Was the Reformation a Revolution?

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Was the Reformation a Revolution?

• Applying the Five Habits of Historical Thinking
  to Better Understand the Reformation
• By Jonathan Burack

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In 1517, a German monk and theology professor
sparked one of the great upheavals of European
history.

• Most accounts say he did this by nailing his95
  Theses (statements of his views) to the door of
  the church in Wittenberg.

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A key complaint of the 95 Theses was about
indulgences, which the Catholic Church was
selling to raise funds.
The Church said an indulgence from the Pope in
Rome would release the buyer from certain
punishments in the next life for sins committed
in this life.
The Pope portrayed as the Antichrist at a sale
of indulgences
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The monk who nailed the 95 Theses to the door was
Martin Luther.
In Luthers view, indulgences were a fraud. He
said that the Pope should never claim to be able
to do what only God could do.
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Indulgences were only one of many complaints
Luther and others had about the Catholic Church,
which had become very powerful and wealthy.
Interior, Bayeux Cathedral, France
Interior, Church of St. Etienne-du-Mont, Paris,
France
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In fact, the indulgences Luther protested to were
being sold to help the Pope rebuild the grand St.
Peters Basilica in Rome.
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Luther said that indulgences fooled people into
thinking they could bargain their way into heaven
by their own effortthat is, by their works.
Therefore, watch out for your own false ideas
and guard against good-for-nothing gossips, who
think theyre smart enough to define faith and
works, but really are the greatest of fools. Ask
God to work faith in you, or you will remain
forever without faith, no matter what you wish,
say or can do. Martin Luther, from An
Introduction to St. Pauls Letter to the Romans,
1522
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In Luthers view, man could only be saved by a
powerful and true faith in Jesus Christ.
The Holy Spirit makes this happen through faith.
Because of it, you freely, willingly and joyfully
do good to everyone, serve everyone, suffer all
kinds of things, love and praise the God who has
shown you such grace. Martin Luther, from An
Introduction to St. Paul's Letter to the Romans,
1522
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The Pope soon condemned Luther in a papal decree
known as a bull.
In defiance, Luther publicly burned the papal
bull. The Pope excommunicated him on January 3,
1521.
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Luther later took a famous stand before an
assembly of German princes and the German
emperor. He refused to recant, or take back, his
teachings.
I stand convinced by the Scriptures to which I
have appealed, and my conscience is taken captive
by Gods word. I cannot and will not recant
anything, for to act against our conscience is
neither safe for us, nor open to us. Martin
Luther, at the Diet of Worms, April 17, 1521
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Luther could have been captured and punished, but
some powerful German princes protected him.
Luther was given a safe hiding place at Wartburg
Castle by his prince, the elector Frederick the
Wise of Saxony. This is the room in the castle in
which Luther stayed.
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Many princes, especially in Germany and other
parts of northern Europe, resented the Churchs
great power and wealth.
They wanted more control over that wealth in
their own realms. Many of them supported Luther,
hoping his reform effort would weaken the
Churchs power.
Wartburg Castle, above the town of Eisenach,
Germany
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Soon, many other Reformation leaders arose to
push Luthers ideasor even more radical ideas of
their own.
Clockwise from left Philipp Melanchthon, John
Calvin, Johannes Bugenhagen, Gustav II Adolf,
Ulrich von Hutten, Ulrich Zwingli, John Hus, and
Martin Luther
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So what led so many to follow Luther and other
Reformation figures in splitting Christianity
into warring camps?
?

• Thats not an easy question to answer. Historians
  have been arguing about the Reformation for a
  long time.

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• After all, the past itself is gone. All we have
  to go on is the historical record.
• Primary source documents like these are one kind
  of record. Yet they often leave out as much as
  they reveal.

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As the first of the Five Habits of Historical
Thinking puts it History is not the past
itself. It is an account of the past based on
primary source evidence left behind.

• Five Habits of Historical Thinking
• History Is Not the Past Itself
• The Detective Model Problem, Evidence,
  Interpretation
• Time, Change, and Continuity
• Cause and Effect
• As They Saw It Grasping Past Points of View

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The second of the Five Habits describes what we
call The Detective Model. How would this apply
to the Reformation?
Lutheran pastor, 1527
A Mennonite church (Protestant), Germantown, PA
Bayeux Cathedral (Catholic), France
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Like a detective, a historian sets out to solve a
key problem or answer a major question.

• Was the Reformation a mere protest movement, or
  a full-scale revolution?

?
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But this questionWas the Reformation a mere
protest movement, or a full-scale
revolution?only leads to many others.

