CHALLENGING THE
CHURCH
Wittenberg,
Germany: 1536
Unit
Overview
The
Roman Catholic Church, which represented all of Europe’s Christians throughout
the Middle Ages, was a major social, political and economic force. Its influence, however, began to decline as
the fifteenth century drew to a close.
Abuses of power and the spirit of the Renaissance led Martin Luther and
others to question its teachings and its mission. Thanks to the invention of the printing
press, more Christians were reading and interpreting the Bible on their own. This led to demands for reform and eventually
to the development of new religious groups.
Let’s see how it all happened.
Questions
about the Church
The
Renaissance encouraged Europeans to view their world with a critical eye. With books more readily available thanks to
the development of the printing press, people were exposed to a wider variety
of opinions and philosophies. Many
traditional values were questioned, including authority of the Roman Catholic
Church. Many European Christians
concluded that the Church had been abusing its power and had been ignoring its
true mission. The lavish lifestyle of
the Renaissance popes, who controlled Rome from 1447 to 1534, reinforced this
idea. These men became increasingly more
involved in Europe’s political and economic affairs. They raised armies to defend the Papal States
and plotted against the rulers of other Italian cities. As patrons of the arts, the popes used church
funds to hire painters, sculptors and architects. Although these activities created beautiful
churches and memorable works of art, they required huge amounts of money.
St. Peter's Basilica: Construction Started during the Renaissance
Papacy
To
finance their patronage of the arts, the popes approved increases in fees for
services, such as baptisms and weddings.
The sale of indulgences also
became popular. An indulgence, granted
by a clergyman, decreased the amount of time a soul had to spend in purgatory, a place of cleansing before
entering heaven. Traditionally, priests
offered indulgences as rewards for joining crusades or other good deeds. By the late 1400s, however, people could
obtain them in exchange for a gift of money to the Church. Many Christians, who were now reading the
Bible on their own due to the printing press, resented this practice. The middle class, already angry over the
increase in fees, saw indulgences as an easy way for sinners to buy themselves
out of trouble. For many, it was simply
another sign of corruption within the Church.
Protests against the practice became common and eventually led to a
full-scale revolt.
Martin
Luther and the Protest of Indulgences
In
1517, Martin Luther, a German monk
and theology professor in the German city of Wittenberg, brought the issue of indulgences to the forefront. A priest named John Tetzel wanted to
collect money for a construction project at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. With this in mind, he set up shop on the
outskirts of Wittenberg and sold indulgences.
He told his customers that their purchases would ensure a quick access
to heaven for them and their relatives.
Martin Luther was already disillusioned by the corruption of the Church,
and the news of this example was the last straw.
Doors of Castle Church:
Wittenberg, Germany
Furious,
Luther made a list of ninety-five reasons why indulgences were unacceptable. For example, he noted that there was no
biblical basis for them and that Christians could only gain admittance to
heaven by faith. The Ninety-five
Theses, as they came to be called, were written in Latin and intended
for Church leaders rather than the average person. In Luther’s time, the doors of churches
served as community bulletin boards.
Martin Luther nailed his Ninety-five
Theses to the main entry of Castle
Church as a form of protest. This
action did capture the attention of Church officials. At the same time, the document was quickly
translated into several European languages, printed and distributed across the
continent. This pushed the Reformation, which began as a movement
to correct abuses within the Roman Catholic Church, into high gear.
From
Reform to Protest
The
Church demanded that Luther take back or recant his statements. He refused and urged Christians to reject the
authority of the pope. It was no
surprise that Pope Leo X excommunicated Martin Luther in
1521. The dispute between the monk and
the Church soon involved all of Germany.
In the sixteenth century, German territory was divided into several
states with each one ruled by a prince.
Together, they made up the Holy
Roman Empire. Emperor Charles V supported the pope’s position
in the controversy. He ordered Luther to
appear at a diet or meeting of the
German princes in the city of Worms. Like the pope, Charles V ordered Martin
Luther to admit that he was wrong.
Again, Luther refused. The
emperor called him an outlaw and declared it a crime for anyone to offer him
even basic necessities. Although some
people agreed with the emperor, thousands of Germans considered Luther a
hero.
An
Artist's Rendition of Martin Luther at the Diet of Worms
Following
the Diet at Worms, Luther spent the next year in the German province of Saxony.
Here, Prince Frederick
offered him shelter in his castle. During this time, Luther translated the New
Testament of the Bible into German.
Because no one had been arrested for assisting him, he returned to
Wittenberg in 1522 and was amazed at the changes that had taken place. Local priests were conducting services in
German rather than in Latin and were referring to themselves as ministers. Things were so different that Luther’s
followers thought of themselves as a separate religious group called Lutherans. By 1530, they were also known as Protestants because they protested the
pope’s authority.
Support
for the Protestant Movement
The
Protestant Reformation movement attracted support for several reasons. Some clergy saw it as an opportunity to clean
up the corruption within the Roman Catholic Church. In some cases, German princes took advantage
of the situation and seized valuable Church lands for themselves. Many German middle class citizens simply no
longer wanted to send their hard-earned money to support Church officials in
Italy. The peasants saw the Reformation
as a way to end the feudal system once and for all. This viewpoint led to the Peasants’ Revolt in 1524. When the rebels began to burn churches and
monasteries, however, Martin Luther refused to support their cause. To restore order, the nobles used their
soldiers to end the rebellion, and this resulted in the deaths of thousands of
peasants.
War
also broke out between the Roman Catholic princes and the Protestant
princes. Charles V tried to force the
Lutheran rulers to return to the Roman Catholic Church, but he had little
success. In 1555, the German princes
signed the Peace of Augsburg, an
agreement which permitted each prince to choose the religious faith followed in
his territory. For the most part, the
northern states adopted Lutheranism while the southern states remained Roman
Catholic. It was certain, however, that
the Roman Catholic Church would never again represent all of Europe’s Christian
population.
What
Happened Next?
Although Martin Luther continued to write sermons and pamphlets until his death in 1546, the Protestant Reformation became less dependent on his leadership. Other reformers demanded change and challenged the supremacy of the Roman Catholic Church in several parts of Europe, especially England. Before reading about these events in the next unit, review the names and terms in Unit 22; then, answer Questions 21 through 30.