Religious reforms in Europe. Reformation in Germany

Under the name of the Reformation, a large opposition movement against the medieval order of life is known, which swept Western Europe at the beginning of the New Age and expressed itself in the desire for radical transformations, mainly in the religious sphere, which resulted in the emergence of a new dogma - Protestantism in both of its forms: Lutheran and reformed . Since medieval Catholicism was not only a creed, but also a whole system that dominated all manifestations of the historical life of the Western European peoples, the era of the Reformation was accompanied by movements in favor of reforming other aspects of public life: political, social, economic, intellectual. Therefore, the reformation movement, which embraced the entire 16th and first half of the 17th centuries, was a very complex phenomenon and was determined both by reasons common to all countries and by the special historical conditions of each people individually. All these reasons were combined in each country in the most diverse way.

John Calvin, founder of the Calvinist Reformation

The unrest that arose during the era of the Reformation ended on the continent with a religious and political struggle, known as the Thirty Years' War, which ended with the Peace of Westphalia (1648). The religious reform legitimized by this world was no longer distinguished by its original character. When faced with reality, the followers of the new doctrine more and more fell into contradictions, openly breaking with the original reformation slogans of freedom of conscience and secular culture. Dissatisfaction with the results of the religious reform, which degenerated into its opposite, gave rise to a special trend in the Reformation - numerous sectarianism (Anabaptists, independents, levellers etc.), which sought to resolve mainly social issues on religious grounds.

German Anabaptist leader Thomas Müntzer

The era of the Reformation gave all aspects of European life a new direction, different from the medieval one, and laid the foundations of the modern system of Western civilization. A correct assessment of the results of the Reformation era is possible only taking into account not only its initial verbal"freedom-loving" slogans, but also the shortcomings approved by her on practice new Protestant social-church system. The Reformation destroyed the religious unity of Western Europe, created several new influential churches and changed - far from always for the better for the people - the political and social system of the countries affected by it. Secularization in the era of the Reformation of church property often led to the plunder of them by powerful aristocrats, who enslaved the peasantry more than before, and in England they often and massively drove him from the lands by fencing . The shattered authority of the pope was replaced by the obsessed spiritual intolerance of Calvinist and Lutheran theorists. In the 16th-17th centuries, and even in subsequent centuries, its narrow-mindedness far surpassed the so-called "medieval fanaticism." In most Catholic states of this time, there was permanent or temporary (often very wide) tolerance for the supporters of the Reformation, but it was not there for Catholics in almost no Protestant country. The violent extermination by the reformers of objects of Catholic "idolatry" led to the destruction of many of the largest works of religious art, the most valuable monastic libraries. The era of the Reformation was accompanied by a major upheaval in the economy. The old Christian religious principle "production for man" was replaced by another, in fact, atheistic principle - "man for production". Personality has lost its former self-sustaining value. The figures of the Reformation era (especially the Calvinists) saw in it just a cog in a grandiose mechanism that worked for enrichment with such energy and non-stop that the material benefits by no means compensated for the mental and spiritual losses arising from this.

Literature about the era of the Reformation

Hagen. Literary and religious conditions in Germany during the Reformation

Ranke. History of Germany during the Reformation

Egelhaf. History of Germany during the Reformation

Heusser. History of the Reformation

V. Mikhailovsky. On the forerunners and forerunners of the Reformation in the 13th and 14th centuries

Fisher. Reformation

Sokolov. Reformation in England

Maurenbrecher. England during the Reformation

Luchitsky. Feudal aristocracy and Calvinists in France

Erbkam. History of Protestant sects during the Reformation

The content of the article

REFORMATION, a powerful religious movement to reform the doctrine and organization of the Christian Church, which arose in Germany in the early 16th century, quickly spread to a large part of Europe and led to a separation from Rome and the formation of a new form of Christianity. After a large group of German sovereigns and representatives of free cities who joined the Reformation protested against the decision of the Imperial Reichstag in Speyer (1529), which prohibited the further spread of reforms, their followers began to be called Protestants, and the new form of Christianity - Protestantism.

From the Catholic point of view, Protestantism was a heresy, an unauthorized departure from the divinely revealed teachings and institutions of the Church, leading to apostasy from the true faith and violation of the moral standards of Christian life. He brought into the world a new seed of corruption and other evil. The traditional Catholic view of the Reformation is set forth by Pope Pius X in an encyclical Editae saepe(1910). The founders of the Reformation were “... people possessed by a spirit of pride and rebellion: enemies of the Cross of Christ, seeking earthly things ... whose god is their womb. They conceived not the correction of morals, but the denial of the fundamental tenets of faith, which gave rise to great confusion and opened the way for them and others to a dissolute life. Rejecting the authority and leadership of the church and putting on the yoke of the arbitrariness of the most corrupt princes and people, they are trying to destroy the teaching, dispensation and order of the church. And after that ... they dare to call their rebellion and their destruction of faith and morality "restoration" and call themselves "restorers" of the ancient order. In fact, they are its destroyers, and by weakening the strength of Europe by conflicts and wars, they have nurtured the apostasy of modern times.

From the Protestant point of view, on the other hand, it was the Roman Catholic Church that deviated from the revealed teaching and order of primitive Christianity and thereby separated itself from the living mystical body of Christ. The hypertrophied growth of the organizational machine of the medieval church paralyzed the life of the spirit. Salvation has degenerated into a sort of mass production, with lavish church ceremonies and a pseudo-ascetic way of life. Moreover, she usurped the gifts of the Holy Spirit in favor of the clerical caste and thus opened the door to all sorts of abuses and exploitation of Christians by the corrupt clerical bureaucracy, centered on papal Rome, whose depravity has become a byword for all Christianity. The Protestant Reformation, far from heresy, served the complete restoration of the doctrinal and moral ideals of genuine Christianity.

HISTORICAL OUTLINE

Germany.

On October 31, 1517, the young Augustinian monk Martin Luther (1483–1546), professor of theology at the newly founded University of Wittenberg, posted 95 theses on the doors of the palace church, which he intended to defend in a public debate. The reason for this challenge was the practice of spreading indulgences issued by the pope to all those who made a monetary contribution to the papal treasury for the reconstruction of the Basilica of St. Peter in Rome. Dominican friars traveled throughout Germany, offering full remission of sins and liberation from torment in purgatory to those who, having repented and confessed their sins, paid in accordance with their income. It was also possible to purchase a special indulgence for the souls in purgatory. Luther's theses not only condemned the abuses attributed to the sellers of indulgences, but also generally denied the very principles according to which these indulgences were issued. He believed that the pope had no power to forgive sins (with the exception of punishments imposed by himself) and challenged the doctrine of the treasury of the merits of Christ and the saints, which the pope resorts to for the remission of sins. In addition, Luther deplored the fact that the practice of selling indulgences gave people what he believed to be a false assurance of salvation.

All attempts to force him to recant his views on papal power and authority failed, and in the end, Pope Leo X condemned Luther on 41 counts (bull Exsurge Domine, June 15, 1520), and in January 1521 excommunicated him from the church. In the meantime, the reformer published three pamphlets one after the other, in which he boldly outlined the program for the reform of the church - its doctrine and organization. In the first of them, To the Christian nobility of the German nation about the correction of Christianity, he called on the German princes and sovereigns to reform the German church, giving it a national character and transforming it into a church free from the domination of the church hierarchy, from superstitious external rituals and from laws that allow monastic life, celibacy of priests and other customs in which he saw a perversion true Christian tradition. In the treatise On the Babylonian Captivity of the Church Luther attacked the entire system of church sacraments, in which the church was seen as the official and only mediator between God and the human soul. In the third pamphlet - On the freedom of a Christian- he expounded his fundamental doctrine of justification by faith alone, which became the cornerstone in the theological system of Protestantism.

He responded to a papal bull of condemnation with a condemnation of the papacy (pamphlet Against the accursed bull of the Antichrist), and the bull itself, Code of Canon Law and publicly burned several pamphlets of his opponents. Luther was an outstanding polemicist, sarcasm and swearing were his favorite tricks. But his opponents were not distinguished by delicacy. All the polemical literature of that time, both Catholic and Protestant, is full of personal insults and was characterized by rude, even obscene language.

