8. THE EUROPEAN RENAISSANCE AND REFORMATION

RELIGIOUS REFORMATION Early 1500s to Mid-1600s

The death of Savonarola (and followers) in Florence's central plaza - 1498

Martin Luther (1483-1546) But another monk, Martin Luther, was not so intimidated and threw a new challenge of church reform in the face of the Pope ... and his close associate, the "Defender of the Faith" Charles V of Habsburg – the powerful Holy Roman Emperor (and also king of the dominant political power of the day: Spain).  Such a challenge was quite daring ... if not even suicidal. Behind Luther's defiant spirit was a long personal pilgrimage he had been on, one based on an deep desire to unburden himself of a profound sense of guilt and personal condemnation before God's judgment.  For Luther, a personal breakthrough occurred as the message sank into the head of this Augustinian professor concerning Paul's teaching (Galatians and Romans) about divine Grace and forgiveness received through the simple faith of the believer – and not through the demands of any religious law or requirements of a religious system. So "liberated" was he that he felt that his discovery had to be brought to the world. Luther was a teacher of the Bible to his fellow Augustinian monks.  His complete familiarity with Scripture made him aware of and angry about the huge disparities between the way the early Church and the contemporary Church functioned ... plus a much anticipated visit to Rome turned into a very disillusioning experience for Luther when he came face to face with the political intrigue and corruption going on in the holy city.  Clearly the Church needed to clean up its act.  Even Emperor Charles knew that.  The popes had become famous for their corruption, epitomized at the beginning of the 1500s by the notorious Borgia family ... Father Rodrigo (Pope Alexander VI), his murderous condottiero son Cesare, and his beauty-queen daughter Lucrezia – among other illegitimate offspring ... not that a celibate pope was supposed to have children, much less mistresses!      However, what finally sparked Luther's bold challenge to the Church was the sale of indulgences ... to finance the building of the pope's elaborate cathedral in Rome.  This led Luther finally to post in late October of 1517 his 95 theses on the door of the Wittenberg castle church.   It was time for the church hierarchy to answer for its actions and behavior.  It was time for the church hierarchy to clean up its act! This action of Luther's seemed to be the signal for a number of German (and Scandinavian) princes to rise up in revolt against the political status quo of old Christendom defended largely by the Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor.  In Luther they saw their chance legitimately (i.e., on the basis of Christian morality) to break away from the monopoly of power held by Pope and Emperor ... and develop their own "Christian" sovereignty.1  Thus one of them, Frederick III, Elector of Saxony, took Luther under his protection just as the pope declared Luther a heretic and consequently to be denied all personal support and even to be eligible to be killed legally by anyone who encountered him. 1Also there was huge resentment in Germany for the heavy taxes imposed on the Germans in support of the Roman Curia ... and especially for the massive and very expensive cathedral being built in Rome with the goal of restoring the majesty of the papacy. Martin Luther - by Lucas Cranach the Elder (1529) Hessisches Landesmuseum Darmstadt "A Question to a Mintmaker" (the sale of indulgences) - Jörg Breu the Elder (c. 1530) Disputatio pro declaratione virtutis indulgentiarum (a printed copy of Luther's 95 Theses) – Wittenberg: Melchior Lotter d.J., 1522 Detail of Portrait of Pope Leo X and Two Cardinals - by Rafael Sanzio (1518-1519) Florence, Uffizi Gallery Title page of Pope Leo X's Bull, Exurge Domine, threatening to excommunicate Martin Luther (1520) Concordia Theological Seminary Wartburg Castle in Eisenach - where Frederick III, Elector of Saxony, hid Luther away (1521-1522) in order to keep him from falling in papal or imperial hands Frederick III "The Wise" - Elector of Saxony and protector of Luther Luther's 1534 Bible Luther's "Ein Feste Burg" ("A Mighty Fortress") One of only very few early printings of Luther's hymn. There are no known first edition printings left. This book is a second edition, and extremely rare. The Lutherhaus Museum - Wittenberg Emperor Charles V tries to suppress Luther The newly elected Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V of Hababurg now took up the issue on the side of the Roman church. Luther, now excommunicated but still under the protection of Frederick and widely popular in Germany, was called by the Emperor to an Imperial Council (Diet) at Worms in 1521 to give account of his views.  Here Luther stood firm in his views against the Roman church.And under an Imperial guarantee of his freedom, Luther was able to get away from the Council before the guarantee was retracted. From then on for the rest of his life, Luther remained in seclusion in Frederick's Wartburg Castle, translating the Bible into German ... and publishing numerous works denouncing in vivid language the leadership and practices of the Roman church.  