Beginnings

• 1517 - German monk Martin Luther criticised abuses and corruption in church - nailed his Ninety-Five Theses to the door of the castle church in Wittenburg - a traditional way of inviting debate
• New emphasis
  -- Debate over salvation - by faith and personal relation with God, not affected by priests or via acts/works like Catholicism
  -- Thought Catholics placed too much emphasis on the role of priests and intermediaries eg saints
  -- Attacked rituals and establishments - sale of indulgences, paying for prayers for the dead, elaborate church ceremonies, clerical celibacy, papal power
  -- Highlighted importance of vernacular Bible - translated into German 1534
  -- Luther originally argued for separation of church and state but German princes started supporting him

Early Spread

• 1525 - German Peasants' War took inspiration from Luther but he denounced them - he had lost control of his teachings and ideas as they were combined with local grievances
• 1534 - Anabaptists took over Munster, ended in a bloody siege - wasn't closely tied to Luther but shared many of the same issues with the church
• Protestantism became more closely tied with the authority of the state - preventing people from exploiting Luther's teachings against Catholic monarchs
• Elite support for Protestantism - disillusionment with church, political reasons (eg Dutch ruled by deeply Catholic Spain), unhappy with papal rule from Rome interfering in their business
• 1555 - Treaty of Augsburg - legal basis for Lutheran and Catholic co-existence in Germany/HRE
  -- Religion of people determined by religion of leader - Lutheran princes ruled Lutheran principalities, Catholic princes ruled Catholic principalities
  -- Same top-down principle later used in England and Scandinavia
  -- Only related to Lutherans - not other forms of Protestantism

Protestant Divides - Calvinism

• C16 Lutherans vs Reformists and Calvinists
• John Calvin - French theologian, oversaw reform in Geneva
• Demanded more of a break with Catholicism - Luther didn't want a full split
• Wanted changes in conduct of ceremonies, no images/statues in churches
• Doctrine of predestination - idea that God specifically predestined that some would be saved and some would be damned - nothing happened that God hadn't predetermined
• Rejected church government/hierarchy of bishops as it wasn't in the Bible - imposed Presbyterian grass-roots system
• Idea of 'resistance' to monarch in certain cases if the monarch was 'opposing' God - different to idea of monarch as God's chosen representative - involved in rebellions in Scotland/France/Netherlands

Counter-Reformation

• Reform/Calvinist beliefs the most dynamic and expansionist in N Europe especially where monarchs were absent or weak
• 1600 - half of Europe under Protestant rule - less than a century after Luther
• 1650 - 80% Catholic and 20% Protestant - success of C-R
• Merritt - evidence of changes and reform within the church from before Luther - so 'counter' not entirely accurate
• But rise of Prots galvanised and sped up reform
• Pope Paul III - initiated major reform of clergy and abuses - Council of Trent 1543-63
  -- Program of cultural and religious reform
  -- Defending and clarifying Catholic religious doctrine
  -- Opposition to superstition
  -- Education of clergy and laity
  -- Index of Prohibited Books - heretical texts
  -- Expansion of inquisition against heretics - Spanish Inquisition, Roman Inquisition
• Support of Catholic monarchs - Spain, France, Bavaria, Bohemia, Austria
• 1540 - Society of Jesus/Jesuits founded by Ignatius Loyola - preaching and missionary order with emphasis on education - had a special relationship with the papacy, attempted to become the confessors of monarchs

Legacy

• Impact on culture, beliefs, practices of individuals
• Formation of a strong personal religious identity
• Sometimes challenged established authority but sometimes boosted the power of secular rulers
• Changing alliances eg Catholic Mary I marriage to Philip of Spain vs Protestant Elizabeth I vs Spain
• Growth away from religion=state, people beginning to be a different religion from monarch, questioning divine right
• Altered links between monarch and Pope - Catholic monarchs started to see themselves rather than papacy as the defender of the church
• Demands of tolerance as part of international agreements/treaties

Driving Force Behind the Reformation

• Actions of church vs what was in the Bible - indulgences vs Jesus in the Temple
• Low level of education in the clergy
• Had fallen away from their own teachings
• Wealth of monasteries and clergy
• Power of the papacy - princes didn't want to answer to the Pope
• Breaking away from suppressors eg Netherlands and Spain
• Had well-educated and well-respected leaders
• Use of media - woodcuts, songs, plays - later ceased with the start of puritanical Protestantism

Driving Force Behind Counter-Reformation

• Pressure from Prot Reformation
• Growing calls pre-Ref to reform church and correct abuses
• Violent enforcement, eg Philip and Isabella, Mary I
• Use of catechism to root out heretics - needed to educate people in catechism
• Constant use of media via icons and church artwork but also started producing leaflets etc

State Religion

• Ref and C-R both had popular support but also support from rulers
• Destabilising force in Europe - could lead to internal conflict within nations or conflict between opposing nations
• Rise of religious pluralism - diversity in religion
• Kaplan - older scholarship shows rise of ‘modern’ toleration - recent scholarship emphasizes fluctuation, coexistence, compromise
• General agreement that state development characterised by monopoly of armed forces and taxation - Schilling says also monopoly of religion