Luther's audacity and open rebellion can be (at least in part) explained by the fact that his sermons, lectures, and pamphlets secured him the support of a large part of the clergy and a growing number of laity, both from the upper and lower strata of German society. Colleagues at the University of Wittenberg, professors from other universities, some fellow Augustinians, and many people devoted to humanist culture sided with him. In addition, Frederick III the Wise, Elector of Saxony, Sovereign Luther, and some other German princes who sympathized with his views, took him under their protection. In their eyes, as in the eyes of ordinary people, Luther appeared as a champion of a holy cause, a reformer of the church and an exponent of the growing national self-consciousness of Germany.

Historians have pointed to various factors that help explain Luther's astonishingly rapid success in building a wide and influential circle of supporters. The economic exploitation of the people by the Roman Curia has long been complained of by most countries, but the accusations have not brought any results. The demand for the reform of the church in capite et in membris (in relation to the head and members) was heard more and more loudly from the time of the Avignon captivity of the popes (14th century) and then during the great Western schism (15th century). Reforms were promised at the Council of Constance, but they shelved as soon as Rome consolidated its power. The reputation of the church fell even lower in the 15th century, when popes and prelates were in power, caring too much about earthly things, and priests were not always distinguished by high morality. The educated classes, meanwhile, were strongly influenced by the pagan humanistic frame of mind, and the Aristotelian-Thomistic philosophy was supplanted by a new wave of Platonism. Medieval theology lost its authority, and the new secular critical attitude towards religion led to the disintegration of the entire medieval world of ideas and beliefs. Finally, an important role was played by the fact that the Reformation, while willingly recognizing by the Church the full control of itself by the secular authorities, won the support of sovereigns and governments, ready to turn religious problems into political and national ones and consolidate the victory by force of arms or legislative coercion. In such circumstances, a rebellion against the doctrinal and organizational dominance of papal Rome had a great chance of success.

Condemned and excommunicated by the pope for heretical views, Luther should, in the normal course of events, have been arrested by secular authorities; however, the Elector of Saxony protected the reformer and ensured his safety. The new Emperor Charles V, King of Spain and monarch of the Habsburg hereditary dominions, at this point sought to enlist the united support of the German princes in anticipation of an inevitable war with Francis I, his rival for hegemony in Europe. At the request of the Elector of Saxony, Luther was allowed to attend and speak in his defense at the Reichstag in Worms (April 1521). He was found guilty, and because he refused to recant his views, imperial disgrace was imposed on him and his followers by imperial edict. However, by order of the elector, Luther was intercepted on the road by knights and placed for his safety in a remote castle in the Wartburg. During the war against Francis I, with whom the pope entered into an alliance that caused the famous sack of Rome (1527), the emperor could not or did not want to complete Luther's work for almost 10 years. During this period, the changes advocated by Luther came into practice not only in the Electorate of Saxony, but also in many states of Central and North-East Germany.

While Luther was in his enforced seclusion, the cause of the Reformation was threatened by serious disturbances and destructive raids on churches and monasteries, carried out at the instigation of the "Zwickau prophets." These religious fanatics claimed to be inspired by the Bible (they were joined by Luther's friend Karlstadt, one of the first to adopt the Protestant faith). Returning to Wittenberg, Luther crushed the fanatics with the power of eloquence and his authority, and the Elector of Saxony drove them out of his state. The "Prophets" were the forerunners of the Anabaptists, an anarchist movement within the Reformation. The most fanatical of them, in their program of building the Kingdom of Heaven on earth, called for the abolition of class privileges and the socialization of property.

Thomas Müntzer, the leader of the "Zwickau prophets", also participated in the Peasants' War, a major uprising that engulfed southwestern Germany like wildfire in 1524-1525. The cause of the uprising was the age-old unbearable oppression and exploitation of the peasants, which caused from time to time bloody riots. Ten months after the start of the uprising, a manifesto was made public ( Twelve Articles) of the Swabian peasants, compiled by several clerics who sought to draw the attention of the reformist party to the cause of the peasants. To this end, in addition to a summary of peasant demands, the manifesto included new items advocated by the reformers (for example, the election of a pastor by the community and the use of tithes for the maintenance of the pastor and the needs of the community). All other demands, which were of an economic and social nature, were supported by quotations from the Bible as the highest and last authority. Luther appealed to both the nobles and the peasants with an exhortation, reproaching the former for oppressing the poor and urging the latter to follow the instructions of the Apostle Paul: "Let every soul be submissive to the highest authorities." He went on to call on both sides to make mutual concessions and restore peace. But the rebellion continued, and Luther, in a new appeal Against gangs of peasants sowing murder and robbery urged the nobles to crush the uprising: "Anyone who can should beat, strangle, stab them."

Responsibility for the disturbances caused by the "prophets", the Anabaptists and the peasants, was placed on Luther. Undoubtedly, his preaching of evangelical freedom against human tyranny inspired the "Zwickau prophets" and was used by the leaders of the Peasants' War. This experience undermined Luther's naive expectation that his preaching of freedom from slavery to the Law would force people to act out of a sense of duty towards society. He abandoned the original idea of ​​creating a Christian church independent of secular power, and was now inclined to the idea of ​​placing the church under the direct control of the state, which has the power and authority to curb movements and sects that deviate from the truth, i.e. from his own interpretation of the gospel of freedom.

The freedom of action granted to the reform party by the political situation made it possible not only to spread the movement to other German states and free cities, but also to develop a clear management structure and forms of worship for the reformed church. Monasteries - male and female - were abolished, and monks and nuns were released from all ascetic vows. Church property was confiscated and used for other purposes. At the Reichstag in Speyer (1526), ​​the Protestant group was already so large that the assembly, instead of demanding the implementation of the Edict of Worms, decided to maintain the status quo and leave the princes free to choose their religion until an ecumenical council was called.

The emperor himself harbored the hope that an ecumenical council held in Germany and set up to implement urgent reforms would be able to restore religious peace and unity in the empire. But Rome feared that the council, held in Germany, under the existing circumstances, might get out of hand, as happened with the Council of Basel (1433). After defeating the French king and his allies, during a lull before the resumption of conflict, Charles finally decided to tackle the problem of religious peace in Germany. In an effort to reach a compromise, the Imperial Diet, convened in Augsburg in June 1530, demanded that Luther and his adherents present to the public a statement of their faith and the reforms they insist on. This document, edited by Melanchthon and entitled Augsburg Confession (Confessio Augustana), was clearly conciliatory in tone. He denied any intention of the Reformers to break away from the Roman Catholic Church or to change any essential point of the Catholic faith. The Reformers insisted only on the suppression of abuses and the abolition of what they considered erroneous interpretations of the teachings and canons of the church. To abuses and delusions, they attributed the communion of the laity only under one form (consecrated bread); attributing the character of sacrifice to the mass; obligatory celibacy (celibacy) for priests; mandatory confession and the existing practice of its conduct; rules regarding fasting and food restrictions; principles and practice of monastic and ascetic life; and, finally, the divine authority attributed to ecclesiastical Tradition.

The sharp rejection of these demands by the Catholics and the bitter, incoherent polemic between theologians of both parties clearly showed that the gulf between their positions could no longer be bridged. To restore unity, there was only one way - a return to the use of force. The emperor and the majority of the Reichstag, with the approval of the Catholic Church, provided the opportunity for the Protestants to return to the bosom of the church until April 1531. In preparation for the struggle, the Protestant princes and cities formed the Schmalkaldic League and began negotiations for assistance with England, where Henry VIII was in revolt against the papacy, with Denmark, which accepted the Lutheran Reformation, and with the French king, whose political antagonism with Charles V prevailed over all religious considerations.

In 1532, the emperor agreed to a truce for 6 months, as he was involved in the fight against Turkish expansion in the east and in the Mediterranean, but soon the re-emerged war with France and the uprising in the Netherlands absorbed all his attention, and only in 1546 he was able to return to the German affairs. Meanwhile, Pope Paul III (1534–1549) yielded to pressure from the emperor and convened a council at Trient (1545). The invitation to the Protestants was rejected with contempt by Luther and other leaders of the Reformation, who could only expect sweeping condemnation from the council.

