Protestant Reformation - Essay Example

Protestant Reformation During the 16th century the great reformer Martin Luther spread his teachings of Lutheranism which is one of the branches of Protestantism. By the 18th century Lutheranism spread to many countries such as America, Germany and many other parts of the world. In fact, now it claims to be the biggest non- Roman Catholic body in the Western Christian Church. Luther was very perturbed by the corruption and immorality present in the Catholic Church and hence resorted to making some reforms to rectify the corrupt teaching of the church. The word “Lutheranism” was given by none other than Luther’s enemies during the Leipzig Disputation in 1519,. He strongly felt that this name was an identification that they recognized his teachings in accordance with the Gospel, because he says, "If you are convinced that Luther's teaching is in accord with the Gospel,...then you should not discard Luther so completely, lest with him you discard also his teaching, which you nevertheless recognize as Christ's teaching." (Martin Luther) Luther’s teachings were based on the Bible and encouraged all sections of the Lutherans to use it as their only source in all their teachings. Though Luther was opposed to papal teaching and was somewhat a rebel, he did not encourage radical revolts started by the Peasants (Peasants’ War) The Lutherans were content in not separating the state from the church and learned to embrace both the democratic and Republican Governments basing it on the principle that God works through both the church and civil authority. Lutherans carry out many welfare and charity schemes in hospitals, orphanages and many other social movements in the community in order to transform this world into a much better place. Lutherans are not only evangelical but also catholic because they share common ground with many other different Protestant churches on one side and also with Roman Catholic, Anglican Christians and Orthodox Christians on the other side; but at the same time they have a unique and distinct identity of their own by being loyal to the Lutheranism teachings of the 16th century. Germany and Lutheranism: The German Empire had always been essentially Roman Catholic even though Lutheranism had quite a few powerful supporters. Charles the V who was the Habsburg emperor wanted to keep the German Empire purely Roman Catholic was its chief opponent. Between the years 1521 to 1530, Charles was out of Germany and on his return he found that the new religion had deeply taken root and was near to impossible to uproot it. Charles had external enemies too who were mighty and powerful like Francis I (r. 1515 – 47) who resolved to put an end to the power of the Habsburgs and attacked the Empire from the West. The Turks too posed another threat and attacked the empire from the East. Charles also faced great opposition from the Papacy because they felt that he was becoming extremely powerful. In lieu of such a situation many of the Protestant leaders formed the League of Schmalkalden in the year 1531 in order to oppose him. By 1545 places like the North Eastern, North Western and also many regions of South Germany had joined the Protestants. Though in 1547, Charles had become victorious in the Battle of Muhlberg, he did not dare to impose his views on the German princes. In 1546 a religious war broke out, resulting in the Peace of Augsburg in 1555. By this treaty, the Lutherans were given permission to permanently retain all that they possessed. This ideology came to be called “Reservatum Ecclesiasticum", which proved a great hindrance to the Protestants who often violated it and finally led to the “Thirty Years War” which took place between 1618 to1648. During the Peace of Augsburg, the Lutherans were predominant in North Germany. Many attempts at creating a reunion were made but they were not fruitful. In 1534 Pope Paul III gave a warm invitation to the Protestants for a high level general council; even Emperor Charles V tried to execute councils involving Lutheran theologians and the Catholics, but nothing significant took place. Doctrinal disputes ripped through the Lutheran religion right from the beginning and wars and disputes were executed with a lot of passion mingled with violence. Some of the issues leading to these disputes were the question of justification by faith, Sin and grace, and the Lord’s Supper. The most bitter of all these controversies was the issue of Crypto – Calvinistic. Finally, in 1577, the very last of the Lutheran symbols called the “Form of Concord” was put into force in order to bring about peace and harmony. The majority of the churches in Germany accepted it whole- heartedly and Lutheranism spread across the country. The third phase of the evangelical union (1689 – 1817) began with the Pietistic Movement which had a favorable influence but nevertheless was followed by the Rationalists. Philip Spener (1635-1705) through his writings and sermons tried to portray personal holiness. But again the orthodox Lutherans accused the Pietists