Will Durant---The Reformation

the Reformation one Wickliffe and erasmus prelude ad 32 1307 the roman catholic church is one of the most remarkable organizations in history and an objective study of its origins purpose methods vicissitudes faults and achievements would shed more light upon the nature and possibilities of man and government than the study of almost any other subject or institution open to human inquiry when the fading belief in Rome's pagan deities could no longer give moral support to a disordered and imperiled State in the task of controlling the native individualism of men and groups a new faith in a stern yet forgiving God and his redeeming and inspiring son gave to a growing minority a creed that both fed and calmed human wonder and fear and developed a moral code and social order that made a new civilization possible the old masculine latin of roman soldiers was softened to fit hymns in chivalry literature frolicked and experimented in a hundred forms art added the joy and exultation of Gothic ornament and spires to the calm nobility of classic colonnades and domes and the Roman Catholic Church grew to such acceptance and devotion that it could check the natural self-seeking of men and state with the power of the venerated word by ad 1300 that majestic structure had been eroded by the nature of man some administrators of the church proved human venal biased oppressive or extortionate some Kings made stronger by social order and developing economies rejected papal claims to secular power and mourned the passage of their people's money to a foreign potentate in 1303 Philip the fourth of France successfully challenged the authority of Pope Boniface the eighth over the property and activities of the Catholic Church in France he imprisoned Boniface for three days in a nun yi in central Italy the pontiff died soon after in 1305 Philip procured the election of a Frenchman to the papacy as Clement v and in 1309 he persuaded him to move the papal seat from Rome to Avignon on their own there till 1377 the papacy became in some measure a feudal fief of the French King and was so considered by other rulers who increasingly mourned the export of their people's savings to a foreign papacy as if to proclaim their vassalage the Avignon pontiff's in a total of 134 nominations to the College of Cardinals named 113 Frenchmen the electors of the Holy Roman Empire repudiated any further interference of the Pope's in the election of kings or Emperor's in some German cities papal collectors were hunted down imprisoned mutilated or strangled in 1372 the clergy of bonn Cologne and Mainz bound themselves to refuse payment of papal tithes in Italy the papal capital states chief Lee Ferrara Bologna Ravenna Rimini Rubino were seized by condottieri despots who gave the now distant Pope a formal obeisance but kept the revenues the English government fumed at the loans of the Avignon Pope's to the king of France during the Hundred Years War harassed on every side the Avignon Pope's found it impossible to meet the cost of administration and the demands of Cardinals and favorites for their accustomed comforts and delights wolves are in control of the church cried the Spanish prelate Alvaro Pio and feed upon the blood of the Christian flock in 1311 William do wrong Bishop of Monde in southern France told the Council of VN the whole church might be reformed if the Church of Rome would begin by removing evil examples from herself by which men are scandalized and the whole people as it were infected for in all ants the Church of Rome is an ill repute and all cry and publish it abroad that within her bosom all men from the greatest even unto the least have set their hearts upon covetousness that the whole Christian folk take from the clergy pernicious examples of gluttony is clear and note since the clergy feasts more luxuriously than princes and kings and in England kings and Parliament smiled upon a priest to anticipated Luther and Henry the eighth's by almost two centuries in assailing the theology and political claims of the Catholic Church John Wickliffe John Wickliffe was born in 1320 near the yorkshire village which gave him his name he studied at Oxford became a priest served for a year as master of Bailey ol College accepted various benefices from the Pope's and issued several volumes whose graceless Latin obscured and long protected a merciless predestination theology by general Christian Consent God is omnipotent and omniscient there is no active nth thought or volition however free past present or future unknown to him therefore none occurs without his implicit consent it seems to follow that those unnumbered sinners who had not made their peace with God and obtained His grace before their death had been condemned to everlasting hell by the Almighty before their birth good works do not win salvation but they indicate that he who performs them has received divine grace and is one of the elect chosen from all eternity for eternal bliss from the communism and divine inspiration ascribed to the Apostles by the New Testament Wickliffe concluded that their successors and their ordained delegates were meant to have no property the reform most needed in the church and its clergy is the complete renunciation of worldly goods Parliament liked this refused to pay the expected tribute to the papacy and appointed Wickliffe to defend the refusal John of Gaunt proposed that the English government should confiscate part of church property in England he invited Wickliffe to defend the plan in a series of sermons Wickliffe came supported by John's armed retinue the clergy dared not protest pope gregory xi issued bulls condemning 18 propositions found in with cliffs writings unless he retracted them the bishops were to arrest him and keep him in Chains but the Parliament that met in october 1377 was so strongly anti-clerical that the king's advisors asked Wickliffe to prepare an opinion on the question whether the realm of England can legitimately when the necessity of repelling invasion is imminent withhold the treasure of the realm that it be not sent to foreign parts although the Pope demanded under pain of censure and in virtue of obedience to him Wickliffe answered the Pope cannot demand this treasure except by way of alms against the contention that the English church was part of and should obey the universal or Catholic Church Wickliffe recommended the ecclesiastical independence of England the realm of England in the words of Scripture ought to be one body and clergy Lords and community members of that body this anticipation in 1377 of Henry the eighth's declaration of ecclesiastical independence seemed so bold that the Kings advisors directed Wickliffe to make no further statement on the matter nevertheless in March 13 78 Wickliffe appeared before the bishops assembly at Lambeth to defend his views the mother of king richard ii sent the archbishop a letter deprecating any final condemnation of Wickliffe and in the midst of the proceedings a crowd forced its way in from the street and declared that the english people would not tolerate any inquisition in england the bishops deferred decision and Wickliffe went home triumphant now in books or tracts he multiplied his heresies and doubled his denunciations he described some monasteries as dens of thieves nests of serpents and houses of living Devils prelate stew sieve men by feigned indulgences or pardons and robbed them of their money men be great fools that by these Bulls so dear if the Pope has the power to snatch souls from purgatory why does he not free them at once Wickliffe alleged that many priests defile wives maidens widows and nuns he excoriated pellets who hunted and hawked and gambled and related fake miracles who pray only for show and collect fees for every religious service they perform who ride fat horses with harness of silver and gold they are robbers malicious foxes ravishing wolves gluttons Devils Apes here even Luthor's cordial vituperation as forecast perhaps Wickliffe suggested the Pope is the Antichrist predicted by the Apostle John the Beast of the Apocalypse heralding the second coming of Christ as cures for these frailties Wickliffe proposed that the church should be deprived of all material possessions and powers and priests should live in apostolic poverty monks should return to the full observance of their rule if the clergy refuses to surrender its material possessions the state should confiscate all ecclesiastical property and priests should be constrained to keep to the poverty that Christ ordained Kings may command all this and compel obedience they are responsible to God alone from whom they derive their Dominion and authority priests should be ordained by the king many notables in the English government were scandalized by Wickliffe Stan uncie ations even some supporters were alarmed he reaffirms his views in the Confessor of May 10th 1381 a months later social revolution flared in England and frightened the holders of property Wickliffe now lost most of his parliamentary support king richard ii having narrowly escaped death roan Montgomery cliff and all his adherents he retired to his living at blutter worth disassociated himself from the rebels continued his pamphleteering against the church organized a body of poor preaching priests later called Lollards gathered scholars to translate the Bible from Jerome's Latin version and apparently translated the New Testament himself the collective product was not a model of English prose but it was a vital event in English history in 1384 Pope Urban the 6th summoned Wickliffe to appear before him in Rome a sharper summons came in a paralytic stroke on December 28 1384 as Wickliffe was attending Mass three days later he died he was buried at Lutter worth but by decree of the Council of Constance may 4th 1415 his bones were dug up and cast into a nearby stream the papal schisms 1378 to 1417 germany and italy agreed with england in scorning the Avignon papacy in 1372 the abbot's of Cologne publicly agreed that the Apostolic See has fallen into such contempt that the Catholic faith in these parts seems seriously imperiled in 1362 when urban v sent to legate's to Milan to excommunicate the recalcitrant Visconti Birna bow compelled them to eat the Bulls parchment silken cords and leaden seals 1362 in 1376 Florence in a quarrel with Pope Gregory the 11th demolished the buildings of the Inquisition jailed or hanged resisting priests and called upon Italy to end all temporal power of the church it became clear that the Avignon Pope's were losing Europe in their fealty to France in 1377 gregory xi returned the papacy to rome however a rival pope set himself up in Avignon and Roman Catholic Europe was divided in a papal schism that lasted thirty-nine years and sometimes saw three rival popes cleaning universal religious authority and all papal revenues the result was a triple financial campaign whose persistence and devices scandalized the Christian world I quote again a message sent in 1430 by a German envoy in Rome to his prince read reigns supreme in the Roman Court and day by day finds new devices for extorting money from Germany hence much outcry and heart-burnings many questions in regard to the papacy will arise where else obedience will at last be entirely renounced to escape from these outrageous exactions by the italians and this latter course as I perceive would be acceptable to many countries the flow of ecclesiastical levies into Rome might have been tolerated if these funds had been turned into competent administration of the church but it seemed to the north that they would largely consumed in luxurious living we must recall the appeal of Pope Pius the second to his Cardinals in 1643 people say that we live for pleasure accumulate wealth bear ourselves arrogantly ride on fat mules and handsome palfreys he pounds for the chase spend much on actors and parasites and nothing in defense of the faith and there are some truth in their words many among the Cardinals and other officials of our Court do lead this kind of life if the truth be confessed the luxury and pomp of our court is too great and this is why we are so detested by the people that they will not listen to us even when we say what is just and reasonable perhaps the Catholic historian Ludwig von pastor paints too dark a picture a deep-rooted corruption had taken possession of nearly all the officials of the Curia the inordinate number of gratuities and exactions past all bounds moreover on all sides deeds were dishonestly manipulated and even falsified no wonder that there arose from all parts of Christendom the loudest complaints about the corruption and financial extortions of the papal officials and the same historian spreads his verdict indiscriminately it is not surprising when the highest ranks of the clergy were in such a state that among the regular orders and secular priests Bice and irregularities of all sorts should become more and more common the salt of the earth had lost its savor but it is a mistake to suppose that the corruption of the clergy was worse in Rome than elsewhere there is documentary evidence of the immorality of the priests in almost every town in the Italian peninsula no wonder as contemporary writers sadly testified the influence of the clergy had declined and in many places hardly any respect was shown for the priesthood their immorality was so gross that suggestions in favor of allowing priests to marry began to be heard we might suggest two modifications of the indictment the parish priest seems to have been loved and honored almost everywhere he was too busy serving his community you're sharing in its labor to have much time for sin and though both the secular clergy and the monastic orders may rightly be charged with sexual adventures often with private or open concubines this was partly a revolt against the irks and canon law of 1074 forbidding priestly marriage Greek and Russian Orthodox churches had continued to allow such unions the Roman Catholic clergy itched for the same right and being denied it took more or less openly to concubines bishop Agua of rj reported in 1428 that the clergy of his diocese did not consider can cuban into sin and made no attempt to conceal their practice of it this recurrent triumph of Magdalene over the Virgin in the history of religion and the score of other developments were undermining the moral and doctrinal structure that medieval Christianity had built over the malleable figure of Christ the spread of education and learning the exhumation of classical culture the increasing independence and secularism of the universities the secret nourishment of Christian doubt by the triumph of Islam over the Crusades the unwitting liberation of Reason by the Scholastic philosophers the bold skepticism of Duns Scotus and William of Ockham the liberation of the flesh in every class the worldliness of Cardinals and monks the passage from pious agriculture to the religious apathy of urban workers of traveled merchants of realistic interest loving financiers the rising wealth and growing armies of kings and states the replacement of clergymen with secular officials and government the worldliness of Cardinals and monks and now the fragmentation of the papacy these and other developments threatened the collapse of the whole majestic edifice doctrinal administrative and moral of the once proudly Catholic ie universal Church in 1381 Heinrich von Wallenstein a German theologian at the University of Paris in the treatise Concilium patchi's argued that a crisis had arisen from which only a power outside of the rival popes could rescue the church and restore morale or to a bewildered christendom in 1411 Sigismund king of hungary and head of the holy roman empire compelled john xxiii then one of the three claimants to the papacy to call a general council to meet it Constance in southwestern Germany in November 1414 the longest Council in Christian history began to assemble three patriarchs 29 Archbishop's 150 bishops 14 university deputies 26 princes 114 nobles and 4,000 priests on April 6th 1415 the council issued a decree which one historian has called the most revolutionary official document in the history of the world this Holy Synod of Constance being a general council and legally assembled in the holy spirit for the praise of God and for ending