformation
reached Poland in the 1520s, and quickly gained
popularity among mostly German-speaking inhabitants
of such major cities as Gdańsk, Toruń and
Elbląg. In Koenigsberg, in 1530, Polish-language
edition of Luther's Small Catechism was published.
The Duchy of Prussia, which was a Polish fief,
emerged as key center of the movement, with
numerous publishing houses issuing not only
Bibles, but also catechisms, in German, Polish
and Lithuanian.
Lutheranism gained popularity in northern
part of the country, while Calvinism caught
the interest of the nobility, mainly in Lesser
Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Several
publishing houses were opened in Lesser Poland
in mid-16th century in such locations as Słomniki
and Raków. At that time, Mennonites and Czech
Brothers came to Poland, with the latter settling
mostly in Greater Poland around Leszno. In
1565, Polish Brethren appeared as yet another
reformation movement.
The 16th century Commonwealth was unique in
Europe, because of widespread tolerance confirmed
by the Warsaw Confederation. In 1563, the
Brest Bible was published. The period of tolerance
ended during the reign of King Sigismund III
Vasa, who was under the strong influence of
Piotr Skarga and other Jesuits. After the
Deluge, and other wars of the mid-17th century
in which all enemies of Poland were either
Protestant or Orthodox Christians, the Poles'
attitude changed. The Counter-Reformation
prevailed: in 1658 the Polish Brethren were
forced to leave the country, and in 1666,
the Sejm banned apostasy from Catholicism
to any other religion, under punishment of
death. Finally, in 1717, the Silent Sejm banned
non-Catholics from becoming deputies of the
Parliament.
Among most important Protestants of the Commonwealth,
there are such names, as Mikołaj Rej, Marcin
Czechowic, Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski and Symon
Budny.
Slovene Lands
Primož Trubar is notable for consolidating
the Slovene language and is considered to
be the key figure of Slovenian cultural history
and in many aspects a major Slovene historical
personality. He was the key figure of the
Protestant Church of the Slovene Lands, as
he was its founder and its first superintendent.
In 1547 he was expelled from Ljubljana.
While a Protestant preacher in Rothenburg,
Germany, he wrote first two books in Slovene,
Catechismus and Abecedarium, which were published
in 1550 in Tübingen, Germany. Since 2010,
8 June is commemorated in Slovenia as the
Primož Trubar Day.
Jurij Dalmatin, another important Slovene
Lutheran minister, writer and translator,
is most notable for the complete translation
of the Bible into Slovene, his most important
achievement. He allegedly wrote it to a large
extent at Turjak Castle under the protection
of the Carniolan governor, Herbard VIII von
Auersperg, and Herbard's son Christoph von
Auersperg, who are said to have provided for
the translator Dalmatin a "Wartburg"-type
sanctuary as had been offered to Martin Luther
by Frederick the Wise, the Elector of Saxony.
This account has been disputed as apocryphal.
The original title of Damatin's 1584 Bible
translation was Bibilija, tu je vse svetu
pismu stariga inu noviga testamenta, slovenski
tolmačena skuzi Jurija Dalmatina. The translation
set the norm for the Slovene standard language
until the first half of the 19th century.
He was also the author of several religious
books, such as the 1584 Karšanske lepe molitve,
the 1585 Ta kratki würtemberški katekizmus
(The Short Württemberg Catechism, and Agenda
published in 1589.
Conclusion and legacy
Thirty Years War: 1618-1648
The Reformation led to a series of religious
wars that culminated in the Thirty Years'
War, which devastated much of Germany, killing
between 25 and 40% of its population. From
1618 to 1648 the Roman Catholic House of Habsburg
and its allies fought against the Protestant
princes of Germany, supported at various times
by Denmark, Sweden and France. The Habsburgs,
who ruled Spain, Austria, Slovene Lands, the
Spanish Netherlands and much of Germany and
Italy, were staunch defenders of the Roman
Catholic Church. Some historians believe that
the era of the Reformation came to a close
when Roman Catholic France allied itself,
first in secret and later on the battlefields,
with Protestant states against the Habsburg
dynasty. For the first time since the days
of Luther, political and national convictions
again outweighed religious convictions in
Europe.
