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THE REFORMATION

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Originally appearing in Volume V23, Page 22 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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THE See also:

REFORMATION  . The See also:Reformation, as commonly understood, means the religious and See also:political revolution of the 16th See also:century, of which the immediate result was the partial disruption of the Western See also:Catholic See also:Church and the See also:establishment of various See also:national and territorial churches . These agreed in repudiating certain of the doctrines, See also:rites and practices of the See also:medieval Church, especially the See also:sacrifice of the See also:Mass and the headship of the See also:bishop of See also:Rome, and, whatever their See also:official designations, came generally to be known as " See also:Protestant." In some cases they introduced new systems of ecclesiastical organization, and in all they sought to justify their innovations by an See also:appeal from the Church's tradition to the Scriptures . The conflicts between Catholics and Protestants speedily merged into the chronic political rivalries, domestic and See also:foreign, which distracted the See also:European states; and religious considerations played a very important See also:part in See also:diplomacy and See also:war for at least a century and a See also:half, from the, See also:diet of See also:Augsburg in 1530 to the See also:English revolution and the See also:league of Augsburg, 1688–89 . The terms " Reformation " and " Protestantism " are inherited by the See also:modern historian; they are not of his devising, and come to him laden with reminiscences of all the exalted enthusiasms and See also:bitter antipathies engendered by a See also:period of fervid religious dissension . The unmeasured invective of See also:Luther and Aleander has not ceased to re-See also:echo, and the old issues are by no means dead . The See also:heat of controversy is, however, abating, and during the past See also:thirty or See also:forty years both Catholic and Protestant investigators have been vying with one another in adding to our knowledge and in rectifying old mis- takes; while an ever-increasing number of writers pledged to neither party are aiding in developing an See also:idea of the See also:scope and nature of the Reformation which differs radically from the traditional one . We now appreciate too thoroughly the intricacy of the medieval Church; its vast range of activity, See also:secular as well as religious; the inextricable interweaving of the See also:civil and ecclesiastical govern- ments; the slow and painful See also:process of their See also:divorce as the old ideas of the proper functions of the two institutions have changed in both Protestant and Catholic lands: we perceive all too clearly the limitations of the reformers, their distrust of See also:reason and See also:criticism—in See also:short, we know too much about medieval institutions and the process of their disintegration longer to see in the Reformation an abrupt break in the See also:general See also:history of See also:Europe . No one will, of course, question the importance of the See also:schism which created the distinction between Protestants and Catholics, but it must always be remembered that the religious questions at issue comprised a relatively small part of the whole See also:compass of human aspirations and conduct, even to those to whom See also:religion was especially vital, while a large See also:majority of the leaders in literature, See also:art, See also:science and public affairs went their way seemingly almost wholly unaffected by theological problems . That the religious elements in the Reformation have been greatly overestimated from a modern point of view can hardly be questioned, and one of the most distinguished students of Church history has ventured the assertion that " The motives, both remote and proximate, which led to the Lutheran revolt were largely secular rather than spiritual." " We may," continues M'r H . C . See also:Lea, " dismiss the religious changes incident to the Reformation with the remark that they were not the See also:object sought, but the means for attaining the object .

The existing ecclesiastical See also:

system was the See also:practical See also:evolution of See also:dogma, and the overthrow of dogma was the only way to obtain permanent See also:relief from the intolerable abuses of that system (See also:Cambridge Modern History, i . 653) . It would perhaps be nearer the truth to say that the secular and spiritual interests inter-mingled and so permeated one another that it is almost impossible to distinguish them clearly even in thought, while in practice they were so bewilderingly confused that they were never separated, and were constantly mistaken for one another . The first step in clarifying the situation is to come to a full realization that the medieval Church was essentially an inter-national See also:state, and that the See also:character of the Protestant See also:secession from it was largely determined by this fact . As See also:Maitland suggests: " We could See also:frame no acceptable See also:definition of a State which would not comprehend the Church . What has it not that a State should have ? It has See also:laws, See also:law givers, law courts, lawyers . It uses See also:physical force to compel men to obey the laws . It keeps prisons . In the 13th century, though with squeamish phrases, it pronounced See also:sentence of See also:death . It is no voluntary society; if See also:people are not See also:born into it they are baptized into it when they cannot help them-selves . If they See also:attempt to leave they are guilty of crimen laesae majestatis, and are likely to be burned .