These writings spread rapidly (thanks in part to the new printing press) throughout Europe – until talk of Luther and his challenges to the Church (and thus Christendom) was under discussion everywhere. In the meanwhile the Emperor found himself preoccupied by an on-going war with France over control of various cities and principalities in Italy. Then the Turkish threat to the Emperor's Austrian holdings rose again. Thus the Emperor was seriously distracted in his effort to quiet Luther. Luther was relatively safe.   Charles of Habsburg - Holy Roman Emperor (Charles V) and King of Spain (Charles I) by Rubens The Peasant War of 1524-1525 But when German commoners took his challenges as an invitation to rise up against the burden of all of Christendom's traditional authority, civil as well as religious, Luther came out passionately against the revolt. Indeed,  Luther was no revolutionary .. only a reformer.  For Luther his call for religious reform was related to the matter of a sinner's personal justification before God.  Luther showed little interest in making broader changes within Christianity beyond the throwing off of Roman spiritual authority – with its traditions of works-righteousness.  Substantial changes in worship, for instance, were of lesser interest to Luther.  Also the episcopal or hierarchical form of church government (rule "from above" by bishops) was not itself questioned by Luther – although he did strongly support the idea  that the bishops were answerable to the local princes ... not to Rome. This it proved to be the case that he stood strongly on the side of the princes against the German rebels (Müntzer and  the "Zwickau prophets") who took up the political cause of the German commoner against their rulers. In the course of this peasant rebellion, Luther came down harshly against the peasant rebels, denouncing them in the same strong language that he used to denounce the hierarchy of the Roman Church.2 The peasants and their leaders were put down cruelly by the local princes and their mercenary troops (6,000 peasants lost their lives alone in the one-day battle of Frankenhausen). The result of the Peasant War was to move real power over to the various German princes. Thus in Germany, the rule of the church was not a matter either of local congregational power – nor of the power of popes and bishops.  Rather, it was the ruling prince in each of the many principalities that made up Germany who determined each in his own territory its particular Christian character. Some remained loyal to Rome (the southern German princes).  Some followed the Lutheran line (the northern German princes) with their new Schmalkaldic League, a powerful political alliance which was dedicated, among other things, to backing Luther in every way possible. But in any case it was the local princes who made that determination.  The dependence of church on state was thus set as the characteristic feature of German Christianity. Thus in the end, although he was willing to break from the feudal Church, Luther was not willing to break from the feudal civil government in Northern Germany.  Consequently, Luther's reforms would go only part-way in bringing Germany out of its medieval background ... and leave it still with a feudal social system, one that would last all the way up into the early 20th century.  Furthermore, because Luther's religious movement was constructed deeply on these social foundations of a rather permanently medieval (rural) north-central Europe, "Lutheranism" would have almost no impact on any of Europe's rapidly developing industrial (urban) areas. Thomas Müntzer (c. 1490-1525) Müntzer was the active leader of the unsuccessful Peasants' Revolt in Thuringia (1524-1525) that so upset Luther.  Müntzer took a mystical view about the humble classes being the true repository of God's Spirit and the proper instrument of God's transformative work on earth.  His theological writings and personal leadership were of major importance in motivating the peasants' revolt against the German ruling classes.  At the Battle of Frankenhausen in May of 1525 his peasant forces were defeated – and Müntzer was taken prisoner and executed. 2In his Wider die Mordischen und Reubischen Rotten der Bawren [Against the Robbing Murderous Hordes of Peasants] (1525) he advises the German princes to take necessary action against the peasants: "Let everyone who can, smite, slay and stab, secretly and publicly, . . . a poisonous, devilish rebel, like one must kill a rabid dog." The Battle of Frankenhausen - May 15, 1525 Thomas Müntzer - Leader of the Peasant Rebellion An 18th century engraving by C. Van Sichem. No contemporary image of the reformer exists. Andreas Bodenstein von Karlstadt A theological scholar who supported deeper social-political reforms than Luther ZWINGLI AND THE EMERGENCE OF SWISS REFORM (1520s) Ulrich Zwingli (1484-1531) As a young man, Zwingli he received a humanistic university education in Vienna and Basel.  As a parish priest he continued his studies in Greek and Hebrew and of the humanist Erasmus and the classics.  In 1518 he was brought to Zurich, Switzerland, as its pastor … where he gained reputation as a brilliant preacher and scholar. It was here that his inquiring mind also began to draw him toward Luther's reform movement.  