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Reformation
THE REFORMATION.
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Prelatical Assault on Reformers' Characters and Motives (§ 1). |
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The Reformation is the historical name for the religious movement of the sixteenth century, the greatest since the introduction of Christianity. It divided the Western Church into two opposing sections, and gave rise to the various Evangelical or Protestant organizations of Christendom. It has three chief branches: the Lutheran, in Germany; the Zwinglian and Calvinistic, in Switzerland, France, Holland, and Scotland; and the Anglican, in England. Each of these branches has again become the root of other Protestant denominations, notably in England and the United States, under the fostering care of civil and religious freedom (for statistics see Protestantism, II., § 4). Protestantism has taken hold chiefly of the Germanic or Teutonic races, and is strongest in Germany, Switzerland, Scandinavia, Holland, the British Empire, and North America, and extends its missionary operations to all heathen lands.
I. Theories of the Reformation.
1. The Historical View.
It was a salutary religious movement, on the one hand protesting against abuses in the Church and, on the other, involving a return to Scripture in its simple sense. It was primarily neither political, philosophical, nor literary, but religious and moral. It was not an abrupt revolution, but had its roots in the Middle Ages. There were many "Reformers before the Reformation." The constant pressure in the medieval Church toward reform and liberty; the startling tracts of such pamphleteers as Marsilius of Padua (q.v.) and George of Heimburg; the long conflict between the German emperors and the popes; the reformatory councils of Pisa, Constance, and Basel; the heretical sects such as the Humiliati, Waldenses (qq.v.), and Albigenses (see Manicheans, II.) in France, northern Italy, and Austria; Wyclif and the Lollards in England; Huss, the Hussites, and the Bohemian Brethren (qq.v.), in Bohemia; Arnold of Brescia and Savonarola in Italy (qq.v.); the spiritualistic piety and theology of the mystics of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries; the theological writings of Wesel, Goch, and Wessel (qq.v.) in Germany and the Netherlands; [ the Brethren of the Common Life (see Common Life, Brethren of the) in the Netherlands and Southern Germany); the rise of the national languages and letters in connection with national self-consciousness; the invention of the printing-press; Humanism (q.v.) and the revival of letters and classical learning under the direction of Agricola, Reuchlin, and Erasmus (qq.v.),—all these were preparations for the Reformation. In all these and similar movements the impulse was manifesting itself in favor of a more spiritual conception of Christianity, of the devotional as opposed to the sacramental view, of the individualistic as opposed to the hierarchical, and in favor of the immediate communion of all Christians with God apart from the sacerdotal aid of the priesthood. The Evangelical churches claim a share in the inheritance of all preceding history, and own their indebtedness to the missionaries, schoolmen, fathers, confessors, and martyrs of former ages, but insist on the immediate authority of Christ and his inspired organs as final. The Reformation is related to medieval Catholicism as was the Apostolic Church to the Jewish synagogue, or the Gospel dispensation to the dispensation of the law.
4182. Views Antagonistic to the Reformation.
1. Prelatical Assault on Reformers' Character and Motives.
The view that the movement was a stage in the legitimate development of the Christian Church is opposed by Roman Catholic historians and by writers of the Anglo-catholic school in the Church of England and the Protestant Episcopal Church of America. These writers treat the Reformation as a misfortune or a crime. It was a crime in that its leaders wilfully rent the unity of the Western Church. It was a misfortune in so far as it prevented the orderly growth of the Church under the conduct of its ordained hierarchy and led to a decline of the Church's influence over the nations and of Christendom in the world. The chief representatives of this view are Döllinger, in his early period before 1870, Cardinal Hergenröther, Janssen, Denifle, Nicolas Paulus, Cardinal Newman, and F. A. Gasquet (The Eve of the Reformation, London, 1905). Such Roman Catholic historians as Hefele and Funk give to the same view a moderate statement. The very term (Neuerung, "Innovation") which German Roman Catholics—Denifle, Funk, and others,—give to the Reformation at once predicates of the movement a violent rupture with the preceding history of the Church and departure from the true form of Christianity. Roman Catholic writers pursue three methods to show that the Reformation was an insalutary and violent rupture: (1) The motives and character of the Reformers themselves arc assailed as irreligious and sometimes sordid. This method was applied to the Reformers in their own day or soon after their death. Luther was charged with suicide, Calvin with sodomy, and Knox with the same or other offenses. The producing cause on the continent is declared to have been the rude self-will and carnalism of Luther and in England the sensualism and monarchical pride of Henry VIII. These men, with Calvin, who is compared by Döllinger and others with Marsilius of Padua, coarsely broke with legitimate Church authority, lawlessly served their own ambitions, and deserved the title and the fate of heretics. The latest traducer of the character of the Reformers was the late Henri Denifle in his learned but intemperate Luther and Luthertum (2 vols., Mainz, 1904 sqq.) The assault magnifies the imperfections of the Reformers, and leaves out of sight their good qualities and their purpose to do good. It denies the statements of those who stood nearest to these men, and as in the case of Luther, distorts into a confession of carnalism and debauchery isolated statement made by Luther himself in his own vigorous and exaggerated form of speech which probably had references to excesses. (2) The doctrines which the Reformers promulgated are declared not only unscriptural and contrary to Church tradition but immoral. Among the first representatives of this method was Johann Eck (q.v.). There has been no more able one than Denifle. The latter in a prolonged discussion pronounces Luther's doctrine of justification by faith to be not only the mother of moral lawlessness but the outcome of Luther's carnal habits. Luther, unable and unwilling to restrain his appetites, finally gave them full rein and invented the doctrine as a cloak for his excesses. He meant to say, "one may be as immoral as he pleases, faith will save." Denifle sets over against this anomic principle the principle he ascribes to the Catholic Church of salvation through faith working by love. Love is the element which expresses itself in obedience and conformity to the moral example of Christ. This element Luther intentionally left out. In order to make a case Denifle mangles a statement in one of Luther's sermons and then gives to the fragment an interpretation which antagonizes every principle of fair criticism. (3) The Reformation is declared to have put a brusk check upon forces of progress and betterment going on in the Church. Janssen (History of the German People at the Close of the Middle Ages, 12 vols., London, 1896 sqq.) has presented this view with subtlety and skill. The work produced a remarkable sensation when it appeared in German (in 1876 sqq.) and it has passed through nearly twenty editions (the last, 1896 sqq.) under the hand of Pastor. Laying stress upon educational forces which were active, upon certain economic movements in society, certain devotional tracts which appeared in Germany, etc., he confuses