of pursuing heresy which was emphatically denied but this led to the Pietists becoming fanatics and they soon began losing favor. Many different institutions tried their best to bring about a reunion between the Lutherans and Catholics but the problems that arose could not be resolved. The 19th century marked the fourth phase of the churches in Germany when the chief event of the Evangelical Union and the revival of orthodoxy took place. Preparations for the Centenary celebrations of the Reformation were under full swing. Once again great efforts were stepped up by Prussia to unite the Reformists and the Lutherans. Common liturgy for both the churches was proposed by William III. The service book faced much opposition and John Scheibel, deacon in Breslau went to the extent of braking away and forming his own group called “The Old Lutherans”. Separatist movements took place outside of Silesia and this led to the revival of orthodoxy. Faculties and universities of theology became highly orthodox and very strict in their teachings. Even to this day bitter disputes and struggles take place between the rationalistic and Evangelical tendencies in the different churches in Germany. Lutheran Doctrines: Lutheran theology is based on specific and significant doctrines that include the Sola Scriptura, Sola Gratia and Sola fide. Primarily Lutheranism is based on the theology of the Word of God. The Sola Scriptura emphasizes the Bible to be sole guide of Christian Doctrine. The Word is the scriptures through which man is enlightened about God and his will for each one of us. The Bible is referred to as the “divine word” and ‘the true foundation of faith” of which Christ is the center that is accepted and followed strictly by all Lutherans. Another important doctrine of the Lutherans is justification. In accordance with Martin Luther, there are two different kinds of righteousness. The first one is External or civil righteousness which could be attained by our good deeds and good conduct in everything we do. The other is called inner righteousness which involves the purity as well as the perfection in ones heart. Both these are considered to be God’s gift to us and which serves as the main source of justification. According to the Lutherans justification means "to absolve a guilty man and pronounce him righteous, and to do so, on account of someone else's righteousness, namely, Christ's." The third and significant hallmark of the doctrines of Lutheranism is what is called “Sola fide” which means that an individual gets his justification from his faith in Christ and the Bible. It is only through his faith that he would be able to gain God’s blessings. Faith too is a gift of God and is gained or acquired through preaching and teaching God’s word and accepting Christ and all that he has done. All these doctrines are followed explicitly by the Lutherans unless there is some compelling reason he is unable to fulfill it. Lutheran Worship: The primary Lutheran service is the “Mass” but with the exclusion of the Offertory, Canon and any for of sacrifice. Luther’s service book which was published in 1523 and 1526 serves as a guide. Hymns are sung during mass and the corresponding Epistles and Gospels are read. The main part of the service is the sermon followed by the Creed. The Lord’s Supper or the breaking of bread and drinking of wine is conducted only on special occasions. The only two sacraments recognized by the Lutherans are The Lord’s Supper” and “Baptism”. Other celebrations like Ordination, Confirmation and Confession are accepted as rites that are sacred and nothing more. The festivals celebrated by the Lutherans are Christmas, Easter, the feast of the Twelve Apostles, the Commemoration of the Reformation and Pentecost. Every church follows their own liturgy and some of them use lighted candles and vestments during their ceremonies and rituals. But the official form of worship in the United Evangelical Church of Germany is the ancient agenda as laid down by Frederick William III in 1817. Most English speaking Lutherans such as Americans have now come to accept a common service pattern of the liturgy as followed in the 16th century. Apart from the main service, matins and vespers are also included. Calvinism in Britain: John Calvin was without a doubt one of the greatest Protestants after St. Augustine. He was born on July 10th, 1509 in Noyon in Picardy, France. He had never met Martin Luther because a whole generation separated them. What was different between the two was that Luther was by birth a Saxon peasant whose father worked in the mines. Calvin on the other hand came from a middle – class family and his father was an attorney. John Calvin succeeded Luther during the struggle with the Zwingli disciples also known as the Sacramentarians which leaned more towards Christianity. John Calvin takes the stand of a Reformist in the Modern world. His doctrines are believed to contain the essence of the Gospel. The pure doctrine of Calvinism is based on the Bible which he takes to be God given. The “institutes of Calvinism cannot be called a history of dogma but is a sort of treatise. (1536 – 59; trans. 