Year 8 History – Britain 1500 - 1750
Hist8_1
The European Reformation
Introduction
Before the sixteenth century the whole of Europe, including the UK, was Roman Catholic.
Everyone from the very poor to the rich princes were all answerable to the Pope. For
centuries, the Church’s authority remained largely unchallenged until that is a religious
movement swept the continent that would change the political and religious face of Europe
forever; the results of which are still in evidence today. This religious movement was called
the Protestant Reformation.
Objectives
In this lesson, you will learn:
1. When and why the Protestant Reformation happened.
2. How the continent became divided on religious lines, beginning with divisions that
have lasted until this day.
Lesson
Why did the Reformation come about? There is a saying: “Power corrupts, absolute power
corrupts absolutely”. For nearly a thousand years the Roman Catholic Church enjoyed
absolute power and by the sixteenth century many people saw that it had come very
corrupt and abused much of its power. However, there was very little anyone could do
about it. Earlier in the fourteenth century two priests, John Wyclif of England and John
Huss of Prague were cruelly persecuted for their protestations against the Church and
Huss was even burnt at the stake as a final sanction against all those who dared challenge
the authority of the Holy Roman Catholic Church and the Pope.
It was one such abuse of the Church’s power that was to act as a catalyst to begin the
Reformation. In 1517 Johann Tetzel arrived in Saxony charged by the Pope to sell
indulgences to raise money for the rebuilding of St. Peter’s in Rome. Indulgences were
bought for money with the promise that the buyer’s sins would be forgiven without the
need for repentance. The selling of indulgences had been done for centuries and was a
key way
of raising papal funds other than through taxes.
However, on this occasion, Tetzel’s blatant salesmanship
attracted the attention of a monk and priest known as Martin
Luther. He had done much study on the original text of the Bible
and was a firm believer that forgiveness is achieved simply
through faith in Jesus Christ alone and not by works. This was
teaching called Justification by Faith. Luther was appalled by the
idea that God’s forgiveness could be bought.
1
Year 8 History – Britain 1500 - 1750
Hist8_1
The event prompted Luther to write his Ninety-Five Theses which outlined both his
teaching and his opposition to Church abuses such as indulgences. On October 31st,
1517, Luther is said to have famously nailed his Ninety-Five Theses to the church door at
Wittenberg in front of a vast crowd. Originally only meant as a discussion paper, it is
unlikely that Luther had any idea of the impact his writing would have. Copies of the thesis
were made by his friends, printed and circulated in their thousands across Europe. Their
influence is owed to the success of the invention of the printing press at that time which
had the same impact as a means of communication as the internet has today.
Pope Leo X
Many people who couldn’t speak out against the Church found a
voice in Luther. Luther became their champion – the Protestant
Reformation had begun. It wasn’t too long before Luther attracted
the attention of the Pope who summoned him to Rome in 1518.
Luther declined knowing if he should go he would never return
having met the same fate as John Huss over a century earlier.
Eventually in 1519, Luther denounced the supremacy of the pope
as unscriptural and declared the Word of God as the only true
authority. In 1520, Pope Leo X issued a Bull that excommunicated
Luther, in defiance, Luther publicly burnt the Bull.
There was now no turning back. Luther wrote more and more as his support grew and
grew. Many princes of the Holy Roman Empire, eager to find independence for their nation
states, encouraged their subjects to follow Luther. Religious independence from the pope
meant political independence for a nation. It was for this reason Europe became broken up
on political and religious lines.
Charles V and the Diet of Worms
The most powerful man on earth at that time was Charles V,
King of Spain and emperor over the Holy Roman Empire. He
was keen to keep his empire unified and so with the promise of
safe passage he summoned Luther to the Diet of Worms in
1521, to which he invited many princes and eminent leaders.
Charles was a loyal Roman Catholic and was keen on placing
Luther under the Ban of the Empire which meant that Luther
could be arrested, put on trial and executed. However, it was
clear that Luther had the support of a great many princes.
Luther was questioned by the Emperor about his books and
was told to retract them and the teachings they contained.
Luther refused famously stating:
“Here I stand. I can do no other. So help me God. Amen”
Bound by his promise of safe passage Charles let Luther go. Charles succeeded in issuing
the Ban of the Empire a month later but by which time Luther had been secretly hidden
away in the castle of Wartburg where he stayed for a year. It was during this time that
Luther translated the New Testament into German. This was important as only Latin
versions were available and very few people, such as the clergy, could read Latin. It was a
1
Year 8 History – Britain 1500 - 1750
Hist8_1
very important tool in the Reformation. Eventually, Luther came out of hiding and
continued his work.
The Peasants’ Revolt
Luther believed in the “priesthood of all believers” and in individual faith and not just the
uniqueness of the clergy. It’s because of this that he did not just translate the Bible into
German but also any of his work he felt was useful and helpful reading for the common
man. There were deep class divisions within society at this time as well as religious ones.
Peasants in particular felt that Luther was on their side and believed that he encouraged
social as well as religious change. This led to the Peasants Revolt in 1524 in which
Catholic clergy and even Protestant lords were killed. Luther was blamed for the uprising
and severely hindered his work. Foolishly Luther encouraged the authorities to crush the
revolt resulting in the massacre of thousands of people. Luther naturally lost some of the
support of his followers who went away and formed other religious sects such as the
Anabaptists.
Political and Religious Changes
It is impossible to separate Religion and Politics in the Middle-Ages. All institutions were
influenced by religion which before the Reformation was solely the Roman Catholic
Church. Therefore, religious changes brought political ones and this was true of the
Protestant Reformation.
In 1526, Charles V issued an edict that allowed individual states that made up his empire
to hold the religion of its ruling prince, whether it was Roman Catholic or Protestant. A
further edict in 1529 allowed existing Protestant states to remain so but forbade existing
Catholic ones to change. A small number of Lutherans protested against this decision and
they became known as “Protestants”. The name has come to mean all those Christians
who do not belong to the Roman Catholic (or Orthodox) Church. When a state became
Protestant the ruling princes could confiscate all church property and even ban Catholic
worship.
Overall effect of the Reformation was that the Church in Europe war irreversibly split. This
split in turn was political as nation states of the empire gained independence from the
Roman Catholic Church and set up their own Protestant systems of government and
church organisation. Other states and countries outside the empire that stayed faithful to
the Pope retained the existing form of government that was controlled by the Church. Such
a situation in Europe often caused many religious wars. Areas of Europe which remained
Catholic and those that became Protestant generally still retain their religious affiliation
today.
Read the pages 26-27 of 'The Making of the United Kingdom'.
Now do Assignment Hist8.2&3
1