the reader into supposing that these disconnected rills were a great current moving toward the ocean of ecclesiastical and social reform which leaders like Gerson and Clamanges had sighed for and the great reformatory councils had labored to reach. Luther not only checked but turned back this movement of progress and in Germany started an era of social disintegration and individual lawlessness from which the Western world is still suffering. Janssen (18th ed., p. 8) distinctly traces the beneficent activity of the fifteenth century "to the doctrine of the merit of good works, taught by the Church which in that age still continued to dominate all minds." This is not the place to discuss a treatment the plausibility of which has attracted even members of the Anglican Church, but is based on insecure foundations. The theory, as handled by Janssen, ignores the hopeless corruption of the papal court at the close of the fifteenth and the beginning of the sixteenth centuries, passes by the utter failure of the Fifth Lateran Council, which adjourned a few months before Luther nailed up his theses, to set reforms on foot, and keeps out of sight the general distraction of Western Christendom. It also leaves out of account the fact that the most loyal Roman Catholic countries since the Reformation era, Austria, Spain, and South America, have been in matters of human progress and civilization far behind the Protestant parts of the world, England, North America, and Germany. Burckhardt in his History of the Italian Renaissance declares with no little probability that the papacy itself was saved by the Reformation.
2. Minimizing the Religious Element.
Another theory of recent origin goes so far as to make the religious element secondary in the Reformation or so to minimize it as to give it little importance. Thus J. A. Robinson, Study of the Lutheran Revolt (in American Historical Review, Jan., 1903), says: "The assertion that the Reformation can scarcely be called a religious revolution may prove to be an overstatement, but 419there are nevertheless weighty arguments which may be adduced in favor of that conclusion." This theory involves the singular conception that the modern observer knows better what was in the minds of Luther, Calvin, and Latimer, than these men knew themselves. They were under the impression that they were moved by religious considerations and had religious ends in view, but they were mistaken. Their opponents, also, were mistaken in opposing them with arguments drawn from religion. Moreover, the vast literature produced in the age of the Reformation was written with a mistaken view of what the struggle going on meant. Lasting social, political, and economic changes followed the Reformation, and were involved in its principles, but primarily the movement was a revolt of conscience against abuses in the Church and was a reproclamation of the Gospel. Such, at any rate, was the view of the Reformers themselves.
II. Principles of the Reformation.
1. Its Basis.
The movement started with the practical question, How can the troubled conscience find pardon and peace, and become sure of personal salvation? It retained from the Roman Catholic system all the objective doctrines of Christianity concerning the Trinity and the divine human character and work of Christ, in fact, all the articles of faith contained in the Apostles' and other ecumenical creeds of the early church. But it joined issue with the prevailing soteriology, that is, the application of the doctrines relating to Christianity, especially the justification of the sinner before God, the character of faith, good works, the rights of conscience, the rule of faith, and the meaning and number of the sacraments. It brought the believer into direct relation and union with Christ as the one and all-sufficient source of salvation, and set aside the doctrines of sacerdotal and saintly mediation and intercession. The Protestant goes directly to the Word of God for instruction, and to the throne of grace in his devotions; while the pious Roman Catholic consults the teaching of his church, and prefers to offer his prayers through the medium of the Virgin Mary and the saints.
2. Three Principles of Protestantism.
From this general principle of Evangelical freedom, and direct individual relationship of the believer to Christ, proceed the three fundamental doctrines of Protestantism—the absolute supremacy of (1) the Word and of (2) Principles the grace of Christ, and (3) the general priesthood of believers. The first is called the formal, or, better, the objective principle; the second, the material, or, better, the subjective principle; the third may be called the social, or ecclesiastical principle. German writers emphasize the first two, but often overlook the third, which is of equal importance. (1) The objective principle proclaims the canonical Scriptures, especially the New Testament, to be the only infallible source and rule of faith and practise, and asserts the right of private interpretation of the same, in distinction from the Roman Catholic view, which declares the Bible and tradition to be coordinate sources and rules of faith, and makes tradition, especially the decrees of popes and councils, the only legitimate and infallible interpreter of the Bible. In its extreme form Chillingworth expressed this principle of the Reformation in the well-known formula, "The Bible, the whole Bible, and nothing but the Bible, is the religion of Protestants." Protestantism, however, by no means despises or rejects church authority as such, but only subordinates it to, and measures its value by, the Bible, and believes in a progressive interpretation of the Bible through the expanding and deepening consciousness of Christendom. Hence, besides having its own symbols or standards of public doctrine, it retained all the articles of the ancient creeds and a large amount of disciplinary and ritual tradition, and rejected only those doctrines and ceremonies for which no clear warrant was found in the Bible and which seemed to contradict its letter or spirit. The Calvinistic branches of Protestantism went farther in their antagonism to the received traditions than the Lutheran and the Anglican; but all united in rejecting the authority of the pope, the meritoriousness of good works, indulgences, the worship of the Virgin, saints, and relics, the sacraments (other than baptism and the Eucharist), the dogma of transubstantiation and the sacrifice of the mass, purgatory, and prayers for the dead, auricular confession, celibacy of the clergy, the monastic system, and the use of the Latin tongue in public worship, for which the vernacular languages were substituted. (2) The subjective principle of the Reformation is justification by faith alone, or, rather, by free grace through faith operative in good works. It has reference to the personal appropriation of the Christian salvation, and aims to give all glory to Christ, by declaring that the sinner is justified before God (i.e., is acquitted of guilt, and declared righteous) solely on the ground of the all-sufficient merits of Christ as apprehended by a living faith, in opposition to the theory—then prevalent, and substantially sanctioned by the Council of Trent—which makes faith and good works coordinate sources of justification, laying the chief stress upon works. Protestantism does not depreciate good works; but it denies their value as sources or conditions of justification, and insists on them as the necessary fruits of faith, and evidence of justification. (3) The universal priesthood of believers implies the right and duty of the Christian laity not only to read the Bible in the vernacular, but also to take part in the government and all the public affairs of the Church. It is opposed to the hierarchical system, which puts the essence and authority of the Church in an exclusive priesthood, and makes ordained priests the necessary mediators between God and the people.
