Chapter 11
Antitrinitarians
Another group of Radical Reformers took Protestantism along a completely new path and actually rejected the doctrine of the Trinity, which states that there are three distinct Persons in one God.
Justification by Faith
Justification, in Christian theology, is God's act of removing the guilt and penalty of sin while at the same time declaring a sinner righteous through Christ's atoning sacrifice. In Protestantism, righteousness from God is viewed as being credited to the sinner's account through faith alone, without works.
Zwinglian
The theology of Huldrych Zwingli was based on the Bible, taking scripture as the inspired word of God and placing its authority higher than human sources such as the Ecumenical councils and the church fathers. He also recognised the human element within the inspiration noting the differences in the canonical gospels. Zwinglianism is the Reformed confession based on the Second Helvetic Confession promulgated by Zwingli's successor Heinrich Bullinger in the 1560s. Zwingli's views on baptism were largely a response to Anabaptism, a movement which attacked the practice of infant baptism. He defended the baptism of children by describing it as a sign of a Christian's covenant with God just as God made a covenant with Abraham.
Indulgence
a remission before God of the temporal punishment due to sins whose guilt has already been forgiven, which the faithful Christian who is duly disposed gains under certain prescribed conditions through the action of the Church which, as the minister of redemption, dispenses and applies with authority the treasury of the satisfactions of Christ and the saints".Indulgences allow for the remission of the severe penances of the early Church which was granted at the intercession of Christians awaiting martyrdom or at least imprisoned for the faith.
Anabaptists
are Christians of the Radical Reformation of 16th century Europe. Although some consider the Anabaptist movement to be an offshoot of Protestantism, others see it as a distinct movement.Anabaptist is derived from the Greek term anabaptista, or "one who baptizes over again." This name was given them by their enemies in reference to the practice of "re-baptizing" converts who "already had been baptized" as infants. Anabaptists required that baptismal candidates be able to make their own confessions of faith and so rejected baptism of infants.
Swiss Brethren
are a branch of Anabaptism that started in Zürich, spread to nearby cities and towns, and then was exported to neighboring countries. In 1525, Felix Manz, Conrad Grebel, George Blaurock and other radical evangelical reformers broke from Ulrich Zwingli and formed a new group because they felt reforms were not moving fast enough.
Reformation Parliament
commencing in 1529, that passed and enabled the major pieces of legislation leading to the English Reformation.After the failure of Cardinal Wolsey to win the Court of Blackfriars, King Henry VIII of England was frustrated. He was left without a male heir, and his wife, Catherine of Aragon, was considered to be past child-bearing age. In 1529, Henry opened what would later become known as the English Reformation Parliament. It opened in the month of October and ran until December 1529 without forming a coherent plan on what to do. Because of this, Henry used it to discredit Wolsey. Soon after this Henry turned his attentions to the church itself.
Council of Trent
held between 1545 and 1563 in Trento (Trent) and Bologna, northern Italy, was one of the Roman Catholic Church's most important ecumenical councils. Prompted by the Protestant Reformation, it has been described as the embodiment of the Counter-Reformation. Seventeen dogmatic decrees covering all aspects of Catholic religion
The Society of Jesus (Jesuits)
is a Christian male religious congregation of the Catholic Church. The members are called JESUITS. The society is engaged in evangelization and apostolic ministry in 112 nations on six continents. Jesuits work in education (founding schools, colleges, universities and seminaries), intellectual research, and cultural pursuits. Jesuits also give retreats, minister in hospitals and parishes and promote social justice and ecumenical dialogue.
Spiritualists
is a belief that spirits of the dead have both the ability and the inclination to communicate with the living. The afterlife, or "spirit world", is seen by Spiritualists, not as a static place, but as one in which spirits continue to evolve. These two beliefs: that contact with spirits is possible, and that spirits are more advanced than humans, leads Spiritualists to a third belief, that spirits are capable of providing useful knowledge about moral and ethical issues, as well as about the nature of God.
Lutheran
is a major branch of Western Christianity that identifies with the theology of Martin Luther, a German monk and theologian. Luther's efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Roman Catholic Church launched the Protestant Reformation in German-speaking territories of the Holy Roman Empire. Beginning with the 95 Theses, first published in 1517, Luther's writings were disseminated internationally, spreading the early ideas of the Reformation beyond the influence and control of the Roman Catholic Curia and the Holy Roman Emperor.[The split between the Lutherans and the Roman Catholics was made clear and open with the 1521 Edict of Worms:the edicts of the Diet condemned Luther and officially outlawed citizens of the Holy Roman Empire from defending or propagating his ideas, subjecting advocates of Lutheranism to forfeiture of all property, specifying half of any seized property forfeit to the Imperial government and the remaining half forfeit to the party who brought the accusation. The divide primarily centered over the doctrine of Justification.