Determined to crush all opponents, the emperor outlawed the leading Protestant princes and began hostilities. Having won a decisive victory at Muhlberg (April 1547), he forced them to surrender. But the task of restoring the Catholic faith and discipline in Protestant Germany proved almost impossible. A compromise on matters of faith and church organization, called the Augsburg Interim (May 1548), proved unacceptable to either the pope or the Protestants. Yielding to pressure, the latter agreed to send their representatives to the cathedral, which, after a break, resumed work in Trient in 1551, but the situation changed overnight when Moritz, Duke of Saxony, went over to the side of the Protestants and moved his army to Tyrol, where Charles V was located. The emperor was forced to sign a peace treaty in Passau (1552) and stop the fight. In 1555 the Peace of Augsburg was concluded, according to which the Protestant churches that accepted Augsburg Confession, received legal recognition on the same basis as the Roman Catholic Church. This recognition did not extend to other Protestant sects. The principle “cuius regio, eius religio” (“whose power, that is faith”) was the basis of a new order: in every German state, the religion of the sovereign became the religion of the people. Catholics in Protestant states and Protestants in Catholic states were given the choice of either joining the local religion or moving with their property to the territory of their religion. The right to choose and the obligation for citizens of cities to profess the religion of the city extended to free cities. The Augsburg religious peace was a heavy blow to Rome. The Reformation took hold, and the hope of restoring Catholicism in Protestant Germany faded.

Switzerland.

Shortly after Luther's rebellion against indulgences, Huldrych Zwingli (1484–1531), priest of the Zurich cathedral, began to criticize indulgences and "Roman superstitions" in his sermons. The Swiss cantons, although nominally part of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, were in fact independent states united in an alliance for a common defense, and were governed by a council elected by the people. Having won the support of the city authorities of Zurich, Zwingli could easily introduce a reformed system of church organization and worship there.

After Zurich, the Reformation began in Basel, and then in Bern, St. Gallen, Grisons, Wallis and other cantons. The Catholic cantons, led by Lucerne, made every effort to prevent the further spread of the movement, as a result of which a religious war broke out, ending in the so-called. The first Kappel peace agreement (1529), which guaranteed freedom of religion to each canton. However, in the Second Kappel War, the Protestant army was defeated at the Battle of Kappel (1531), in which Zwingli himself fell. The Second Peace of Kappel, concluded after this, restored Catholicism in the cantons with a mixed population.

Zwingli's theology, although he shared Luther's fundamental principle of justification by faith alone, differed in many points from Luther's, and the two reformers were never able to agree. For this reason, and also because of the dissimilarity of political situations, the Reformation in Switzerland and Germany took different paths.

The Reformation was first introduced in Geneva in 1534 by the French refugee Guillaume Farel (1489–1565). Another Frenchman, John Calvin (1509–1564) from the Picardy town of Noyon, became fascinated with the ideas of the Reformation while studying theology in Paris. In 1535 he visited Strasbourg, then Basel, and finally spent several months in Italy at the court of Duchess Renata of Ferrara, who sympathized with the Reformation. On the way back from Italy in 1536 he made a stop in Geneva, where he settled at the insistence of Farel. However, after two years he was expelled from the city and returned to Strasbourg, where he taught and preached. During this period, he established close relationships with some of the leaders of the Reformation, and above all with Melanchthon. In 1541, at the invitation of the magistrate, he returned to Geneva, where he gradually concentrated all power in the city in his hands and, through the consistory, managed spiritual and secular affairs until the end of his life in 1564.

Although Calvin proceeded from the principle of justification by faith alone, his theology developed in a different direction from Luther's. His concept of the church also did not coincide with the ideas of the German reformer. In Germany, the formation of a new church organization proceeded in random, unplanned ways under the influence of the "Zwickau prophets", at that time Luther was in the Wartburg castle. On his return, Luther expelled the "prophets" but found it wise to sanction some of the changes already made, although some of them seemed too radical to him at the time. Calvin, on the contrary, planned the organization of his church on the basis of the Bible and intended to reproduce the structure of the original church as it can be represented on the basis of the New Testament. He took the principles and norms of secular government from the Bible and introduced them in Geneva. Fanatically intolerant of other people's opinions, Calvin expelled all dissenters from Geneva and sentenced Michel Servetus for his antitrinitarian ideas to be burned at the stake.

England.

In England, the activities of the Roman Catholic Church have long been a source of great resentment from all classes of society, which was manifested in repeated attempts to stop these abuses. Wycliffe's revolutionary ideas concerning the church and the papacy attracted many supporters, and although the Lollard movement, inspired by his teachings, was severely suppressed, it did not completely disappear.

However, the British rebellion against Rome was not the work of the Reformers and was not caused by theological considerations. Henry VIII, a zealous Catholic, took severe measures against the penetration of Protestantism into England, he even wrote a treatise on the sacraments (1521), in which he refuted the teachings of Luther. Fearing powerful Spain, Henry wished to make an alliance with France, but met with an obstacle in the person of his Spanish wife, Catherine of Aragon; among other things, she never gave birth to an heir to the throne, and the legality of this marriage was in doubt. That is why the king asked the pope to annul the marriage so that he could marry Anne Boleyn, but the pope refused to give permission for the divorce, and this convinced the king that in order to strengthen his power, he needed to get rid of interference in his affairs from the pope . He responded to the threat of the Vatican to excommunicate Henry VIII with the Act of Supremacy (1534), in which the monarch was recognized as the supreme head of the Church of England, not subject to either the pope or other church authorities. Refusal of the "oath to the supremacy" of the king was punishable by death, among those executed were the Bishop of Rochester, John Fisher, and the former chancellor, Sir Thomas More. Apart from abolishing papal supremacy over the church, liquidating the monasteries and confiscating their possessions and property, Henry VIII did not make any changes to church teachings and institutions. AT Six Articles(1539) confirmed the doctrine of transubstantiation and rejected communion under two kinds. Likewise, no concessions were made to the celibacy of priests, the celebration of private masses, and the practice of confession. Harsh measures were taken against those who professed the Lutheran faith, many were executed, others fled to Protestant Germany and Switzerland. However, during the regency of the Duke of Somerset under the minor Edward VI Articles Henry VIII were abolished, and the Reformation began in England: the (1549) and formulated 42 articles of faith(1552). The reign of Queen Mary (1553–1558) was marked by the restoration of Catholicism under the control of the papal legate, Cardinal Pole, but, contrary to his advice, the restoration was accompanied by severe persecution of Protestants and one of the first victims was Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury. The accession to the throne of Queen Elizabeth (1558) again changed the situation in favor of the Reformation. The "oath of supremacy" was restored; Articles Edward VI, after revision in 1563 called 39 articles, and Book of Public Worship became the normative doctrinal and liturgical documents of the Episcopal Church of England; and Catholics were now subjected to cruel persecution.

Other European countries.

The Lutheran Reformation was introduced into the Scandinavian countries at the behest of their monarchs. By royal decrees, Sweden (1527) and Norway (1537) became Protestant powers. But in many other European countries where sovereigns remained faithful to the Roman Catholic Church (Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary, Scotland, the Netherlands, France), the Reformation spread widely among all classes of the population thanks to the activities of missionaries and despite the repressive measures of the government.

Among the founders of new Protestant churches in Catholic countries, emigrants from countries where freedom of conscience was denied played an important role. They managed to establish the right to freely practice their religion, despite the opposition of religious and political authorities. In Poland, the treaty Pax dissidentium (Peace for the dissidents, 1573) extended this freedom even to the anti-Trinitarians, Socinians, or, as they came to be called, Unitarians, who successfully began to establish their own congregations and schools. In Bohemia and Moravia, where the descendants of the Hussites, the Moravian brothers, adopted the Lutheran faith and where Calvinist propaganda was a great success, Emperor Rudolf II, with his Peace message(1609) granted all Protestants religious freedom and control of the University of Prague. The same emperor recognized the freedom of the Hungarian Protestants (Lutherans and Calvinists) by the Peace of Vienna (1606). In the Netherlands, under Spanish rule, Lutherans soon began to appear, but Calvinist propaganda soon gained the upper hand among the wealthy burghers and merchants in the cities, where there was a long tradition of autonomous government. Under the cruel rule of Philip II and the Duke of Alba, the attempt of the authorities to destroy the Protestant movement by force and arbitrariness provoked a great national uprising against Spanish rule. The uprising led to the proclamation in 1609 of the independence of the strictly Calvinist republic of the Netherlands, as a result of which only Belgium and part of Flanders remained under Spanish rule.