III. The Reformation in the Different Countries.
1. Germany.
1. The First Period.
The movement in Germany was directed by the genius and energy of Luther, and the learning and moderation of Melanchthon, assisted by the electors of Saxony and other princes, and sustained by the majority of the people, in spite of the opposition of the bishops and the Emperor Charles V. It started in the University of Wittenberg with a protest against the traffic in indulgences, Oct. 31, 1517. 420and soon spread all over Germany, which was in various ways prepared for a breach with the pope. At first Luther shrank in horror from the idea of a separation from the traditions of the past, and he attacked a few abuses, taking it for granted that the pope himself would condemn them if properly informed. But the irresistible logic of events brought him into irreconcilable conflict with the central authority of the Church. Leo X., in June, 1520, pronounced the sentence of excommunication against Luther, who, in turn, burned the bull. The Diet of Worms in 1521 added to the pope's excommunication the ban of the emperor. The bold stand of the poor monk, in the face of the combined civil and ecclesiastical powers of the age, is one of the sublimest scenes in history, and marks an epoch in the progress of freedom. The dissatisfaction with the various abuses of Rome and the desire for the free preaching of the Gospel were so extensive, that the Reformation, both in its negative and positive features, spread, in spite of the pope's bull and the emperor's ban, and gained a foothold before 1530 in the greater part of northern Germany, especially in Saxony, Brandenburg, Hesse, Pomerania, Mecklenburg, Lüneburg, Friesland, and in nearly all the free cities, as Hamburg, Lübeck, Bremen, Magdeburg, Frankfort, and Nuremberg; while in Austria, Bavaria, and along the Rhine, it was persecuted and suppressed. Among the principal causes of this rapid progress were the writings of the Reformers, Luther's German version of the Scriptures (see Bible Versions, B, VII, § 3) and Evangelical hymns, which introduced the new ideas into public worship and the hearts of the people. The Diet of Speyer in 1526 (see Speyer, Diets of) left each state to its own discretion concerning the question of reform until a general council should settle it for all, and thus sanctioned the principle of territorial independence in matters of religion which prevails in Germany to this day; each sovereignty having its own separate ecclesiastical establishment in close union with the State. The next diet of Speyer (in 1529) prohibited the further progress of the Reformation. Against this decree of the Roman Catholic majority, the Evangelical princes entered, on the ground of the Word of God, the inalienable rights of conscience, and the decree of the previous diet, the celebrated protest, dated Apr. 19, 1529, which gave rise to the name, "Protestants." The Diet of Augsburg, in 1530, where the Lutherans offered their principal confession of faith, drawn up by Melanchthon, and named after that city, threatened the Protestants with violent measures if they did not return to the old Church. Here closes the first, the heroic, and the most eventful period of the German Reformation.
2. From 1630 to the Thirty Years' War.
The second period embraces the formation of the Protestant League of Schmalkald (see Schmalkald, Articles of) for the armed defense of Lutheranism, the various theological conferences of the two parties for an adjustment of the controversy, the death of Luther (1546), the imperial "Interims " or compromises (see Interim), and the Schmalkald War, and ends with the success of the Protestant army, under Maurice of Saxony, and the treaty of Passau, 1552, giving legal recognition to protestants. This was confirmed at the diet of Augsburg (see Augsburg, Religious Peace of). The third period, from 1555 to 1580, is characterized by the violent internal controversies within the Lutheran Church—the Osiandrian controversy, concerning justification and sanctification (see Osiander, Andreas); the adiaphoristic, arising originally from the Interims (see Adiaphora and the Adiaphoristic Controversies, §§ 6–8); the synergistic, concerning faith and good works (see Synergism); and the crypto-Calvinistic, or sacramentarian controversy, about the real presence in the Eucharist (see Philippists). These theological disputes led to the full development and completion of the doctrinal system of Lutheranism as laid down in the Book of Concord (first published in 1580), which embraces all the symbolical books of that church, namely, the three ecumenical creeds; the Augsburg Confession and its Apology (q.v.), both by Melanchthon; the two Catechisms of Luther (see Luther's Two Catechisms), and the Schmalkald Articles (q.v.) drawn up by him in 1537; and the Formula of Concord (q.v.). On the other hand, the fanatical intolerance of the strict Lutheran party against the Calvinists and the moderate Lutherans (called, after their leader, Melanchthonians or Philippists) drove a large number of the latter over to the Reformed (Calvinistic) Church, especially in the Palatinate (1560), in Bremen (1561), Nassau (1582), Anhalt (1596), Hesse-Cassel (1605), and Brandenburg (1614). The German Reformed communion adopted the Heidelberg Catechism (q.v.) as their confession of faith. The sixteenth century closes the theological history of the German Reformation; but its political history was not brought to a termination until after the terrible Thirty Years' War (q.v.), by the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648 (see Westphalia, Peace of), which secured to the Lutherans and the German Reformed churches (but to no others) equal rights with the Roman Catholics within the limits of the German Empire. These two denominations, either in their separate existence, or united in one organization under the name of the Evangelical Church (as in Prussia, Baden, Württemberg, and other states, since 1817), continue the only forms of Protestantism recognized and supported by the German governments; all others being small, self-supporting "sects," nourished mostly by foreign aid (the Baptists and Methodists of England and America).