the present schism and for the Union and reform of the Church of God in its head and its members ordains declares and decrees as follows first it declares that this Synod represents the church militant and has its authority directly from Christ and everybody of whatever rank or dignity including also the Pope is bound to obey this council in those things that pertain to the faith to the ending of this schism and to a general reform of the church in its head and members likewise it declares that if anyone of whatever rank condition or dignity including also the Pope shall refuse to obey the commands statutes ordinances and orders of this holy council or of any other holy council properly assembled in regard to the ending of the schism or to the reform of the church he shall be subject to proper punishment and if necessary recourse shall be had to other aides of Justice on July 6th 1415 the council condemned the writings of the dead Wickliffe and ordered the death of John hoose on May 30th 1416 it ordered the death of Jerome of Prague on November 17 14 17 it chose as Pope o'donneii Colonna who took the title of Martin the fifth and ended the papal schism on April 22nd 14 18 the council declared itself dissolved John who's the second prelude to the Reformation took form in Bohemia that romantic realm had been settled by the Slavs in the fifth century had risen to importance in the 12th as part of the Holy Roman Empire and had its golden age in the 14th under King Charles the first who reigned from 13 42 to 78 who made Prague one of the handsomest cities in Europe in the 27th year of that reign 1369 John hoose was born in the village of Who sonnets whose first syllable became his name in 1390 he came to Prague as a poor student earned his way by serving in the churches studied for the priesthood then joined in what Paris would turn the Bohemian ways of university youth in 1401 he entered the priesthood and reformed his life to an almost hermetic austerity as head of the Bethlehem chapel he became the most famous preacher in Prague his fate was sealed when some of Wickliffe books fell into his hands he was so charmed by the author's heresies that he said Wickliffe I trust will be saved but could I think he could be damned I would my soul were with his the administrative chapter of the Prague Cathedral proposed that Wickliffe teachings be banned from the university whose continued to support them in 1409 Archbishop sibenik excommunicated him and several associates who Sapir to pope john xxiii john summoned him to appear before the papal court who's refused to go when the Pope sent agents to Prague to sell indulgences for a crusade against the King of Naples who sent his chief disciple known to us only as Jerome of Prague preached against the church's collection of money to spill Christian blood whose scorning caution called the Pope a money-grubber Antichrist the Pope excommunicated him and laid an interdict upon any town that should shelter him for two years whose secluded himself in rural retreats mostly in those years he wrote his major books some in Latin some in Czech nearly all adopting Wickliffe Pharisees he rejected image worship auricular confession and papal infallibility and followed Wickliffe on predestination he accepted the legend that a supposed Pope John the eighth had revealed her sex by giving unpremeditated birth to a child in 1414 Sigismund king of hungary and head of the holy roman empire anxious to restore unity and vigour to his realm against the advancing turks and islam advised whos to go to the Council of Constance and seek reconciliation with the church he gave us an imperial safe-conduct to Constance promised him a hearing by the Council and guaranteed him a safe return to Bohemia whose set out in October escorted by Czech Nobles and friends arrived he was treated courteously by the council in the church and lived in freedom but when some Orthodox Bohemians read to the assemblage the text of whose heresies it summoned him to defend himself shocked by his replies it imprisoned him he fell ill and for a time was near death pope john xxiii sent papal physicians to treat him meanwhile his pupil and fellow heretic jerome of prague made his way to Constance and nailed to the city gates church doors and the homes of cardinals an appeal that the council should give who's a public hearing and let him return safely to his home jerome himself tried to get back to bohemia but stopped on the way to preach against the council he was arrested brought back to Constance and jailed Sigismund protested that the council had violated the safe conduct that he had given to who's it answered that his authority did not extend to spiritual concerns he pleaded with whose to offer some retraction of his heresies whose offered to withdraw any of his views that could be disproved by the Bible on July 6th 1415 the council condemned Wickliffe and hoose and delivered who's to the secular arm after rejecting a final appeal to save himself by retraction he was led out of the city and was burned to death while singing hymns on May 30th 1416 after almost a year of imprisonment and after recounting a recantation jerome of prague was led out to the same spot and the same fate the Renaissance church 14 18 to 1517 the Reformation came just when the papacy was having one of its most brilliant periods the Council of Constance had reduced three Pope's to one Martin the fifth restored the centralized administration and finances of the church and Eugenius the fourth brought a bevy of classical scholars from Ferrara Florence even from Greece to revitalize a drowsy Rome chaotically clerical rebellious Lea feudal or violently populist when Nicholas the fifth came to the papacy in 1447 the flow of Peter's pence from transalpine Europe was again fertilizing Italy helping to generate the Renaissance south of the Alps and the Reformation north of them nicholas v almost bankrupted the papacy by his enthusiastic support of scholars who were recovering translating or editing classical manuscripts until the catholic capital became almost a continuation of plato's Athens or Senecas Rome Caesar Borgia scattered Christian ethics to the winds and applied the principles of Machiavelli's Prince in recapturing for the papacy its Lost States and their revenues while his father Pope Alexander the 6th 1492 to 1503 enriched Roman architecture and his children with the golden flow julius ii 1503 213 completed the reconquest of central italy for the Pope's and despite the repeated depletion of his treasury collected funds enough to pay Raphael and Michelangelo for adorning the papal palace in the Sistine Chapel Leo the 10th 1513 221 son of the banker Lorenzo de Medici scattered gold among poets artists scholars and favorites and sent out indulgence purveyors to raise money for the completion of st. Peter's but the gathered revenues financed political corruption moral laxity and sexual license among the clergy as well as the laity while the Pope himself remained reasonably virtuous and resolutely happy luther visiting rome in 1510 was awed by its splendor may then no reported criticism of its morals and earned so many indulgences that he almost wished his parents did so that he might deliver them from purgatory into heaven however in later retrospect he described the Rome of 1510 as an abomination the Pope's is worse than pagan emperors and the papal court is being served at supper by 12 naked girls erasmus visiting rome in 1509 was charmed by the easy life fine manners and intellectual cultivation of the cardinals he was amused by the pagan themes that had entered into the literature and talked of the capital but he was shot by the costly marshal campaigns of pope julius ii let us Terry with a Rasmus for he was accounted the most brilliant writer of his time desiderio sir Asmus we do not know how he came by these names which mean the desired beloved he was born in or near Rotterdam in 1466 or 1469 ii and natural son of a clerk in minor orders and of the widow daughter of a physician he was sent for schooling to the Brethren of the common life at Deventer where Latin was the ps/2 resistance some pagan classics were used as texts he became a master of Latin read more classics and found them a revealing delight about 1484 both parents died the father left a modest estate to his two sons their Guardians absorbed most of it and steered the youths into a monastic career requiring no patrimony at all they protested wishing to go to a university they yielded and Desiderius became a monk and in 1492 a priest and soon thereafter secretary to Henri Bishop of Cambre he served his master well for several years and was rewarded by being sent to the University of Paris there he listened impatiently to lectures preferring to explore ancient literature and young charms he taught himself Greek in time the Athens of Plato and Aristotle Sophocles and Euripides Zeno and Epicurus had become as familiar to him as the Rome of Caesar and Cicero Augustus and Horace Nero and Seneca those friendships ruined the young priests orthodoxy and left him not much more of Christianity than a heretic admiration for the ethics of Christ his addiction to books was as expensive as a vice to add to his allowance he tutored pupils who admired his familiarity with ancient tongues and lore one of them Mountjoy took him to England and into aristocratic homes the excitable priest wrote ecstatically to a friend there are nymphs here with divine features so gentle and kind wherever you go you are received on all hands with kisses when you leave you are dismissed with kisses o Faustus if you had once tasted our soft and fragrant those lips are you would wish to be for a whole life in England at Mount Joy's house in Greenwich Erasmus met Thomas More then only 22 yet distinguished enough to secure the scholar and introduction to the future Henry the eighth at Oxford he was charmed by the informal companionship of students and faculty he was impressed by the progress of humanism in England and influenced profoundly for his betterment from a vein and flighty youth drunk with the wine of the classics and the ambrosia of women he was transformed into an earnest and painstaking scholar anxious for some lasting and beneficent achievement when he left England January 1500 he had formed his resolve to study and edit the Greek text of the New Testament as the distilled essence of that real Christianity which in the judgment of reformers and humanists alike had been overlaid and concealed by the dogmas and accretions of centuries stationing himself in Paris he prepared and published Adagio 818 quotations chiefly from classical authors pleased with its reception he issued edition after addition each expanded until it held 3260 entries the book almost supported him but he gladly accepted 15:06 the invitation of a British physician to be general guide and supervisor of two sons on a tour of Italy Roman Cardinals welcomed him is already a scholar of European renown in 1509 a friend of the English humanists now King Henry the eighth invite Erasmus to England Erasmus went received the revenues of a parish in Kent and was appointed professor of Greek at Cambridge while staying with Thomas More in 1511 he wrote in seven days his most famous book encomium mori I the praise of folly 40 editions were published in his lifetime as late as 1632 Milton found it in everyone's hands at King Bridge to begin with said the little book the human race owes its existence to folly for what man in his senses would pay for a moment's pleasure with a lifetime of monogamy what sane woman would pay for a transient ecstasy with the pains of birth and the tribulations of motherhood could anyone be happy if he faced the facts of life or knew the future if men and women paused to reason all would be lost however science and philosophy are ignored by the people and do little damage to the vital ignorance of the human race the little book proceeded to smile at the beliefs and practices of Christians the creation of the world from nothing the innocent sin of Eve the merciless punishment of generation after generation the virgin birth transubstantiation and what shall I say if such as cry up and maintain the cheat of Pardons and indulgences that by these compute the time of each souls stay in purgatory and assign it a longer or shorter residence there according as the living have bought more or fewer of those paltry pardons from the pontifical peddlers all this six years before Luther's Wittenberg challenges the satire runs on at the expense of monks inquisitors Cardinals and popes all ranks and varieties of the clergy agree in pursuing money and witches even to death the Pope's according to the centrist have lost every resemblance to the Apostles by their riches honours dispensations licences indulgences tithes their worldly policies and bloody wars how could such an institution exists except for the folly and gullible simplicity of mankind probably the rasmus's intellectual environment in Cain and in the circle of Henry the eighth offered the sympathetic audience to satires of the Catholic Church his next production was so unreasonably merciless that he made every effort to conceal its authorship but Thomas More listed Julius exclusives 1514 among his friends works pope julius ii died in 1513 after a pontificate distinguished by his labors as general and by his financing Raphael and Michelangelo in their greatest paintings Erasmus is imaginary dialog pictured Peter barring Julius from heaven Peter let me look a little closer priests cassock but bloody armor beneath it eyes savage mouth insolent forehead brazen body scarred with sins all over breath loaded with wine health broken with adultery I threaten as you will I will tell you what you are you are Julius the Emperor come back from hell Julius then you won't open the gates Peter sooner to anyone else than to such as you all in all as we skim Erasmus his writings before 1517 we can hardly blame Luther and other reformers for approaching Erasmus for having sounded the toxin of revolt and then running to cover when the call to action came in July 1514 Erasmus returned from England to the continent hearing of this the prior of his forgotten monastery sent him a reminder that his leave of absence had long since expired and it was time for the wanderer to return to his vows and his cell horrified by this prospect Erasmus petitioned his English friends to intercede for him with Pope Leo the tenth after some delay the amiable pontiff sent to London documents that freed Erasmus not only from his monastic commitments but also from the disabilities legally attached to bastardy to these pages Leo added a personal note beloved son health and apostolic benediction the good favor of your life and character your rare heir you addition and high merits witnessed not only by the monuments of your studies which are everywhere celebrated but also by the general vote of the most learned men and commended to us finally by the letters of two most illustrious princes the king of England and the Catholic King of France give us reason to distinguish you with special and singular favour we have therefore willingly granted your request being ready to declare more abundantly our affection for you when you shall either yourself Minister occasion or accident shall furnish it deeming it right that your holy industry assiduously exerted for the public advantage should be encouraged to higher endeavors by adequate rewards perhaps it was a judicious bribe to good behavior perhaps a sincere gesture from a tolerant and humanist Court in any case Erasmus never forgot this papal courtesy and he would always find it hard to break from a church that had so patiently borne the sting of his pen Germany on the eve of Luther 1300 to 1517 the economy in the final century before Luther all classes in Germany prospered except the poorest peasantry and probably it was the rising status of most peasants that sharpened their resentment against surviving disabilities the great majority were tenant farmers paying rent to a feudal chieftain in produce services or money they complained of the twelve in some cases 60 days of Palace labor which custom required them to give him yearly of his withdrawal of land from the alga minor or Commons in which tradition had allowed them to fish cut timber and pasture their flocks