It is supported by involuntary contributions, by tithe and tax " (See also:

Canon Law in the Church of See also:England, p. See also:loo) . The Church was not only organized like a modern bureaucracy, but performed many of the functions of a modern State . It dominated the intellectual and profoundly affected the social interests of western Europe . Its economic See also:influence was multiform and incalculable, owing to its vast See also:property, its system of See also:taxation and its encouragement of See also:monasticism . When Luther made his first See also:great appeal to the See also:German people in his Address to the German See also:Nobility, he scarcely adverts to religious matters at all . He deals, on the contrary, almost exclusively with the social, See also:financial, educational, See also:industrial and general moral problems of the See also:day . If Luther, who above all others had the religious issue ever before him, attacks the Church as a source of worldly disorder, it is not surprising that his contemporary See also:Ulrich von See also:Hutten should take a purely secular view of the issues involved . Moreover, in the fascinating collection of popular satires and ephemeral See also:pamphlets made by Schade, one is constantly impressed with the See also:absence of religious fervour, and the highly secular nature of the matters discussed . The same may be said of the various Gravamina, or lists of grievances against the papacy drafted from See also:time to time by German diets . But not only is the character of the Reformation differently conceived from what it once was; our notions of the process of See also:change are being greatly altered . Formerly, Historic writers accounted for the Lutheran See also:movement by so continumagnifying the horrors of the pre-existing regime ity of the that it appeared intolerable, and its abolition See also:con- Rtieforma- sequently inevitable . Protestant writers once con-tented on. themselves with a brief See also:caricature of the Church, 23 F Between F and A A Virtual Virtual, erect, diminished Erect, same See also:size The Re-formation not exclusively a Religious Revolution .

Resemblance of the medieval Church to the State . a superficial See also:

account of the See also:traffic in indulgences, and a rough and ready See also:assumption, which even KSstlin makes, that the darkness was greatest just before the See also:dawn . Unfortunately this crude See also:solution of the problem proved too much; for conditions were no worse immediately before the revolt than they had been for centuries, and German complaints of papal tyranny go back to See also:Hildegard of See also:Bingen and See also:Walther von der Vogelweide, who antedated Luther by more than three centuries . So a new theory is logically demanded to explain why these conditions, which were chronic, failed to produce a change See also:long before it actually occurred . Singularly enough it is the modern Catholic scholars, Johannes See also:Janssen above all, who, in their efforts further to discredit the Protestant revolt by rehabilitating the institutions which the reformers attacked, have done most to explain the success of the Reformation . A humble, patient Bohemian See also:priest, Hasak, set to See also:work toward half a century ago to bring together the devotional See also:works published during the seventy years immediately succeeding the invention of See also:printing . Every one knows that one at least of these older books, The German See also:Theology, was a great favourite of Luther's; but there are many more in Hasak's collection which breathe the same spirit of piety and spiritual emulation . See also:Building upon the See also:foundations laid by Hasak and other Catholic writers who have been too much neglected by Protestant historians, Janssen produced a monumental work in See also:defence of the German Church before Luther's defection . He exhibits the great achievements of the latter part of the 15th and the See also:early portion of the 16th centuries; the art and literature, the material prosperity of the towns and the fostering of the spiritual See also:life of the people . It may well be that his picture is too See also:bright, and that in his obvious anxiety to prove the needlessness of an ecclesiastical revolution he has gone to the opposite extreme from the Protestants . Yet this rehabilitation of pre-Reformation See also:Germany cannot but make a strong appeal to the unbiased See also:historical student who looks to a conscientious study of the antecedents of the revolt as furnishing the true See also:key to the movement . Outwardly the Reformation would seem to have begun when, on the See also:roth of See also:December 1520, a See also:professor in the university Revolt of See also:Wittenberg invited all the See also:friends of evangelical of the truth among his students to assemble outside the various See also:wall at the ninth See also:hour to See also:witness a pious spectacle—See also:Bur"' the burning of the " godless See also:book of the papal govern- decrees." He committed to the flames the whole meats from the See also:body of the canon law, together with an See also:edict of papal the See also:head of the Church which had recently been See also:monarchy. issued against his teachings .

