Ashkan Torkaman

Mr. Brewer
Period 5
9/25/15
13: Reformation and Religious Warfare in the Sixteenth Century
I.

Prelude to Reformation
a. Christian or Northern Renaissance Humanism
i. Background
1. Northern Humanists also returned to classic writings, but mainly
Christian ones.
2. These Christian Humanists felt the religion was distorted by the
Middle Ages and sought to re-educate the public in bible and
classics.
3. They sought to change society by the people, but were being
optimists.
ii. Erasmus
1. Desiderius Erasmus (1466-1536) felt that piety was more
important than outward displays of religion as displayed in his
book The Handbook of the Christian Knight.
2. He retranslated the Greek Bible because he thought that the
current translation had errors.
3. He critiqued the church in his The Praise of Folly (1511)
especially the clergy. However, he was too moderate for the true
reform of Martin Luther.
iii. Thomas More
1. Thomas More (1478-1535) was a prominent public figure in
England and was a devout Christian.
2. Utopia (1516) written by More reflected his ideal society in which
cooperation and reason ruled while power and fame took a lesser
position. This world of Communal ownership allowed men to be
relieved of competition and greed.
3. He gave up his life in opposition of King Henry VIIIs break with
the Roman Catholic Church.
b. Church and Religion on the Eve of the Reformation
i. Background
1. Renaissance Popes were very often absent as spiritual leaders
do to preoccupation with money.
2. Pluralism among the clergy lead to absences in their duties that
were most needed.
ii. The Search for Salvation
1. Many sought Salvation through Relics that were attached to
Indulgences to reduce ones time in purgatory for millions of years.
2. Others opted into Modern Devotion shown by Thomas a Kempiss
The Imitation of Christ that said people would be judged by how
religiously they lived, not what they said.

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3. These searches all took place within the Catholic Church; it took
some time to search for it outside.
iii. Calls for Reform
1. Dominicans, Augustinians, and Franciscans stressed the idea of
preaching to the lay people.
2. The Oratory of Divine Love (Italy, 1497) was a group of Clergy
who stressed reformation through charity, and were very
Humanist. Notably prominent among them was the Spanish
Archbishop Cardinal Ximenes.
Martin Luther and the Reformation in Germany
a. The Early Luther
i. The Protestant Reformation came about all because of the question:
What must I do to be saved?
ii. Background
1. Martin Luther (Germany, 11/10/1483) got a bachelors degree in
1502 but entered the order of the Augustinian Hermits in Erfurt.
2. He became troubled by sacraments and confession specifically
because he could not always be sure of remembering all he had
to confess.
3. He attained a doctorate in Theology in 1512 and taught from
1513-16. During that time he realized that people were saved by
faith in God and Jesus, and that the bible was the sole text for
religious truth.
4. The twin pillars of the Protestant Reformation are Justification by
faith and the bible as the sole authority in religious matters.
iii. The Indulgence Controversy
1. In 1517 Pope Leo X made a huge sale of indulgences in order to
finance Saint Peters Basilica.
2. In a response Luther wrote his famed Ninety-five Theses in a
request for clarification on indulgences, but the Pope did not view
Luther as a worthwhile complainer and just let it slide. However,
his theses were reprinted and received sympathetically across
Germany.
iv. The Quickening Rebellion
1. The Leipzig Debate in 1519 was when Luther debated the
Catholic Theologian Johann Eck and was branded a heretic for
denying the Popes right to sell indulgences.
2. In 1520 Luther broke with Rome and wrote The Address to the
Nobility of the German Nation, a request of the princes to
overthrow the papacy, The Babylonian Captivity of the Church, he
encouraged clergy to marry and argued that the true meaning of
gospel had been held captive for years, and On the Freedom of a
Christian Man, in which he reasserted that through faith alone one
is saved, however one should still be a good man by doing good
works.