In 1522 Zwingli began to make his own moves to establish Scripture as the sole religious authority for the Christian.  He opposed the Lenten Fast, citing the lack of Scriptural warrant for the practice – a position which was supported by the Zurich civil government.  The bishop of Constance tried to suppress this innovation, but lost out to the Zurich government, which moved to take control of ecclesiastical matters within its jurisdiction.  Zwingli supported this shift in authority, claiming that the civil government, under the Lordship of Christ and guided in its work by the dictates of Scripture, was the sole legitimate voice or conscience of the believing community. He also moved to reform various features of worship, whenever there was no specific Scriptural warrant for such things, though he did so through a practice of gradualism.  By 1525, however, he had eliminated statues and relics from the Zurich church, eliminated the Latin mass (substituting a memorial celebration of the Lord's Supper in its place) and placed at the heart of worship the sermon (a rather extensive exposition of Scripture) – the key feature of the Swiss Reformation. But the conservative rural cantons of Switzerland remained firmly opposed to the Zwinglian reforms.  Relations grew bitter and hostilities resulted – with Zwingli himself being wounded and then put to death in a losing battle with the rural cantons in 1531. The more gentle-natured Heinrich Bullinger then took over the Zurich reform movement. The Split within the Protestant Ranks Meanwhile, the reform movement was beginning to move in different and opposing theological directions.  To Zwingli and the Swiss reformers (identified as the Reformed party) there were strong interests in restructuring the organization and practices of the church around its original constitutional base: Scripture.  There was a stripping away of every feature of Christianity that could not be supported by Scriptural warrant.  This was in keeping with Zwingli's humanist background – and its focus on the Greek and Hebrew origins of the church, and the sense that everything that was a departure from this classical age was a perversion of an original purity undergirding the church. This would not probably have kept Luther and Zwingli from working closely together – except that one portion of Zwingli's reforms were violently opposed by Luther:  Zwingli's treatment of the celebration of the Lord's supper.  Zwingli (for whom the sermon, not the celebration of the eucharist, was the central point of Christian worship) interpreted Christ's words concerning his presence in the wine and bread as purely symbolic.  To Luther, this was a shocking diminution of the power of the real presence of Christ in the elements of the eucharist.  The gap was, in both their minds, unbridgeable by the mid 1520s. Others of both parties tried to effect a compromise.  But Luther, even after Zwingli's death, would not hear of compromise. Lutheranism and the Reformed faith split permanently. But Zwingli's legacy lived on … taken up importantly by Johannes Oecolampadius in Basel.  But it spread as well to Bern and Constance … and ultimately Geneva.  And this Reform Movement also made its way down the Rhine River to Strasbourg – where under the leadership of Martin Bucer  – who tried to unite the Lutheran and Zwinglian Reform Movements (but Luther was not supportive of the effort) – the Reform Movement took on the more thoroughgoing Swiss character (as distinct from the more conservative Lutheran variety). The Religious Colloquium of Marburg of 1529 - anonymous - wood carving (1557) By invitation of the Landgrave Philipp of Hesse, Luther and Zwingli came to Marburg in September of 1529.  They were accompanied by some of their followers, Melanchthon being among these. They were to settle their dispute about communion.  But  in this key matter they were not successful. JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564) But it would be John Calvin in Geneva that would bring the Swiss Reform Movement to full power. Calvin was a Frenchman, schooled in the new humanist tradition … and prepared at the universities of Orléans and Bourges to be a lawyer. He fell in with a circle of French humanists who read with great interest the writings of Luther. Then, somewhere in the period 1532-1534 Calvin experienced a "sudden conversion" (the details of which unfortunately he never discussed publicly.)  From this point on his well-organized mind was given over to theology rather than the law.  At the same time his theological associations became very dangerous to an increasingly suspicious French king, Francis I.   In 1536, Calvin felt compelled to write, with all respect to his monarch, a reply to Francis' suspicions about the "protestants": The Institutes of the Christian Religion.3  It was Calvin's hope that Francis, through this long essay, would come to understand that the protestants posed no threat to his rule – but only sought to revitalize the original Christian ideal on which the whole Christian realm ought to be properly based.  