2. Switzerland.
The Reformation here was contemporaneous with, but independent of, the German Reformation, and resulted in the Reformed communion as distinct from the Lutheran. In all the essential principles and doctrines, except the mode of Christ's presence in the Eucharist, the Helvetic Reformation agreed with the German; but it departed farther from the received traditions in matters of government, discipline, and worship, and aimed at a more radical moral and practical reformation of the people. It naturally divides itself into three periods: the Zwinglian from 1516 to 1531; the Calvinistic, to the death of Calvin in 1564; and the period of Bullinger and Beza, to the close of the sixteenth century. The first belongs mainly 421to the German cantons; the second, to the French; the third, to both jointly. Zwingli (q.v.) began his reformatory preaching against various abuses, at Einsiedeln, in 1516, and then, with more energy and effect, at Zurich, in 1519. At first he had the consent of the bishop of Constance, who assisted him in putting down the sale of indulgences in Switzerland; and he stood in high credit even with the papal nuncio. But a rupture occurred in 1522, when Zwingli attacked the fasts as a human invention; and many of his hearers ceased to observe them. The magistrate of Zurich appointed public disputations in Jan. and Oct., 1523, to settle the controversy. On both occasions, Zwingli, backed by the authorities and the great majority of the people, triumphed over his papal opponents. In 1526 the churches of the city and the neighboring villages were cleared of images and shrines; and a simple mode of worship was substituted for the mass. The Swiss diet (like the German) took a hostile attitude to the Reformed movement, with a respectable minority in its favor. To settle the controversy for the republic, a general theological conference was held at Baden, in the Canton Aargau, in May, 1526, with Johann Eck (q.v.), the famous antagonist of Luther, as the champion of the Roman, and Œcolampadius of the Reformed cause. The result was in form adverse, but in fact favorable, to the cause of the Reformation, which was now introduced in the majority of the cantons, at the wish of the magistrates and the people, by Œcolampadius in Basel, and by Haller in Bern, also, in part, in St. Gall, Schaffhausen, Glarus, Appenzell, Thurgau, and the Grisons; while in the French portions of Switzerland Guillaume Farel and Viret (qq.v.) prepared the way for Calvin. But the small cantons around the Lake of Lucerne, Uri, Schwytz, Unterwalden, Lucerne, and Zug, steadfastly opposed every innovation. At last it came to open war between the Reformed and Roman Catholic cantons. Zwingli's policy was overruled by the apparently more humane, but in fact more cruel and disastrous, policy of Bern, to force the poor mountaineers into measures by starvation. The Roman Catholics, resolved to maintain their rights, attacked and routed the small army of Zurich in the battle of Cappel, Oct., 1531. Zwingli, who had accompanied his flock as chaplain and patriot, met a heroic death on the field of battle; and Œcolampadius of Basel died a few weeks after. Thus the progress of the Reformation was suddenly arrested in the German portions of Switzerland, and one third of it remains Roman Catholic to this day. But it took a new start in the western or French cantons, and rose there to a higher position than ever. Soon after this critical juncture, the great master mind of the Reformed Church—who was to carry forward, to modify, and to complete the work of Zwingli, and to rival Luther in influence—began to attract the attention of the public. John Calvin (q.v.), Frenchman by birth and education, but exiled from his native land for his faith, found a new home, in 1536, in Geneva, where Farel had prepared the way. Here he developed his extraordinary genius and energy as the greatest theologian and disciplinarian of the Reformation, and made Geneva the model church for the Reformed communion and a hospitable asylum for persecuted Protestants of every nation. His theological writings, especially the Institutes and Commentaries, exerted a formative influence on all Reformed churches and confessions of faith; while his legislative genius developed the Presbyterian form of government, which rests on the principle of ministerial equality, and of a popular representation of the congregation by lay elders. Calvin left in Theodore Beza (q.v.) a worthy successor, who, with Heinrich Bullinger (q.v.), the successor of Zwingli in Zurich, labored to the close of the sixteenth century for the consolidation of the Swiss Reformation and the spread of its principles in France, Holland, Germany, England, and Scotland.
3. France.
While the Reformation in Germany and Switzerland carried with it the majority of the population, it met in France the united opposition of the court, the hierarchy, and popular sentiment, and had to work its way through severe trial and persecution. Many of the first professed Protestants were either put to death or sought safety in exile. It was only after the successful establishment of the Reformation in French Switzerland that the movement became serious in the neighboring kingdom. The first Protestant congregation was formed at Paris in 1555, and the first synod held in the same city in 1559. In 1561, at the theological conference at Poissy, Theodore Beza (q.v.) eloquently but vainly pleaded the cause of the Protestants before the dignitaries of the Roman Church, and there the name "Reformed," as an ecclesiastical designation, originated. In 1571 the general synod at La Rochelle adopted the Gallican Confession (q.v.), and a system of government and discipline essentially Calvinistic, yet modified by the peculiar circumstances of a church not in union with the State (as in Geneva), but in antagonism to it. The movement unavoidably assumed a political character, and led to a series of civil wars, which distracted France till the close of the sixteenth century. The Roman Catholic party, backed by the majority of the population, was headed by the dukes of Guise, and looked to the throne, then occupied by the house of Valois. The Protestant (or Huguenot) party, numerically weaker, but containing some of the noblest blood and best talent of France, was headed by the princes of Navarre, the next heirs to the throne. The queen-regent, Catharine, during the minority of her sons (Francis II. and Charles IX.), although decidedly Roman Catholic in sentiment, tried to keep the rival parties in check, in order to control both. But the champions of Rome took possession of Paris, while the Prince of Condé occupied Orleans. The shameless and cold-blooded massacre of the Huguenots on St. Bartholomew's Day, Aug. 24, 1572, disabled but did not annihilate the Protestant party, and the ascent to the throne of Henry of Navarre, who, after the assassination of Henry III. in 1589, became king of France as Henry IV., seemed to decide the triumph of protestantism in France. But the Roman Catholic party, still more numerous and powerful, and supported by Spain and the pope, elected a rival head, and threatened to plunge the 422country into new bloodshed. Then Henry, from political and patriotic motives, in 1593 abjured the Protestant faith in which he had been brought up, saying that "to reign is well worth a mass." At the same time he secured, in 1598, to his former associates, then numbering about 760 congregations throughout the kingdom, a legal existence and the right of the free exercise of religion, by the celebrated Edict of Nantes (see Nantes, Edict of). But the Reformed Church in France, after flourishing for a time, was overwhelmed with new disasters under the despotism of Richelieu, and finally the revocation of the Edict of Nantes by Louis XIV. in 1685 reduced it to a "church of the desert" (see Camisards; Court, Antoine; Rabaut, Paul). This survived the most cruel persecutions at home, and enriched by thousands of exiles the population of every Protestant country in Europe and America. See France; Huguenots.
