Reformation and Counter Reformation

Background

At the beginning of the sixteenth century, the Catholic church, modeled upon the bureaucratic structure of the Holy Roman Empire, has become extremely powerful, but internally corrupt. From early in the twelfth century onward there are calls for reform. Between 1215 and 1545 nine church-councils are held with church reforms as their primary intent. The councils all fail to reach significant accord. The clergy is unable to live according to church doctrine, and the abuse of church ceremonies and practices continues.

In the first half of the sixteenth century western Europe experiences a wide range of social, artistic, and geo-political changes as the result of a conflict within the Catholic church. This conflict is called the Protestant Reformation, and the Catholic response to it is called the Counter-Reformation. The Reformation movement begins in 1517 when a German Augustinian friar named Martin Luther posts a list of grievances, called the Ninety-Five Theses, against the Roman Catholic Church. As the spirit of reform spreads other leaders appear: Ulrich Zwingli in Switzerland, French-born John Calvin who settles in Geneva, and John Knox who carries Calvin's teachings to Scotland.

In the Roman church a series of powerful popes including Leo X and Paul III will respond to reform demands in various ways. Mendicant orders such as the Jesuits are formed to reinforce Catholic doctrine, and the Church will continue to be supported by t he major European monarchies. Ultimately, the Reformation creates a north-south split in Europe. In general the northern countries become Protestant while the south remains Catholic.

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The Reformation and Art

Protestant reformers reject the use of visual arts in the church. A wave of iconoclasm sweeps through the north. Stained glass windows are broken, images of the saints are destroyed, and pipe organs are removed from churches. The Catholic churches respond to this iconoclasm with an exuberant style of art and architecture called the baroque. The baroque is in ideological opposition to Protestant severity. Not until the Neoclassical style of the eighteenth century will there be an effective attempt to resolve this dichotomy. The theatrical designs of Saint Peter"s and the GesÐ"â„- in Rome are a triumphant symbol of the Roman Catholic church's belief in itself and its history. The plain churches of the north are reminders of Protestant beliefs.

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Martin Luther

Martin Luther (1483-1546) while studying law at the University of Erfurt in Germany experiences a spiritual conversion. He joins a monastic order, the Augustinians, and is eventually assigned as a lecturer at the University of Wittenberg. While working as a parish priest, Luther becomes disgusted by the Catholic Church's practice of selling indulgences. The purchase of an indulgence assures the buyer a remission of sins and thus a shorter period in purgatory. The selling of indulgences is a papal privilege which has been worked to the breaking point.

In 1517 a jubilee indulgence is being preached near Wittenberg to generate funds for the building of Saint Peter's in Rome. Luther uses this opportunity to draw up a list of church activities for which he demands resolution and change. This list, the Ninety-Five Theses is centered around a call to eliminate the sale of indulgences. The Church demands that he retract a number of his protests. Luther refuses.

Luther is summoned to an imperial Diet in Augsburg in 1518. Retribution for his crime should have fallen rapidly, but the election of a new emperor, Charles V (1500-1558), slows the justice system. Luther uses his time to plan a complete reform program for the church. His reforms include:

Ð'* national, rather than Roman, control of church finances,

Ð'* permission for the clergy to marry,

Ð'* a series of sacramental reforms which reduce the sacraments to Baptism, a reformed Mass, and the Holy Eucharist.

Due to the invention of the printing press, Luther's reforms are quickly spread through Europe bringing much support. However, Luther is condemned as a heretic by Pope Leo X in the Edict of Worms. He is is forced to escape and live for a year in hiding, but his reforms have taken root. The split in the Roman Church is now irreconcilable.

Europe Divided

The Low Countries, which are today called Belgium and the Netherlands, had long been under the rule of the Spanish Hapsburgs. In 1517 Luther's reforms will split the Low Countries. In the south, Belgium, Catholicism remains strong, while in the provinces of the north, the Netherlands, Protestant reforms are adopted and the Dutch Calvinists rebel against the Catholic Habsburg rule.

Though the Catholic Holy Roman Empire does not end until 1806, the German states are irrevocably separated from the influence of Rome during the age of the Reformation. The German princes of the north protect Luther from the pope and the Holy Roman emperor, while gaining political power by assuming many of the privileges once reserved for the church. The Peace of Augsburg in 1555 temporarily reconciles the Protestant north and the Catholic south in the German states, and the conflict moves west into the monarchies of Spain and France.

The Spanish Habsburgs and the French Valois come to an uneasy truce in 1559. Both monarchies are strongly Catholic, and both realize that only together can they hope to quell Protestant uprisings.

Once the Reformation is under way the common people perceive it as a means of social empowerment. The peasant class senses the potential for secular, though not necessarily spiritual, freedoms. The Peasants War, which begins in 1524, is a response to Luther's urgings of democratic reform and a reaction to an unbalanced social system. Luther, initially sympathetic to the peasants, is eventually appalled by the war and angrily addresses the warring faction in his pamphlet, Against the Thieving and Murderous Gangs of Peasants. To Luther the sectarian groups represent an attempt not at spiritual elevation, but at an easy redemption. The social revolt has unfortunate consequences for Luther's reformation. The humanist view that human beings might be brought to higher spirituality through education and innate ability, is a source of contention for the Reformers. Instead the Reformers depend on the concept of man's embodiment of