Though it was the most compelling theological treatise explaining the protestant position – it did not have its intended effect of swaying the views of Francis.  Instead, it identified Calvin as a voice of religious dissent, not tolerated in France.  Calvin was thus forced to flee France. He intended to relocate to Strasbourg, where the reform movement was well underway. His path there took him to Geneva (Switzerland) ... where the Protestant reformer William Farel prevailed upon Calvin not to head on to Strasbourg but to stay in the city and help him strengthen the Swiss Reformed Movement which was growing rapidly there.  Calvin agreed.  But for Calvin, this proved to be a stormy decision.  Geneva was an unruly city, and Calvin's natural bent toward orderliness and discipline quickly made him many enemies in the city.  In the spring of 1538 Calvin and Farel were banished from Geneva.  Calvin headed on to Strasbourg, where, by that time, the "Reformed" movement was well established. But in 1541, the old group of Calvin's supporters in Geneva urgently requested his return to the city.  Calvin somewhat reluctantly decided to go back to Geneva – but on his terms.  Upon his return, Calvin organized (accepting many compromises with the city Council) the religious life of the city around his new Ordinances – the foundation of Reformed polity.  Geneva in turn became identified under Calvin's leadership as the model Christian city, the "New Jerusalem" of Protestantism. Calvin's reforms help develop a strong European "Middle Class" Calvin was an urban European, steeped in the bourgeois mindset of the rising European urban "middle class."  Calvin's interest in reform of the crumbling medieval moral legal order involved importantly a vision of the new urban order as central to a purified Christianity.  Thus his interest in reform did not limit itself merely to matters of religious doctrine – as was the case for Luther.  Calvin truly was interested in a comprehensive reordering of every aspect of post medieval life:  political, economic, and social as well as theological. Importantly, he gave a theological rationale for the independent mindedness of the urban commercial class – arming them with Scriptural justification for going their own way within God's creation.  Indeed, he encouraged them to establish purified political economic social orders as a way of purging Christendom of its corruption and of bringing glory to God in Jesus Christ.  He made their soul searching independent mindedness a matter of the greatest importance in their standing before God.  They not only had the right to be accountable to God alone as sovereign over them – they had the Christian duty to see that this was the case.  The supposition was that any earthly lord who positioned himself between them and God was going to be problematic in their "purified" relationship with God and their covenantal life in the purified Christian commonwealth. Certainly the followers of Calvin attempted to convince the rich and powerful kings of Europe that their movement had no treasonous instincts – and that they planned to be good citizens in the realms where they lived.  The kings were not convinced.  And rightly so.  Everything about Calvinism pointed to the idea of these people being accountable to no earthly ruler but to God alone.  Switzerland, which was the birthplace of Calvin's Reformed Movement was well recognized for its independent-mindedness and refusal to acknowledge the rule of any princely lord over the land.  No ... Calvin's Reformed Movement, or "Calvinism" was destined to bring a clash with traditional princely and priestly rulers who claimed to rule by "divine rights."  That was exactly what the Calvinists claimed for their own "self-rule":  the common people's own self-rule by divine right – even by divine imperative.   There was no way these two mind-sets were going to work cooperatively. The extensive spread of Calvinism to urban Europe It was not long before word spread widely of what was happening in Geneva under Calvin's reforms.  Thus it was that during the second half of the 1500s, individuals from all corners of Europe came to Geneva to be a part of this new Reformed Movement.  There they learned of ways to rebuild their communities as "covenant" communities … covenanted with God to live solely by Scriptural standards.  And there in Geneva they busied themselves also in translating and publishing exactly those scriptural standards (the Bible) in the various languages spoken across the European continent. And thus it was that "Calvinism" came to be well-planted in the towns and cities of England (the Puritans), Scotland and Northern Ireland (the Presbyterians), Netherlands (the Dutch Reformed), France (the Huguenots), Western Germany, Bohemia and Hungary (the German, Czech and Hungarian Reformed Movement) – and even parts of Poland and Spain, where it later got eradicated by the Catholic Counter-Reformation overseen by the Catholic popes and Habsburg emperors.   The Michael Servetus affair Theologically, the times were very intense ... as we have just seen in Luther's reaction to the peasant revolt in Germany.  