Chapter 13 Section 3- The Spread of the Protestant Reformation (P. 377-383)

By 1528, Zwingli's reform movement faced a serious political problem as the forest cantons remained staunchly Catholic. Through Zurich fearing that they would ally with the Habsburgs, Zwingli counteracted this danger by attempting to build a league of what? And how did he carry out this attempt?

-A league of evangelical cities -He attempted to build a league of evangelical cities by seeking an agreement with Luther and the German reformers. An alliance between them seemed possible since the Reformation had spread to the southern German cities, especially Strasbourg, where Martin Bucer (1491-1551) had instituted a moderate reform movement containing the characteristics of both Luther and Zwingli's movements.

The Marburg Colloquy of 1529...

produced no agreement and no evangelical alliance. It was a foretaste of the issues that would divide one reform group from another and lead to the creation of different Protestant groups.

By the 1450s what had Scandinavia become?

A Lutheran stronghold-like the German princes, the Scandinavia monarchs had been the dominant force in establishing state-run churches.

Over the next two years after Zwingli's impact of a ignition of a Swiss Reformation, what occurred?

A city council strongly influenced by Zwingli promulgated (caused to become widely known) evangelical reforms in Zurich. Zwingli looked to the state to supervise the church, declaring that a church without the magistrate (civil officer or lay judge who administers the law) is "mutilated and incomplete." The city council abolished relics and images, removed all paintings and decorations form the churches, and replaced them with whitewashed walls. As Zwingli remarked, "The images are not to be endured; for all that God has forbidden, there can be no compromise." A new liturgy consisting of Scripture reading, prayer, and sermons replaced the Mass, and music was eliminated form the service as a distraction from the pure word of God. Monasticism, pilgrimages, and veneration of saints, clerical celibacy, and the pope's authority were all abolished as remnants of papal Christianity.

What was the Swiss Confederation in the 16th century?

A loose association of 13 self-governing states called cantons. Theoretically part of the Holy Roman Empire, they had become virtually independent in 1499. The 6 forest cantons were democratic republics, the 7 urban cantons, which included Zurich, Bern, and Basel, were for the most governed by city councils controlled by narrow oligarchies of wealthy citizens.

Ulrich Zwingli (1484-1531)

A product of the Swiss forest cantons, he was the precocious son of a somewhat prosperous peasant. The young Zwingli obtained both bachelor of arts and master of arts degrees. Within the duration of his university education at Vienna and Basel, he was strongly influenced by Christian humanism. Through being ordained priest in 1506, he accepted a parish post in rural Switzerland until his appointment as a cathedral priest in the Great Minster of Zurich in 1518. Through his preaching in Zurich, he began the Reformation in Switzerland through a sudden spreading of his accepted theology to other Swiss cities. Although his preaching of the Gospel caused much unrest through dislike of a Reformation in some, and resulted in a public disputation, his party won granting him freedom to proclaim the Gospel and the pure Sacred Scripture.

What resulted from the Dutch nobility deposing Christian II as the king of Denmark?

A succession by his uncle, who became Frederick I (1523-1533).

What unsettling disagreement took place at the Colloquy of Marburg?

Able to agree on virtually everything else, the gathering splintered over the interpretation of the Lord's Supper; Zwingli believed in a symbolical not literal meaning of what Jesus says at the last supper regarding the bread and the wine, whereas Luther insisted on the real presence of the body and blood of Jesus.

What occurred in October 1531?

An eruption of war between the Swiss Protestant and Catholic cantons. Zurich's army was routed and Zwingli was found wounded on the battlefield where his enemies killed him, cut up his body, burned the pieces, and scattered the ashes. This Swiss Civil War of 1531 provided an early indication of what religious passions would lead to in the 16th century. Unable to find peaceful ways to agree on the meaning of the Gospel, the disciples of Christianity resorted to violence and decision by force. when he heard of Zwingli's death, Martin Luther, who had not forgotten the confrontation at Marburg, is supposed to have remarked that Zwingli "got what he deserved."

The inability to agree on the issue of what constituted the correct interpretation of the Bible, resulted in what?

Both theological confrontations and also bloody warfare, as each Christian group was unwilling to admit that it could be wrong.

Who was Christian II (1513-1560) of Denmark and what happened to him? What resulted of this?

Christian II of Denmark was the ruler of the three Scandinavian kingdoms. In 1520, he was overthrown by Swedish barons led by Gustavus Vasa. This resulted in Vasa, three years later, to become king of an independent Sweden (1523-1560) and him taking the lead in establishing a Lutheran Reformation in his country and by the 1530s, he also created a Swedish Lutheran National Church.

What did Frederick I encourage?

Frederick I encouraged Lutheran preachers to spread their evangelical doctrines and to introduce a Lutheran liturgy into the Danish church service.

What did Frederick's successor by the name of Christian III (1534-1559) in the 1530s?

He installed a Lutheran state church with the king as the supreme authority in all ecclesiastical affairs. Christian was also instrumental in spreading Lutheranism to Norway.

What did this unification of the Denmark, Norway, and Sweden under the rule of one monarch fail to do?

It failed to achieve any social or political unification of the three states, particularly since the independent-minded landed nobles worked to frustrate any increase in monarchical centralization. By the beginning of the sixteenth century, the union was on the brink of disintegration as a result.

For both Catholics and Protestant Reformers, Luther's heresy raised the question of what?

Luther's heresy raised the question of what constituted the correct interpretation of the Bible.

Protestant political leaders, especially Landgrave Phillip of Hesse, fearful that Charles V would take advantage of the division between the reformers, attempted to.....

Promote an alliance of the Swiss and German reformed churches by persuading the leaders of both groups to attend a colloquy (conference) at Marburg to resolve their differences.

Both the German and the Swiss reformers....

Realized the need for unity to defend against imperial and conservative opposition.

What unification occurred in 1397?

The Union of Kalmar bringing about the unification of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden under the rule of one monarch, the king of Denmark.

Zwingli's movements were soon spread to....

other cities in Switzerland, including Bern in 1528 and Basel in 1529.