of the damage done to their crops by the lords Huntsman and towns of the biased administration of justice in the local courts which the landlords controlled and of the death tax laid upon the tenant family when the demise of its head interrupted the care of the land all classes of tillers grudged the annual tithes levied by the church on their harvests and broods agrarian revolts broke out sporadically through 15th century Germany in 1431 the peasants around forms rose in futile rebellion in 1476 a cowherd Hans Boehm announced that the mother of God had revealed to him that the kingdom of heaven on earth was at hand there were to be no more emperors Pope's princes or feudal lords all men were to be brothers all women sisters all were to share alike in the fruits of the earth land woods pastures and waters were to be common and free thousands of peasants came to hear Hans the priest joined him the Bishop of Wartburg smiled tolerantly but when Hans told his followers to bring to the next meeting all the weapons they could muster the Bishop had him arrested the bishops soldiers fired into the crowd that tried to save him the movement collapsed in 1493 the feudal tenants of the Bishop of Strasbourg demanded an end to feudal dues and ecclesiastical tithes the abolition of all debts and the death of all Jews they planned to seize the town of schlechtnacht and thence to spread their power through Alsace the authorities got wind of the plot seized the leaders tortured and hanged them and frightened the rest into temporary submission in 1502 the peasants of the Bishop of spire formed a revolutionary group of 7,000 men pledged to end feudalism to hunt out and kill all priests and monks and to restore what they believed to have been the communism of their ancestors a peasant revealed the scheme in the confessional ecclesiastics and Nobles united in circumventing it the main conspirators were tortured and hanged similar uprisings were organized in Germany until they culminated in the peasants war that threatened all Germany in 1525 and frightened Luther into the arms of the princes a more matter-of-fact revolution was proceeding in German industry and commerce most industry was still handicraft increasingly controlled by entrepreneurs who provided material and capital and bought and sold the finished product mining flourished great profits were made in turning gold into chalices and monstrance 'as for altars and making chairs and tables of solid silver reliable coins of gold and silver eased the passage to a money economy and aeneas Silvius in 1458 marveled to see German women bridles helmets and armor adorned with gold financiers now became a major political power Jewish moneylenders were displaced by Christian family firms like the Bell sirs the hoax debtors and the fogers all of augsburg which at the end of the 15th century was the financial capital of Christendom the fougères raised their firm to supremacy by advancing money to the princes of Germany Austria and Hungary in return for the revenues of mines lands and cities from such speculative investments the fougères had become by 1500 the richest family in Europe from Jakob Fugger the second 14:59 to 1525 we may date the capitalist era in Germany the dominance of businessmen controlling money over feudal lords owning land by the end of the 15th century German mining and textiles were already organized on capitalistic lines ie controlled by providers of capital some merchant capitalists of Augsburg or Nuremberg were worth 5 million francs each about twenty five million dollars many bought their way into the landed aristocracy and sported coats of arms Yorkie Mohawks titter and France Baumgartner spent five thousand florins a hundred and twenty five thousand dollars on a single banquet or wagered $10,000 shariah Slee furnished and artistically decorated homes of rich businessmen stirred the resentment of nobility clergy and proletariat alike Guiler fond kaiserburg demanded that they should be driven out like wolves since they fear neither God nor man and breed famine thirst and poverty the Cologne Reichstag of 1512 called upon all civic authorities to proceed with diligence and severity against the usury asst for stalling capitalistic companies such decrees were repeated by other diets but to no effect some legislators themselves had investments in the great merchants firms agents of the law were pacified with shares of stock and many cities prospered from the freedom of finance and trade Strasbourg colmar nets Augsburg Nuremberg boom despawn regensburg mines spire Trier forms cologne Bremen Hamburg Magdeburg Lubeck and Breslau were thriving hubs of Industry Commerce letters and arts they and seventy seven others were free cities they made their own laws and acknowledged no political allegiance except to the Emperor who was usually too indebted to them for men or money to attack their liberties though these cities were ruled by guilds dominated by businessmen nearly every one of them was a paternalistic welfare state to the extent that it regulated production and distribution wages prices and the quality of goods with a view to protecting the weak from the strong and ensuring the necessities of life to all Nuremberg was a center of Arts and Crafts rather than of larger scale industry or finance its streets were still medieval e tortuous and shaded by overhanging upper stories or balconies its red tiled roofs high peaked Gables and Oriole windows made a picturesque confusion against rural background and turgid stream the people were not as affluent here as an Alex Berg but they were jolly and commute leaf and love to desportes in such festivities as their annual carnival of masks costume and dance here Hans axe and the Meister zingers sang their lusty airs here Albrecht Durer raised German painting and engraving to their Zenith here the best Goldsmith's and silversmiths north of the Alps made costly vases church vessels statuettes here the metal workers fashioned a thousand plant animal and human forms in bronze or wrought iron and too handsome railings gates or screens here the woodcutters took joy in their frolicsome forms the churches of the cities became repositories and museums of art for every guild or corporation or prosperous family commissioned some work of pious beauty for the shrine of a patron saint it was characteristic of Nuremberg that the most famous of her merchants Villa Bob Pierre Kaymer was also an enthusiastic humanist a patron of the Arts a devoted friend of Dura the voyages of Vicent agama the turkish control of the Aegean and Maximilian's Wars with Venice disturbed the trade between Germany and Italy more and more German exports and imports moved on the Great Rivers to the Baltic the North Sea and the Atlantic wealth and power passed from Augsburg and Nuremberg to Cologne Bremen Hamburg and Antwerp the fougères and Bell sirs furthered this trend by making Antwerp a chief center of their operations the northward movement of German money and commerce divorced northern Germany from the Italian economy and made it strong enough to protect Luther from Emperor and Pope partly for opposite reasons southern Germany remained Catholic religion by and large Catholicism flourished in 15th century Germany the overwhelming majority of the people were strictly Orthodox and between their sins and cups sternly Pius the German family was almost a church where the mother served as catechist and the father as priest prayer was punctual and books of family devotion were in every home several monastic orders had returned to the observance of their rule and performed many works of practical benevolence the complaints against the German clergy were chiefly against the prelate sand on the score of their wealth and worldliness some bishops and Abbot's had to organize the administration and economy of great areas that had come into possession of the church though mitered or tonsured they were in practice feudal seniors they behaved like men of the world and it was alleged that some of them rode to provincial or federal diets with their concubines in their trains a learned Catholic prelate and historian johannes johnson has summed up perhaps too severely the abuses of the german church on the eve of the Reformation the contrast of pious love and worldly greed of godly renunciation and godless self-seeking made itself apparent in the ranks of the clergy as well as in other classes of society by to many among the ministers of God and religion preaching and the care of souls were altogether neglected avarice the bisetta ng sin of the age showed itself among the clergy of all orders and degrees in the anxiety to increase to the utmost all clerical rents and incomes taxes and perquisite s-- the german church was the richest in Christendom it was reckoned that nearly a third of the whole landed property of the country was in the hands of the church which made it all the more reprehensible for the ecclesiastical authorities to be always seeking to augment their possessions in many towns the church buildings and institutions covered the greater part of the community in 1457 Martin Meyer Chancellor to Archbishop Dietrich of Mainz addressed to Cardinal Piccolomini an angry summary of the wrongs that Germans felt they suffered from the Roman Curia the election of presses frequently postponed without cause and benefices and dignities of all kinds are reserved for the Cardinals and papal secretaries Cardinal Piccolomini himself has been granted a general reservation in an unusual and unheard-of form in three German provinces expectancies without number are conferred and eights and other taxes are collected harshly and no delay is granted and it is also known that more has been exacted than the sums do bishoprics have been bestowed not only on the most worthy but on the highest bidder for the sake of amassing money new indulgences have daily been published and war tithes imposed without consulting the German prelate s' lawsuits that ought to have been dealt with at home have been hastily transferred to the apostolic tribunal the Germans have been treated as if they were rich in stupid barbarians and drained of their money by a thousand cunning devices for many years Germany has lain in the dust the moaning her poverty and her sad fate but now her Nobles have awakened s from sleep now they have resolved to shake off the yoke and to win back their ancient freedom among the people anti-clericalism went hand-in-hand with piety a revolutionary spirit of hatred for the church and the clergy writes the honest pastor had taken hold of the masses in various parts of Germany the cry of death to the priests which had long been whispered in secret was now the watchword of the day so King was this popular hostility that the Inquisition then rising in Spain hardly dared condemn anyone in Germany violent pamphlets rained assaults not so much upon the German churches upon the Romans see some monks and priests joined in the attack and stirred up their congregations against the luxury of the higher clergy pilgrims returning from the Jubilee of 1500 brought to Germany lurid often exaggerated stories of immoral Pope's papal poisonings Cardinals ROI stirrings and a general paganism and banality many Germans vowed that as their ancestors had broken the power of Rome in 476 they or their children would crush that tyranny again others recalled the humiliation of the Emperor Henry the fourth by Pope Gregory the seventh at canosa and thought the time had come for revenge in 1521 the papal nuncio a Leander warning Leo the 10th of an imminent uprising against the church said that five years earlier he had heard from many Germans that they were only waiting for some fool to open his mouth against Rome a thousand factors and influences ecclesiastical intellectual emotional economic political and moral were coming together after centuries of obstruction and suppression in a whirlwind that would throw Europe into the greatest upheaval since the barbarian conquest of Rome the weakening of the papacy by the Avignon exile and the papal schism the breakdown of monastic discipline and clerical celibacy the luxury of prelate s' the corruption of the Curia the worldly activities of the popes the morals of Alexander the sixth the Wars of Julie in the second the careless gaiety of Leo the 10th the relic mongering and peddling of indulgences the triumph of Islam over Christendom in the Crusades and the Turkish Wars the spreading acquaintance with non-christian faiths the influx of Arabic science and philosophy the collapse of scholasticism in the irrationalism of SCOTUS and the skepticism of Occam the failure of the conciliar movement to affect reform the discovery of pagan antiquity and of America the invention of printing the extension of literacy and education the translation and reading of the Bible the newly realized contrast between poverty and simplicity of the Apostles and the ceremonious opulence of the church the rising wealth and economic independence of Germany and England the growth of a middle class resentful of ecclesiastical restrictions and claims the protests against the flow of money to Rome the secularization of law and government the intensification of nationalism and the strengthening of monarchies the nationalistic influence of vernacular languages and literatures the fermenting legacies of the Waldenses Wickliffe and whose the mystic demand for a less ritualistic more personal and inward and direct religion all these were now united in a torrent of forces that would crack the crust of medieval custom loosen all standards and bonds shatter Europe into nations and sects sweep away more and more the supports and comforts of traditional beliefs and perhaps mark the beginning of the end for the dominance of Christianity in the mental and moral life of West European man the Reformation to 1517 to 55 Luther and the Communists Tetzel on March 15 1517 Pope Leo the 10th promulgated the most famous of all indulgences offerings Catholics then accepted the doctrine that Christ had given Peter and Peter had transmitted to all succeeding popes the power to absolve a confessing penitent from the guilt of his sins but not from the penances attached to them if any of these penances remained unpaid at death they would have to be paid for by suffering and purgatory which a merciful God had established as a temporary and escapable hell meanwhile the Saints by their sufferings and Christ by his death had earned a Treasury of merits from which the Pope might draw to cancel a part of a sinner's due period of purgatorial torture if some earthly penitent would perform penances or good works or contribute gifts prescribed by the church the substitution of a money fine for punishment was readily accepted by the faithful because it had long been an established custom in medieval courts the indulgences offer by leo the 10th was for contributing to the expense of completing the great Basilica which pope julius ii had begun and had almost forgotten in the ecstasy's of war leo appointed Albrecht of brandenburg the young Archbishop of Mainz to manage the distribution of this indulgences in Magdeburg Halberstadt and mites Albrecht chose as his principal purveyor Johann Tetzel a Dominican monk famous for his ability to raise money Tetzel set forth usually with the approval of the local clergy and offered the following indulgences may our Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on thee and absolve thee by the merits of his most holy passion and I by his authority and that of the Blessed apostles peter and paul and of the most holy pope granted and committed to me in these parts to absolve the first from all ecclesiastical centures and then from all thy sins transgressions and excesses however enormous they may be even such as are reserved for the cognizance of the Holy See and as far as the keys of the Holy Church extend I remit to you all punishment which you deserve in purgatory on their account and I restore you to the Holy sacraments of the Church and to that innocence and purity which you possessed at baptism so that when you die the gates of punishment shall be shut and the gates of the paradise of delight shall be opened and if you shall not die at present this grace shall remain in full force when you are at the point of death in the name of the Father of the Son and of the Holy