1561) Calvinism is considered to be the most influential tool during the period of the Reformation of the Protestant Church. The central tenets of Calvinism are based on the absolute sovereignty of God and the important doctrine that justification is achieved by faith and nothing else. Unlike Luther who advocated that humans were capable of free will, Calvin proposed a doctrine of predestination where he said that only a few people are chosen by God for salvation whereas others are rejected to suffer eternal damnation. During the 17th century, Calvinism had been absorbed by other Protestant groups in various countries. Calvinism played a major role in overthrowing feudalism and establishing Capitalism. During the 16th century, the German regions of the North became the center of the Protestant Reformation. When World War II came to an end Germany was separated into two states “along the lines of allied occupation in 1949.” Though Germany houses different religions like Buddhism, Judaism, Islam and even a bit of Hinduism, yet Christianity is accepted as the largest religious denomination. While Protestantism is widespread in the North and East of Germany, Roman Catholicism is widespread in the South and the West. Besides Germany Calvinism spread to Britain. The Calvinist leader of Scotland, John Knox recognized Geneva as the “most perfect school of Christ that ever was on Earth since the days of the apostles.’ Geneva had become the fulcrum around which the International Movement revolved and it portrayed as the role model for other churches around the world. The Westminster Confession of 1646 was embraced by the Church of Scotland in 1648 which has become the primary creed of Britain’s Presbyterian circles and also across the world. Role of Women in the Protestant Reformation: All through the history of the church and especially during the period of the Reformation, women played a very major role. Many of them have been shining beacons who had to suffer martyrdom for the sake of Christ. There are others who had been great models of wives and mothers during the Reformation period. Some of them were endowed with great talent which was used for the glory of God. The fall of the Roman Empire, was followed by massive changes that took place in European history. Many societies had the challenge of living through these changes that took place on the political, economic, religious and social front. Most of the population especially the women population was faced with gender constraints especially in the field of labour. Helen M. Jewell, in her eye – opening book titled “Women in Late Medieval and Reformation Europe 1200- 1550 gives us a first hand survey of the activities of European women dominated by a male – voiced society. This period of war, famine and disease had adverse repercussions on the 14 generations of people who lived during that time. During this period Italy’s identity was essentially fragmented as the region was divided into three different political zones – the north consisting of the Holy Roman Empire, the centre under the control of the papacy and the south under the control of the Angevins and the Aragonese. Later the French invasion added to the already existing political disturbance which made it difficult to envision women as either German, Italian, French or Spanish. One of the women who felt very strongly about national identity was Joan of Arc who was an uneducated peasant girl who hailed from Domremy on the borders of France. Joan was fired with patriotic zeal to flush out the English invaders and secure the dauphin’s coronation of Charles VII. Joan’s bravery and strength stemmed from the patriotic speeches of the priests about the war and her own personal experiences of tales and rumors from travelers The eventful period of Reformation was earmarked by some of the most gracious women of the century. One such woman was Idelette de Bure. She and her husband led pious lives and after breaking away from the Anabaptists which was one of the branches of Protestant churches Reformists and followed the doctrines very steadfastly. This was short lived as Idelette’s husband was struck by the plague and lost his life. Later on she got married to John Calvin, one of the great leaders of the Reformation. She served her husband and the church with great devotion till her very last. She stood by him and helped him in all his religious duties till the day she died. Women lived under a variety of different and trying conditions but the communities to which they belonged were rather stable and never had the fear of invasion by others. But the various wars such as the Hundred Years War, and battles at Agincourt (1415) and Verneuil (1424) saw the devastation of 174 parishes across the country which included burning and looting. During these wars the women suffered miserably from widowhood, taxation and starvation. The en masse of women was much more greatly affected by the economic conditions than the political