But the intensity of the times does not offer much of an excuse as to Calvin's behavior in the face of a bitter theological attack on him (just words!) offered by a highly self-important Spanish intellectual (and accomplished medical doctor), who took delight in accusing Calvin of the evil of Trinitarianism, which – according to Servetus' book Errors of the Trinity (1531) – was nothing more than a grand deception of the devil ... and those who held to it, servants of the devil.  Furthermore, Servetus presented himself (in his book The Restitution of Christianity) as the Michael of Scripture (from Revelation and Daniel) who was called to fight the antichrist, in order to usher in the End Times.   Calvin got involved with Servetus back in 1546, when Servetus sent Calvin a copy of The Restitution of Christianity ... resulting in a correspondence between the two men which started out calmly enough, but which quickly grew increasingly bitter as accusations and counter-accusations intensified.  Calvin thus stopped the correspondence ... totally embittered by Servetus.  But Servetus went on, announcing abroad that not only was Calvin the imposter Simon Magus, but both Calvin and the Pope were antichrists, needing to be dismissed in order to restore Christianity to its original character. Servetus eventually got himself condemned by French authorities for his supposed Unitarianism ... escaped imprisonment, and decided to head to Italy for refuge.  But strangely, he stopped by Geneva (1553) and decided to attend a worship service conducted by Calvin – when he was spotted and arrested.  Servetus was duly tried and convicted of heresy ... and sentenced to be burned at the stake.  Calvin tried to soften the sentence somewhat by calling for a beheading ... but could not get the Council to back down.  Calvin and his friend Farel also visited Servetus in prison to get Servetus to recant of his Unitarian beliefs.  But Servetus would not recant.  And thus the sentence was carried out. To this day it is debated as to whether Calvin could not have exerted more pressure – for instance, to have Servetus banished rather than executed.  But Calvin at the time was having his own political difficulties with the town council over matters of town governance governance … and seemingly needed to appear to be no less strong than the council in the (typical) handling of heretics.   In any case, it is another example of how frequently Christian theological precision gets way ahead of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  And it certainly was not the first time, nor certainly also the last.  In fact, in those days a lot of this sort of thing would be going on ... doing the West's Christian foundations a huge disservice ... not to mention a huge disservice to Jesus Christ. For more on Calvin 3This work underwent numerous editions, increasing in coverage with each new issue, from a single volume of six chapters in 1536 ultimately by 1559 to four volumes of 80 chapters, indicative of his own development as a scholar-teacher. A young John Calvin - Flemish school (Unknown) - (Oil on wood panel) 1500s Société du Musée Historique de la Réformation, Bibliothèque de Genève Institutio Christianae religionis (Institutes of Christian religion). Geneva: Robert Estienne, 1559 This is the definitive and fourth edition of Calvin's compendium of reformed theology; the first edition was published in 1536 Portrait of John Calvin - anonymous - 1500s Bibliothèque de Genève Portrait of John Calvin - Titian (Tiziano Vecellio) - 1500s The Reformed Church of France, Paris, France Portrait of John Calvin at fifty-three years old - 1562 - by René Boyvin Bibliothèque de Genève Guillaume (William) Farel (1580) original portrait in Theodore Beza's Icones Unitarian Michael Servetus (Miguel Servet) - by Christian Fritzsch Spanish scientist and theologian of the Renaissance.  Burned at the stake in Geneva in 1553. Martin Bucer (1560) - by Jean Jacques Boissard original in Icones quinquaginta vivorum held in British Library, London Another reformer in trouble:  William Tyndale strangled and then burned at a stake in Belgium for daring to translate the Hebrew and Greek texts of the Bible into English - 1536 He did so to update Wycliff's English version which used an older "Middle English" not easily understandable by the early 1500s.  Much of the Geneva Bible, published 20 years later (1557) and popular among the Puritans,  was derived from Tyndale's work ... although Tyndale had not completed his translation of the Old Testament before he was put to death.  The Geneva Bible would finish the  task.  Also ...King James's English translation in the early 1600s would draw heavily from Tyndale's English translation. SCOTLAND ... UNDER KNOX'S "PRESBYTERIAN" REFORMS We must at this point mention one of these "Calvinists":  John Knox, the great Protestant reformer of Scotland.  Knox not only helped direct Scotland to Calvinist Protestantism in the mid 1500s, but also left a powerful political legacy within the Calvinist or Reformed branch of  Protestantism, a political legacy we call "Presbyterianism."  Knox's Presbyterianism not only deternimed the organization of the Church of Scotland but also layed the foundations for the growth of  representative democracy in the American middle colonies (from New Jersey to South Carolina) in the 1600s and 1700s. As with many Protestant reformers, Knox began as a Catholic priest, highly discontent with the moral and spiritual corruption that had overtaken the Mother Church.  