Ghost the Catholic historian pastor wrote of this there is no doubt that Tetzel did according to what he considered his authoritative instructions proclaim a Christian doctrine that nothing but an offering of money was required to gain the indulgences for the dead without there being any question of contrition or confession he also taught in accordance with the opinion then held that an indulgence could be applied to any given soul with unfailing effect starting from this assumption there is no doubt that his doctrine was virtually that of the drastic proverb as soon as money in the coffer rings the soul from purgatory he's fire Springs the papal bull of indulgences gave no sanction whatever to this proposition it was a vague scholastic opinion not any doctrine of the church capsule might have escaped history had he not approached too closely to the lands of Frederick the wise elector of Saxony moved by reluctance to let the coin of Saxony emigrate and perhaps by reports of Tetzel hyperboles Frederick for bad the preaching of the 1517 indulgence in his territory but Tetzel came so close to the frontier that people in bitten Baird crossed the border to obtain the indulgences several purchasers brought these papal letters to Martin Luther professor of theology in the University of Wittenberg and asked him to attest their efficacy he refused the refusal came to Tetzel zere's he denounced Luther and became immortal Luther growing 1483 to 1517 the man who was to have more influence upon subsequent history than anyone but Copernicus and Columbus was born in Islip and Germany to a peasant then miner named Hans looter and his wife margarita frightened by a theology of terror and punishment they brought up their children with such rigor of word and rod that the severe and harsh life I led with them recalled Luther was the reason that I afterward took refuge in the cloister and became a monk parents and children believed in angels witches and demons roaming in the air and in a God who condemned the larger part of his human creations to an everlasting hell Martin met his tribulations with a vigor of body and will that molded his rough features and kept him undefeated to his death at school in Mansfield there were more rods and catechism Martin was flogged we are told 15 times in a day for miss declining a noun at 14 he was transferred to the school of st. George at eisenach and had three relatively happy years in the comfortable home of Frau Cota he never forgot her remark that there was nothing on earth more precious than the love of a good woman in this atmosphere he developed the natural charms of youth health cheerfulness sociability frankness he sang well and played the lute in 1501 his prospering father sent him to the University of Erfurt there he learned a little Greek and bless Hebrew and read the more reputable Latin classics he found scholasticism so disagreeable that he complimented a friend on not having to learn the dung that was offered as philosophy in 1505 he received the degree of Master of Arts his father sent him as a graduation present an expensive edition of the corpus URIs Jubilees and rejoiced when his son began to study law but after two months Martin threw aside his law book says shedding no light and the problems that haunted him vigorous to the edge of sensuality visibly framed for a life of normal instincts and yet so infused at home in school with the conviction that man is by nature sinful and that sin offends an omnipotent and punishing God he had never been able to reconcile his natural impulses with his acquired beliefs the God who had been taught to him inspired more terror than love and Jesus was not only the gentle Jesus meek and mild of the Beatitudes but also the Christ of the Last Judgement threatening sinners with everlasting fire one day caught in a storm of thunder and lightning and longing for protective cover he made a vow to st. Anne that if he survived he would become a monk surviving he applied for acceptance as a novice by the Augustinian era mites the strictest of the twenty coasters in air fort received he performed the lowliest duties with a proud humility he froze in an unheated cubicle recited prayers in hypnotic repetition fasted and scourge himself in the hope of exercising the devil's that seemed to inhabit his body in 1506 he took irrevocable vows and in 1507 he was ordained a priest his fellow friars fearing for his sanity gave him a Latin Bible and urged him to read it unquestioningly but in st. paul's epistle to the romans chapter one verse 17 he came upon a passage that added to his wonderment the just shall live by faith and in st. Augustine he found the disturbing thought that God before the creation had chosen some souls for salvation and paradise others for eternal damnation and that the elected one salvation only through the merits earned by the sufferings of Christ these ideas electioned by God for salvation and salvation not through one's own good works but through faith in the merits earned for man by Christ became the basic tenets of Luther's theology and that of his followers in 1505 he was transferred to a monastery in Vinton Berg was given the post of instructor in logic and physics in the university and then the chair of philosophy and theology when reports were brought to him of Tetzel zwey with indulgences he felt that the time had come to speak out about the merchandising of religion rapidly he composed in Latin 95 theses which he titled disputation for clarification of the power of indulgences on October 11th 1517 he affixed a copy of these theses to the main door of the castle Church of ittan Berg the practice of announcing theses and offering to defend them against all challengers had long been established in medieval universities and the door that Luther chose had regularly been employed as an academic billboard he prefixed to the theses an amiable invitation out of love for the faith and the desire to bring it to light the following propositions will be discussed at Wittenberg under the chairmanship of the Reverend Father Martin Luther Master of Arts and sacred theology and lecturer in ordinary on the same at that place wherefore he requests that those who are unable to be present and debate orally with us may do so by letter with characteristic audacity he sent a copy of the theses to Archbishop Albrecht of Mainz and to make sure that they would widely-read he had a German translation circulated among the people cautiously perhaps unwittingly he had begun the German Reformation Reformation as revolution the theses became the private talk of literate Germany the pent-up anti-clericalism of generations had found a voice the sale of indulgences declined but there were strong denunciations of luther won by the vice-chancellor of the University of Ingolstadt another by jakob von hauled struttin of cologne who proposed that luther should be burned at the stake luther defended his view in a latin brochure entitled resolution ace April 15 18 of which he sent copies to the local bishop and the Pope but to Leo the tenth privately he professed an unwanted humility Most Blessed father I offer myself prostrate at the feet of your holiness with all that I am and have Quicken slay call recall approve reprove as may seem to you good I will acknowledge your voice is the voice of Christ residing and speaking in you if I have deserved death I will not refuse to die however Leo's counselors warned him that the resolution is affirmed the superiority of an ecumenical council of all bishops over the Pope spoke slightingly of relics and pilgrimages and rejected all additions made by the Pope's in the last three centuries to the theory and practice of indulgences to allow such views to spread was to endanger ecclesiastical discipline and papal revenues Leo who had at first brushed aside Luther's ideas as a passing ferment among theoreticians now took the matter in hand and summoned the monk to Rome July 7th 1518 fearful of being kept a hostage or prisoner in Rome Luther wrote to gay or Spartan chaplain to frederick elector of saxony suggesting that German princes should protect their citizens from extradition to Italy Frederick agreed and Emperor Maximilian advised him to take good care of that monk Leo compromised by bidding Luther present himself at Augsburg before Cardinal count and to answer charges of indiscipline and heresy luther went October 12 15 18 but found no theologian to argue with only a stern literalist the Cardinal informed the rebel that the church as a matter of ecclesiastical order could not allow a monk to violate his vow of unquestioning obedience by publishing views long since condemned by the church khajit and demanded that luther should publicly retract his heresies and pledge himself never again to disturb the Peace of Christendom Luther refused and returned to his cell in Vinton burg catch at an asked Frederick to send the rebel to Rome the elector refused on November 9th Leo issued a bull repudiating many of the extreme claims that had been made for indulgences on November 18th Luther published an appeal from the judgment of the Pope to that of a general council Leo sent a young Saxon nobleman in minor orders to make another attempt to win Luther to submission when they met January 3rd 1519 Luther was so charmed by the youth that he wrote a friendly letter to Tetzel who was soon to die and on March 3rd he sent Leo a letter of complete submission the Pope made a friendly reply March 19th invited him to come to Rome and offered him money for the journey but on March 17th Luther had written to spalatin probably in humour I am at a loss to know whether the Pope is Antichrist or his apostle he remained in Germany public opinion there increasingly acclaimed him many of the university students were his warm defenders important men hardly known to luther like juror the artist and peer Kaymer the respected merchants both of Nuremberg proclaimed their support Oh Rick Van Hooten the rebel poet lauded him and called upon Frederick and all other German rulers to appropriate all monastic wealth and put two German uses the money that was usually sent to Rome so encouraged Luther published in the spring of 1520 an epitome which met the absolutes of dogma with the ecstasy's of attack if Rome thus believes and teaches with the knowledge of Pope's and Cardinals which I hope is now the case then in these writings I freely declare that the true antichrist is sitting in the temple of God and is reigning in Rome that in purple Babylon and that the Roman Curia is the synagogue of Satan if the fury of the Roma nests thus goes on there will be no remedy left except that the Emperor's kings and princes dirt about with force and arms should attack these pests of the world and settle the matter no longer by words but by the sword if we strike thieves with the gallows robbers with the sword heretics with fire why do we not much more attack in arms these masters of perdition these Cardinals these Pope's and all this sink of the Romans Sodom which says without end corrupted the Church of God and wash our hands in their blood in a bowl of June 15 1520 Leo the tenth condemned 41 statements by Luther ordered the public burning of the writings containing them and bad him come to Rome and make a public recantation after 60 days of further refusal Luther was to be cut off from all Christendom by excommunication he was to be shunned as a heretic by all the faithful and all secular authorities were to banish him from their dominions or deliver him to Rome Luther countered this by a declaration almost without precedent in history he found someone to publish not in Latin but in German an open letter to the Christian nobility of the German nation concerning the reform of the Christian estate there was as yet no German nation there were only German principalities each independent with its own customs laws army and supportive pride Luther overrode these boundaries and spoke to all Germans if only through their rulers who in Luther's view were letting precious revenues slip through their frontiers into hostile Italy some have estimated that every year more than 300,000 Gould and find their way from Germany to Italy we have come to the heart of the matter how comes that the we Germans must put up with such robbery and such extortion of our property at the hands of the Pope if we just Lee Han thieves and behead robbers why should we let Roman avarice go free for he is the greatest thief and robber that has come or can come into the world and all in the holy name of I stand Saint Peter who can longer Endura to keep silence Luther proceeded to detail his religious program the German clergy should establish a national church under the leadership of the Archbishop of Mainz mendicant orders should be reduced priests should marry pilgrimages masses for the dead and holy days except Sunday should be abolished all canon law which divorced clerical offenses from secular legislation should be discarded the German church should be reconciled with the who sights of Bohemia we should vanquish heretics with books not burning the Pope is the true Antichrist and thou o Pope art not the most holy of men but the most sinful o that God from heaven would soon destroy thy throne and sink it in the abyss of hell cautious men considered the open letter rash and intemperate many Germans hailed it among the most heroic deeds in history the presses of Wittenberg were kept busy meeting demands for new printings of the open letter Germany like England was ripe for an appeal to nationalism there was as yet no Germany on the map but there were Germans newly conscious of themselves as a people as who said stressed his bohemian patriotism as Henry the eighth's would reject not Catholic doctrine the papal power over England so Luther now planted his standard of revolt not in theological deserts but in the rich soil of the German national spirit wherever Protestantism won nationalism carried the flag despite Luther's uncompromising defiance a papal agent sought him out and persuaded him to send Leo a letter disclaiming any intent to attack him personally and presenting temperately the case for reform he expressed his respect for the Pope as an individual but condemned without compromise the corruption of the papacy in the past and of the papal Curia in the present the reputation and the fame of thy blameless life are too well-known and too high to be assailed but the icy which is called the roman curia and of which neither thou nor any man can deny that it is more corrupt than any Babylon or Sodom ever was that see I have truly despised the Roman Church has become the most licentiousness thieves the most shameless of all brothels the kingdom of sin death and hell I have always grieved most excellently o that thou has been made Pope in these times for thou wert worthy of better days do not listen therefore dearly Oh to those sirens who make the out to be no mere man but a demigod thou art a servant of servants they who exalt the above the church universal they err who ascribed to the the right of interpreting scripture for under cover of thy name they seek to set up their own wickedness in the church the lasts through them Satan has already made much headway under thy predecessors in short believe none who exalt thee believe those who humble thee meanwhile papal agents were spreading Leo's bull of excommunication throughout Germany in some cities they arranged public burnings of Luther's books retaliating Luther led some of Wittenberg University's pupils in burning a copy of the bowl along with canonical decree tolls and volumes of Catholic theology the students joyfully collected additional volumes and with them kept the fires burning till late afternoon on December 11th Luther proclaimed that no one could be saved unless he renounced rule by the papacy the monk had excommunicated the Pope the diet of forms 1521 Leo now sought secular help for the challenged Church by asking Charles the fifth who at 19 had become head of the Holy Roman Empire in 1519 to summon a diet of German princes and prelate stew examine Luther's conduct and publications as a threat not only to the Catholic Church but also to the basic social order of European civilization the situation that now confronted the Pope the German princes and the young Emperor involved some of the basic problems of government