The main tenets of the Peace of Westphalia,
which ended the Thirty Years' War, were:
All parties would now recognise the Peace
of Augsburg of 1555, by which each prince
would have the right to determine the religion
of his own state, the options being Roman
Catholicism, Lutheranism, and now Calvinism
Christians living in principalities where
their denomination was not the established
church were guaranteed the right to practice
their faith in public during allotted hours
and in private at their will.
The treaty also effectively ended the papacy's
pan-European political power. Fully aware
of the loss, Pope Innocent X declared the
treaty "null, void, invalid, iniquitous, unjust,
damnable, reprobate, inane, empty of meaning
and effect for all times." European sovereigns,
Roman Catholic and Protestant alike, ignored
his verdict.
End of the Reformation
However, this treaty did not mean that the
Reformation concluded. It would be about another
century before the Reformation could truly
be considered to have ended. Meanwhile, other
reform movements continued to spring up, even
within the Reformation churches. One such
movement was Pietism, which impacted the Low
Countries, Germany, and Great Britain, which
led to a split in Lutheranism and which brought
about the creation of some new churches. In
turn, Pietism would branch out into a "normative"
form and Radical Pietism.
Impact on individual lives
The Reformation had a wide-ranging influence
on personal life. In fashion, for instance,
it led to a more sober and dignified, less
wasteful esthetic.
Further impact on the Reformation came from
the Age of Enlightenment, and its preponderance
of Rationalism.
In The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of
Capitalism, Max Weber first suggested that
cultural values could affect economic success,
arguing that the Protestant Reformation led
to values that drove people toward worldly
achievements, a hard work ethic, and saving
to accumulate wealth for investment. The new
religions effectively forbade wastefully using
hard earned money and identified the purchase
of luxuries a sin.
Historiography
Jacob argues that there has been a dramatic
shift in the historiography of the Reformation.
Until the 1960s, historians focused their
attention largely on the great leaders and
theologians of the sixteenth century, especially
Luther, Calvin, and Zwingli. Their ideas were
studied in depth. However, the rise of the
new social history in the 1960s look at history
from the bottom up, not from the top down.
Historians began to concentrate on the values,
beliefs and behavior of the people at large.
She finds, "in contemporary scholarship, the
Reformation is now seen as a vast cultural
upheaval, a social and popular movement, textured
and rich because of its diversity."
See also
Footnotes
References
Brakke, Mary Jo; Weaver, David. Introduction
to Christianity. Belmont, Calif.: Wadsworth.
pp. 92–93. ISBN 978-0-495-09726-6. 
Cameron, Euan. The European Reformation. Oxford
University Press. 
Estep, William R. Renaissance & Reformation.
Grand Rapids: Eerdmans. ISBN 0-8028-0050-5. 
Kelly, Joseph F. The Ecumenical Councils of
the Catholic Church: A History. Collegeville,
MN: Michael Glazier/Liturgical Press. p. 226.
ISBN 978-0-8146-5376-0. 
Simon, Edith. Great Ages of Man: The Reformation.
Time-Life Books. pp. 120–121. ISBN 0-662-27820-8. ,
popular and well-illustrated
Spalding, Martin. The History of the Protestant
Reformation; In Germany and Switzerland, and
in England, Ireland, Scotland, the Netherlands,
France, and Northern Europe. General Books
LLC. 
Scholarly secondary resources
Chronological order of publication
 Kirsch, J.P.. "The Reformation". Catholic
Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. 
Catholic view.
Froom, LeRoy. The Prophetic Faith of our Fathers
2. pp. 243–244. 
Froom, LeRoy. The Prophetic Faith of our Fathers
1. 