In this manner See also:

Martin Luther, with the hearty sympathy of a considerable number of his countrymen, publicly proclaimed and illustrated his repudiation of the papal See also:government under which western Europe had lived for centuries . Within a See also:generation after this event the states of See also:north Germany and Scandinavia, England, See also:Scotland, the Dutch See also:Netherlands and portions of See also:Switzerland, had each in its particular manner permanently seceded from the papal monarchy . See also:France, after a long period of uncertainty and disorder, remained faithful to the bishop of Rome . See also:Poland, after a defection of years, was ultimately recovered for the papacy by the zeal and devotion of the Jesuit missionaries . In the See also:Habsburg hereditary dominions the traditional policy and Catholic fervour of the ruling See also:house resulted, after a long struggle, in the restoration of the supremacy of Rome; while in See also:Hungary the national spirit of See also:independence kept Calvinism alive to See also:divide the religious See also:allegiance of the people . In See also:Italy and See also:Spain, on the other See also:hand, the rulers, who continued loyal to the See also:pope, found little difficulty in suppressing any tendencies of revolt on the part of the few converts to the new doctrines . Individuals, often large See also:groups, and even whole districts, had indeed earlier rejected some portions of the See also:Roman Catholic faith, or refused obedience to the ecclesiastical government; but previously to the burning of the canon law by Luther no See also:prince had openly and permanently See also:cast off his allegiance to the See also:international ecclesiastical state of which the bishop of Rome was head . Now, a prince or legislative See also:assembly that accepted the See also:doctrine of Luther, that the temporal See also:power had been " ordained by See also:God for the chastisement of the wicked and the See also:protection of the See also:good " and must be permitted to exercise its functions " unhampered throughout the whole See also:Christian body, without respect to persons, whether it strikes popes, bishops, priests, monks, nuns, or whoever else "—such a government could proceed to ratify such modifications of the Christian faith as appealed to it in a particular religious See also:confession; it could See also:order its subject to conform to the innovations, and could expel, persecute or tolerate dissenters, as seemed good to it . A " reformed " prince could seize the property of the monasteries, and appropriate such ecclesiastical foundations as he desired . He could make rules for the selection of the See also:clergy, disregarding the See also:ancient canons of the Church and the claims of the pope to the right of ratification . He could cut off entirely all forms of papal taxation and put an end to papal See also:jurisdiction . The personnel, See also:revenue, jurisdiction, See also:ritual, even the faith of the Church, were in this way placed under the See also:complete See also:control of the territorial governments .

This is the central and significant fact of the so-called Reformation . Wholly novel and distinctive it is not, for the rulers of Catholic countries, like Spain and France, and of England (before the publication of the See also:

Act of Supremacy) could and did limit the pope's claims to unlimited jurisdiction, patronage `and taxation, and they introduced the placet forbidding the publication within their realms of papal edicts, decisions and orders, without the See also:express See also:sanction of the government—in short, in many ways tended to approach the conditions in Protestant lands . The Reformation was thus essentially a See also:stage in the disengaging of the modern state from that medieval, international ecclesiastical state which had its beginning in the See also:ecclesia of the Acts of the Apostles . An appreciation of the issues of the Reformation—or Protestant revolt, as it might be more exactly called—depends therefore upon an understanding of the development of the papal monarchy, the nature of its claims, the relations it established with the civil See also:powers, the abuses which See also:developed in it and the attempts to rectify them, the 'See also:sources of See also:friction between the Church and the government, and finally the process by which certain of the European states threw off their allegiance to the Christian See also:commonwealth, of which they had so long formed a part . It is surprising to observe how early the Christian Church assumed the See also:form of a state, and how speedily upon entering into its momentous See also:alliance with the Roman imperial character government under See also:Constantine it acquired the See also:chief of the privileges and prerogatives it was so long to retain . In monarchy In the twelfth book of the Theodosian See also:Code we see and its the foundations of the medieval Church already laid; claims. for it was the 4th, not the 13th century that established the principle that defection from the Church was a See also:crime in the eyes of the State, and raised the clergy to a privileged class, exempted from the See also:ordinary taxes, permitted under restrictions to try its own members and to administer the See also:wealth which flowed into its coffers from the gifts of the faithful . The bishop of Rome, who had from the first probably enjoyed a leading position in the Church as " the successor of the two most glorious of the apostles," elaborated his claims to be the divinely appointed head of the ecclesiastical organization . See also:Siricius (384-38‘9), See also:Leo the Great (44o–461), and See also:Gelasius I . (492–496) See also:left little for their successors to add to the arguments in favour of the papal supremacy . In short, if we recall the characteristics of the Church in the See also:West from the times of Constantine to those of See also:Theodoric—its reliance upon the civil power for favours and protection, combined with its assumption of a natural superiority over the civil power and its innate tendency to monarchical unity—it becomes clear that See also:Gregory VII. in his effort in the latter half of the r1th century to establish the papacy as the great central power of western Europe was in the See also:main only reaffirming and developing old claims in a new See also:world . His brief statement of the papal powers as he conceived them is found in his Dictatus . The bishop of Rome, who enjoys a unique See also:title, that of " pope," may annul the decrees of all other powers, since he See also:judges all but is judged by none .