4. The Netherlands.
Here the movement was inspired in part by Luther's works, but mostly by Reformed and Calvinistic influences from Switzerland and France. Its first martyrs, Esch and Voes, were burned at Antwerp in 1523, and celebrated by Luther in a poem. The despotic arm of Charles V. and his son Philip II. resorted to the severest measures for crushing the rising spirit of religious and political liberty. The duke of Alva surpassed the persecuting heathen emperors of Rome in cruelty, and, according to Grotius, destroyed the lives of a hundred thousand Dutch Protestants during the six years of his regency (1567–73). Finally the seven northern provinces formed a federal republic, first under the leadership of William of Orange, and, after his assassination (1584), under his son Maurice, and after a long and heroic struggle accomplished their severance from the Church of Rome and the Spanish crown. The southern provinces remained Roman Catholic, and subject to Spain. The first Dutch Reformed synod was held at Dort in 1574, and in the next year the University of Leyden was founded. The Reformed Church of Holland adopted the Heidelberg Catechism, the Belgic Confession (qq.v.), and the canons of the Synod of Dort of 1618–19 (see Dort, Synod of). In the Netherlands the system of Arminianism was constructed by pupils of Beza, and involved the Dutch church in long and bitter controversies (see Arminius, Jacobus, and Arminianism). Arminianism infiltrated into England in the latter part of the reign of James I. and under Laud, and was adopted by John Wesley. [Laud's anti-Augustinianism was not Arminianism but Semipelagianism of the Roman Catholic type. Wesley's was the latter blended with the old evangelical anti-Augustinianism perpetuated by the Bohemian Brethren and the Unity of the Brethren (qq.v.). A. H. N.]
5. Bohemia.
Preparation was made for the Reformation here by the labors and martyrdoms of John Huss and Jerome of Prague (qq.v.). Their followers, the Hussites, would have prevailed in the wars which followed if they had not been broken up by internal dissensions between the Calixtines, the Utraquists, and Taborites. From their remnants arose the Unitas Fratrum or Bohemian Brethren (q.v.). In spite of violent persecution, they perpetuated themselves in Bohemia and Moravia. When the Reformation broke out, they sent several deputations to Luther; and many of them embraced the doctrines of the Augsburg Confession, but the majority passed to the Reformed or Calvinistic communion. During the reign of Maximilian II., there was a fair prospect of the conversion of the whole Bohemian nation; but the Thirty Years' War (q.v.) and the Counter-Reformation crushed Protestantism, and turned Bohemia into a scene of desolation. A Jesuit named Anton Koniasch (1637) boasted that he had burned over 60,000 Bohemian books, mostly Bibles. The Bohemian Brethren who had fled to Moravia became, under Count Zinzendorf's care, the nucleus of the Moravian Church (see Unity of the Brethren). But even in Bohemia Protestantism could not be utterly annihilated, and began to raise its head when the Emperor Joseph II. issued the Edict of Toleration, Oct. 29, 1781. The revival of Czech patriotism and literature came to its aid. The fifth centenary of Huss was celebrated in Prague, 1869, marked by the publication of Documenta Magistri Johannis Hus, ed. F. Palacky (Prague, 1869). See Austria; Bohemian Brethren; Hungary; Huss, John, Hussites.
6. Hungary.
This country was first brought into contact with the Reformation by disciples of Luther' and Melanchthon, who had studied at Wittenberg, after 1524. Ferdinand I. granted to some magnates and cities liberty of worship, and Maximilian II. (1564–76) enlarged the scope. Mátyás Biró Dévay (q.v.), the first parson and leader, was at first a Lutheran, but in his later years adopted the views of the Swiss Reformer. The Synod of Erdöd, in 1545, organized the Lutheran, and the Synod of Czenger, in 1557, the Reformed Church. Rudolph 11. having suppressed religious liberty, Prince Stephen Bocskag of Transylvania, strengthened by his alliance with the Turks, reconquered by force of arms (1606) full toleration for the Lutherans and Calvinists in Hungary and Transylvania, which under his successors, Bethlen Gábor and George Rákóczy I., was confirmed by the treaties of Nikolsburg (1622) and Linz (1645). In Transylvania, Socinianism also found a refuge, and has maintained itself to this day. See Hungary.
7. Poland.
Fugitive Bohemian Brethren, or Hussites, and the writings of the German Reformers, originated the movement in Poland. King Sigismund Augustus (1548–72) favored it, and corresponded with Calvin. The most distinguished Protestant of that country was Johannes a Lasco (q.v.), a Calvinist. A compromise between the Lutheran and Reformed parties was effected by the general synod of Sendomir (Consensus Sendomiriensis), in 1570; but subsequently internal dissensions, the increase of Socinianism, and the efforts of the Jesuits blighted Protestantism in that country. The German provinces now belonging to Russia—Courland, Livonia, and Esthonia—opened the door to the Reformation, and adopted the Augsburg Confession. See Poland.