Confessionalisation Model

• Proposed by Schilling
• Characterised by social control and homogenisation
• Features of both Catholic and Protestant countries
• More bureaucracy to impose a single state religion
• Widening state activity - moral regulation, monitoring religious practice and church attendance
• Religious identity binding nation together
• Enhanced religious position of rulers
• Religion of ruler determining religion of subjects eg 1555 Treaty of Augsburg
• Confessionalism later declines and is followed by 'rational'/secular state
  -- Alternatively - not a linear progression, varies
• Critiques of confessionalisation model
  -- Weakness of central state power
  -- Ignores existence of widespread religious pluralism

Legal Toleration vs Persecution

• France
  -- Toleration of Huguenot Protestants in Edict of Nantes - not to protect Huguenots but to try and end Wars of Religion
  -- Ended 1685 by Louis XIV in Edict of Fontainebleau because he was powerful enough to deal with rebellions
• England
  -- Legally required all citizens to attend church but not really enforced - Catholics tolerated as long as they swore an oath of loyalty
  -- 1689 Act of Toleration for Protestant 'dissenters' aka non-CofE Prots
• Dutch Republic
  -- Prot state church but most of population Catholic
  -- Freedom of conscience but no freedom of worship aka could be another religion but not practice it but Catholics and Jews need worship as part of religion - so effectively no freedom of religion
  -- Schuikerken/clandestine churches and synagogues were hidden in attics or warehouses although were more of an open secret - authorities turned a blind eye as long as they weren't public or trying to convert people
• Vienna
  -- No freedom of worship for Prots - would leave the city en masse to worship in another state right outside Vienna

Community and Religious Identity

• Strong popular support for 'established religion' and popular dislike for opposing religions
• Growth of religion identity limited power of rulers to make religious changes
  -- Catholic Sigismund III of Poland was also king of Sweden until Protestant Swedes thought he was going to try and impose Catholicism and revolted - his uncle got popular support by portraying himself as a Protestant hero fighting their foreign Catholic monarch
  -- John Sigismund, Elector of Brandenburg tried to impose Calvinism on Lutherans and was forced to back down
  -- England Revolution of 1688 against James II/VII replacing Catholic king with Prot William of Orange
• Strong role for communities in maintaining tolerance - people rarely sentenced to death for heresy as community saw it as unfair, generally peaceful co-existence within towns or villages
• Episodes of severe intolerance often prompted by political or social crises

• Reformation traditionally originated with Luther posting the Ninety-Five Theses and his declaration before the HRE
• Until mid-C20 historians accepted that Reformation originated in Wittenberg with Luther then spread across Europe to become a series of movements
• Nowadays not so much - still give pride of place to Luther etc - but central concern is finding place of Wittenberg in wider context of the narrative of the Ref
• Different trajectories in mostly Zurich, Geneva and Wittenberg, also in Strasbourg and London etc
• Oberman - 'grand narrative with a radical marginalising of German political, cultural and theological sentiment'
• No longer approached as a linear narrative anchored in political and religious turning points - historians focus on particular fields and smaller settings
• Some people say sparked individualism and liberalism, some say created new fetters and added nothing

Jewish Toleration/Persecution

• Relatively well-integrated until C12
• Not allowed to own landed property so engaged in crafts, trading and money-lending - guilds became more powerful and local resentment grew then restricted
• Culture overlapped but not accepted - part of Renaissance, helped translate Biblical texts from Hebrew etc
• Allowed to practice religion by papal policy but restricted dress and behaviour - believed they would eventually embrace voluntary conversion
• Late medieval/early modern - believed by rulers to no longer serve financial purposes - in debt to Jewish moneylenders etc - expulsions 1200s onwards
• Mass conversions on Iberian peninsula - Spanish Inquisition established to investigate conversos and make sure they weren't becoming heretics - conversos ended up becoming powerful and influential in church and state, unknown how many were still practicing Jews
• Germany - Martin Luther attacked Jews - originally condescending and said that if the Catholic church had taught them better they would convert, when they wouldn't convert under his own teaching he said they were blasphemous and recommended burning of synagogues and houses, forced labour for children etc - but used a similar tone for other enemies eg papacy and Turks
• 1530 Lutheran Osiander - if Jews aren't killing Christians then Christian slaughter of 'innocent Jews' is 'shameful'
• German princes tolerated or persecuted according to economic needs and public pressure - HRE Charles V protected German Jews from Protestant princes but supported the Inquisition as king of Spain
• Counter-ref papacy had restrictive policy but didn't implement properly - aimed for rapid conversion and implementation of ghettos in all cities but sporadic success and ghettos fostered protection and community spirit preventing conversion
• If conversos moved to Prot North Europe some reverted to Judaism (ancestral, not the same person)
• Fared best in Poland-Lithuania where kings had granted privileges for own advantage -1490 30,000 Jews, 1650 450,000 Jews, 1750 750,000 Jews (about half the world's Jewish population)
• Benefited from late C16 onwards - Europeans concentrating on their own religious and dynastic wars - well-placed to benefit when power of guilds was reduced
• Cultural emancipation - Jewish Enlightenment/Haskalah began in Germany in 1750 onwards - encouraged to study secular subjects and enter a wider range of occupations, Jewish women encouraged to be educated - Mendelssohn tried to improve legal situation and argue for increased tolerance
• French Revolution - treat Jews as citizens without special privileges - 'refuse everything to the Jews as a nation and give everything to the Jews as individuals'