The holy Roman Catholic church, at the time of Martin Luther and John Calvin, had been in power for a thousand years and owned a third of the land in Europe. The pope, cardinals, and bishops came exclusively from the aristocratic elite of Europe. Because of this, the clergy already wielded an incredible amount of wealth and influence. As heads of the church, they were practically unopposable. Should an external power pose a problem, the church could often summon forces from various kingdoms in Europe, by influence caused by a direct link of the pope and his family to the government in question, or by threats of excommunication and damnation. of their king. Against the threat of domestic trouble, offenders were branded as heretics, witches, or other undesirables and were quickly, or slowly and terribly, dealt with by the various branches of the inquisition. Even after the breaking of the churches monopoly on knowledge at this time, they still had full control over salvation.
The church knew how to squeeze every ounce of wealth it could out of this monopoly. Between donations to the church, heavy papal taxes, and indulgences, the church was exhausting its followers and everyone else it could. The church hierarchy was bogged down in corruption. The list of malcontents was long, but until the reformation no one was fit for the task of opposing the church, but now the situation was right.
Martin Luther was going to be a lawyer, but during an intense electrical storm he swore an oath to become a monk if he was saved. He became a monk and eventually a professor of theology at the suggestion of a priest. During this time he came to the revelation and belief that salvation was based on faith alone, rather than faith and an endless series of good works. He viewed the complete observance of God’s commandments and laws as impossible, and the numerous rituals and works as inadequate to bring about salvation. Only God in his infinite glory and mercy could give salvation to those who did not deserve it, which was everyone. Many historians consider the reformation to have begun in 1517 when Martin Luther published Ninety-five Theses objecting to indulgences, beginning his separation from Rome.
For hundreds of years, the church had been rewarding followers with indulgences, which were treated as good deeds and extra deeds, which could be reassigned to sinners. Originally, indulgences were given to those who went on crusades, but with the continuing degradation of the church, they were now given in exchange for monetary donations. Indulgences were used to reduce the amount of time spent in purgatory, which was the place where one spent time paying for sins before going to heaven. You could spend thousands of years in fiery pits of torture before you are allowed to ascend. The church eventually sank to the level of selling indulgences, which would bring dead relatives out of purgatory.
Throughout this practice there were monks, priests, and others who opposed it, but there were a few key differences that made Luther a success. He had written his thesis in the scholastic language of Latin, as it was written for his colleagues, but it was taken and translated into the local German, and then printed and distributed to the public. So unlike most who came before him, his word was heard by many and spread.
Normally Luther would have been quickly dealt with by the church, and even his direct attacks on the Pope may have been little, but we cannot forget the disgruntled nobility, the Germans in particular. Pope Leo X had sent a bull to Luther ordering him to recant, which Luther threw into a bonfire, along with all the church laws, in front of a crowd. Now the church saw him as a heretic, if they hadn’t seen him that way before. His lay overlord, Frederick the Wise of Saxony, was German and therefore had an underlying bitterness towards the church, so he decided not to burn Luther as a heretic because he did not get a fair hearing. Luther was then summoned to the city of Worms to be tried by a council of the princes of the Holy Roman Empire. The head of this council was the emperor of the empire Charles V himself, who was not German. Luther was officially labeled a heretic, but not before Frederick led him to the safety of the Wartburg.
From the Wartburg, Luther continued his works. Since Luther believed in salvation by faith alone, he denounced the entire church hierarchy as no more holy or virtuous than other followers. The particular bitterness of the German aristocracy was mainly due to the lack of agreements between the pope and the emperor that would limit the power of the church in Germany. From this, papal taxes were exorbitantly high. Predictably, Lutheranism first gained a foothold in the German aristocracy. Germany was at the heart of the Holy Roman Empire, and now largely rejected the Catholic Church.
Kings and lords began to convert to Protestantism, whether for spiritual or other reasons, it had a profound impact on the church in their lands. Without the pope or regional clergy office to assign and control the churches in an area, the prince or reigning government would do so, maintaining more of their own power over their land. Also monasteries, nunneries, and other church organizations were dissolved by the state, and their wealth was generally seized at that time.