The longest and most dramatic struggle for the freedom of the Protestant churches unfolded in France. In 1559 the Calvinist communities scattered throughout the French provinces formed a federation and held a synod in Paris, where they formed Gallican Confession, a symbol of their faith. By 1561 the Huguenots, as the Protestants were called in France, had more than 2,000 communities, uniting more than 400,000 believers. All attempts to limit their growth have failed. The conflict soon became political and led to internal religious wars. According to the Treaty of Saint-Germain (1570), the Huguenots were granted freedom to practice their religion, civil rights and four mighty fortresses for protection. But in 1572, after the events of St. Bartholomew's Night (August 24 - October 3), when, according to some estimates, 50,000 Huguenots died, the war broke out again and continued until 1598, when, under the Edict of Nantes, French Protestants were granted freedom to practice their religion and the rights of citizenship . The Edict of Nantes was repealed in 1685, after which thousands of Huguenots emigrated to other countries.

Under the harsh rule of King Philip II and his Inquisition, Spain remained closed to Protestant propaganda. In Italy, some centers of Protestant ideas and propaganda formed quite early in the cities in the north of the country, and later in Naples. But not a single Italian prince supported the cause of the Reformation, and the Roman Inquisition was always on the alert. Hundreds of Italian converts, who belonged almost exclusively to the educated classes, found refuge in Switzerland, Germany, England and other countries, many of them became prominent figures in the Protestant churches of these states. They included members of the clergy, such as Bishop Vergerio, a former papal legate in Germany, and Occhino, a Capuchin general. At the end of the 16th century the whole north of Europe became Protestant, in addition, large Protestant communities flourished in all Catholic states, with the exception of Spain and Italy. HUGUGENOTS.

THEOLOGY OF THE REFORMATION

The theological structure of Protestantism, created by the reformers, is based on three fundamental principles that unite them despite different interpretations of these principles. These are: 1) the doctrine of justification by faith alone (sola fide), regardless of the performance of good deeds and any external sacred rites; 2) the principle of sola scriptura: Scripture contains the Word of God, which addresses directly the soul and conscience of a Christian and is the highest authority in matters of faith and church worship, regardless of church Tradition and any church hierarchy; 3) the doctrine that the church, which forms the mystical body of Christ, is an invisible community of chosen Christians predestined for salvation. The Reformers maintained that these teachings were found in Scripture and that they represented true divine revelation, distorted and forgotten in the process of dogmatic and institutional degeneration that led to the Roman Catholic system.

Luther arrived at the doctrine of justification by faith alone on the basis of his own spiritual experience. Becoming a monk at an early age, he zealously observed all the ascetic requirements of the monastery charter, but over time he discovered that despite his desire and sincere constant efforts, he was still far from perfection, so that he even doubted the possibility of his salvation. The Epistle to the Romans of the Apostle Paul helped him get out of the crisis: he found in it a statement that he developed in his doctrine of justification and salvation by faith without the help of good works. Luther's experience was nothing new in the history of the Christian spiritual life. Paul himself constantly experienced an internal struggle between the ideal of a perfect life and the stubborn resistance of the flesh, he also found refuge in faith in divine grace, bestowed on people by the redemptive feat of Christ. Christian mystics of all times, discouraged by the weakness of the flesh and pangs of conscience by their sinfulness, have found peace and comfort in the act of absolute trust in the efficacy of Christ's merits and divine grace.

Luther was familiar with the writings of Jean Gerson and the German mystics. Their influence on the early version of his doctrine is second only to that of Paul. There is no doubt that the principle of justification by faith and not by the works of the Law is the true teaching of Paul. But it is also clear that Luther puts more into the words of the apostle Paul than they actually contain. According to the understanding of the teachings of Paul, inherent in the Latin patristic tradition, starting at least with Augustine, a person who, as a result of the fall of Adam, lost the opportunity to do good and even desire it, cannot achieve salvation on his own. The salvation of man is entirely the work of God. Faith is the first step in this process, and this very faith in the redemptive work of Christ is a gift from God. Faith in Christ means not just trust in Christ, but trust accompanied by trust in Christ and love for him, or, in other words, it is active, not passive faith. Faith by which a person is justified, i.e. by which man's sins are forgiven and he is made justified in the eyes of God, is active faith. Justification by faith in Christ means that a change has taken place in the human soul, the human will, with the help of divine grace, has acquired the ability to want good and do it, and therefore advance along the path of righteousness with the help of good deeds.

Starting with Paul's distinction between the spiritual or inner man (homo interior) and the material, outer man (homo exterior), Luther came to the conclusion that the spiritual, inner man is reborn in faith and, being united with Christ, is freed from any bondage and earthly chains. Faith in Christ gives him freedom. To acquire righteousness, he needs only one thing: the holy word of God, the gospel (good news) of Christ. To describe this unity of the inner man with Christ, Luther uses two comparisons: a spiritual marriage and a red-hot iron with fire inside. In spiritual marriage, the soul and Christ exchange their possessions. The soul brings its sins, Christ brings its infinite merits, which the soul now partially owns; sins are destroyed. The inner man, thanks to the imputation of the merits of Christ to the soul, is established in his righteousness in the eyes of God. Then it becomes evident that the works that affect and are connected with the outer man have nothing to do with salvation. Not by deeds, but by faith, we glorify and confess the true God. Logically, the following seems to follow from this teaching: if for salvation there is no need for good deeds and sins, together with the punishment for them, are destroyed by an act of faith in Christ, then there is no longer any need for respect for the entire moral order of Christian society, for the very existence of morality. Luther's distinction between the inner and the outer man helps to avoid such a conclusion. The outer man, who lives in the material world and belongs to the human community, is bound by a strict obligation to do good works, not because he can deduce from them any merit that can be imputed to the inner man, but because he must promote growth and improving the life of the community in the new Christian kingdom of divine grace. A person is obligated to consecrate himself to the good of the community so that saving faith can spread. Christ frees us not from the obligation to do good works, but only from the vain and empty confidence in their usefulness for salvation.

Luther's theory that sin is not imputed to the sinner who believes in Christ and that he is justified by the imputation of the merits of Christ in spite of his own sins, is based on the premises of the medieval theological system of Duns Scotus, which was further developed in the teachings of Ockham and the entire nominalistic school, within which Luther's views were formed. In the theology of Thomas Aquinas and his school, God was understood as the Supreme Mind, and the total being and life process in the Universe were conceived as a rational causal chain, the first link of which is God. The theological school of nominalism, on the contrary, saw in God the Higher Will, not bound by any logical necessity. This implied the arbitrariness of the divine will, in which things and actions are good or bad, not because there is an internal reason why they should be good or bad, but only because God wants them to be good or bad. To say that something done by divine command is unjust implies the imposition of limits on God by human categories of just and unjust.

From the standpoint of nominalism, Luther's theory of justification does not seem irrational, as it appears from the standpoint of intellectualism. The exclusively passive role assigned to man in the process of salvation led Luther to a more rigid understanding of predestination. His view of salvation is more strictly deterministic than that of Augustine. The cause of everything is the supreme and absolute will of God, and to it we cannot apply the moral or logical criteria of the limited mind and experience of man.

But how can Luther prove that the process of justification by faith alone is sanctioned by God? Of course, the guarantee is given by the Word of God, which is contained in the Scriptures. But, according to the interpretation of these biblical texts given by the fathers and teachers of the church (i.e., according to Tradition) and the official magisterium of the church, only active faith, manifested in good deeds, justifies and saves a person. Luther maintained that the only interpreter of Scripture is the Spirit; in other words, the individual judgment of every believing Christian is free through his union with Christ through faith.