3. At the Diet of Worms (1521) in front of the Holy Roman Emperor,

Charles V, Luther refused to recant and having already been
excommunicated was outlawed in the HRE. His works were
burned, but he was saved by the Elector of Saxony and hidden in
Wartburg Castle.
b. The Rise of Lutheranism
i. Background
1. In 1522 Luther came out of hiding with a translated text of the
Bible in German, and Lutheranism spread through 4-5% of the
populations literacy and many sermons.
2. Picture pamphlets were also used to spread ideas and demonize
the papacy.
ii. The Spread of Luthers Ideas
1. The first full city to convert was Nuremburg in 1525, but really, the
conversion was mostly urban and 3/4 of them were clergy.
2. Older Humanists did not join Luther because of the threat to
Christendom, but a younger generation did such as Philip
Melanchthon (1497-1560).
iii. The Peasants War
1. One of Luthers Ex-supporters Thomas Muntzer inflamed a
peasants revolt in Southwest Germany in 1524.
2. Luther wrote against eh revolt in his pamphlet Against the
Robbing and Murdering Hordes of Peasants. Luther supported
the princes and in 1525 the revolt was crushed.
c. Organizing the Church
i. Background
1. Luther kept two customs from Catholicism: Baptism, which
signified rebirth through grace, and the Lords Supper except
without Transubstantiation.
2. He rejected traditions and relied solely on the Bible.
3. By 1530 Lutheranism became Germanys state religion and the
princes ran the churches. The worship consisted of bible reading
in vernacular, sermons, and song.
4. Luther married Katherina von Bora in 1525 as an example of
married clergy.
d. Germany and the Reformation: Religion and Politics
i. Background
1. Charles I king of Spain was also Charles V Holy Roman Emperor.
He controlled Spain, Austrian Habsburg lands, Bohemia, Hungary,
the Low Countries, and Naples.
2. He wished to set up a dynasty of his empire and continue the
Catholic faith.
ii. The French and the Papacy
1. Surrounded by Charles V lands, the French king Francis I (15151547) fought with Charles in Southern France, the Netherlands,

III.

the Rhineland, Northern Spain, and Italy in the Habsburg-Valois

Wars between 1521 and 1544.
2. Pope Clement VII did not help Charles V with Luther because of
Charles power in Italy, but instead he helped Francis I. However,
Rome was sacked in April 1527 and Clement made peace with
Charles who controlled much of Italy.
iii. The Ottoman Empire
1. The Ottoman Armies under Suleiman the Magnificent overran
Hungary and killed Charles Vs brother-in-law at the Battle of
Mohacs in 1526 and advanced as far as Vienna. They were
repulsed in 1529.
iv. Politics in Germany
1. In 1531, in a response to Charles Vs demand for Catholic
reconciliation, several Princedoms and Cities joined forces as
Lutherans against the HRE in the Schmalkaldic League.
2. Charles V made a final peace with France in 1544 and the
Ottomans (Turks) in 1545.
3. Charles V destroyed the Schmalkaldic league in the Schmalkaldic
wars in 1546-47, but they reformed and allied the new French
King Henry II. In 1552 the renewed wars were brought to a truce
and Charles V abdicated in favor of his brother Ferdinand.
4. The Peace of Augsburg (1555) made Lutheranism equal to
Catholicism and allowed each German Ruler to decide his
territorys own religion.
The Spread of the Protestant Reformation
a. Lutheranism in Scandinavia
i. Background
1. The Scandinavian League broke in 1520 under the leader
Christian II.
2. Gustavus Vasa took Sweden and lead a Lutheran Reformation
there finishing by the mid 1530s.
3. Frederick I took Denmark and encouraged the spread of Lutheran
doctrines in the Danish Church. Christian III, his successor
completed the Lutheran transformation.
4. Christian III also spread Lutheranism to Norway.
b. The Zwinglian Reformation
i. Background
1. The Swiss Confederation was virtually independent of the HRE in
1499. This Confed. included cities such as Zurich, Basel, and
Bern and forest cantons (Democratic republics).
2. Ulrich Zwingli (1484-1531) was ordained as a priest in 1506, after
receiving a bachelors degree from universities in Vienna and
Basel. He became Great Minister in Zurich in 1518. Zwinglis
controversial preaching of the Gospel was adopted by the city in
1523.
ii. Reforms in Zurich