and history how far does a government depend upon psychological factors for the maintenance of its rule and how far to psychological factors depend upon economic conditions and political power were the authority and efficacy of a ruler and upon the aid of religion and maintaining social order public obedience and governmental prestige and could a government acquire or preserve power by securing control of religious institutions and revenues those German princes who protected Luther against the Catholic Church gambled on their ability to organize and use the religious beliefs of their people independently of the Roman papacy and Leo gambled on the unlikeliness that German rulers would use this opportunity to free themselves from papal power over the German church and its growing revenues of course it was a life-and-death gamble for Luther he had challenged the most powerful institution in Europe a church weak in physical weapons but strong in representing the religious foundations of West European civilization he had attacked almost every aspect of the Catholic Church and had nothing to protect him but a few German princes uncertain of their power and support only the generality of the people supported him and with an intoxicating ardor a papal Leggett reported all Germany is up in arms against Rome all the world is clamoring for a council that shall meet on German soil papal bulls of excommunication are laughed at numbers of people have ceased to receive the sacraments of penance Martin is pictured with a halo above his head the people kiss these pictures such a quantity has been sold that I am unable to obtain one I cannot go out in the streets but the Germans put their hands to their swords and gnash their teeth at me I hope the Pope will give me a plenary indulgence and look after my brothers and sisters if anything happens to me the diet of warms assembled on January 27th 1521 the leading nobles and clergy of Germany the representatives of the Free Cities and agents of the Emperor and the Pope Charles sent Luther an invitation to come and testify concerning the charges made against him and offered him a safe conduct from Vidhan burg to forms and return adding you need fear no violence or molestation Luther's friends advised him not to go reminding him of whose fate at Constance Luther went saying though there are as many Devils in forms as there are tiles on the roofs I will go the street savour filled to see the famous heretic 2,000 people gathered around his carriage even the Emperor was cast into the shade on April 17th in monastic garb Luther appeared before the diet and its presiding emperor he was confronted by a collection of his works and was asked would he reject all heresies contained therein for a while his courage failed he asked for time to consider Charles granted him a day on April 18th he faced the court again and agreed to recant any passage in his books that could be proved contrary to Scripture Johann Eck representing the Archbishop of Trier challenged him in Latin Martin your plea to be heard from Scripture is the one always made by heretics you do nothing but renew the errors of Wickliffe and whose how can you assume that you are the only one to understand the sense of Scripture would you put your judgment above that of so many famous men and claim that you know more than all of them you have no right to call into question the most holy orthodox faith instituted by Christ the perfect lawgiver proclaimed throughout the world by the Apostles sealed by the red blood of martyrs confirmed by the sacred councils and defined by the church and which we are forbidden by the Pope and the Emperor to discuss lest there be no end to debate I ask you Martin and Sir candidly and without distinction do you or do you not repudiate your books in the errors which they contain Luther made his historic reply in German since your majesty and your Lordships desire a simple reply I will answer without distinctions unless I am convicted by the testimony of Sacred Scripture or by evident reason I do not accept the authority of popes and counsels for they have contradicted each other my conscience is captive to the Word of God I cannot and I will not recant anything for to go against my conscience is neither right nor safe God helped me amen we cannot fully authenticate the famous words engraved on the majestic denkmal memorial at forms stea kann nicht Anders here I stand I can do no other the words do not occur in the transcript of Luther's reply as given in the records of the diet they make their first appearance in the earliest printed version of his speech I countered that no error could be proved in the doctrinal decrees of the council's Luther answered that he was prepared to prove such errors but the Emperor intervened peremptorily it is enough since he has denied councils we wish to hear no more Luther returned to his launching on April 19th having waited two days for Luther to repent Charles called the leading Prince's to his chamber and read to them a declaration of intent a single friar who goes counter to all the Christianity of a thousand years must be wrong I will have no more to do with Luther he may return under his safe conduct but without preaching or making any tumult I will proceed against him as a notorious heretic and trust you to declare yourselves as you promised me for electors agreed Frederick of Saxony and Ludwig of the palate Annette abstained on April 26th Luther began his return to Vinton Berg Leo the tenth sent orders that the safeguard should be respected nevertheless elector Frederick fearing that the Imperial police might arrest Luther after the expiration of his safe conduct on May 6th arranged with Luther's consent to have him live for a while in quiet seclusion and rural disguise in the remote castle of art pork on a mountaintop a mile from Eisenach Charles made no effort to arrest him and on February 19 15 22 Luther returned to Wittenberg University where he proceeded to expound a theology which is still in essentials the faith of Lutheran churches everywhere meanwhile he found himself faced with a different but related revolution as basic as his own the social revolt fifteen 22 to 36 the peasants wore the apparent success of Luther's rebellion against the Roman Church encouraged uprisings of monks and priests against celibacy poverty and submission to an alien and authoritarian power the hardships that had already spurred a dozen rural outbreaks still agitated the peasant mind and with new intensity now that Luther had defied the church berated the princes broken the dams of discipline and all made every man a priest and proclaimed the freedom of the Christian man the increasing circulation of the New Testament was a blow to political as well as religious authority it exposed the worldliness of the clergy the communism of the Apostles the sympathy of Christ for the poor and oppressed in these respects it was for the radicals of this age a veritable Communist Manifesto in 1521 a pamphlet by johanna say berlin demanded universal male suffrage the subordination of every ruler and official to popularly elected councils the abolition of all capitalistic organizations a return to medieval price-fixing for bread and wine and the education of all children in latin greek hebrew astronomy and medicine in 1522 a pamphlet entitled the needs of the German nation called for the removal of all tolls duties passports and fines the limitation of business organizations to a capital of 10,000 cooled in' the exclusion of the clergy from civil government the confiscation of monastic wealth and the distribution of the proceeds among the poor preachers mingled Protestant evangelism with utopian aspirations 1 revealed that heaven was open to peasants but closed to nobles and clergymen another counseled the peasants to give no more money to priests or monks mincer Karl stopped and Huub Meyer advised their hearers that farmers miners and corn threshers understand the gospel better and can teach it better than a whole village of Abbot's and priests or doctors of divinity Karl shot added and better than Luther Thomas moon says career caught all the excitement of the time he invited the princes to lead the people in a communistic revolt against clergy and capitalists when the princes did not rise to the opportunity he called upon the people to overthrow them - and to establish a refined society such as was contemplated by Plato all things are in common he wrote and should be distributed as occasion requires according to the several necessities of all any Prince count or Baron who after being earnestly reminded of this truth shall be unwilling to accept it is to be beheaded or Muenster organized workers and peasants into an army and had heavy artillery cast for it in a monastery forward was his call forward while the fire is hot let your swords be ever warm with blood on August 24th 1520 for hunts Mueller acting on a suggestion from mincer gathered about him some stooling in peasants and found them into an evangelical Brotherhood pledged to emancipate farmers throughout Germany by the end of 1524 there were some 30,000 peasants in arms in southern Germany refusing to pay taxes Church tithes or feudal dues and sworn to emancipation or death at mening in their delegates March 1525 drew up 12 articles that set half of Germany on fire to the Christian reader peace and the grace of God through Christ it has been the custom hitherto for men to hold us as their property and this is pitiable seeing that Christ has redeemed and bought us all with the precious shedding of his blood to our chosen and appointed rulers appointed for us by God we are willingly obedient in all proper and Christian matters and have no doubt that as true and real Christians they will gladly release us from serfdom or show us in the gospel that we are serfs we have a heavy grievance because of the services which are increased from day to day we are aggrieved because some have appropriated to themselves Meadows out of the common fields which once belonged to the community if one or more of the Articles here set forth can be shown by the Word of God to be improper we will receive from it if this is explained to us with arguments from Scripture the peasant leaders encouraged by Luther's semi revolutionary pronouncements sent him a copy of the articles and asked for his support he replied with a pamphlet printed in April 1525 hermano zum Frieden admonition to peace he applauded the peasants offered to submit to correction by scripture he noted the charges already current that his speeches and writings had stirred revolt he denied his responsibility and referred to his inculcation of civil obedience but did not withdraw his criticism of the Masterclass we have no one on earth to thank for this mischievous rebellion except you princes and Lords and especially you blind bishops and mad priests and monks whose hearts are hardened against the holy gospel though you know that it is true in your temporal government you do nothing but Flay your subjects in order that you may lead a life of splendor and pride and the poor common people can bear it no longer since you are the cause of this wrath of God it will undoubtedly come upon you if you do not mend your ways in time the peasants are mustering and this must result in the ruined destruction and desolation of Germany by cruel murder and bloodshed unless God be moved by our repentance to prevent it he advised the princes and Lords to recognize the justice of many of the articles and urged a policy of kindly consideration to the peasants he addressed a frank admission of the wrongs done to them but pleaded with them to refrain from violence and revenge to resort to violence he predicted would leave them worse off than before he foresaw that a violent revolt would bring discredit upon the movement for religious reform and that he would be blamed for everything he advised the peasants to obey the authorities and in a reckless moment ask them to interpret the freedom of the Christian man as a spiritual Liberty consistent with serfdom even with slavery did not Abraham and other patriarchs and prophets use slaves read what st. Paul teaches about servants who at that time were all slaves therefore your third article is dead against the gospel this article would make all men equal and that is impossible for a worldly Kingdom cannot stand unless there is in it an inequality of persons so that some are free some imprisoned some lords some subjects the peasant leaders mourned Luther as a traitor and advanced their revolt some of them took literally the dream of equality the nobles were to dismantle their castles and live like peasants or burgers they were no longer to ride on horseback for that raised them above their fellow men pastors were to be servants not masters of their congregations and were to be expelled if they did not adhere strictly and only to the scriptures town workers denounced the monopoly of offices by the rich the embezzlement of public funds by corrupt officials the repeated rise in prices while wages lagged behind some leaders of the revolt proposed that all church property should be confiscated to secular needs that all transport tolls and tariffs should be removed and that there should be throughout the Empire one coinage and one system of weights and measures in the spring of 1525 the revolt flared up in a dozen scattered localities at isle bran rothenburg and verts burg a commune of labor representatives captured the municipal administration at Frankfurt AM mine the victorious commune announced that it would thereafter be counseled burgomaster Pope and Emperor all in one but rothenburg the priests were driven from the cathedral religious images were demolished a chapel was destroyed and clerical wine cellars were emptied with triumphant gaiety nearly the whole Duchy of Franconia joined the uprising many lords and bishops unprepared to resist swore to accept the reforms demanded of them several at once freed their serfs many of the lower clergy hostile to the hierarchy supported the revolt at light time on the Danube some 3,000 peasants led by a priest captured the town drank all discoverable wine pillaged the church smashed the organ made themselves leggings from Sasser total vestments and paid mock homage to one of their number robed as a priest and seated on the altar an army of mercenaries hired by the Swabian League and led by general Georg von Trucks s laid siege to the town and frightened the undisciplined rebels into surrender five leaders were beheaded the rest were spared but the league's troops burned many peasant cottages on Good Friday April 15 s 1525 three rebel contingents under Metzler Guyer and Dror bach laid siege to vines berg near heil braun we're ruling count Ludwig von helfen Stein was especially hated for his severity 'he's a delegation of peasants approached the walls and asked for a parley the count and his knights made a sudden sortie and massacre the delegation on Easter Sunday the attackers broke through the walls and cut down the 40 men at arms who resisted the count his wife daughter of the late Emperor Maximilian and 16 knights were taken prisoner Rohrback ordered the 17 men to run the gauntlet between rows of peasants aren't with pikes the count offered all his fortune in ransom it was refused as a temporizing expedient the countess prostrate and delirious begged for her husband's life Rohrback bad two men hold her up so that she could witness the orgy of revenge as the count walked to his death amid a volley of daggers and pikes the peasants recalled to him his own brutalities you thrust my brother into a dungeon one cried because he did not bear his head as you passed by you harnessed us like oxen to the yoke shot at others you caused the hands of my father to be cut off because he killed a hair in his own field your horses dogs and Huntsman have trodden down my crops you have rung the last penny out of us during the next half hour the 16 Knights were similarly sent to rest the countess was allowed to retire to a convent in nearly every section of Germany peasant bands ran riot monasteries were sacked or were compelled to pay high ransoms that meit's Archbishop Albrecht fled before the storm but his deputy saved the sea by signing the 12 articles and paying a ransom of 15 thousand guilders on April 11th the townsfolk