8. Scandinavia.
The Reformers of Sweden were two brothers, Olav and Lars Petri (see Sweden), disciples of Luther, who, after 1519, preached against 423the existing state of the Church. They were aided by Lorenz Anderson (q.v.). Gustavus Vasa, who delivered the country from the Danes in 1523, favored Protestantism; and the whole country, including the bishops, followed his example. In 1527 the Reformation was legalized; and, in 1593, the Synod of Upsala confirmed and completed the work by adopting the original Augsburg Confession, to the exclusion of every other. Sweden retained the episcopal form of government in the closest union with the State. This country did great service to the cause of Protestantism in Europe through its gallant King Gustavus Adolphus, in the Thirty Years' War. In 1877 complete religious freedom was granted. Denmark became likewise an exclusively Lutheran country, with an episcopal form of State-church government, under Christian III. The new bishops received presbyterial ordination through Bugenhagen, and are therefore merely superintendents, like the bishops in the Evangelical Church of Prussia.1717 The Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States, after its separate organization, first sought episcopal ordination from Denmark; but, before the negotiations were completed, an act of Parliament was passed, which empowered the Archbishop of Canterbury to ordain bishops for a foreign country A diet at Copenhagen in 1536 destroyed the political power of the Roman clergy, and divided two-thirds of that church's property between the crown and the nobility. The remaining third was devoted to the new ecclesiastical organization. From Denmark, the Reformation passed over to Norway, in 1536. The archbishop of Drontheim fled with the treasures of the church to Holland; another bishop resigned; a third Was imprisoned; and the lower clergy were left the choice between exile, and submission to the new order of things, which most of them preferred. Iceland, then subject to Danish rule, likewise submitted to the Danish reform. See Denmark; Norway; and Sweden.
9. England.
The struggle between the old and the new religion lasted longer in England and Scotland than on the continent, and continued in successive shocks down to the end of the seventeenth century; but it left in the end a very strong impression upon the character of the nation, and affected deeply its political and social institutions. In theology, English Protestantism was dependent upon the continental reform, especially the ideas and principles of Calvin; but it displayed greater political energy and power of organization. It was from the start a political as well as a religious movement, and hence it afforded a wider scope to the corrupting influence of selfish ambition and violent passion than the Reformation in Germany and Switzerland; but it passed, also, through severer trials and persecutions. In the English Reformation five periods may be distinguished. The first, from 1527 to 1547, witnessed the abolition of the authority of the Roman papacy under Henry VIII., the culminating deed being the passing of the Act of Supremacy, 1534, making the king "the only head on earth of the church of God called the Anglicana ecclesia." Henry quarreled with the pope on purely personal and selfish grounds, because the latter refused consent to his divorce from Catharine of Aragon. "The defender of the faith," a title given him by the pope for his defense of the seven sacraments against Luther, remained in doctrine and religious sentiment a Roman Catholic to the end of his life; and at his death the so-called " bloody articles"—which enjoined under the severest penalties the dogma of transubstantiation, auricular confession, private masses, and the celibacy of the priesthood—were in full force. He punished with equal severity Protestant as well as Roman-Catholic dissenters who dared to doubt his headship of the Church of England. But, while he thus destroyed the power of the pope and of monasticism in England, a far deeper and more important movement went on among the people, under the influence of the revived traditions of Wyclif and the Lollards, the writings of the continental Reformers, and chiefly of the English version of the Scriptures (see Bible Versions, B, IV., §§ 3–4). The second period embraces the reign of Edward VI., from 1547 to 1553, and marks the positive introduction of the Reformation. Its chief ecclesiastical agent, Cranmer, was assisted in the work by Ridley and Latimer (qq.v.), and by several Reformed divines from the continent whom he called to England, especially Butzer (q.v.) of Strasburg, who was elected professor at Cambridge, and Peter Martyr of Zurich, for some time professor at Oxford. The most important works of this period and in fact of the whole English Reformation, next to the English version of the Bible, are the Forty-two Articles of Religion (subsequently reduced to thirty-nine; see Thirty-nine Articles), and the Book of Common Prayer (see Common Prayer, Book of).
The third period is the reign of Queen Mary, from 1553 to 1558, and presents the unsuccessful attempt of that queen and Cardinal Pole, archbishop of Canterbury, to restore the Roman Catholic religion and the authority of the pope. The papal interim did more to consolidate the Reformation in England than Henry, Edward, and Elizabeth. Hundreds were martyred in this short reign. Others fled to the continent, especially to Geneva, Zurich, Basel, and Frankfort, where they were hospitably received and brought into closer contact with the Reformed churches of Switzerland and Germany. The fourth period is the restoration and permanent establishment of the Anglican Reformation, during the long reign of Elizabeth (1558–1603). The Roman Catholic hierarchy was replaced by a Protestant; and the Articles of Religion, and the Common Prayer Book of the reign of Edward, were introduced again, after revision. The ecclesiastical supremacy of the crown was likewise renewed, but in a modified form; the queen refusing the title "supreme head" of the Church of England, and choosing, in its place, the less objectionable title "supreme governor." The Anglican Church, as established by Elizabeth, was semi-Roman Catholic in its form of prelatical government and liturgical worship, a sort of via media between Rome and Geneva. It suited the policy of the court, but was offensive to the severe school of strict Calvinists who had returned from their continental exile. The result was the prolonged conflict between Anglicanism and Puritanism in the bosom of the English 424church. The Acts of Uniformity (see Uniformity, Acts of), requiring strict adherence to the letter of the Prayer Book in every particular without omission or addition, embittered the Puritan party and also resulted in a depletion of its numbers. After the defeat of the Armada, some Puritan representatives were put to death, while others sought religious freedom by fleeing to Holland. The fifth period begins in 1603 with the reign of James I. The unhealthy religious policy of that king and his successor Charles I. stirred the Puritan spirit of the realm, and the agitation culminated in the Westminster Assembly (q.v.), in which Puritanism had a memorable but temporary triumph. Under Charles II. (1660–85) episcopacy was reestablished. After the final overthrow of the Stuarts, who had adopted Roman Catholicism, the Dissenters secured a limited liberty by the Acts of Toleration of 1689 (see Liberty, Religious; and England, Church of).