1. The state ran the religion. Relics, music, and images were
abolished and removed. The Mass became prayer, Bible reading,
and sermons.
2. All things having to do with Rome were also abolished, ending the
Papal Christianity.
3. This spread to most other cities in Switzerland.
iii. A Futile Search for Unity
1. Swiss and German reformers recognized the need for unity
against Charles V. However, at a council in Marburg, the two
groups could not agree on the understanding of the Lords
Supper, whether it is figurative or literal.
2. In 1531 the Cities and Cantons, which had stayed catholic, fought
a war and Zwingli was killed.
c. The Radical Reformation: The Anabaptists
i. Background
1. Anabaptists rejected the states interference in religion.
ii. The Ideas of the Anabaptists
1. The Church was a voluntary association of believers. Thus, adults
should be baptized, not children, because nobody should be
forced into a religion.
2. They ran Democratic Churches that chose their own leaders and
believe all (though women were often excluded) were equal.
3. They lead simple lives and believed the Lords Supper was simply
a remembrance as Zwingli had.
4. They were firm believers of the separation of church and state
leading them to be viewed as rebels.
iii. Varieties of Anabaptists
1. Zwingli expelled the Swiss Brethren from Zurich because of adult
baptism. This rebaptism as adults (having already been baptized
Catholically as babies) was how they got the name Anabaptists or
Re-Baptists. Their ideas took hold in Poland and the Netherlands.
2. In the 1530s in Munster, a city in Westphalia, as a result of mass
hysteria due to plague, Anabaptism was recognized as a
legitimate faith. Thus the Melchiorites (Anabaptists who adhered
to millenarianism) came seeking a haven to make New Jerusalem
for Gods kingdom at the end of the world. They took control and
expelled or killed all non-believers. John of Leiden became king
and prepared for Jesus Second Coming. The Catholics and
Lutherans retook the city and slaughtered the Anabaptists within.
3. Menno Siemons (1496-1561) and his followers the Mennonites
stressed peace and living as Jesus had. They, and the Amish,
also Ana Baptists, maintain communities today in the United
States.
d. The Reformation in England
i. Background

1. The reformation in England Was lead by King Henry VIII so he

could divorce his wife Catherine of Aragon because she had had
no sons. Cardinal Wolsey failed to get the Pope to annul the
marriage for political reasons (the pope was controlled by Charles
V, Catherines nephew) and was dismissed.
2. By the advice of Thomas Cranmer and Thomas Cromwell the king
obtained his annulment through Englands own churches and
abolished the Papal authority in England by disallowing church
appeals to Roman church courts. Cranmer, the Archbishop
annulled the Marriage and he married Anne Boleyn who had a
daughter Elizabeth.
3. In 1534 the Act of Supremacy made the King the leader of the
Church of England and the Treason Act making it treason to deny
the kings religious authority. Thomas More defied these and was
put to death on July 6, 1535.
ii. The New Order
1. In 1536 the King, with Cromwells prompting stole the land of the
Catholic monasteries and sold them for money.
2. Henry Married again and again for a male heir. He beheaded
Boleyn to marry Jane Seymour, who died as a result of childbirth.
Then he married Anne of Cleves for political reasons but swiftly
divorced her. He married Catherine Howard who then had an
affair and was beheaded. Then he married Catherine Parr who
outlived the king. Edward VI (Seymours son) succeeded his
father as king in 1547.
3. Because the new king was so young, Cranmer was able to pass
through some more radical changes in the COE such as the Book
of Common Prayer.
iii. Reaction Under Mary
1. Mary tried to return England to Catholicism, but was unpopular
because of that and her marriage to Phillip II, soon to be king of
Spain, and met huge opposition Even worse was when she lost
Calais the last English possession in France after the Hundred
Years war.
2. She burnt Protestants as heretics and became known as bloody
Mary. She died and 1558 and her legacy was that England was
more protestant than it was before.
e. John Calvin and Calvinism
i. Background
1. John Calvin (1509-1564) was a second-generation reformer. He
had to flee his native France when he converted to Protestantism.
2. He published Institutes of the Christian Religion in 1536, which
was a masterpiece on Protestantism.
ii. Calvins Ideas
1. He was very close to Luther in almost all ways, except he
stressed the power and glory of God.

IV.