Henry VIII
was King of England. Henry is generally credited with initiating the English Reformation - the process of transforming England from a Catholic country to a Protestant one - though his progress at the elite and mass levels is disputed,and the precise narrative not widely agreed.Certainly, in 1527, Henry, until then an observant and well-informed Catholic, appealed to the Pope for an annulment of his marriage to Catherine.No annulment was immediately forthcoming, the result in part of Charles V's control of the Papacy.The traditional narrative gives this refusal as the trigger for Henry's rejection of papal supremacy (which he had previously defended), though as historian A. F. Pollard has argued, even if Henry had not needed a divorce, Henry may have come to reject papal control over the governance of England purely for political reasons
Miguel de Cervantes
was a Spanish novelist, poet, and playwright. His magnum opus, Don Quixote, considered to be the first modern European novel, is a classic of Western literature, and is regarded amongst the best works of fiction ever written.
Schmalkaldic League
was a defensive alliance of Lutheran princes within the Holy Roman Empire during the mid-16th century. Although originally started for religious motives soon after the start of the Protestant Reformation, its members eventually intended for the League to replace the Holy Roman Empire as their source of political allegiance.While it was not the first alliance of its kind, unlike previous formations, such as the League of Torgau, the Schmalkaldic League had a substantial military to defend its political and religious interests. It received its name from the town of Schmalkalden, in the German province of Thuringia.
Huldrych Zwingli
was a leader of the Reformation in Switzerland. Born during a time of emerging Swiss patriotism and increasing criticism of the Swiss mercenary system, he attended the University of Vienna and the University of Basel, a scholarly centre of humanism. He continued his studies while he served as a pastor in Glarus and later in Einsiedeln, where he was influenced by the writings of Erasmus.
The Peasants' Revolt
was a major uprising across large parts of England in 1381. The revolt had various causes, including the socio-economic and political tensions generated by the Black Death in the 1340s, the high taxes resulting from the conflict with France during the Hundred Years War, and instability within the local leadership of London. The final trigger for the revolt was the intervention of a royal official, John Bampton, in Essex on 30 May 1381. His attempts to collect unpaid poll taxes in the town of Brentwood ended in a violent confrontation, which rapidly spread across the south-east of the country. A wide spectrum of rural society, including many local artisans and village officials, rose up in protest, burning court records and opening the local gaols. The rebels sought a reduction in taxation, an end to the system of unfree labour known as serfdom and the removal of the King's senior officials and law courts.
Marburg Colloquy
was a meeting at Marburg Castle, Marburg, Hesse, Germany which attempted to solve a disputation between Martin Luther and Ulrich Zwingli over the Real Presence of Christ in the Lord's Supper. It took place between 1 October and 4 October 1529. The leading Protestant reformers of the time attended at the behest of Philipp I of Hessen. Philipp's primary motivation for this conference was political; he wished to unite the Protestant states in political alliance, and to this end, religious harmony was an important consideration.
Modern Devotion
was a movement for religious reform, calling for apostolic renewal through the rediscovery of genuine pious practices such as humility, obedience and simplicity of life. It began in the late fourteenth-century, largely through the work of Gerard Groote, and flourished in the Low Countries and Germany in the fifteenth century, but came to an end with the Protestant Reformation. It is most known today through its influence on Thomas à Kempis, the author of The Imitation of Christ, a book which proved highly influential for centuries
Peace of Augsburg
was a treaty between Charles V and the forces of the Schmalkaldic League, an alliance of Lutheran princes, on September 25, 1555, at the imperial city of Augsburg, now in present-day Bavaria, Germany. It officially ended the religious struggle between the two groups and made the legal division of Christendom permanent within the Holy Roman Empire.
William Shakespeare
was an English poet, playwright and actor. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon". Shakespeare's will uses a Protestant formula and he was a confirmed member of the Church of England.