Luther did not consider the words of Scripture to be infallible and acknowledged that the Bible contains distortions of facts, contradictions and exaggerations. Of the third chapter of Genesis (which speaks of the fall of Adam), he said that it contains "the most implausible tale." In fact, Luther made a distinction between Scripture and the Word of God, which is found in Scripture. Scripture is only the outward and error-prone form of the inerrant Word of God.

Luther adopted the canon of the Hebrew Bible as the Old Testament and, following the example of Jerome, classified the books added to the Christian Old Testament as Apocrypha. But the Reformer went further than Jerome and removed these books from the Protestant Bible altogether. During his forced stay in the Wartburg, he worked on a translation of the New Testament into German (published in 1522). He then proceeded to translate the Old Testament and in 1534 published the complete text of the Bible in German. From a literary point of view, this monumental work marks a turning point in the history of German literature. It cannot be said that this was the work of Luther alone, because he worked in close collaboration with his friends, and above all with Melanchthon; nevertheless, it was Luther who introduced his exceptional sense of the word into translation.

Luther's principle of justification by faith alone, which reduced the mystery of salvation to the spiritual experience of the inner man and abolished the necessity of good works, had far-reaching consequences for the nature and structure of the church. First of all, he annulled the spiritual content and significance of the entire system of sacraments. Further, with the same blow, Luther deprived the priesthood of its main function - the celebration of the sacraments. Another function of the priesthood (sacerdotium, literally, priesthood) was the function of teaching, and this was also abolished, since the reformer denied the authority of Church Tradition and the teaching of the Church. As a result, nothing justified the institution of the priesthood.

In Catholicism, the priest, by virtue of his spiritual authority obtained during his ordinance (ordination), has a monopoly on certain sacraments that are channels of divine grace and, as such, are necessary for salvation. This sacramental power elevates the priest above the laity and makes him a sacred person, a mediator between God and man. There is no such sacramental authority in Luther's system. In the mystery of justification and salvation, every Christian has direct dealings with God and achieves mystical union with Christ through his faith. Every Christian becomes a priest through his faith. Deprived of sacramental powers - its teaching and its priesthood, the entire institutional structure of the church crumbles. Paul taught about salvation through faith, but at the same time through membership in a charismatic community, the church (ecclesia), the Body of Christ. Where is this ecclesia, Luther asked, this Body of Christ? This, he argued, is an invisible society of chosen believers, predestined for salvation. As for the visible assembly of believers, it is simply a human organization that takes different forms at different times. The ministry of a priest is not some kind of rank that gives him special powers or marks him with an indelible spiritual seal, but simply a certain function, which consists primarily in preaching the Word of God.

More difficult for Luther was to reach a satisfactory solution to the problem of the sacraments. Three of them (baptism, eucharist and repentance) could not be discarded because they are spoken of in Scripture. Luther vacillated and continually changed his mind, both as to their meaning and as to their place in the theological system. In the case of repentance, Luther does not mean the confession of sins to the priest and the remission of these sins by him, which he completely rejected, but the outward sign of forgiveness, already received through faith and through the imputation of the merits of Christ. Later, however, not finding a satisfactory meaning for the existence of this sign, he completely abandoned repentance, leaving only baptism and the Eucharist. At first he recognized that baptism is a kind of gracious channel through which the faith of the recipient of grace is assured of the forgiveness of sins promised by the Christian gospel. This concept of the sacrament, however, does not include infant baptism. Moreover, since both original sin and committed sins are blotted out only by the direct imputation to the soul of the merits of Christ, baptism in the Lutheran system has lost the vital function ascribed to it in the theology of Augustine and in Catholic theology. Eventually Luther abandoned his earlier position and argued that baptism was necessary only because it was commanded by Christ.

With regard to the Eucharist, Luther did not hesitate to reject the sacrificial nature of the Mass and the dogma of transubstantiation, but, interpreting literally the words of the establishment of the Eucharist ("This is My Body", "This is My Blood"), he firmly believed in the real, physical presence of the body of Christ and his blood. in the substances of the Eucharist (in bread and wine). The substance of the bread and wine does not disappear, it is replaced by the Body and Blood of Christ, as the Catholic doctrine also teaches, but the Body and Blood of Christ pervades or is superimposed on the substance of the bread and wine. This Lutheran teaching was not supported by other reformers who, more consistently considering the premises of their theological systems, interpreted the words of the establishment of the Eucharist in a symbolic sense and regarded the Eucharist as a remembrance of Christ, having only a symbolic meaning.

Luther's theological system is expounded in many of his polemical writings. Its main provisions were clearly outlined already in the treatise On the freedom of a Christian (De Libertate Christiana, 1520) and subsequently developed in detail in many theological works, written mainly under the fire of criticism of his opponents and in the heat of controversy. A systematic exposition of Luther's early theology is contained in the work of his close friend and adviser Philip Melanchthon - Fundamental truths of theology (Loci communes rerum theologicarum, 1521). In later editions of this book, Melanchthon departed from the views of Luther. He believed that the human will cannot be considered completely passive in the process of justification and that its compliance with the word of God is an indispensable factor. He also rejected Luther's doctrine of the Eucharist, preferring its symbolic interpretation.

Zwingli also disagreed with Luther on these and other points in his theology. He took a more decisive position than Luther, both in asserting Scripture as the only authority, and in recognizing as binding only what is written in the Bible. More radical were his ideas regarding the structure of the church and the form of worship.

The most significant work produced during the Reformation was (Institutio religionis christianae) Calvin. The first edition of this book contained a detailed exposition of the new doctrine of salvation. This was basically Luther's teaching with minor modifications. In subsequent editions (the last appeared in 1559) the volume of the book increased, and the result was a compendium containing a complete and systematic exposition of the theology of Protestantism. Deviating from Luther's system in many key points, Calvin's system, characterized by logical consistency and amazing inventiveness in the interpretation of Scripture, led to the creation of a new independent Reformed Church, different both in doctrine and organization from the Lutheran Church.

Calvin retained Luther's fundamental doctrine of justification by faith alone, but if Luther subordinated to this doctrine all other theological conclusions at the cost of inconsistencies and compromises, then Calvin, on the contrary, subordinated his soteriological doctrine (the doctrine of salvation) to a higher unifying principle and inscribed it in the logical structure of the dogma and religious practice. In his exposition, Calvin begins with the problem of authority, which Luther "confused" by his distinction between the word of God and Scripture and the arbitrary application of this distinction. According to Calvin, man has an innate "sense of divinity" (sensus divinitatis), but the knowledge of God and his will is revealed entirely in Scripture, which is therefore from beginning to end the infallible "norm of eternal truth" and the source of faith.

Together with Luther, Calvin believed that by doing good deeds a person does not acquire merit, the reward for which is salvation. Justification is "the acceptance by which God, who has received us into grace, regards us as justified," and this entails the forgiveness of sins by the imputation of the righteousness of Christ. But, like Paul, he believed that the faith that justifies is made efficacious through love. This means that justification is inseparable from sanctification, and that Christ does not justify anyone whom he has not sanctified. Thus, justification involves two stages: first, the act in which God accepts the believer as justified, and secondly, the process in which, through the working of the Spirit of God in him, the person is sanctified. In other words, good works do not contribute anything to the justification that saves, but they necessarily follow from justification. In order to keep the moral system from decaying as a result of deducing good works from the mystery of salvation, Luther appeals to the obligations associated with life in the community, to a purely human motive of convenience. Calvin, on the other hand, sees in good works the necessary consequence of justification and the unmistakable sign that it has been achieved.