With Luther’s success, many others found the audacity to challenge the church(,) and its practices more openly. Out of this grew variations of Protestantism, as Lutheranism came to be known, and its derivatives, such as Zwinglianism, which was founded by Ulrich Zwingli, who had opposed the church since before Luther’s time, but had not expressed himself until after Luther. Luther’s reformation began. Another contemporary was the Anabaptist faith, an extreme form of Protestantism that believed in adult baptisms and a communal, communist way of life and government. Calvinism also came as I will mention soon.
Zwinglianism was the most moderate of the Protestant sects. Zwinglianism was accepted and adopted by Zürich and northern Switzerland, but it only lasted about ten years when Ulrich Zwingli was killed in battle against Catholic forces, and most of his followers were absorbed into Calvinism. A determining factor in the short life of Zwinglianism was the difference in beliefs between Zwingli and Luther, as Luther believed in the real presence of the body of Christ in the sacrament, while Zwingly only saw it as a symbolic reminder of Christ. This difference maintained a separation of Zwinglianists and Lutherans which left the Zwinglianists to fend off the Catholics, single-handedly. As fleeting as it was, this movement helped break the Catholic monopoly and served as a downfall for Calvinism.
The Anabaptists were the extremist branch of Protestantism. They believed in adult baptisms, that believers needed to understand the meaning of baptism for it to be a true baptism. Similar to Lutheranism, Anabaptism was not in accord with the Catholic church hierarchy. They saw the ‘true’ church as a small community of believers who were not simply members at birth, but had to come together intentionally. In 1534 a group of Anabaptists took control of the German city of Munster. They tried to make it a new religious center, its leader calling himself David’s successor and king of the new temple. A year after taking control, Catholic forces took the city. Anabaptists, in the city and elsewhere, were tortured, put on trial, and scattered beyond cohesion.
The next aspect of the spread and social impact of Protestantism has a lot to do with Calvinism, so let’s introduce this sect. Like Luther, John Calvin was going to be a lawyer but turned to religion. Calvin believed in the total omnipotence of God, and that it was the destiny of every sinful human being, of which all of them, to be damned to hell for eternity, or to be saved by God. Naturally, Calvinists were the only ones predestined to be saved, and everyone else was damned no matter what. The signs of being saved were being a Calvinist, as mentioned above, following the laws of the Bible, and being successful. The upper class outside of Germany were content to remain within Catholicism as they had money to buy indulgences and lacked the bitterness of the German aristocracy.
Usually the only way to achieve substantial progress toward salvation under Catholicism for the middle class was to fight in crusades, which at the time were not as common as founding indulgences. Calvinism thus became the religion of the middle class. Catholicism had placed a limit of 15% on earnings and a ban on lending money, which Calvinism did not. This helped pave the way for more mercantile trade and banking. Calvinists believed in hard work and were against drinking, dancing, prostitution and any temptation. (Synonym: FUN). Naturally, a new drink appeared during this time, coffee. This was the drink of the middle class, ironically. Calvinists were industrious and strove to succeed, as the saved must succeed.
The lower class was in the same position as it had been for a thousand years or more. They were screwed. Early in the rise of Lutheranism, the lower class saw Luther as a hero who defied the church. They also wanted to throw off the yoke of their lords as Luther seemed to be doing with the Pope and the emperor himself. When they approached Luther, he denied them, saying that they should follow his lords. Then they rebelled and more than 100,000 people died. If their lord was Protestant, so were they. If their master was a Catholic, so were they. The same was of the nations. If a king was Catholic, he was a Catholic nation, and the churches present would reflect that. Due to the reforms of Luther, Calvin, and the English Catholic reforms, the religion became a partially secular practice.
The new religious practices present in Europe had a dramatic impact on the daily life of all peoples, regardless of their class. These included spiritual and other changes.