10. Scotland.
The first impulse to the Reformation in Scotland proceeded from Germany and Switzerland. Copies of the writings of the continental Reformers found their way to the far north. Among its first martyrs here were Patrick Hamilton and George Wishart (qq.v.), who spent some time on the continent and were condemned to the stake by Archbishop Beaton. The movement was carried to a successful 'conclusion under the guidance of John Knox (q.v.). The Parliament of 1560 formally introduced the Reformation, and adopted the First Scotch Confession, drawn up by its appointment by Knox, Spottiswoode, Row, and three others, and prohibited, under severe penalties, the exercise of Roman Catholic worship. This confession remained the law till the adoption of the Westminster Confession in 1648. In 1561 the first Book of Discipline was issued, and gave the new church a complete Presbyterian organization, culminating in a general assembly of ministers and elders. The mode of worship, provided for in the Book of Our Common Order adopted 1564, was reduced to the greatest simplicity, with a decided predominance of the didactic element. Knox followed closely the model set by the Church of Geneva, which he esteemed "the best school of Christ since the days of the apostles." When the unfortunate Mary Stuart began her reign, in Aug., 1561, she made an attempt to restore the Roman Catholic religion. But her own imprudence and the determined resistance of Knox and the nation, frustrated her plans. After her flight to England (1568), Protestantism was again declared the only religion of Scotland, and received formal, legal sanction under the regency of Murray. The second period in the Scotch Reformation includes the determined conflict between Andrew Melville (q.v.), the champion of presbytery, and James VI., who was bent upon the overthrow of the Presbyterian forms of government and worship and the introduction of episcopacy after the model in vogue in England.
11. Italy.
For Italy, see Italy, Reformation in.
12. Spain.
For Spain, see Spain, Reformation in.
13. The United States:
Protestantism was planted here by the first Protestant emigrants to the various colonies, from the Puritans in New England to the Dutch,. Swedes, Germans, and French of the Middle colonies, and the Anglican and Huguenots of Virginia and the Carolinas. All types of the continental and the English and Scotch-Irish Reformations obtained a firm foothold before the close of the seventeenth century.
The general survey of the course of the Reformation given above may be supplemented for its details by the accounts given in this work of the lives of the Reformers, greater and lesser, most of whom are mentioned in the text. The article Protestantism should also be consulted, and such other topics as Christopher, Duke of Wuertemberg; Augsburg Confession and its Apology; Augsburg, Religious Peace of; Heidelberg Catechism; Huguenots; Inner Austria; the articles on the various confessions resulting from the Reformation, and on the colloquies and conferences held during its course.
Bibliography: The chief sources are the writings of the Reformers, named in the articles on them in this work. The reader is also referred to the lists of literature appended to those articles, many of the entries dealing with particular phases of the movement: On the preparation for and principles of the Reformation consult the literature under Protestantism, and: É. de Bonnechose, Réformateurs avant la réforme, 2 vols., Paris, 1844, 2d. ed., 1846, Eng. transl., Reformers before the Reformation, Edinburgh, 1851; C. Ullmann, Reformers before the Reformation, 2 vols., Edinburgh, 1874–77; H. Worsley, The Dawn of the English Reformation; its Friends and its Enemies, London, 1890; F. A. Gasquet (Roman Catholic), The Eve of the Reformation, New York, 1901; H. B. Workman, Dawn of the Reformation, London, 1901; G. Bonet-Maury, Les Précurséurs de la réforme et de la liberté de conscience dans des pays latins du xii. siècle au xvi. siècle, Paris, 1903; A. O. Meyer, Studien zur Vorgeschichte der Reformation, Munich, 1903; Schaff, Christian Church, v. 2, chap. v.
The General History of the Reformation is treated in the great works on church history, listed in Church History. For the English reader the best works are: T. M. Lindsay, The Reformation, Edinburgh, 1882; idem, Hist. of the Reformation, 2 vols., ib. 1906–07; and Cambridge Modern History, vol. ii., New York, 1904 (contains elaborate bibliography). Consult further: D. Schenkel, Die Reformatoren and die Reformation, Wiesbaden, 1856; idem, Das Wesen des Protestantismus, 3 vols., Schaffhausen, 1862; M. de Aubigné, Hist. de la reformation, 5 vols., Paris, 1835–53; idem, Hist. de la réformation au temps de Calvin, 5 vols., ib. 1862–75 (in Eng. transl. in many editions, e.g., the two in 13 vols., New York, 1879). L. Häusser, Geschichte des Zeitalters der Reformation, Berlin, 1868, Eng. transl., The Period of the Reformation, ed. W. Oncken, Edinburgh, 1885; A. R. Pennington, God in the History of the Reformation in Germany and England, and in the Preparation for it, London, 1869; F. Seebohm, Era of the Protestant Revolution, London, 1874; M. J. Spalding (Roman Catholic), Hist. of the Protestant Reformation, Baltimore, 1875; K. R. Hagenbach, History of the Reformation, 3 vols., Edinburgh, 1880–81; A. Laugel, La Réforme au xvi. siècle, Paris, 1881; S. A. Swaine, The Religious Revolution, London, 1882; C. Beard, The Reformation in its Relation to Modern Thought and Knowledge, London, 1885 (able); H. Schmidt, Handbuch der Symbolik, Berlin, 1890; L. Koenig, Die päpstliche Kammer unter Clemens V. and Johann XXII., Vienna, 1894; J. A. Babington, The Reformation, London, 1901; W. Walker, The Reformation, New York, 1901; B. J. Kidd, The Continental Reformation, London, 1902; A. H. Newman, Manual of Church History, vol. ii., Philadelphia, 1903; J. M. Stone, Reformation and Renaissance, 1377–1610, London, 1904; C. Beard, The Reformation, London, 1906; G. P. Fisher, Hist. of the Reformation, New York, 1906; K. von Hase, Handbook of the Controversy with Rome, ed. J. W. Steane, 2 vols., London, 1906; P. Whitney, The 425Reformation; Outline of the Hist. of the Church, 1503–1648, New York, 1907; J. S. Schapiro, Social Reform and the Reformation, ib. 1909; H. Wave, Principles of the Reformation, Practical and Historical, London, 1910.