This doctrine, and the related doctrine of predestination, must be seen in the context of Calvin's concept of God's universal plan for the universe. The highest attribute of God is his omnipotence. All created things have only one reason for existence - God, only one function - to multiply his glory. All events are ordained by him and his fame; the creation of the world, the fall of Adam, redemption by Christ, salvation and eternal destruction are all parts of his divine plan. Augustine, and with him the entire Catholic tradition, recognize predestination to salvation, but reject its opposite, predestination to eternal perdition. Accepting it is tantamount to saying that God is the cause of evil. According to Catholic teaching, God unmistakably foresees and immutably predetermines all future events, but a person is free to accept grace and choose good, or to reject grace and do evil. God wants everyone, without exception, to be worthy of eternal bliss; no one is definitively predestined either to perdition or to sin. From eternity, God foresaw the unceasing torments of the wicked and ordained the punishment of hell for their sins, but at the same time, he tirelessly offers sinners the grace of conversion and does not bypass those who are not predestined for salvation.

Calvin, however, was unfazed by the theological determinism implicit in his concept of God's absolute omnipotence. Predestination is "God's eternal decrees by which he decides for himself what shall become of each individual." Salvation and destruction are two integral parts of the divine plan, to which human concepts of good and evil are not applicable. For some, eternal life in heaven is predestined, so that they become witnesses of divine mercy; for others, eternal death in hell, so that they become witnesses of the incomprehensible justice of God. Both heaven and hell show the glory of God and contribute to it.

There are two sacraments in Calvin's system - baptism and the Eucharist. The meaning of baptism is that children are accepted into a union-agreement with God, although they will understand the meaning of this only at a more mature age. Baptism corresponds to circumcision in the Old Testament covenant. In the Eucharist, Calvin rejects not only the Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation, but also Luther's doctrine of the real, physical presence, as well as Zwingli's simple symbolic interpretation. For him, the presence of the Body and Blood of Christ in the Eucharist is understood only in the spiritual plane, it is not mediated physically or materially by the Spirit of God in the spirit of people.

The theologians of the Reformation did not question all the tenets of the first five ecumenical councils regarding the Trinitarian and Christological teachings. The innovations that they introduced relate primarily to the areas of soteriology and ecclesiology (the doctrine of the church). The exception was the radicals of the left wing of the reform movement - anti-trinitarians (Servet and Socinians).

The various churches which arose as a result of divisions within the main branches of the Reformation still remained faithful, at least in essential respects, to the three theological doctrines. These offshoots from Lutheranism, and to a greater extent from Calvinism, differ from each other mainly in institutional rather than religious matters. The Anglican Church, the most conservative of these, retained the episcopal hierarchy and ordination, and with them traces of a charismatic understanding of the priesthood. Scandinavian Lutheran churches are also built on the episcopal principle. Presbyterian Church (. M., 1992
Luther M. The Time of Silence Has Gone: Selected Writings 1520-1526. Kharkov, 1992
History of Europe from ancient times to the present day, tt. one – 8. Vol. 3: (end of the 15th - first half of the 17th century.). M., 1993
Christianity. encyclopedic Dictionary, tt. 1–3. M., 1993–1995
Medieval Europe Through the Eyes of Contemporaries and Historians: A Reading Book, hh. one – 5. part 4: From the Middle Ages to the Modern Age. M., 1994
Luther M. Selected works. St. Petersburg, 1997
Porozovskaya B.D. Martin Luther: His Life and Reform Activities. St. Petersburg, 1997
Calvin J. Instruction in the Christian Faith, tt. I–II. M., 1997–1998

Reformation- a social and religious-political movement in Europe (except Eastern), which took place in the 15-16 centuries, the purpose of which was to reform Catholic Christianity on the basis of the Bible.

The Protestant Reformation swept almost all of Europe and led to the emergence of new Christian creeds and churches.

In addition to Lutheranism, Calvinism, Presbyterianism, Anglicanism, about 200 different Protestant sects (groups of believers whose views differ from traditional ones) and directions appeared in the 16th century, which could easily adapt to existence both in fragmented states and small principalities, and in powerful kingdoms.

Causes of the Reformation

At the turn of the XV-XVI centuries, many Europeans were not satisfied with church orders. The language of the church, Latin, was incomprehensible to most believers, who could not even read the Bible. It was a shame for the peasants and townspeople, who hardly earned every coin, to give a significant part to the bishops and monks. Thrifty entrepreneurs were annoyed by the golden robes of priests, expensive sculptures and paintings that decorated churches. The small landed feudal knights looked with envy at the vast lands of the bishops and monasteries. Kings and princes were annoyed by the intervention of the Pope in their affairs. In addition, wandering artists have long been delighted in city squares, ridiculing fat and stupid monks who, in violation of all church rules, gorge themselves on meat, get drunk and go after women.

A special situation developed in the fragmented principalities of Germany, where the power of the Pope was not limited by strong royal power. Taking advantage of this, the bishops and monasteries constantly increased the exactions from the faithful. The German humanist Ulrich von Hutten wrote about the ministers of the church as follows: “These are the robbers of our fatherland ... They delight themselves with the blood and sweat of the Germans, fill their wombs with the offal of the poor and feed their licentiousness.”

Map of Europe during the Reformation and Counter-Reformation. 1550s - 1660s

Luther Reformation (Lutheranism)

Martin Luther (1483-1546)

In such a difficult situation, the life of Martin Luther (1483-1546) began. He was born into the family of a deeply religious miner. From the age of 14, Luther began to study at school. In order to get food for himself, he, along with his comrades, wandered the streets of Magdeburg, sang psalms to the glory of the Lord and begged for alms. Who knows what the fate of the boy would have been if he had not found shelter in a rich family. After three years of study at one of the best schools of the time, the 18-year-old boy enters the University of Erfurt. With unprecedented zeal, he begins to study the Bible. Thoughts about the Last Judgment, about sinful thoughts and actions did not give him rest. After graduating from the university, he decides to hide from the bustle of the world in a monastery monastery. Soon he received the priesthood and the position of professor of theology at the University of Wittenberg. Luther's sermons attracted the people of Wittenberg because of their simplicity and brevity. For every parishioner, Luther found words of comfort. He reminded that Jesus Christ died on the cross and thus atoned for all human sins.

Martin Luther. Hood. Lucas Cranach Sr.

Beginning of the Reformation in Germany

Martin Luther's speech marked the beginning of the Reformation.

Popular and Princely Reformations

Germany was divided into Catholics and Protestants, supporters of the "princely" and "people's" Reformation.

Calvin Reformation (Calvinism)

Calvinism became the Reformation for the trade and craft strata of Europe. From Switzerland, the Protestant teachings of Calvin penetrated into southern France, where the Calvinists began to be called Huguenots.

Huguenots- a distorted German word "aigenosen" - "allies". So in Geneva they called those wishing to join the Swiss Union.

This teaching was also liked by the inhabitants of the trade and craft cities of the Netherlands. Luther's teaching was actively spread in the Austrian and Hungarian lands, in Poland and Lithuania, and even in the German spiritual and chivalric orders of the Baltic states.

Reformation in Switzerland

Reformation in England

Reformation in the Baltics

AT 1525 the master of the Teutonic order announced that the order was becoming a secular state - Prussian duchy. The knights were released from monastic vows, and the master was proclaimed a duke, independent of the Pope. AT Livonian Order ordinary knights, hoping to take away the lands from the bishops and heads of the order, by the middle of the 16th century declared themselves Lutherans and converted their serfs to the new faith. The very same order state was destroyed, and its possessions were divided among themselves by neighboring countries. material from the site

Reformation in Scandinavia

The Protestant faith also penetrated Scandinavia. Here, just on the eve of the Reformation, Swedish peasants, townspeople and knights rebelled against the power of the Danish kings. The leader was elected a man named Gustav Vasa who came from a noble Swedish family. After the liberation of the capital of Sweden, Stockholm, in 1523, the assembly of the Swedish estates elected him king. In both divided states - Danish-Norwegian and Swedish The kings, wanting to strengthen their power, decided to take advantage of the Reformation that had begun. Luther's students at the University of Wittenberg included both Danes and Swedes. When they returned to their home countries, with the assistance of the kings, they quickly translated the Bible into Swedish and Danish. AT 1527 in Sweden and 1536- in Denmark, Lutheranism was declared the state religion, although it was finally established only by the end of the 16th century.

