Reformation 2

1. Germany lacked a strong central power because each of the seven electors had complete sovereignty over his own territory after the Golden Bull of 1356. Germany was characte-rized by weak borders, localism, and chronic disorder, with the nobility strengthening their own hold to the territories and reducing imperial power.

2. The union of the house of Habsburg and Burgundy through the 1477 marriage of Maximilian I and Mary strengthened the power of the Austrian Habsburgs, who now controlled the French Duchy and the Burgundian Netherlands, as well as their own country. The French were angry about the marriage and attacked Burgundian Netherlands until a peace treaty was signed, giving France control over French Burgundy. The marriage also inaugurated centuries of conflict between the Habsburgs and the French kings, with Germany at the center. Maximilian and Mary’s son, Philip of Burgundy, married Joanna of Castile, daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain. Their son would become Charles V. He believed that he was chosen by God to lead a world monarchy and that he should maintain the political and religious unity of Western Christendom.

3. Several elements in Martin Luther’s religious reformation stirred patriotic feelings, anti-Roman sentiment was high, humanists lent eloquent intellectual support, and Luther’s translation of the New Testament evoked national pride. Luther urged princes to confiscate ecclesiastical wealth and to abolish indulgences, dispensations, pardons, and clerical celiba-cy to allow for reform, creating nationalism that the princes used to their advantage. The princes took farmlands, monasteries, and shrines for themselves. Protestantism and capital-ism complemented each other because Protestantism reduced the impact of God on every-day choices, which allowed for people to use their money in more ways. Charles V did not understand or take an interest in the constitutional problems of Germany and lacked the material resources to oppose Protestantism there. He was more concerned with his territo-ries and protecting his land.

4. French foreign policy wanted to keep the German states divided against the Catholic Charles V, so they supported Lutheran princes even though the French were Catholic.

5. The Peace of Augsburg in 1555 ended the fight over religion and it officially recognized Lu-theranism. Each prince was permitted to determine his territory’s religion, and dissidents had to convert or leave. This led to a profound change in European life and society.

6. John Calvin was French and studied law. He accepted an invitation to reform Geneva where he worked to establish a Christian society ruled by God through civil magistrates and re-formed ministers. Calvin believed in the absolute sovereignty and omnipotence of God and the total weakness of humanity. He believed that God had chosen at the beginning of time who would be saved and who damned, a principle known as predestination. The religious court at Geneva was a model for all religious court in Europe. Calvin argued that marriage was important, husbands had authority over their families, and it was the wives duty to be loyal to her husband.

7. The Anabaptists were a Protestant sect that believed that only adults could make a free choice about religious faith, baptism, and entry into the Christian community. They did not believe there was any Scriptural basis for baptism. They at first took Luther’s teaching liter-ally and favored a return to the churches of the earliest Christians. They believed in religious tolerance and never tried to force their views on others. Polygamy was practiced, women were forced to marry by a certain age or else be expelled or killed, and they could hold high offices.

8. Christian humanists had been calling for the purification of the church for decades. After being driven underground in the fifteenth century, the Lollards stressed the individual’s reading and interpretation of the Bible. They viewed it as the only standard of Christian faith and holiness and did not care for the other forms. Humanist William Tyndale began printing an English translation of the New Testament in 1525, with the Lollards distributing them. In 1527, Henry VIII fell in love with Anne Boleyn and wanted his marriage to Cathe-rine of Aragon to be annulled on the terms he had married his late brother’s wife, illegal in the eyes of God. Henry’s request came at the time that Luther was condemning the church, so Pope Clement VII if annulled the marriage, then he would be giving support to Luther. Henry removed the English church from papal jurisdiction and used Parliament to pass the Act in Restraint of Appeal (1533), declaring the Crown to be the highest legal authority in England. The 1534 Act for the Submission of the Clergy required churchmen to submit to the king and forbade the publication of ecclesiastical laws without royal permission, and the 1534 Supremacy Act declared the king the supreme head of the Church of England. He wanted to seize the wealthy monasteries and reduce the power of the Pope in England. Thomas Cromwell reformed and centralized the king’s household, the council, the secreta-riats, and the Exchequer; set up new departments of state; and liquidized surplus funds.

9. During the reign of Henry’s son Edward VI (r. 1547–1553), Archbishop Thomas Cranmer simplified the liturgy, invited Protestant theologians to England, and prepared the first Book of Common Prayer. Mary Tudor (r. 1553–1558) rescinded the Reformation legislation of Henry VIII and fully restored Roman Catholicism. She executed hundreds of Protestants, alienating her subjects. Elizabeth (r. 1558–1603) was Protestant and promoted a middle ground between Catholics and Protestants by insisting dignity in church services, political order in the land, and religious freedom. During Elizabeth’s reign, the Anglican Church moved in a moderately Protestant direction.

1. The Institutes of the Christian Religion—John Calvin’s 1536 publication on his view of reli-gion. Launched Calvinism and the second wave of Protestantism.

2. Peace of Augsburg—Charles V agreed to officially recognize Lutheranism and allowed each prince to determine his territory’s religion.

3. Predestination—In some religious beliefs, the doctrine that God decided at the beginning of time who would go to heaven after death and who would not—it forced a person to under-go religious hardship in the constant struggle against evil.

4. Michael Servetus—A Spanish humanist in the 1550s who denied the Christian dogma of the Trinity. At his trial, he held on to the belief that there was no Scriptural basis for the Trinity but also rejected child baptism and insisted that a person under twenty cannot commit a mortal sin. He was burned at the stake.

5. John Knox—A Scottish noble who called for reform in Scotland based on Calvin’s model of Geneva. He persuaded the Scottish parliament in 1560 to enact legislation ending papal au-thority, with Mass abolished and attendance punishable by death. He established the Pres-byterian Church of Scotland and wrote the liturgical directory for the church, Book of Com-mon Order.

6. Church of Ireland—It was established after the 1536 English decision to cut ties with the church from Rome and accept the English king as the highest ruler. It angered the native Irish and they chose to remain defiantly Roman Catholic. Catholic property was confiscated and sold and the profits went to England.

7. Gustavus Vasa—A Swedish nobleman who in 1520 led a successful revolt against Denmark, making Sweden independent. He became king, seized church lands, and required the bi-shops’ loyalty to the Swedish crown.

8. Christian III—The king of Denmark (r. 1503–1559) and of Norway (r. 1534–) who secularized church property and set up a Lutheran Church.

1. The first tenet was Imitation of Christ. Calvin believed that we should demonstrate a dis-cipleship of Christ. The second tenet was Self-denial. He believed that we become happy when we have self-denial and that we must renounce materialism. The last tenet was bear-ing the Cross. He believed that we should be optimistic and carry victory as well as defeat together with your brethrens.