2. He believed in predestination that meant God had already chosen

who would be saved. You could tell this in three ways: profession
of faith openly, leading a decent and godly life, and participation
in sacraments (baptism and communion).
3. To Calvin, wealth was not a sign of salvation.
4. His sect was a very militant sect of Protestantism because of the
idea of predestination.
iii. Calvins Geneva
1. He became a minister in Geneva in 1536 and was one there,
except for a brief exile, until he died.
2. He succeeded in getting the city to accept his beliefs in the new
constitution: The Ecclesiastical Ordinances. This set up the
Consistory to enforce moral discipline, though major cases were
still turned over to the council. Later, strict laws were set up
against blasphemy.
3. Through missionaries Calvinism was set up in France, the
Netherlands, and Scotland. Geneva became the Fortress of the
Reformation by the mid 1500s.
The Social Impact of the Protestant Reformation
a. The Family
i. Background
1. Luther believed marriage allowed sex to become good while
Calvin argued that marriage was only to happen when a man
could no longer remain celibate.
2. Family became more about love than it once had been,
specifically among Protestants, but the husband was still in
charge. Women had only to bear children as part of their
punishment for the original sin. Thus the father was also in charge
of religion in the home.
3. For Protestants men and women both had to read from the bible
leading to the establishment of schools for girls, albeit for moral
training rather than intellectual.
b. Education in the Reformation
i. Background
1. Protestant schools were offered more broadly because all had to
be able to read the bible. Luther urged cities to establish public
schools for the poor.
2. Philip Melanchthon who became known as the Praecepter
Germaniae, the Teacher of Germany, shared Luthers ideas. He
had divided students into classes based on their age and ability.
3. The most famous secondary schools, or gymnasiums, were the
one in Strasbourg formed by Johannes Sturm in 1538, and
Calvins Genevan Academy in founded in 1559. (The latter
became a university and mainly prepared ministers to spread
Calvinism.)

V.

4. The gymnasiums had seven classes of young people and taught

Greek, Latin, and Logic. The Public Schools taught Hebrew,
Greek, theology, and Philosophy.
c. Religious Practices and Popular Culture
i. Background
1. The Reformation severely stopped indulgences, relics, saints
(including their holidays), pilgrimages, monasticism, and clerical
celibacy. These were replaced with private prayer, family prayer,
and communal prayer on Sunday.
2. They also attempted to ban drinking, theatre, dancing, and giftgiving on Christmas. However, pubs remained specifically in
England and gifts were still given in the Dutch Netherlands.
The Catholic Reformation
a. Revival of the Old
i. Background
1. The re-emergence of Mystics, such as the Spanish nun St. Teresa
of Avila, was closely tied with the old ideas of Catholic piety.
2. Old orders were restored such as the Dominicans and
Benedictines. The Capuchins emerged as a Franciscan order
reverting to its original forms. They ran hospitals and preached
directly to the people.
3. New orders were also created such as the Theatines (1524) to
reform secular clergy (they also set up orphanages) and the
Ursulines (Italy, 1535) who established schools even for girls.
b. The Society of Jesus
i. Background
1. The Society of Jesus is also the Jesuits and was founded by
Ignatius of Loyola in Spain in 1540.
2. Ignatius became a soldier for god and wrote about prayer,
pilgrimages, school, and spirituality in his book The Spiritual
Exercises.
3. A general who designated the lower officers ran the Jesuits.
ii. Activities of the Jesuits
1. They established schools and by 1600 were the most famous
educators in Europe.
2. They were missionaries. One such person was Francis Xavier
who converted thousands in India and Japan. Another, Italian
Matteo Ricci had more long lasting success in his conversion of
the Chinese.
3. They also reconverted many parts of Germany and Eastern
Europe, specifically Poland.
c. A Revived Papacy
i. Background
1. Pope Paul III (1534-1549) made prominent reformers, Gasparo
Contarini and Gian Pietro Caraffa, cardinals.

VI.

2. Paul also set up a reform commission, which then blamed the

corruption on the pope and cardinals, recognized the Jesuits, and
set up the Council of Trent.
3. The Roman Inquisition or Holy Office was established in 1542 to
seek out doctrinal errors. This ended attempts to reconcile with
Protestants.
4. When Caraffa became Pope Paul IV he added power to the
Inquisition and started banning books including all Protestant
literature.
d. The Council of Trent
i. Background
1. In March of 1545 members from all the groups of the clergy met in
Trent (a city on Germanys and Italys border) to discuss religious
differences caused by the Reformation.
2. War, plague, and changing popes, prevented the council from
meeting regularly.
3. However, with three major meetings, the council decided to
completely rebuff Protestant beliefs and all sacraments were
upheld. In addition it was both faith and good works that allowed
salvation.
4. In addition the selling of indulgences was prohibited.
Politics and the Wars of Religion in the Sixteenth Century
a. The French Wars of Religion (1562-1598)
i. Background
1. Huguenots (French Calvinists) came from all walks of life
including nobility including the Nobles of the house of Bourbon,
which ruled the southern French kingdom of Navarre. However,
they were still only about 10% of the population.
2. When Henry II died Catherine de Medici became regent for her
sons and sought a compromise (being a Catholic), but neither
side wished to agree. The extreme Catholics were lead by the
Guise Family and received help from the Jesuits.
3. Towns and Nobles also resented the centralization of French
monarchy and also revolted. This turmoil delayed the final
centralization of the state.
4. However, in the end, after much bloodshed, Politiques, people
who believed the states was more important than religion,
prevailed.
ii. Course of the Struggle
1. The Duke of Guise massacred the Huguenots at Vassy in 1562
thus starting the war. However, throughout the sixties, the
Huguenots were able to hold their own.
2. The St. Bartholomews Day massacre of Huguenots occurred in
August of 1572. It was a time of supposed peace because of the
marriage of the sister of Charles IX (Valois king) to Henry of
Navarre.