The beginning of the Reformation in Europe is associated with the name Martin Luther. Martin Luther challenged the Catholic Church at Wittenberg in Saxony. This happened after the arrival in the area of ​​the German preacher Johann Tetzel, who sold indulgences to raise money for Pope Leo X. Indulgences have long been criticized by Catholic theologians (scholars in the field of religion), but their financial success ensured the existence of this practice, because it was too profitable to stop.

In response, on October 23, 1514, Luther placed a document with 95 theses (statements) on the door of the city church. Luther's theses were not radical, but they attracted a large audience, and, thanks to recent developments in the development of printing, they were widely distributed and read everywhere.

Luther's initial criticism of the church was directed against the sale of indulgences, but he went on to attack the core of the Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation (the belief that bread and wine are changed into the body and blood of Christ at communion), priestly celibacy, and the primacy of popes. He also called for the reform of religious orders, monasteries, and the return of the simplicity of the earlier church.

lutheran church

The Reformation in Europe spread after Luther's challenge to the established church. He won many followers, but initially Luther only wanted to reform the existing church, not create an entirely new system.

Several attempts were made to reconcile Luther with the religious authorities. In 1521 he was called to present his views before the imperial parliament at Worms, in the presence of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, who ruled much of Europe. Luther refused to recant his views and, having already been excommunicated by the pope, he was now outlawed by the emperor.

In response, he founded an independent church and began translating the Bible into German. Previous editions of the Bible were in Latin. Luther's edition allowed people to read the Bible in their own language for the first time.

Part of the strength of Luther's teaching was his call for a Germanic identity. Germany at this point consisted of many independent states that were nominally subject to Emperor Charles V. The German princes wanted to maintain their power, and they saw in Luther's teachings a way to simultaneously get rid of both imperial and ecclesiastical control over Germany. What began as a religious dispute soon became a political revolution.

In 1524, a peasant war broke out in the southwestern part of Germany as a result of economic difficulties in the region. A league of German princes, backed by Luther, brutally crushed the uprising in 1526. The rebellion horrified Luther, as did the secular leaders against whom it was directed.

One by one, the northern German states - Saxony, Hesse. Brandenburg, Braunschweig and others accepted Lutheranism. Each state seized control of the church, strengthening the power of the ruler over its people.

worldwide response

The appeal of Lutheranism was not limited to Germany. In 1527, King Gustav Vasa of Sweden, who had achieved independence from Denmark and Norway in 1523, seized church lands to provide funds for his new state. He then reformed the new state church according to Lutheran rules.

A similar process of adaptation of Lutheranism took place in Denmark and Norway in 1536. In England, the break with the Roman Church occurred after the pope refused to approve the divorce of Henry VIII from his wife Catherine of Aragon. Henry replaced the pope as head of the English church.

Political implications

The political response to the Lutheran Reformation was led by Emperor Charles V, but his vast possessions in Europe brought him into conflict, incl. and with France. Warfare between these two powers, and between Charles and the growing power of the Muslim Ottoman Empire in the Mediterranean and the Balkans, meant that he could not devote all his resources to destroying Lutheranism in Germany.

Charles defeated the Lutherans at the Battle of Mühlberg in 1547, but failed to politically destroy them. A religious and political compromise was finally reached after the peace of Augsburg in 1555, by which the emperor gave a decree to every prince in his empire to choose between Catholicism and Lutheranism, and to spread this faith among his subjects.

Luther himself was a conservative theologian and respected order. But many of those who followed him were much more radical.

Zwingli and Calvin

In Zurich W. Zwingli converted the city to the Lutheran faith. His 67 theses in 1523 were adopted by the city councils as official doctrine. However, he disagreed with Luther about the nature of the Eucharist (the bread and wine taken during communion) and began to lead the Swiss church in a more radical, non-hierarchical direction. His death in 1531 during the defense of Zurich against the Catholic cantons (provinces) of Switzerland slowed the momentum of the Reformation in Switzerland.

John Calvin, who began to create a new religious center in Geneva, subsequently became a key figure associated with the Protestant reform in Switzerland. Calvin converted to the new reformed faith in 1533 and settled in Geneva in 1536. There he developed a more severe form of Protestantism, based on his own reading of the Scriptures and his deep academic training, which emphasized purpose—the power of God over all human actions.

Although Calvin himself did not develop any practical theory of resisting wicked authority like that of the Catholic Church or Catholic rulers, many of his followers were willing to defend their views by force on the basis of his teachings. Like Luther, he emphasized the direct relationship of the individual to God without the mediation of the pope or priests, and the primacy of the Bible as the basis of all preaching and teaching. The Bible was now widely distributed in modern languages, and not in Latin, the language of the church.

Unlike Luther, however, who believed in the political subordination of the church to the state, Calvin preached that church and state should work together to create a divine society in which religious beliefs and a strict code of conduct should govern every aspect of daily life.

Calvinism spread to Scotland, the Netherlands, and many parts of France, where its followers were known as Huguenots, as well as to various parts of the German states, to Bohemia and Transylvania. Calvinism also inspired the Puritan movement in England, and later in North America, where its adherents wanted to purge the Anglican Church of the Catholic elements that remained in it, in particular the power of bishops and other "papist" decorations - church robes, utensils and music.

Catholic response

The original Catholic response to the Reformation was to excommunicate those who rebelled against it. When it became clear that this would not help defeat the Reformation, the Catholic Church began to reform itself on the basis of internal calls for church reform that long predated Luther's speech.

After three meetings at Trident in the Italian Alps in 1545-1563. The Catholic Church began the Counter-Reformation. The Catholic Counter-Reformation developed successfully, strengthening Catholicism both theologically and politically, although a more authoritarian orthodoxy was established.

Poland, Austria, and Bavaria became fully Catholic, but while Germany was largely at peace, a strong Calvinist (Huguenot) presence in France sparked long religious wars that only ended after the Edict of Nantes in 1598 declared religious toleration. . At the end of the century, perhaps 40% of the population of Europe followed one or the other reformed beliefs.

In modern historical science, the term "Reformation", which is translated from Latin as "transformation" or "correction", is commonly understood as a socio-political movement that swept the countries of Central and Western Europe in the period of the 16th-17th centuries. His goal was to transform Catholicism, mired in mercantile interests, and bring it into line with biblical teaching.

The brake on the social development of Europe

According to researchers, the history of the beginning of the Reformation (the renewal of Christianity) in Europe is inextricably linked with the emergence of a new and rapidly developing bourgeois class. If during the Middle Ages the Catholic Church, being the vigilant guardian of feudal foundations, fully met the interests of the ruling classes, then in the conditions of new historical realities it became a brake on social development.

Suffice it to say that in a number of European states, church property was up to 30% of the land cultivated by serfs. Various production workshops were created at the monasteries, the products of which were not taxed, which led to the ruin of secular artisans, who were everywhere inferior to them in the competitive struggle.

The same applies to the sphere of trade, where the church had various benefits, while the laity who tried to engage in this kind of activity were subjected to exorbitant duties. In addition, the clerics themselves were inexhaustible in all sorts of extortion and extortion, finding justification for them in the Christian teaching they deliberately distorted.

The bourgeoisie as the driving force of reforms

In the current situation, it was the bourgeoisie, which appeared back in the 15th century and gained strength by the beginning of the next century, that contributed to the beginning of the reformation - the renewal of Christianity - in Europe. Representatives of this class not only managed to take leading positions in the country's economy, but also began to lay claim to political hegemony. Not wanting to abandon Christianity, the bourgeoisie nevertheless rebelled against the existing form of Catholicism, demanding its simplification and cheapening.

Business people, who every year became more and more, did not want to spend money on the construction of grandiose temples and the organization of magnificent prayers. They preferred to invest in production, creating more and more new enterprises. The general hatred was also strengthened by the frankly obscene behavior of the priests themselves, who shamelessly violated the moral principles commanded by Christ.

In addition, one of the reasons for the beginning of the Reformation in Europe was the change in its intellectual environment and the establishment of the principles of humanism, which were a characteristic feature of the Renaissance. The spirit of free criticism established over the years made it possible not only for the progressive people of that time, but also for the broad masses to take a fresh look at the phenomena of culture and religion. However, in each of the European countries, this process had its own characteristic differences. In particular, it is noted that where the arbitrariness of the clergy was limited by legislative measures, the church managed to maintain its positions longer.