condition of that period. Thirty years later came the most dreaded of epidemics called “Black Death” (1347 – 1351) which was most devastating for its wiping out of one- third of the population. Women were at a great disadvantage due to not being properly educated nor qualified because the boys were given priority where education and training was concerned. Therefore it could be said that the women did not enjoy much of a renaissance because only the women of a higher status were allowed to associate seriously with education in universities and other literary tastes. It was more a male dominated society and renaissance writers did not hide the fact that the male population enjoyed superiority in the fields of law, medicine and theology. Orthodoxy was the norm of the day and hence couples who married during the reformation found their marriages in jeopardy. They were not allowed to perform any priestly duties such as preaching etc. so the women who were devout and religious satisfied themselves by becoming prophets, mystics and ascetics. A classic example of this would be Margery Kempe who was the daughter of a burgess of Lynn, or Catherine of Siena, who was the daughter of a dyer, who progressed their distinguished careers with a burning inner conviction. Though the period of the Reformation was looked upon as one that paved the way for a freer society and the aspect of marriage was significantly developed, yet the place of women during that time was one of subordination to the wishes of the husband. Another martyr during the Reformation was Lady Jane Grey who was a Protestant and married to Guildford whom she disliked from the very beginning. Guilford was a very sly and cunning person who manipulated everyone for his own benefit. He asked Edward to alter the succession by capitalizing on Edward’s true concern for the Protestant religion. But Edward died on July 6th, 1553. Jane was an independent woman who did not believe in the wrong doings of her husband. But unfortunately, for no fault of her own Jane was imprisoned along with her husband, father and father – in – law who plotted against Mary’s succession to the throne. She was very unfortunate because though she was innocent she was executed for treason. Another powerful woman during the reformation was Queen Catherine de Médicis (1519-89) She devoted a lot of her energies in trying to maintain a balance between the Roman Catholics and the Huguenots which was a Protestant group. Catherine who followed the Christian religion would at times side the Huguenots for political reasons. When she found her son Charles attracted to the Huguenots she plotted to assassinate the Protestant leader Coligny which finally led to his passing away and also another 50,000 Huguenot’s deaths called as the “St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre in 1572. Besides women who suffered during the period of Reformation, other women contributed a lot to the period. Women took part in the arts and some were authors of visionary and mystical literature, poetry, stories and treatise during that period. Christine de Pizan (d c.1430), a laywoman, was the most outstanding female writer during the Middle Ages. Many women martyrs laid down their life in sacrifice during the period of the Reformation. Their steadfastness and love for their religion has earned them a place in history they so well deserve. They are looked upon as role models in churches all around the world. Women such as St Clare and St Catherine of Siena are outstanding examples of religious people and even today remain as subjects of religious study. Luther’s Views on Women: Research undertaken by scholars on the heavily debated subject of Reformation of Protestantism, lend us support in understanding Martin Luther’s views on women during that period. Susan C. Karant-Nunn and Merry E. Wiesner-Hanks, the Professor and Chair of the Department of History at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee gives us a clear picture of the role women played during the Reformation. Some of her writings on women analyzing the personal relations which included blood relations of German nuns within convents were a source of debate and received much opposition during the period of Reformation and even after that. In her book “The Holy Household” Lynda Roper speaks on the moral order involving prostitution during the Reformation. She tells us that prostitution was considered legal before the Reformation but soon Augsburg saw the closure of its city brothel on the pursuance of the Lutheran preachers during the Reformation. The brothel was a major part of everyday “civic life in most large towns for more than two centuries”. (Lynda Roper) The change brought about in the area of prostitution was purely based on the high ideals of the Reformation agenda. According to Roper, marriage had a more sacred place in society but the marriage rituals and wedding celebrations posed more complex because some of the Augsburg people wanted to still follow the ancient and traditional methods of its rituals. According to