3. With thousands of Huguenots dead, the massacre still backfired

because it discredited the Valois dynasty.
4. Henry, duke of Guise, in the pay of Philip II of Spain, seized Paris
from Henry III (Charles IXs successor) in The War of The Three
Henries. Then Henry III allied himself with Henry of Navarre to
repel the Guise influence, and succeeded, but was still
assassinated.
5. Henry of Navarre claimed kingship, but converted to Catholicism
in 1594.
6. In 1598 the Edict of Nantes acknowledged Catholicism as the
state religion, but allowed Huguenots to practice their own religion
as well.
b. Philip II and Militant Catholicism
i. Background
1. Philip II wanted to consolidate his control of Spain, the
Netherlands, part of Italy, and parts of the New World. To him this
meant strict adherence to Catholicism.
2. To do this he used the Spanish Inquisition and a strong Monarchy.
The latter was hard to attain, but he did get more power by taking
it away from the landed nobility.
3. Philip did not delegate power and thus matters of state fell far
behind.
4. Spain gained power from gold, silver, agriculture, leather, silk,
industry, textiles, and commerce from the new world. However,
this also caused inflation. Also, Philips wars caused debt and his
reign ended with Spain paying 2/3 its revenue in interest on debt.
5. Philip was Catholicisms champion and under him Spain lead a
holy league that defeated the Muslim Turks fleet in Cyprus.
c. Revolt of the Netherlands
i. Background
1. The Netherlands was seventeen provinces that were Catholic,
Calvinist, Lutheran, and Anabaptist. Their one common bond was
that Philip II was their king.
2. They rebelled in 1566 upon realizing that they were being taxed
for Spanish interests and when Philip II tried to crush Calvinism.
He sent 10,000 troops to put down the rebellion.
3. The leader of the troops, the Duke of Alva, set up a reign of terror
that was a catalyst for the organization of the Dutch rebellion
under William of Nassau, the prince of Orange. In 1573 Philip
removed the duke.
4. In 1576 William of Orange succeeded in unifying the 17 provinces
at the Pacification of Ghent, but this then failed due to religious
differences.
5. The duke of Parma was the next Spanish leader and he played
up the religious differences. In 1579 the south organized into the

Union of Arras, Catholics under Spain, and the north under

William of Orange into the Union of Utrecht.
6. In 1609 they made peace and became the Dutch Republic,
recognized by Spain in 1648.
d. The England of Elizabeth
i. Background
1. After Mary died, Elizabeth, her half sister, became queen.
ii. Religious Policy
1. In 1559 the new Act of Supremacy made Elizabeth the supreme
governor of the realm for religious and state matters. This was a
change as it was not supreme leader of the church, which was the
clause that upset Catholics.
2. Elizabeth renewed the Book of Common Prayer to be acceptable
to Catholics and made theological compromises between
Calvinists and Lutherans.
3. The Catholics tried to supplant Elizabeth with her Cousin Mary
Queen of Scots. However, after many failed attempts at her
assassination, Elizabeth had Mary beheaded in 1587.
4. Puritans were kept in check during Elizabeths Reign.
5. With the help of Sir William Cecil and Sir Francis Walsingham she
kept Parliament in check as well, having it meet only 13 times
during her reign.
iii. Foreign Policy
1. Elizabeth was anti-war but unofficially encouraged piracy of
Spanish ships. Francis Drake was a great Pirate of Spains New
World ships.
2. She also helped Dutch Calvinists and French Huguenots. These
actions, along with piracy were supposed to help weaken the
French and Spanish.
3. After the British had been helping the Dutch for a while, Philip IIs
advisors finally convinced him to invade England.
iv. The Spanish Armada
1. The fleet Philip sent was smaller than he planned and was reliant
upon a miracle to succeed. The fleet was battered by skirmishes
with the English and during its return journey was battered by
storms.
2. The English and Spanish continued fighting for another sixteen
years, but the Armadas defeat secured Protestantism in England.