• Why did the Catholic Church oppose Luther so
  strongly?
• Why did Protestantism split into so many mutually
  hostile sects?
• Why did many kings and princes back the
  Reformation?
• What does the word revolution really mean
  anyway?

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To answer such questions, historians must look
for clues, or evidence. The problem is that the
sources are incomplete, and usually they do not
all agree.
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For example, Luther was horrified when German
peasants revolted partly in his name and began
burning the estates of the rich and killing
nobles.
The peasants cause uproar and sacrilegiously
rob and pillage monasteries and castles that do
not belong to them, for which, like public
highwaymen and murderers, they deserve the
twofold death of body and soul. It is right and
lawful to slay at the first opportunity a
rebellious person, who is known as such, for he
is already under Gods and the emperors
ban. Martin Luther, Against the Murderous and
Robbing Hordes of the Peasants, 1525
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On the other hand, at least some Reformation
figures backed the peasants and favored a total
social upheaval.

• Open your eyes! What is the evil brew from
  which all usury, theft and robbery springs but
  the assumption of our lords and princes that all
  creatures are their property? It is the lords
  themselves who make the poor man their enemy. If
  they refuse to do away with the causes of
  insurrection how can trouble be avoided in the
  long run? If saying that makes me an inciter to
  insurrection, so be it!
• Thomas Muntzer, Vindication and Refutation, 1524

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Open your eyes! What is the evil brew from which
all usury, theft and robbery springs but the
assumption of our lords and princes that all
creatures are their property? It is the lords
themselves who make the poor man their enemy. If
they refuse to do away with the causes of
insurrection how can trouble be avoided in the
long run? If saying that makes me an inciter to
insurrection, so be it!
The peasants cause uproar and sacrilegiously
rob and pillage monasteries and castles that do
not belong to them, for which, like public
highwaymen and murderers, they deserve the
twofold death of body and soul. It is right and
lawful to slay at the first opportunity a
rebellious person, who is known as such, for he
is already under Gods and the emperors ban.
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The Reformation unleashed a century of
religious upheaval and conflict.
Kings and nation-states were gaining power over
lesser princes. Towns were growing. Moreover, the
recently invented printing press made it much
easier to spread radical new ideas.
A massacre of Protestants in France
A summary of Luthers ideas
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Yet through it all, Europe remained a mainly
Christian society, with all sects accepting the
Bible as Gods word and as the basis for
religion, society, and law.
A Protestant church, England
A Catholic church, France
Page from Gutenberg Bible
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The third of the Five Habits is Time, Change,
and Continuity. To understand the Reformation
you have to see both what changed and what did
not.
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The fourth of the Five Habits is Cause and
Effect. For example, what caused the Protestant
Reformation?
The Church had grown corrupt andlost touch with
ordinary Christians.
Rising nation-states wantedmore control over
their own religious institutions.
A rising middle class wanted a religion more in
tune with its individualistic values.
The printing press made it far easierto spread
ideas and independent thought.
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Some historians stress religious and intellectual
causes others stress social, economic, and
political causes.
Religious Intellectual
Social, Economic Political
Rising nation-states wantedmore control over
their own religious institutions.
The Church had grown corrupt and lost touch
with ordinary Christians.
A rising middle class wanted a religion more in
tune with its individualistic values.
The printing press made it far easier to spread
ideas and independent thought.
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Another challenge for historians is to see things
they way those at the time saw them. The fifth of
the Five Habits deals with this challenge.

• Five Habits of Historical Thinking
• History Is Not the Past Itself
• The Detective Model Problem, Evidence,
  Interpretation
• Time, Change, and Continuity
• Cause and Effect
• As They Saw It Grasping Past Points of View

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After all, its hard enough to empathize with
others around us. How much harder is it to see
the world the way these people did?
Arise, O Lord, and judge thy cause. A wild boar
has invaded thy vineyard We can no longer suffer
the serpent to creep through the field of the
Lord. The books of Martin Luther which contain
these errors are to be examined and burned.
Pope Leo X, in his bull Exurge Domine condemning
Luthers ideas (1520)
If the fury of the Romanists continue, there
seems to me to be no remedy left but that the
emperor, kings, and princes, girding on their
armour, attack these pests of the earth, and
decide the matter, not by words but with the
sword. Martin Luther, in a reply to Sylvester
Prierias (1520)
Therefore there will also unquestionably fall
from us the unchristian, devilish weapons of
forcesuch as sword, armor and the like, and all
their use either for friends or against ones
enemies. From the Anabaptist Schleitheim
Confession (1527)
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Keep the Five Habits in mind as you do the rest
of this lesson on the character of the
Reformation.

• Tasks ahead
• Interpret several primary sources
• Read and debate two secondary sources
• Draw your own conclusions about this past episode