On Germany consult: Schaff, Christian Church, vol. vi (with rich and well-arranged lists of literature); J. Sleidan, The General History of the Reformation of the Church from the Errors and Corruptions of Rome, Begun in Germany by Martin Luther 1517–56. With a Continuation to the Council of Trent 1562, by E. Bohun, London, 1689; P. Marheinecke, Geschichte der teutschen Reformation, 4 vols.. Berlin, 1831 (excellent, popular); C. P. Krauth, The Conservative Reformation, Philadelphia, 1872; A. Schmelzer, Die deutsche Reformation, Merseburgh, 1883; L. Keller, Die Reformation and die älteren Reformparteien, Leipsic, 1885; C. Beard, Martin Luther and the Reformation in Germany until the Close of the Diet of Worms, ed. J. F. Smith, London, 1889; F. von Bezold, Geschichte der deutschen Reformation, Berlin, 1890; J. P. Edmond, Catalogue of a Collection of Fifteen Hundred Tracts by M. Luther and his Contemporaries, London, 1903; W. Friedensburg, Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte, Berlin, 1903; L. von Ranke, History of the Reformation in Germany, translated by S. Austin, London, 1905; W. Walther, Für Luther wider Rom, Halle, 1900; F. Thudichum, Die deutsche Reformation 1517–37, vols. i.–ii., 1517–37, Leipsic, 1907–1909.
On Switzerland consult: Schaff, Christian Church, vol. vii (with selected lists of literature); A. Ruchat, Hist. de la réformation de la Suisse, 7 vols., Paris, 1835–38; A. L. Herminjard, Correspondance des réformateurs, 9 vols., Geneva, 1866–97; Archiv für die schweizerische Reformations-Geschichte, Freiburg, 1869 sqq.; J. Strickler, Actensammlung zur schweizerischen Reformationsgeschichte, 5 vols., Zurich, 1878–84; E. Egli, Actensammlung zur Geschichte der Zürcher Reformation, Zurich, 1879; Berner Beiträge zur Geschichte der schweizerischen Reformationskirchen, Bern, 1884; E. Issel, Die Reformation in Konstanz, Freiburg, 1898. Consult also A. Piaget, Documents inédits sur la réformation dans le pays de Neuchâtel, Neuchâtel, 1909.
For France the literature is given under France; and Huguenots. For the Netherlands the literature is given under Holland; Reformed Churches. Consult further: G. Brandt, The History of the Reformation in and about the Low Countries; from the Beginning of the Eighth Century down to the Great Synod of Dort, 4 vols., London, 1720; D. van Pelt, A Church and her Martyrs, Philadelphia, 1889. For Bohemia, Hungary, and Poland, the literature is in part given under Austria; Bohemian Brethren. Consult further: V. Krasinski, Sketch of the Religious History of the Slavonic Nations. Bohemia, Edinburgh, 1851; idem, Historical Sketch of the Reformation in Poland, 2 vols., London, 1840; F. Palacky, Geschichte von Böhmen, 4 vols., Prague, 1864; O. Koniecki, Geschichte der Reformation in Polen, 2 vols., Breslau, 1872.
Literature on Scandinavia will be found under Denmark; Norway; and Sweden. Consult further: L. A. Anjou, History of the Reformation in Sweden, New York, 1859; C. M. Butler, The Reformation in Sweden, New York, 1883; R. T. Nissen, De nordiske Kirkers Historie, Christiania, 1884; A. O. Bang, Den norske Kirkes Historic, 1536–1600, Christiania, 1895; T. B. Willson, Hist. of Church and State in Norway, London, 1903.
For England and Scotland, besides the literature under England, Church of; and Presbyterians, Consult: G. Burnet, Hist. of the Reformation, ed. Pocock, 7 vols., Oxford, 1885; P. Heylyn, Ecclesia Restaurata; or, The History of the Reformation of the Church of England, with the Life of the Author, by J. Barnard, ed. J. C. Robertson, 2 vols., London, 1849; H. Soames, Hist. of the Reformation of the Church of England, 4 vols., London, 1826–27; C. Geikie, The English Reformation. How it came about, and why we should uphold it, New York, 1879; J. H. Blunt, The Reformation of the Church of England: its History, Principles and Results (A.D. 1514–47), London, 1882; W. Fitzgerald, Lectures on Ecclesiastical History, Including the Origin and Progress of the English Reformation from Wickliffe to the Great Rebellion, ed., W. Fitzgerald and J. Quarry. With memoir of author's life and writings, 2 vols., London, 1885; S. R. Maitland, Essays Connected with the Reformation in England, New York, 1889; G. Cooke, History of the Reformation in Scotland; with an introductory Book, and an Appendix, 3 vols., London, 1819; W. M. Hetherington, History of the Church of Scotland, from the Introduction of Christianity to the Period of the Disruption, May 18, 1843, 2 vols., Edinburgh, 1853; P. Lorimer, The Scottish Reformation. A Historical Sketch, London and Glasgow, 1860; W. Maccoll, The Reformation Settlement, London, 1901; F. W. Maitland, The Anglican Settlement and the Scottish Reformation, London, 1902; D. Hay Fleming, The Reformation in Scotland. Its Causes, Characteristics, and Consequences, ib. 1910.
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