He was attracted to the Lutheran teachings of the early Scottish reformer, George Wishart; was appalled when in 1546 the Catholic cardinal had Wishart burned at the stake as a heretic; and then joined the group of rebels who moved to overthrow the hand of the Catholic church over Scotland.  This put him in opposition to the pro-French party that ruled Scotland – and when French troops in 1547 crushed this Protestant rebellion in Scotland, Knox was led off  to captivity as a French galley slave.  His release was finally secured by the pro-Protestant English King Edward VI, leading Knox to come to England to be a Protestant pastor and then chaplain to the King But when Edward died in 1553 and Catholic Mary Tudor ("Bloody Mary") came to the throne, Knox left England and made his way eventually to Geneva Switzerland where he joined a community of English expatriates living and studying under the direction of the great Genevan reformer, John Calvin.  Knox took a great liking to both Calvin and his teachings and subsequently became a major voice in the English/Scottish reform movement not only in Geneva, but through letters, to a growing Protestant movement back in Scotland. He returned briefly to Scotland in 1555, then back to Geneva to become pastor of the English church there ... and then finally in 1559 he returned definitively to Scotland to take over the spiritual leadership of the Protestant rebellion against the French-Catholic regent of Scotland, Mary of Guise.  Seeing that things were not going well in Scotland for the Protestant party, Queen Elizabeth of England came to their aid against the French in Scotland.  But when Mary of Guise died suddenly in 1560, the French Catholic cause in Scotland was dead.  Scotland was now won for Protestantism. At this point Knox and his supporters began to reshape the Scottish church – not only theologically along the lines of Calvin's Reformed Faith born in Geneva, but also politically in a way that was Knox's special contribution to the Protestant cause.  Knox took the idea of representative government characteristic of Calvin's reformed churches (communities lead by elected elders or "presbyters"), and applied it locally, regionally and nationally in total reversal of the top-down or hierarchical fashion of Catholic or "episcopalian" government.  Thus local councils ("Presbyteries"), regional councils ("Synods") and national councils ("General Assemblies") that presided over the faithful were made up of representatives not of the political rulers over the church but of the people themselves.  Thus was born "Presbyterian" or representative church government – the source of inspiration for the new Democratic or Republican forms of government that led eventually to the Constitution of 1789 underpinning the new American Republic. Despite success in the Protestant takeover of the church Scotland, the continuing existence of a Catholic monarchy in Scotland under Mary of Guise's daughter, Mary Queen of Scots, made life still highly problematic for Protestant Scotland – and for John Knox personally as the two locked wills in on-going battle.  But eventually Mary's political blunders forced her to flee to England, where Elizabeth put her under house arrest ... and eventualy had her put to death. In any case Knox, worn out and sickly, died from his labors in 1572.  But his work in  Scotland was carried forth faithfully by others, notably Andrew Melville. For more on Knox   John Knox Mary of Guise - Queen consort of Scotland mother of Mary I and regent of Scotland - 1554-1560 (member of the House of Guise, leaders of the fiercely anti-Protestant Roman Catholic Party in France) Hatfield House A young Mary I Stuart - Queen of Scots - by school of François Clouet - 1560-1561 reigned 1554 - 1567 (forced to abdicate in 1567 in favor of her one-year-old son, James ... future King of both Scotland and England) Hatfield House THE CATHOLIC COUNTER-REFORMATION The papal party finally realized the seriousness of the challenge to its moral authority – and in 1546 called a Council at Trent to answer the Protestant charges of ecclesiastical corruption and theological deviation. Rigid discipline was re-imposed over the priests who remained loyal to Rome.  Luther's teaching on divine grace and justification alone by faith was condemned. A campaign was readied to wipe out any "heretics" not ready to return to Roman discipline. The war was thus on. The Roman church, championed by the most powerful ruling family in Europe (the Spanish Habsburgs) – well-financed from their plunder of South and Central America – fought back cruelly, trying to stamp out the fires of the Protestant revolt. They succeeded in many places – and might have been fully successful had not the Muslim Turks attacked Vienna – the Eastern center of Habsburg power--during the height of this struggle. With the Habsburgs thus distracted, Protestantism dug in. Pope Paul III and the Council of Trent Pope Paul, under some considerable pressure by Spanish king Charles I, called the Council of Mantua (1537) to begin dealing with some of the issues of the reformation.  