Bainton, Roland. The Reformation of the Sixteenth
Century. Boston: The Beacon Press. ISBN 0-8070-1301-3. 
Elton, G.R., ed. New Cambridge Modern History
Volume II The Reformation 1520-59, 684pp
Swanson, Guy E. Religion and Regime: a Sociological
Account of the Reformation. Ann Arbor, Mich.:
University of Michigan Press, 1967. x, 295
p.
Pelikan, Jaroslav. Reformation of Church and
Dogma. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
ISBN 0-226-65377-3. 
Gonzales, Justo. The Story of Christianity,
Vol. 2: The Reformation to the Present Day.
San Francisco: Harper, 1985. ISBN 0-06-063316-6.
Spitz, Lewis W. The Renaissance and Reformation
Movements: Volume I, The Renaissance. Revised
Edition. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House,
1987. ISBN 0-570-03818-9; The Renaissance
and Reformation Movements: Volume II, The
Reformation.. ISBN 0-570-03819-7.
Braaten, Carl E. and Robert W. Jenson. The
Catholicity of the Reformation. Grand Rapids:
Eerdmans, 1996. ISBN 0-8028-4220-8.
Hillerbrand, Hans J., et al. eds. The Oxford
Encyclopedia of the Reformation vol. 1:296
pp., vol. 2:506 pp., vol. 3: 491 pp., vol.
4:484 pp., ISBN 0-19-506493-3
Elton, Geoffrey R. and Andrew Pettegree, eds.
Reformation Europe: 1517-1559 excerpt and
text search
Spitz, Lewis William. The Protestant Reformation:
1517-1559
MacCulloch, Diarmaid. The Reformation: A History.
New York: Penguin 2003; 864pp. influential
recent synthesis
Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years,
pp 604–714, shorter version
Hendrix, Scott H. Recultivating the Vineyard:
The Reformation Agendas of Christianization.
excerpt and text search
Bagchi, David, and David C. Steinmetz, eds.
The Cambridge Companion to Reformation Theology
289 pp.
Hsia, R. Po-chia, ed. A Companion to the Reformation
World excerpt and text search
Collinson, Patrick. The Reformation: A History
excerpt and text search
Naphy, William G.. The Protestant Revolution:
From Martin Luther to Martin Luther King Jr.
BBC Books. ISBN 978-0-563-53920-9. 
Hillerbrand, Hans J. The Protestant Reformation
excerpt and text search
Lindberg, Carter. The European Reformations
472pp, comprehensive introduction
Marshall, Peter. The Reformation: A Very Short
Introduction excerpt and text search
Payton Jr. James R. Getting the Reformation
Wrong: Correcting Some Misunderstandings excerpt
and text search
Appold, Kenneth G. The Reformation: A Brief
History 217pp
Balserak, Jon. John Calvin as Sixteenth-Century
Prophet excerpt and text search
Primary sources in translation
Fosdick, Harry Emerson, ed. Great Voices of
the Reformation [and of other putative reformers
before and after it]: an Anthology, ed., with
an introd. and commentaries, by Harry Emerson
Fosdick. New York: Modern Library, 1952. xxx,
546 p.
Janz, Denis, ed. A Reformation Reader: Primary
Texts With Introductions excerpt and text
search
Luther, Martin Luther's Correspondence and
Other Contemporary Letters, 2 vols., tr. and
ed. by Preserved Smith, Charles Michael Jacobs,
The Lutheran Publication Society, Philadelphia,
Pa. 1913, 1918. vol.2 from Google Books. Reprint
of Vol.1, Wipf & Stock Publishers. ISBN 1-59752-601-0.
Spitz, Lewis W. The Protestant Reformation:
Major Documents. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing
House, 1997. ISBN 0-570-04993-8
Historiography
Bates, Lucy. "The Limits of Possibility in
England's Long Reformation," Historical Journal
53#4 pp 1049–1070.