Diet of Worms
was an imperial diet of the Holy Roman Empire held in Worms, Germany at the Heylshof Garden. A diet was a formal deliberative assembly. It is most memorable for the Edict of Worms (Wormser Edikt), which addressed Martin Luther and the effects of the Protestant Reformation. It was conducted from 28 January to 25 May 1521, with Emperor Charles V presiding. Other imperial diets at Worms were convened in the years 829, 926, 1076, 1122, 1495, and 1545. Unqualified mentions of a Diet of Worms usually refer to the 1521 assembly.
John Calvin
was an influential French theologian and pastor during the Protestant Reformation. He was a principal figure in the development of the system of Christian theology later called Calvinism. Originally trained as a humanist lawyer, he broke from the Roman Catholic Church around 1530. After religious tensions provoked a violent uprising against Protestants in France, Calvin fled to Basel, Switzerland, where he published the first edition of his seminal work Institutes of the Christian Religion in 1536.
Reformation in Geneva
was not of the Lutheran type, but was based upon the teachings of Jean Calvin. In fact, Martin Luther was seen by Calvin as only beginning the Reformation. Some in the Reformed Church referred to Martin Luther as a half-papists, indicating that he retained too many Roman Catholic practices, such as vestments, liturgy, et al. The photo tour below does not represent the history of the Lutheran Church, but of the Reformed Church, which provides the theological foundation for most other Protestant Churches (Presbyterians, Anglicans, Methodists, Baptists)
Reformation in Switzerland
was promoted initially by Huldrych Zwingli, who gained the support of the magistrate (Mark Reust) and population of Zürich in the 1520s. It led to significant changes in civil life and state matters in Zürich and spread to several other cantons of the Old Swiss Confederacy. Seven cantons remained Roman Catholic, though, which led to inter-cantonal wars known as the Wars of Kappel. After the victory of the Catholic cantons in 1531, they proceeded to institute counter-reformatory policies in some regions. The schism and distrust between Catholic and Protestant cantons would define their interior politics and paralyse any common foreign policy until well into the 18th century.
Counter-Reformation
was the period of Catholic revival beginning with the Council of Trent (1545-1563) and ending at the close of the Thirty Years' War (1648), and was initiated in response to the Protestant Reformation. The Counter-Reformation was a comprehensive effort composed of four major elements: 1.Ecclesiastical or structural reconfiguration 2.Religious orders 3.Spiritual movements 4.Political dimensions
Protestant Reformation
was the schism within Western Christianity initiated by Martin Luther, John Calvin, and other early Protestant Reformers. Although there had been significant attempts to reform the Roman Catholic Church before Luther—notably those of John Wycliffe and Jan Hus—the date most usually given for the start of the Reformation is 1517, when Luther published The Ninety-Five Theses. Luther started by criticizing the relatively recent practice of selling indulgences started by the Roman Catholic Church, partially to fund the construction of the St. Peter's Basilica; he attacked the indulgence system, insisting that the pope had no authority over purgatory and that the doctrine of the merits of the saints had no foundation in the gospel. The debate widened until it touched on many of the doctrines and devotional Catholic practices. The Reformation is generally considered to have concluded in 1648 with the Peace of Westphalia that ended the Thirty Years' War and a wider conflict known as the European wars of religion. The Reformation movement within Germany diversified almost immediately, and other reform impulses arose independently of Luther. The largest groupings were the Lutherans and Calvinists (or Reformed); Lutheran churches were founded mostly in Germany
Arranged Marriages
were an essential and logical part of a view that valued family prosperity and continuity more than an individual's happiness. Individual's lives were seen as mere moments in the larger life of the family. Nevertheless, something new was going on in family relations. Although parents still negotiated a suitable match, prospective couples were allowed to consider their compatibility before marriage, and daughters had some say in vetoing disagreeable matches. Courtship customs grew more complex, as men and women evaluated whether they would have a harmonious union. Couples began to expect mutual love between man and wife, instead of simply duty that bound extended families together. The Catholic Church also was influenced by the new marital values, and in the late sixteenth century, church manuals began to use the word love to refer to conjugal relations.
Diet of Augsburg
were the meetings of the Imperial Diet of the Holy Roman Empire in the German city of Augsburg. There were many such sessions, but the three meetings during the Reformation and the ensuing religious wars between the Roman Catholic emperor Charles V and the Protestant Schmalkaldic League in the early 16th century are especially noteworthy.The session of 1530 attempted to calm rising tensions over Protestantism, especially due to fears of the rising Ottoman threat; the Ottomans under Suleiman had almost taken Vienna in 1529 and Charles V wanted Christianity to unite against this force.