But that Council got disrupted by a new round of warfare between Francis I of France and Charles.  In 1542 Paul again called a Council, this time located at Trent (Austria) – thought it did not begin deliberations until the end of 1545.   At the same time, Paul established the Supreme Tribunal of the Inquisition – a remake of the old Papal Inquisition which in the previous century had largely been suspended in its operations.  The revival of the Inquisition in Spain under the Spanish monk Thomas de Torquemada – who for 18 years used its techniques of torture in a very "successful" manner against Muslims, Jews and Christian heretics – no doubt persuaded Paul of its constructive use in stamping out heresy.  But political realities kept Paul's wonderful scheme limited to Italy – where it did a masterful job of discouraging Protestantism among the Italians (as the Spanish Inquisition did in Spain). Paul's Council of Trent continued its meetings after his death in 1549, though he had by then clearly laid out the lines it would take.  The Council of Trent met until 1552 (though it had to move to Bologna from 1547 to 1551 to escape an epidemic).   After 1552 it did not meet again until 1562 and completed its work the following year.   At the Council (as in his life) Paul took a very reactive position in the matter of the need for reforming the church.  To him it was a straightforward matter of organizing the powers of the church to stamp out the Protestant heresy.   But Charles was deeply desirous of reform in the church in order to steal the ideological advantage the Protestants enjoyed over a number of issues dividing the church. Charles wanted the church to tighten up its moral laxness and make significant compromises in matters of doctrine pressed by the Protestants – in order to restore unity within Christendom.   But Paul held the line against anything that looked like a concession to the Protestants.  Thus the Council of Trent, under his leadership, moved to anathematize (condemn) the Protestant position and to reaffirm the church's position that Tradition stood as a coequal with Scripture in determining church issues and doctrines.   The Latin Vulgate was pronounced the only authoritative version of the Bible.  No translations into the languages of the day would be allowed.  Further, no copies of even the Latin Vulgate were to be printed or distributed without authorization from church authorities.   Also, the Council reaffirmed the doctrine that faith and works jointly formed the path to salvation – and not faith alone, which was a central Protestant position on the subject of salvation.   Latin was to continue to be the language of the mass, the cup was to continue to be withheld from the laity during the sacrament of Holy communion, celibacy was to continue to be the order for the clergy – and a number of other doctrinal matters would remain unchanged.  There were no doctrinal concessions to be made to the Protestants. However the Council did move to tighten moral discipline in the church – a major Catholic embarrassment in the dispute with the Protestants.  Clerical appointments were to be scrutinized more closely for moral-spiritual justification.  Education of the clergy was to be stressed.  And the preaching skills of the clergy were to be improved.   Overall, the tightening up of Catholic doctrine made the church look much less confused in the face of Protestant challenges.  And the new moral regimen removed the matters that were the most obvious source of popular discontent against the church among the people (most doctrinal issues escaped popular understanding anyway).   Indeed, Pope Paul and the Council of Trent gave the Catholic Church a new crusading spirit against the Protestant "heresy."  Pope Paul III - who convened the Council of Trent - painting by Titian Naples,  Galleria Nazionale di Capodimonte The Council of Trent - by Cati da Iesi (with allegorical figures representing various virtues including "The Church Triumphant") The Jesuits (Society of Jesus) In 1540, Pope Paul III authorized Ignatius of Loyola and six companions to form a new priestly order, the Society of Jesus.  Unsurprisingly, given Loyola's own background as a nobleman-soldier, the new order took on the character of a military unit, tightly disciplined to undertake very challenging work, as ordered by the Superior General (Ignatius initially) … himself under the personal command of the pope.  They were to serve the papacy as frontline missionaries, "soldiers of God," taking Catholicism to all parts of the world – from Canada to Paraguay, to Ethiopia, to Japan, and everything in between!  In Christian Europe itself, they would serve principally as teachers of classical theology, rhetoric, mathematics, even music! – most notably to the youth of Europe's ruling class.  And as evangelists, they dedicated themselves to countering the evangelism being undertaken by the Protestants.  The Founding of the Jesuits (Society of Jesus) by Ignatius of Loyola Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556) - founder of the Jesuits - by Peter Paul Rubens (ealy 1600s) Go on to the next section:  The Development of the Dynastic State   Miles H. Hodges