A freethinker from the shores of Britain

The beginning of the Reformation in England was laid by Oxford University professor John Wyclif. In 1379, he made an appeal against the main dogma of the Roman Church about the infallibility of the pope. In addition, the venerable scientist and teacher advocated the secularization (confiscation in favor of the state) of church lands and the abolition of most institutions of Catholicism. He openly declared that the head of the church is Jesus Christ, and not at all the Roman pontiff, who arbitrarily appropriated this honor to himself.

In order to make his statements more convincing, Wyclif first translated the Bible into English, which made its reading accessible to the broad masses of the secular population of the country. A little later, the full text of the Old Testament became available to his compatriots. Thus, the people were able to comprehend the Christian teaching in its true form, and not in the edition that the Catholic clergy offered them. It also served to a large extent as a kind of impetus and marked the beginning of the Reformation in England.

Czech follower of John Wycliffe

Speaking about who initiated the Reformation in the Czech Republic, they usually mention the name of its national hero Jan Hus, who opposed the dominance of the clergy sent from the Holy Roman Empire in his country. The formation of his worldview was largely influenced by Czech students who returned to their homeland after studying in England and fell under the influence of the ideas of John Wyclif there.

Having become rector of the University of Prague in 1409, Jan Hus widely promoted the views of the English reformer and, on their basis, called for radical changes in the Czech church. His speeches resonated with the broad masses of the people, and in order to stop the growing unrest, Pope Martin IV, with the support of Emperor Sigismund I, initiated a trial in which the Czech reformer and his closest associate Jerome of Prague were sentenced to be burned at the stake.

The birth of Lutheranism

However, despite the significance of the activities of John Wyclif and Huss, the beginning of the Reformation in Europe (the renewal of Christianity) is usually associated with the name of the prominent German theologian Martin Luther. It was his name that one of the religious movements that originated at the beginning of the 16th century, Lutheranism, was named. Let us dwell briefly on the event that is considered to be the beginning of the Reformation in Germany.

Fertile ground for the implementation of religious reforms was created by the dissatisfaction with the church that gripped all sections of the population. The peasants could no longer endure the tithe tax that was detrimental to them, and the artisans went bankrupt, unable to compete with the monastic workshops exempted from taxes, as already mentioned above. Making huge profits, the clergy annually sent most of the income to the Vatican, indulging the insatiable appetites of the popes. In addition, in the cities, the land holdings of the church were expanding every year, which threatened to plunge their inhabitants into bondage.

About what event was the beginning of the reformation in Germany

However, the main events were destined to take place not on the islands of Britain, and not in the Czech Republic, but in Germany. Against the backdrop of general discontent on October 31, 1517 (usually this date is considered the beginning of the Reformation), a copy of a letter sent by Doctor of Theology Martin Luther to the Archbishop of Mainz appeared on the doors of the cathedral in the city of Wittenberg. In this document, which consisted of 95 points, he severely criticized many of the foundations of contemporary Catholicism.

In particular, he opposed the sale of indulgences ─ letters of absolution, issued to everyone for a fee. This kind of business brought enormous profits to the churchmen, although it was contrary to Christian teaching. As you know, Christ called the faith bestowed on man from above as the only way to the salvation of the soul, and not at all church rites.

Even at the very beginning of the Reformation in Germany, Luther taught that neither the pope nor the clergy are mediators between people and God, and their claims to the right of remission of sins through the holy sacraments are false. In addition, the German freethinker questioned the legitimacy of all papal decrees and church decrees, pointing out that the only authority in spiritual life could be Holy Scripture.

Celibacy, the vow of celibacy and eternal chastity taken by all Catholic clergy, also fell under his criticism. Luther pointed out that this opposition to human nature actually turns into falling into grave sins. In the document that appeared on the doors of the cathedral, there were other equally harsh reproaches against the church. Since at that time the printing business in Germany was already established, the appeal of Martin Luther, replicated in local printing houses, became the property of all the inhabitants of the country.

Break with the established church

Having received the news of what had happened, the Vatican did not attach any serious importance to this, since cases of isolated riots among the clergy had taken place before. That is why the beginning of the Reformation in Germany passed without any dramatic events. However, the situation changed radically after Luther openly supported the previously convicted Jan Hus and expressed his distrust of the church tribunal that passed the sentence. This was already seen as a violation of the authority not only of church hierarchs, but also of the pope himself.

Not stopping there, in December 1520, Luther publicly burned a papal bull, an epistle condemning his views. It was an act of unprecedented courage, which meant a complete break with the church. The secular authorities tried to somehow hush up the scandal, and the newly elected head of the Holy Roman Empire by that time, which, in addition to Germany, then included Italy, the Czech Republic and partly France, summoned a freethinker and tried to convince him of the need to renounce heretical views.

Outside secular laws

Having refused and remaining adamant in his convictions, the impudent theologian placed himself outside the law throughout the territory controlled by the emperor. However, nothing could stop the impending wave of religious reformation in Europe. Martin Luther, thanks to his speech, became widely known not only in Germany, but also abroad, and gained many supporters.

A streak of persecution and persecution

If the beginning of the Reformation (the renewal of Christianity) in Europe was limited to relatively little bloodshed, then after Luther's open break not only with the church, but also with the secular authorities, repressions followed. The first to die at the stakes of the Inquisition were two monks who dared to conduct anti-papal propaganda in the Netherlands.

Following them, dozens of other freethinkers laid down their lives on the altar of reformation. Luther himself was saved from certain death only thanks to the Elector of Saxony, Frederick the Wise, who almost by force sheltered the one who initiated the Reformation in one of his castles. Fleeing from persecution, Luther did not waste his time: by translating the text of the Bible into German, he made it available to all his compatriots.

The beginning of mass demonstrations

But the fire of religious uprisings flared up with unstoppable force, finally culminating in serious social upheavals. Despite the fact that representatives of each of the segments of the population interpreted Luther's teachings in their own way, all of Germany was soon engulfed in popular unrest. A particularly tangible contribution to the cause of the reformation was made by the burgher movement, whose participants were city dwellers, led by Gabriel Zwilling and Andreas Karlstadt.

Demanding from the authorities to carry out immediate and radical reforms, they showed exceptional unity and organization. Soon they were joined by the broad masses of rural residents, who were also vitally interested in changing the existing order. It should be noted that both those and others did not oppose Christianity, but only condemned the greed and greed of those who arrogated to themselves the right to be the spokesmen of God's will and derive considerable income from this.

Rebellion that escalated into a Peasants' War

As is often the case in history, just demands very quickly grew into a "senseless and merciless" rebellion. Crowds of people began to smash temples and monasteries. Many architectural monuments of the Middle Ages and entire libraries of unique manuscripts were then destroyed in the fires.

Following the mob, chivalry also joined the ranks of the reformers, whose representatives also had good reason to hate the Roman clergy. The apogee of everything was the Peasants' War led by Thomas Müntzer, which engulfed Germany in 1524 and soon spread to the whole of Central Europe.

Who are Protestants?

At the end of the story about what events served as the beginning of the reformation in Germany, it is necessary to explain the origin of the term "Protestantism", which later became known as the direction of Christianity, founded by Martin Luther in the first half of the 16th century. The fact is that after the end of the Peasant War in 1526, the so-called Edict of Wormos was canceled, by which the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V declared Luther a criminal and a heretic.

However, just three years later, at a meeting of the Reichstag ─ the highest legislative and advisory body of the empire ─ this document was again given legal force, which provoked a protest from representatives of 14 cities where the ideas of the rebellious theologian were universally recognized. It was thanks to these protesters that all supporters of the Reformation subsequently began to be called Protestants, and the very direction of religion was called Protestantism.

Conclusion

The beginning of the Reformation (renewal of Christianity) in Europe, briefly described in this article, resulted in a long process, as a result of which, along with Catholicism and Orthodoxy, another direction of followers of the teachings given by Jesus Christ appeared - Protestantism. Subsequently, it also split into several Reformed churches, the most numerous of which today are Lutheran, Calvinist and Anglican.