of bamberg renounced the bishops sovereignty pillaged and burned his castle and plundered the houses of the Orthodox in Alsace the revolt spread so rapidly that by April's end every Orthodox or rich landlord was in terror of his life on April 28th an army of 10,000 peasants attacked za burn seat of the Bishop of Strasbourg and to spoiled the monastery took the town forced every fourth man to join them renounced all payment of tithes and demanded that thereafter all officials accept the Emperor should be elected by popular suffrage and be subject to recall at Freiburg in Bryce gaol the peasants looted castles and monasteries and forced the city to join the Evangelical Brotherhood in that same month of May a peasant band the bishop of votes Berg out of his palace and feasted on his stores in noise stocked in the pallet Anette elector Ludvig surrounded by 8,000 and peasants invited their leaders to dinner and cheerfully complied with their demands there said the contemporary one saw villains and their Lords sit eat and drink together he had it seemed one heart to them and they to him amid this torrent of events Luthor issued from the Vidhan baird press in May 1525 the pamphlet against the robbing and murdering hordes of peasants its vehemence startled Prince and peasant prelate and humanists alike shocked by the excesses of the infuriated rebels dreading a possible overturn of old law and government in Germany and stung by charges that his own teachings had loosed the flood he now ranged himself unreservedly on the side of law and order any man against whom sedition can be proved as outside the law of God and the Empire so that the first who can slay him is doing right and well for rebellion brings with it a land full of murder and bloodshed makes widows and orphans and turns everything upside down therefore let everyone who can smite slay and stab secretly or openly remembering that nothing can be more poisonous hurtful or devilish than a rebel it is just when one must kill a Mad Dog he rejected the supposed scriptural warrant for communism the gospel does not make Goods common except in the case of those who do of their own free will what the apostles and disciples did in acts 4 they did not demand as do our insane peasants that the goods of others of a pilot or a Herod should be common but only their own Goods our peasants however would have other men's goods common and keep their own Goods for themselves fine there I think there is not a devil left in hell they have all gone into the peasants to Catholic rulers he offered his forgiveness if they smote the rebels without trial the Protestant rulers he recommended prayer contrition and negotiation but if the peasants should remain obdurate then swiftly grasped the sword for a prince or Lord must remember in this case that he is God's minister and the servant of his wrath Romans chapter 13 doom the sword is committed for use upon such fellows if he can punish and does not even though the punishment consists in the taking of life and the shedding of blood then he is guilty of all the murder and the evil which these fellows commit the rulers then should go on unconcerned and with the good conscience lay about them as long as their hearts still beat if anyone think this too hard let him remember that rebellion is intolerable and that the destruction of the world is to be expected every hour it was Luther's misfortune that this call to war reached its readers just about the time that the propertied glasses were beginning to subdue the revolt and the reformer received undue credit for the Terrorism of the suppression elector Frederick died May 5th 1525 leaving to his successor counsels of moderation but elector John felt that his brother had been unwisely lenient he joined his forces with those of duke henry of brunswick and philip the first landgrave of hesse-kassel encampment outside of munchausen the opposed armies were matched only a number each some a thousand strong but the dookle troops were mostly trained soldiers while the peasants were indifferently armed the first barrage of the princes cannon slaughtered hundreds and the terrified rebels fled into the town of Franken Heusen may 15th the victor followed them and massacred 5,300 peasants were condemned to death their women begged mercy for them it was granted on condition that they beat out the brains of two priests who had encouraged the revolt it was so done while the victorious Dukes looked on mincer was captured was tortured into confessing the error of his ways and was beheaded meanwhile Georg von Trucks s leading another princely force captured the town of boo blingin and from its walls bombarded a rebel camp outside may 11th those peasants who survived the cannonade were cut down by cavalry turning next to vines Berg drew says burned it to the ground and slowly roasted yet line Rohrbach who had directed the massacre of vines Berg trucs s proceeded to recapture votes Berg and beheaded 81 chosen rebels as warning to the rest one of the survivors was the rebel Knight goats fun burly cannon whose legend provided Goethe with the inspiration for an early play the revolt in Alsace was crushed by the slaughter of from 1,000 to 6,000 peasants in Lipstein and Zhou Bern by May 27th some 20,000 peasants had been killed in Alsace alone the air of some towns was fetid with the stench of the dead Margraff Casimir had some of his surrendering peasants beheaded some hanged in mild cases he chopped off hands or gouged out eyes saner princes intervened to reduce the ferocity of the retaliation if all the rebels are killed one noble warned where shall we get peasants to provide for us the losses of German life and property in the peasants war were to be exceeded only in the 30 Years War of peasants alone some 130,000 died in battle or an expiation Jukes s's hired executioner boasted that he had killed 1,200 condemned with his own hand the peasants had destroyed hundreds of castles and monasteries hundreds of villages and towns had been depopulated a ruined or impoverished by huge indemnities over 50,000 homeless peasants roamed the highways or hid in the woods widows and orphans were legion but charity was heartless or penniless concessions were made to peasants in Austria Baden and Hess elsewhere serfdom was strengthened and would continue east of the elbe till 1800 intellectual developments were aborted censorship of publications increased under Catholic and Protestant authorities alike humanism wilted in the fire the renaissance joy and life literature and art gave way to theology Pietism and meditations on death the peasants never forgave Luther they felt that the new religion had sanctified their cause it aroused them to hope and action and had deserted them in the hour of decision some of them in angry despair became cynical atheists many of them or their children returned to the Catholic fold some of them followed the radicals whom Luther had denounced and heard in the new testament to summons to communism Anabaptist communism the most radical of the new sects took the name of anabaptists me turtle fur again Baptizer from their insistence that baptism if received an infancy should be repeated in maturity or still better that it should be deferred as by John the Baptist till the recipient could knowingly and voluntarily make his profession of the Christian faith they condemned all use of force especially by governments they rejected military service on the ground that it is always sinful to take human life they refused to swear oaths not accepting oaths of allegiance to Prince or Emperor their usual salutation was the peace of the Lord be with you an echo of the Jewish and Muslim greeting and the forerunner of the Quaker mode while Lutheran's Bingley Calvin and Knox agreed with the Pope's on the necessity of religious uniformity the Anabaptists practiced religious toleration and one of them Baltazar Huebner wrote the first clear defense of it known to us 15:24 they shunned public office and all resort to litigation they were Tolstoy and anarchists three centuries before Tolstoy some of them proclaimed a community of goods some if we make credit possibly hostile chroniclers proposed a community of wives in general however the sect rejected any compulsory sharing of goods and comforted themselves with the hope that in the coming kingdom of heaven communism would be automatic and universal they lived in the confident expectation of the second coming of Christ who would establish the kingdom of heaven on earth in which the elect would live in a terrestrial paradise without laws or marriage and the bounding in all good things for all the Anabaptists appeared first in Switzerland about fifteen twenty one but swingley who had become dominant in Zurich made life so uncomfortable for them that they migrated to Germany where Luther seemed to have prepared for them by breaking the dams of custom and discipline making every man a priest and proclaiming the freedom of the Christian man in Augsburg they made rapid headway among the textile workers in tirol many miners contrasting their poverty with the wealth of the fogers and Hawkes debtors who owned the mines took up Anabaptism when the peasants revolt collapsed in Strasbourg the sect grew unhindered for a while because pugnacity was absorbed in the conflict between Protestants and Catholics but a pamphlet of 1528 warned the authorities that he who teaches that all things ought to be in common has naught else in mind than to excite the poor against the rich the subjects against the rulers ordained by God in that year Charles v issued a mandate making rebaptised mat capital crime the diverse pyre 15:29 ratified the Emperor's edict and ordered that Anabaptists everywhere were to be killed like wild beasts as soon as taken without judge or trial by 1530 said the contemporary Sebastian Frank 2000 Anabaptists had been put to death despite these killings the sect increased and moved from place to place in Germany in Prussia and vordenberg some Nobles welcomed them as peaceful and industrious farmers in Saxony says an early Lutheran historian the valley of the river Vera was filled with them and an air fort they claimed to have sent 300 missionaries to convert the dying world in Austerlitz Han suit and his followers established a communistic Center and maintained it for almost a century the nobles who owned the land protected them as enriching the estate by their conscientious toil farming was communal materials for agriculture or handicrafts were bought in the lauded by communal officers part of the proceeds was paid to the landlord his rent the rest distributed according to need the social unit was not the family but a house Harbor or household containing 400 to 2,000 people with a common kitchen the common laundry a school a hospital and a brewery children after weaning were brought up in common but monogamy remained in the 30 Years War by an imperial edict of 1622 this communistic society was suppressed its members accepted Catholicism or were banished in the Netherlands Melchior Hofmann a Swabian Tanner preached the Anabaptist gospel with some success at Leyden his pupil Yann Matisse concluded that the advent of the New Jerusalem could no longer be patiently awaited but must be achieved at once and if Ness Cerie by force he sent out through Holland twelve apostles to announce the glad tidings the ablest of them was a young tailor Yan buco zone known to history as John of Leiden and in my ABARES opera as la prophet without formal education he had a keen mind a vivid imagination a handsome presence a'ready tongue and a resolute will in 1533 at 24 he accepted an invitation to come to the aid of the Anabaptists who had risen to control in Muenster the rich and populous capital of Westphalia arriving there On January 13 1534 he found the city besieged by a Catholic force under bishop france font valdek he joined in the resolute resistance and soon rose to almost absolute leadership of the Executive Committee of Public Safety April 5th 15:34 new elections were held the anabaptists won control of the committee and established communism as a war economy inspired by religious faith and John's eloquence the citizens accepted a socialist theocracy in the hope that they were realizing the New Jerusalem envisioned by the apocalypse John and his aides perhaps to give some helpful authority to their precarious rule clothed themselves in the splendid garments left behind by wealthy exiles according to a hostile witness they decreed that all possessions must be in common but apparently few obeyed three deacons were appointed to supply the necessities of the poor and to supply these charities the remaining well-to-do were persuaded or compelled to yield up their superfluity land available for cultivation within the city was assigned to each household according to its size one edict confirmed the traditional Dominion of the husband over the wife public morals were regulated by strict laws dances games and religious plays were encouraged under supervision but drunkenness and gambling were severely punished prostitution was banned fornication and adultery were made capital crimes an excess of women caused by the flight of many men moved the leaders to decree on the basis of biblical precedence that unattached women should become companions of wives in effect concubines John himself took several though many anabaptists in Germany and Holland repudiated the resort of their Minster brethren to force many more applauded the revolution cologne Trier Amsterdam and Leiden murmured with Anabaptist prayers for its success on March 28 echoing the Muenster uprising an Anabaptist band captured and fortified a monastery in West Freedland confronted with this spreading revolt the conservative forces of the Empire Protestant as well as Catholic mobilized to suppress anabaptism everywhere Luther who in 1528 had recommended lenience with the new heretics advised in 1530 the use of the sword against them as blasphemers and revolutionists City after City sent money or men to Bishop on valdek and his troops and a diet of forms April 4th 1535 ordered attacks on old Germany to finance the attack on Minster the Bishop was now able to encircle the city in shut off all its supplies facing famine and deteriorating or out King John announced that all who wished might leave the city many women and children and some men seized the opportunity the men were imprisoned or killed by the bishops soldiers the women were spared for divers services one of the Emma grace saved his life by agreeing to show the besiegers an undefended part of the town walls under his guidance a force of lance connects scaled them and opened a gate June 24th soon several troops poured into the city starvation had so far done its work that only 800 of the besieged could still bear arms they barricaded themselves in the marketplace then they surrendered on a promise of safe conduct to leave Muenster when they yielded up their arms they were massacred on mass houses researched and 400 hidden survivors were slain John of Leiden and two of his aides were bound to stakes every part of their bodies was clawed with redhot pincers until nearly all who were standing in the marketplace were sickened by the stench at last daggers were driven into their hearts the Bishop regained his authority and augmented his former power here after all actions of the civil authorities were to be subject to Episcopal veto Catholicism was trying definitely restored throughout the empire the anabaptists fearing for their lives repudiated every member guilty of using force nevertheless many pacifist heretics were executed Lutheran melanchthon advised Philip of Hesse to put to death all adherents of the sects the Anabaptists accepted the lesson postponed communism to the Millenium and resigned themselves to sober a pious peaceful living tolerable by the state Meno Zeman's a Catholic priest converted to Anabaptism gave to his Dutch and German followers such skillful guidance that the Mennonites survived all tribulations and formed successful agricultural communities in Holland Russia and America there is no clear affiliation between the Continental Anabaptists and the English Quakers or the American Baptists but the Quaker rejection of war and oaths and the Baptist insistence on adult baptism probably stemmed from the same traditions of creed