Luther, besides the various religious divisions, the women were influenced greatly by two essential developments. One was the significance of Patriarchal attitudes towards the Catholic religious teachings in relation to the existing legal and political systems of both the local as well as the regional communities. The other point was role of women in relation to their economic status and the degree of independence they experienced and enjoyed during the Reformation period. Luther’s Estate on Marriage: According to Luther “parents should neither compel nor hinder the marriage of their children and that children should not become engaged without their parent’s consent”. The ideas of Luther were spread far and wide by printing and distributing pamphlets, preaching sermons, and enacting plays. Luther condemned celibacy of priests in the old church. To the Lutherans, marriage was much superior to that of celibacy. The teachings of Luther gave women a place of high esteem and equal status beside men in God’s sight. Luther preached that bodily needs diminished one’s spirituality and on no account were the bodily functions of women to be considered as impure. Women were also no longer thought to sin much more than men and nor were they responsible for leading men into sin. There were two opposing views on marriage in the late medieval church. One viewpoint was that marriage was a Christian sacrament which was a path to God’s sanctifying grace and the other viewpoint was that the status of a celibate nun, monk or priest was much superior than the institute of marriage. In fact, marriage was considered to be degrading, sinful and unclean. Martin Luther defined family life and the institute of marriage in the most unique way. He defined the sexual act as an expression of God’s will quoted Genesis 1: 28 “Be fruitful and multiply” to drive home his point. He also emphasized that marriage was the best protection against dreadful sexual diseases and it benefited both the body and soul of the individual. Luther’s views on Family as a unit: According to Luther, women and men are equal and should share the burden of all responsibilities as marriage was companionship. He emphasized that there should be a lot of cooperation within the family between the husband wife and the children. Luther also says that says that man was called by God to be a father and the woman was given the duty to conceive and bear children. Both man and woman are equal both in dignity as well as in authority when they marry and have a family. It is a partnership shared by two people for procreation and care of the children. Martin Luther elevated the status of parenting to that of a great task of responsibility and love. In Luther’s own words, “There is no power on earth that is nobler or greater than that of parents.” He gave the Protestant home a respectful and ordered meaning to life by entreating the husband and wife to share the household duties equally and asking them to give each other utmost respect and love which in turn would help the whole family to grow in the love and peace of God. Luther’s teachings on the family served to give a direction towards spiritual well- being and elevated the status of motherhood and brought responsibility to fatherhood. It also encouraged autonomy and freedom within the family while stressing on the responsibilities of both partners on the sacred duty of child rearing. References: Germany – Resistance to Lutheranism www.countrystudies.us/germany/13.htm E T / M Bachmann, Lutheran Churches in the World: A Handbook (1989); C Bergendoff, The Church of the Lutheran Reformation (1967); E Lueker, ed., Lutheran Cyclopedia (1987). Catholic Encyclopedia: Calvinism www.newadvent.org/cathen/03198a.htm Calvinism: MSN Encarta www.encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761566731/Calvinism.html Calvinism www.lycos.cs.cmu.edu/info/calvinism--books.html Women in the Ancient and Medieval Worlds www.faculty.de.gcsu.edu/~dvess/ids/women/hebwom.html I. JACOBS, The Book of Concord (Philadelphia. 1893); SCHAFF, The Creeds of Christendom (5th ed., New York, 1890), I, II; SCHMID, Doct. Theol. of Evang. Luth. Church (Philadelphia, 1889). II. For the history of Lutheranism in Europe consult the bibliographies under the religious history of the various countries. III. For the history of Lutheranism in the United States: JACOBS, History of the Evang. Lutheran Church in the U. S. (New York, 1893) in American Church History Series, IV (with extensive bibliog. The Holy Household, Lyndal Roper. Prostitution and The Reformation in Augsburg'", which first appeared in History Workshop Journal, 19 ( 1985), 3-28. Book Title: The Holy Household: Women and Morals in Reformation Augsburg. Contributors: Lyndal Roper - author. Publisher: Clarendon Press. Place of Publication: Oxford. Publication Year: 1989. Page Number: 132. Luther’s enduring words on marriage. 1. www.holytrinitynewrochelle.org/lutheronmarriage.html Women in Late Medieval and Reformation Europe c.500 - 1200 www.palgrave.com/products/title.aspx?is=033391256X 2. Read More