Bradshaw, Brendan. "The Reformation and the
Counter-Reformation," History Today 33#11
pp 42–45.
Brady, Jr., Thomas A. "People's Religions
in Reformation Europe," The Historical Journal
24#1 pp173–82
De Boer, Wietse. "An Uneasy Reunion The Catholic
World in Reformation Studies," Archiv für
Reformationsgeschichte, Vol. 100, p366-387.
Dickens, A. G. and John M. Tonkin, eds. The
Reformation in Historical Thought
Dixon, C. Scott. Contesting the Reformation
excerpt and text search
Fritze, Ronald H. "The English Reformation:
Obedience, Destruction and Cultural Adaptation,"
Journal of Ecclesiastical History 56#1 pp
107–15.
Haigh, Christopher. "The recent historiography
of the English Reformation." The Historical
Journal 25#4 pp 995–1007.
Haigh, Christopher. "The English Reformation:
A Premature Birth, a Difficult Labour and
a Sickly Child," The Historical Journal 33#2
pp 449–59
Haigh, Christopher. "Catholicism in Early
Modern England: Bossy and Beyond," "Catholicism
in Early Modern England: Bossy and Beyond,
" 45, no. 2: 481–94. 45#2 pp 481–94.
Heininen, Simo / Czaika, Otfried: Wittenberg
Influences on the Reformation in Scandinavia,
European History Online, Mainz: Institute
of European History, 2010, retrieved: 17 December
2012.
Hsia, Po-Chia, ed. A Companion to the Reformation
World 29 essays by scholars; emphasis on historiography
Hsia, R. Po-chia. "Reformation on the Continent:
Approaches Old and New," Journal of Religious
History 28#2 pp 162–170.
Hsia, R. Po-Chia. "The Myth of the Commune:
Recent Historiography on City and Reformation
in Germany." Central European History 20#3
pp 203–215. in JSTOR
Karant-Nunn, Susan C. "Changing One's Mind:
Transformations in Reformation History from
a Germanist's Perspective," Renaissance Quarterly
58#2 pp 1101–1127. in JSTOR
MacCulloch, Diarmaid. "The Impact of the English
Reformation," The Historical Journal 38#1
pp 151–53
MacCulloch, Diarmaid; Laven, Mary; Duffy,
Eamon. "Recent Trends in the Study of Christianity
in Sixteenth-Century Europe," Renaissance
Quarterly 59#3 pp 697–731. in JSTOR
Marnef, Guido. "Belgian and Dutch Post-war
Historiography on the Protestant and Catholic
Reformation in the Netherlands," Archiv für
Reformationsgeschichte Vol. 100, pp 271–292.
Marshall, Peter. "(Re)defining the English
Reformation," Journal of British Studies 48#3
pp. 564–586 in JSTOR
Menchi, Silvana Seidel. "The Age of Reformation
and Counter-Reformation in Italian Historiography,
1939-2009," Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte
Vol. 100, pp 193–217.
Nieden, Marcel: The Wittenberg Reformation
as a Media Event, European History Online,
Mainz: Institute of European History, 2012,
retrieved: 17 December 2012.
Scott, Tom. "The Common People in the German
Reformation," The Historical Journal 24#1
pp 183–92 in JSTOR
Scott, Tom. "The Reformation between Deconstruction
and Reconstruction: Reflections on Recent
Writings on the German Reformation," German
History 26#3 pp 406–422
Walsham, Alexandra. "The Reformation and 'The
Disenchantment of the World' Reassessed."
Historical Journal 51#2 pp 497–528; focus
on claims about the Reformation origins of
modernity
Wiesner-Hanks, Merry. "Gender and the Reformation,"
Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte, Vol. 100,
pp 350–365.
External links
Internet Archive of Related Texts and Documents
16th Century Reformation Reading Room: Extensive
online resources, Tyndale Seminary
The Reformation Collection at the Library
of Congress
An ecumenical official valuation by Lutherans
and Catholics 500 years later