and conduct that in Switzerland Germany and Holland took Anabaptist forms one branch of the Anabaptists migrated in 1719 from germany to pennsylvania and settled in or near germantown in eastern Pennsylvania the Amish Mennonites named from a 17th century leader Jakob Ammann still officially reject Razors buttons railroads automobiles motion pictures newspapers and tractors but their farms are among the tiniest and most prosperous in America the theology that supported the Anabaptists through hardship poverty and martyrdom hardly accords with our transient philosophies but they too in their sincerity devotion and friendliness enriched our heritage and redeemed our tarnished humanity the Reformation triumphant 1525 255 if the Reformation succeeded in Germany it was probably because Emperor Charles v and Pope's Leo the 10th Adrian the 6th and Clement the 7th were absorbed in a competition for supremacy in Christendom and the German princes thought that the revenues of German piety could be put to better uses by them than by Rome while Italy and France were busy with war the Germans slept off the costly demands of the church and one by one the electors consented to sovereignty erasmus looked on in astonishment and grief while europe tore itself apart with theology and war he had supported the earlier phases of Luther's rebellion but stood aloof when it threatened the breakdown of the Catholic Church as a pillar of social order in Europe he acknowledged his share in opening a path for Luther his praise of folly was at that moment circulating by the thousands throughout Europe making fun of monks and theologians and giving points to Luther's blunt fulmination z' when the Catholics charged him with laying the egg that Luther was hatching he admitted yes but the egg that I laid was a hen whereas Luther has hatched a Gamecock he feared that the division of Christianity into hostile camps would put Europe back a century as it would do to Germany in the following century when Luther appealed to him for his continued friendship March 18 1519 he replied by cautioning Luther not to let loose the dogs of war meanwhile he wrote to elector Frederick asking him to protect the rebel and like any poor scholar he remembered his papal pensions and English sign liquors and held his peace in any case their withdrawal of German principalities from the Roman communion proceeded at a rising pace in 1546 Luther died at the age of 63 after many ailments and much suffering his gospel was carried on quietly by Melanson and protected by electors whose power increased as that of the Catholic Emperor was yearly reduced by expensive Wars rising cares and the diseases of senility in 1555 at the diet of Augsburg Charles v he yielded to most of the demands of the German electors who were left free to choose their own religion and to make an obligatory among their subjects there was no pretense of religious toleration the right of private judgement which the Reformation had upheld in the ecstasy of revolt was now abandoned if only because it had led to such a diversity of warring creeds has threatened the mind of Europe however the discontented rebel was free to migrate to a principality whose official cult best fitted his own or such a citizen might break all national barriers and seek in Switzerland his choice of reformed faiths between Zwingli and Zurich and Calvin and Geneva or he might cross the sea to worship with Scottish Calvinism under John Knox or with Anglican Catholicism under Henry the eighth only in the secret heresies of a few humanists in Germany or in the quiet scepticism of a few Italians and Englishmen at mental freedom survived amid the absolute isms of dogma the Catholic Reformation 1517 to 63 Catholic reformers many Italians mourned the deterioration of the church in moral leadership and doctrinal reform in Venice the hub of Italy's trade with non-christian States skepticism flourished and criticism of the clergy was popular Cardinal carafa reported to Pope Clement the 7th 15:32 that very few Venetian males ever went to confession and Clement himself described the Lutheran heresy as widely spread among both clergy and laity in Italy Rene daughter of Louis the 12th and wife of air-cool a taste a ruler of Ferrara was a confirmed Protestant and received Calvin there in Modena Lucca and Rome the learn at academies included many heretics some of them far more skeptical than Luther but of course it was impossible for Italy to go Protestant the common people there though anti-clerical were religious even when they did not go to church they loved the time hallowed ceremonies the helping or consoling saints the seldom questioned creed that lifted their lives from the poverty of their homes to the sublimity of the greatest drama ever conceived the redemption of fallen man by the death of his God the wealth of the papacy was an Italian heirloom and vested interest any Italian who proposed to end that tribute receiving organization seemed to most Italians to be verging on lunacy the upper classes quarreled with the papacy as a political power over central Italy but they cherished Catholicism as a vital aid to social order and peaceful government they realized that the glory of Italian art had been bound up with the church through the inspiration of her legends and the support of her gold Catholicism itself had become an art its sensuous elements it submerge the ascetic and the theological stained-glass incense music architecture sculpture painting even drama these were all in the church and of her and in their marvelous ensemble they seemed inseparable from her the artists and the scholars of Italy did not have to be converted from Catholicism for they had converted Catholicism to scholarship and art hundreds thousands of scholars and artists were supported by bishops Cardinals and the Pope's many humanists some polite skeptics had risen to high positions in the church Italy loved attainable beauty too much to despoil itself over unattainable truths and had those fanatical Teutons or that sour Pope let in Geneva or that ruthless ruler on the throne of England found the truth what depressing nonsense those reformers were shouting just when the intellectual classes in Italy had quite forgotten hell and damnation consequently the Italian argument was all for reform within the church and indeed loyal churchmen had for centuries admitted proclaimed the need for ecclesiastical reform the outbreak and progress of the Reformation gave new urgency to the need and the demand a vast torrent of abuse in hundreds and thousands of pamphlets and caricatures poured down upon the clergy the sack of Rome touched the conscience and income of terrified Cardinals and populace a hundred priests pronounced the calamity a warning from God bishops staff elio preaching in 1528 before the rota a judiciary branch of the Curia explained almost in Protestant terms why God had struck the capital of Christendom because all flesh has become corrupt we are citizens not of the holy city of Rome but of Babylon the city of corruption as Luther had said early in the pontificate of Paul the third the renowned jurist Giovanni Battista cotta presented to him a treatise on the Reformation of the church I see said the preamble that our Holy Mother Church has been so changed that she seems to have no tokens of her evangelical character and no trace can be found in her of humility temperance countenance and apostolic strength Paul showed his own mood by accepting the dedication of this work on November 20th 15 34 he appointed Cardinal Piccolomini Sanseverino and chazy to draw up a program of moral renovation for the church and on January 15 1535 he ordered strict enforcement of Leo the tents reform bowls of 1513 enmeshed in papal and imperial politics endangered by the advance of the Turks and unwilling in these crises to disturb the structures or functioning of the Curia by radical changes Paul deferred active reform but the men whom he raised to the Cardinal it were almost all known for integrity and devotion the movement for internal reform triumphed when its leader Karratha became Paul the fourth 1555 monks absent from their monasteries without official sanction and clear necessity were commanded to return at once on the night of August 22nd 1558 the Pope ordered all the gates of Rome closed and all vagrant monks arrested similar procedures were followed throughout the papal States and some offenders were sent to the galleys monasteries were no longer to be assigned to support absentee officials with their revenue bishops and Abbot's not actually serving the Curia in a fixed office were required to return to their posts or forfeit their income the holding of plural benefices was prohibited all departments of the Curia were bidden to eliminate any suspicion of simony in appointments to clerical positions Rome now assumed an uncongenial air of external piety and morality in Italy less vividly beyond it the church had reformed her clergy and her morals while leaving her doctrines deliberately intact st. Teresa unique among the monastic reformers was Teresa of ávila in Spain her father was a Castilian Knight to Bob Vila proud of his moral rectitude and his loyalty to the church each night he read to his family from the lives of the saints her mother was an invalid who eased her pain with chivalric romances Theresa's childhood imagination vacillated between romantic love and saintly martyrdom admirers came when her beauty bloomed she fell in love with one of them her father sent her to a nunnery there she developed a form of epilepsy whose repeated attacks left her physically exhausted her father removed her from the convent and sent her to live with her half-sister in the country on the way an uncle gave her a volume of Saint Jerome it's vivid letters described the terrors of Hell and represented the flirtations of the sexes as a parade to eternal damnation Theresa read anxiously in 1534 she returned to Avila and there entered the Carmelite convent of the Incarnation for a time she was happy in the soothing routine of repeated masses collective prayers and cleansing confessions her romantic imaginings were transformed into religious ecstasy's when she took the sacrament she felt the consecrated wafer as veritably Christ on her tongue and then in her blood in the growing intensity of her religious feelings she was more and more disturbed by the lacks discipline of the convent the nuns lived not in cells but in comfortable rooms they ate well despite weekly fasts they adorned their persons with necklaces bracelets and rings they received visitors in the parlor and enjoyed extended vacations outside the convent walls Theresa's seizures continued and worsened into brief but painful paralysis and at last confined her to her bed she resolved to refuse all medical treatment and to rely entirely upon prayer for three years she suffered and prayed then one morning in 1540 she woke to find herself no longer paralysed she rose and walked and daily joined more actively in the conventional regimen her recovery was acclaimed as a miracle and she believed it so her visions continued but now tuck the form of religious ecstasy 'he's in one had seemed to her that an exceedingly beautiful angel thrust a law dart of gold dipped with fire through my heart several times so that it reached my very entrails so real was the pain that I was forced to moan aloud yet it was so surpassingly sweet that I would not wish to be delivered from it no delight of life can give more content as the angel withdrew the dart he left me all burning with a great love of God this and other passages in st. Teresa's writings lend themselves to psychoanalytic interpretations but no one can doubt the high sincerity of the saint she was convinced that she saw God and that the most recondite problems were made clear to her in these visions fortified by them Teresa in her 58th year decided to reform the order of the Carmelite nuns she organized a new convent to which she removed such nuns and novices as would accept a regimen of absolute poverty the original Carmelites had worn coarse sack cloth had gone always barefoot that eaten frugally and fasted frequently teresa required of her Discalced shoeless Carmelites approximately the same rule not as an end in itself but as a symbol of humility and rejection of this tempting world a thousand obstacles were raised the townsmen of Avila denounced the plan as threatening to end all communication between the nuns and their relatives the provincial of the order refused permission for the experiment Teresa appealed to pope pius v and won his consent she found four nuns to join her and the new convent of st. joseph was consecrated in 1562 on a narrow street in Avila the sisters wore sandals of rope slept on straw ate no meat and remained strictly within their house Teresa's rule was loving cheerful and firm the convent was closed to the lay world the windows were covered with cloth the tiled floor served as beds tables and chairs a revolving disc was built in the wall whatever food was placed in it by the unseen people was gratefully accepted but the nuns were not allowed to beg they eked out their sustenance by spinning and needlework the products were placed outside the convent gate any buyer might take what he liked and leave whatever he wished in return despite these austerities new members came and one of them was the most beautiful and courted woman in ávila the general of the Carmelites was so impressed that he asked to racer to establish similar houses elsewhere in Spain in 1567 taking a few nuns with her she travelled in a rude cart over seventy miles of rough roads to establish a discount Carmelite nun are--at Medina del Campo the only house available to her was an abandoned and dilapidated building with crumbling walls and leaking roof but when the townspeople saw the nuns trying to live in it carpenters and roofers came unasked and unpaid to make repairs and simple furniture amid her travels and tribulations Teresa wrote famous manuals of mystical devotion in one of them she revealed the return of her physical ailments it seems as though many swollen rivers were rushing within my brain over a precipice and then again hardly drowned by the noise of the water our voices of birds singing and whistling I weary my brain and worsened my headaches her attacks returned and her stomach found it hard to retain food even so she passed painfully from one to another of the nunneries she had founded examining improving inspiring at Malaga she was seized with a paralytic fit she recovered went to Toledo and had another seizure again recovered she went on to Segovia via the lead and Burgos to albert attornies there a hemorrhage of the lungs forced her to stop she accepted death cheerfully confident that she was leaving a world of pain and evil for the everlasting friendship of Christ meanwhile a more famous sinked had come out of Spain to reform the church and move the world Ignatius Loyola he was born in the castle of Loyola in the vast province of guipúzcoa in 1491 he was brought up to be a soldier and showed no interest in religion his reading was almost confined to romances of chivalry he fell in love with the new queen of Spain German de Foix he chose her as his Queen of Hearts and dreamed of winning a lace handkerchief from her hand for victory in a tournament in his autobiography he confessed that he had engaged in less lofty amours as the usual consolation of a soldier's life when the French attacked Pamplona he fought eagerly in its defence he suffered severe injury to his right leg and incompetent surgery left it permanently shorter than its mate during a long convalescence in the family castle he asked for books the only ones available were a life of Christ and flow sanctorum recalling and adorning the sufferings of the saints he resolved to equal them in bravery as soon as his leg healed he would lead a Christian army against Islam in him as in st. Dominic the intensity of Spanish faith made religion no quiet devotion but total dedication in the holy war he had read that the Holy Grail had once been hidden in a castle of Montserrat in the province of Barcelona there said the most famous of all romances comedies had kept a full night's vigil before an image of the Virgin to prepare himself for knighthood as soon as Ignatius could travel he mounted a mule and sent out for the distant shrine arrived in Montserrat he cleansed his soul with three days of confession and penance gave his costly raiment to a beggar and donned the pilgrims robe of coarse cloth he spent the night of March 24th to twenty-fifth 1522 alone we are told in the Chapel of a Benedictine monastery kneeling or standing before the altar of the mother of God he pledged himself to Perpetual chastity and poverty the next morning he received the Eucharist gave his mule to the monks and set out on limping foot for Jerusalem he sailed from Barcelona in February 15 23 he stayed two weeks in Rome escaping before its pagan spirit could bend him from sanctity on July 14th he took a ship from Venice to Jaffa he suffered a host of calamities before reaching Palestine but his visions sustained him Jerusalem itself was a tribulation the Turks who controlled it allowed Christian visitors but proselytizing and when he proposed to convert the Muslims the Franciscan provincial who had been charged by the Pope to keep the peace bad the Saint returned to Europe in March 15 24 he was back in Barcelona perhaps he felt now that though he was master of his body he was the slave of his imaginings he resolved to chasten his mind with education though now 33 he joined schoolboys in studying Latin but the itch to teach is stronger than the will to learn soon Ignatius says he was scholastically called began to preach to a circle of pious but charming women their lovers denounced him as a spoil sport and beat him brutally disappointed with Spain he set out for Paris always on foot and in pilgrim garb but now driving before him a donkey loaded with books at Paris he lived in the poorhouse and begged in the streets for his food intuition he entered the caleche de Monte gu where his sallow Haggard face starved body unkempt beard and aged clothing made him a focus of unsympathetic eyes but he pursued his purposes with such absorbed intensity that some students began to revere him as a saint under his lead they engaged in spiritual exercises of Prayer penance and contemplation in 1529 he transferred to the caleche descent barb and there too he gathered disciples his two roommates came by different routes to believe in his sanctity pierre farah peter faber had suffered severely from fears superstitious or real and under their influence he had vowed Perpetual chastity the other roommate Francis Xavier came from Pamplona where Loyola had soldiered he had a long line of distinguished ancestors he was handsome rich proud but gay blade who knew the taverns of Paris and their girls yet he was clever in his studies he already had a master's degree and was aiming at a doctorate one day he saw a man whose face was popped with syphilis it gave him pause once when Francis was expounding his ambition to shine in the world the Ignatius quoted to him the gospel what is a man profited if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul Xavier could not forget question he began to join Loyola and Faber in their spiritual exercises they scourge themselves fasted slept in thin shirts on the floor of an unheated room and stood barefoot and almost naked in the snow to harden and yet subdue their bodies Ignatius modeled these exercises on an old Benedict inform but he poured into that mold a fervor of feeling and imagination that made his little book a moving force in modern history their call to lifelong devotion found nine students at Paris ready to accept it he proposed that in due time they should go together to Palestine and live their life as nearly as possible like Christ's on August 15 1530 for Loyola Faber Xavier and seven others in a little chapel in Montmartre took the vows of chastity and poverty and pledged themselves after two years of further study to go and live in the Holy Land in the winter of 1536 237 they walked through France over the Alps and across Italy to Venice where they hope to find passage to Jaffa but Venice was at war with the Turks the trip was impossible Loyola and his disciples agreed that if after a year's wait Palestine should still be close to them they would offer themselves to the Pope for any service that he might assign to them Faber secured permission for all of them to be ordained priests in the fall of 1537 Loyola Faber and Linus set out from Venice for Rome to ask people approval of their plans they walked all the way begged their food and lived mostly on bread and water but they sang songs happily as they went along as if they knew that out of their small number would grow a powerful and brilliant organization they were well received by Pope Paul the third were dissuaded from going to Palestine and reorganized themselves into the Campania DeJesus their soldiers enlisted for life in a war against unbelief and all other forces making for the dissolution of the church as new candidates were received into the company it became desirable to define its principles and its rule the rule of was added to those of chastity and poverty the general chosen by them was to be obeyed only next to the Pope a fourth vow was taken to serve the roman pontiff as God's vicar on earth and to execute immediately without hesitation or excuse all that the reigning pontiff or his successors may enjoin upon them for the benefit of souls or for the propagation of the faith anywhere in the world in 1539 Loyola asked Cardinal Contarini to submit these articles of organization to Pope Paul the 3rd the Pope overcame all opposition and by a bull of September 27 1540 formally established what the bull called the Societas he sue on April 17 15 41 Ignatius was elected general of the new order for several days thereafter he washed dishes and discharged the humblest offices between 1547 and 1552 he drew up the Constitution's which with minor changes are the Jesuit rule today from his small bare room he guided with severe Authority and great skill the movements of his little army in every quarter of Europe and in other quarters of the globe the task of governing the expanding society and of establishing and administering to colleges and several charitable foundations proved too much for his temper as he aged and though kind to the weak he became cruelly harsh to his close subordinates he was severe astana made many a meal from a handful of nuts a piece of bread in the cup of water when he died 1556 many Romans felt that a sharp wind had ceased to blow and some of his followers mingled relief with their grief men could not realize so soon that this indomitable Spaniard was one of the most influential men in modern history by the time of his death there were a hundred Jesuit colleges through education diplomacy and devotion through fervour directed by discipline through coordination of purposes and reach through skillful variation of means the Jesuits in 1536 turned back the Protestant tide and recaptured much of Germany of Hungary and bulimia and all of Christian Poland for the church rarely has a smaller group achieved so much so rapidly year by year its prestige and influence grew until within 20 years of its formal establishment it was recognized as the most brilliant product of the Catholic Reformation when at last the church dared to summon a general council to quiet its theological strife and heal its wounds it was to a handful of jesuits to their learning loyalty discretion resourcefulness and eloquence that the Pope's entrusted the defence of their own challenged Authority and the undiminished preservation of the ancient faith the Council of Trent 15:45 263 a thousand voices long before Luther had called for a council to reform the church Luther appealed from the Pope to a free and general council charles v demanded such a council in the hope of getting the Protestant problem off his hands and perhaps of disciplining clement the seventh that harried pope could find a hundred reasons for postponing a council until he should be beyond its reach poor the third had all of Clements fears but more courage in 1536 he proclaimed a general council to meet at Mantua on May 23rd 1537 and he invited the Protestants to attend he assumed that all participants would accept the conclusions of the conference but the Protestants who would be in a minority there could hardly accept such an obligation Luther advised against attending and the Congress of Protestants at small calden returned the Pope's invitation unopened after many negotiations and delays Paul agreed to have the council meet at Trent at the foot of the Alps on November 1st 1542 Charles v hoping to persuade the Protestants to attend asked for a postponement and it was not till December 13 15 45 that the 19th acumen achill Council of the Christian Church began its active sessions for Cardinals for Archbishop's 20 bishops five generals of monastic orders some Abbot's and a few theologians made up the assembly whereas at the councils of Constance and Basel priests princes and certain laymen as well as prelate could vote here only the Cardinals bishops generals and davits could vote and the vote was by individuals hence the Italian bishops most of them indebted to the papacy dominated the assembly with their numerical majority congregations sitting in Rome under the supervision of the Pope prepared the issues which alone might be submitted for debate since the council claimed to be guided by the Holy Ghost the French delegate remarked that the third person of the Trinity regularly came to Trent in the courier's bag from Rome in May 1546 Paul sent two Jesuits Linus and Salmeron to help his legate's in matters of theology and papal defence later they were joined by Peter Canisius and Claude Lachey the unequaled airing edition of the Jesuits gave them paramount influence in the debates and their unbending orthodoxy guided the council to declare war against the ideas of the Reformation rather than seek reconciliation and unity it was apparently the judgment of the majority that no concessions to the Protestants would heal the schism that Protestants were already so numerous and diverse that no compromise could satisfy some without offending others that any substantial alteration of traditional dogmas would weaken the whole doctrinal structure and stability of Catholicism that the admission of priestly powers in the laity would undermine the moral authority of the priesthood and the church that authority was indispensable to social order and that a theology frankly founded on faith would stultify itself by submitting to the vagaries of individual reasoning consequently the fourth session of the council April 1546 reaffirmed every item of the Nicene Creed claimed equal authority for church tradition and scripture gave the church the sole right to interpret and expound the Bible and declared the Latin Vulgate of Jerome to be the definitive translation and text Thomas Aquinas was named as the authoritative exponent of Orthodox theology and his Summa Theologica was placed on an altar only below the Bible and the decree tolls Catholicism is a religion of infallible of ah tea dates in practice from the Council of Trent and took form as an uncompromising response to the challenge of Protestantism rationalism and private judgment the gentlemen's agreement of the Renaissance Church with the intellectual classes came to an end the 13th session of the council October 15 51 reaffirmed the Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation the priest in consecrating the bread and wine of the Eucharist actually changes each of them into the body and blood of Christ thereafter it seemed useless to hear the Protestants but Charles insisted on it the Duke of württemberg elector Maurice of Saxony and some southern German towns chose members for a protestant delegation and Melanchthon drew up a statement of Lutheran doctrine to be submitted to the council on January 24th 1550 to the Protestant deputies addressed the assembly they proposed that the decrees of the councils of Constance and Basel on the superior authority of the councils over the Pope's should be confirmed that the members of the present body should be released from their vows of fealty to the Pope who was now julius the 3rd that all decisions hitherto reached by the council should be annulled and that fresh discussion of the issue should be held by an enlarged synod in which the protestants would be adequately represented julius the 3rd for bad consideration of these proposals military developments supervened upon theology in January 1550 to the King of France signed an alliance with the German Protestants in March Maurice of Saxony led a Protestant army against Innsbruck Charles the fifth fled and no force could prevent Maurice if he wished from capturing Trent and swallowing the council the bishops one by one disappeared and on April 28th the Council of Trent was formally suspended by the Treaty of Passau August 2nd king ferdinand of germany conceded religious freedom to the militarily victorious Protestants they took no further interest in the council after diverse delays the 17th session of the council convened On January 18th 1560 to at Ferdinand's request a safe conduct was offered to any Protestant delegate who might care to attend none came in the end the papal authority was not lessened but enlarged and every bishop was required to take an oath of complete obedience to the Pope this basic matter settled the council quickly dispatched its remaining business clerical marriage was forbidden and severe penalties were decreed against priests leakin Kuban egde many minor reforms were enacted to improve the morals and discipline of the clergy the powers of the Curia were curbed rules were laid down for the reform of church music and art nude figures were to be sufficiently covered to avoid stimulating the sensual imagination purgatory indulgences and the invocation of the saints were defended and redefined the council frankly recognized the abuses that had sparked Luther's rebellion one decree read in granting indulgences the council decrees that all criminal gain therewith connected shall be entirely done away with as a source of grievous abuse among Christian people Pope and Emperor having agreed that the council had now reached an end of its duties and usefulness it was finally dissolved on December 4th 1563 amid the happy declamations of weary delegates the course of the church had been fixed for centuries the Catholic or Counter Reformation succeeded in its major purposes men continued in Catholic and Protestant countries to lie and steal seduce maidens and sell offices kill and make war but the morals of the clergy improved and the wild freedom of Renaissance Italy was stained - a decent conformity with the pretensions of mankind prostitution which had been a major industry in Renaissance Rome and Venice now hit its head chastity became fashionable the joyous character of Renaissance Italy faded Italian women lost some of the allure and exhilaration that had come from pre-reformation freedom a conscious morality produced an almost Puritan age in Italy monasticism revived the classical reforms were substantial and lasting though the papal monarchy was exalted as against the Episcopal aristocracy of the council's this was in the spirit of the times when aristocracies everywhere except in Germany were losing power to the Kings the Pope's were now morally superior to the bishops and the discipline required for ecclesiastical reform could be better affected by a centralized than by divided Authority the Pope's ended their nepotism and cured the Curia of its costly procrastinations and flagrant finality the administration of the church according to non Catholic students of the matter became a model of efficiency and integrity the dark confessional box was introduced 1547 and made obligatory 1614 the priest was no longer tempted by the occasional beauty of his penitence indulgences peddlers disappeared instead of retreating before the advance of Protestantism and free thought the Catholic Church set out to recapture the mind of youth and the allegiance of power the spirit of the Jesuits confident positive energetic and disciplined became the spirit of the militant church

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Keywords: Will Durant, Reformation

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Length: 143min 35sec (8615 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 27 2017