He may depose emperors and absolve the subjects of the unjust from their allegiance . Gregory's position was almost inexpugnable at a time when it was conceded by practically all that spiritual concerns were incalculably more momentous than secular, that the Church was rightly one and indivisible, with one divinely revealed faith and a system of sacraments absolutely essential to salvation . No one called in question the claim of the clergy to control completely all " spiritual " matters . Moreover, the mightiest secular ruler was but a poor sinner dependent for his eternal welfare on the Church and its head, the pope, who in this way necessarily exercised an indirect control over the civil government, which even the See also:

emperor See also:Henry IV. and See also:William the Conqueror would not have been disposed to deny . They would also have conceded the pope the right to See also:play the role of a secular ruler in his own lands, as did the German bishops, and to dispose of such fiefs as reverted to him . This class of prerogatives, as well as the right which the pope claimed to ratify the See also:election of the emperor, need not detain us, although they doubtless served in the long run to weaken the papal power . But the pope laid claim to a See also:direct power over the civil governments . See also:Nicholas II . (ro58-ro6r) declared that Jesus had conferred on See also:Peter the control (See also:Jura) of an earthly as well as of a heavenly See also:empire; and this phrase was embodied in the canon law . See also:Innocent III., a century and a half later, taught that See also:James the See also:brother of the See also:Lord left to Peter not only the government of the whole Church, but that of the whole world (totum seculum gubernandum) 1 So the power of the pope no longer rested upon his headship of the Church or his authority as a secular prince, but on a far more comprehensive claim to universal dominion . There was no reason why the bishop of Rome should justify such acts as Innocent himself performed in deposing See also:King See also:John of England and later in annulling Magna Carta; or Gregory IV. when he struck out fourteen articles from the Sachsenspiegel; or Nicholas V. when he invested See also:Portugal with the right to subjugate all peoples on the See also:Atlantic See also:coast; or See also:Julius II. when he threatened to See also:transfer the See also:kingdom of France to England; or the conduct of those later pontiffs who condemned the See also:treaties of See also:Westphalia, the See also:Austrian constitution of 1867 and the establishment of the kingdom of Italy . The theory and practice of papal See also:absolutism was successfully promulgated by See also:Gratian in his Decretum, completed at See also:Bologna about 1142 .

This was supplemented by later collections composed mainly of papal See also:

decretals . (See CANON LAW and DECRETALS, FALSE.) As every fully equipped university had its See also:faculty of canon law in which the Corpus See also:juris canonici was studied, Rashdall is hardly guilty of exaggeration when he says: " By means of the happy thought of the Bolognese See also:monk the popes were enabled to convert the new-born See also:universities—the offspring of that intellectual new See also:birth of Europe which might have been so formidable an enemy to the papal pretensions—into so many engines for the See also:propagation of Ultramontane ideas." See also:Thomas See also:Aquinas was the first theologian to describe the Church as a divinely organized See also:absolute monarchy, whose head concentrated in his See also:person the entire authority of the Church, and was the- source of all the ecclesiastical law (conditor juris), issuing the decrees of general See also:councils in his own name, and claiming the right to revoke or modify the decrees of former councils—indeed, to make exceptions or to set aside altogether anything which did not See also:rest upon the dictates of divine or natural law . In practice the whole of western Europe was subject to the jurisdiction of one tribunal of last resort, the Roman See also:Curia . The pope claimed the right to tax church property throughout Christendom . He was able to exact an See also:oath of fidelity from the archbishops, named many of the bishops, and asserted the right to transfer and dispose them . The See also:organs of this vast monarchy were the papal Curia, which first appears distinctly in the nth century (see CURIA See also:ROMANA), 'See further, Innocent III . and the legates, who visited the courts of Europe as haughty representatives of the central government of Christendom . It should always be remembered that the law of the Church was regarded by all lawyers in the later See also:middle ages as the law See also:common to all Europe (See also:jus See also:commune) . The laws of Relations the Carolingian empire provided that one excommunicated by the Church who did not make his See also:peace tica ecctesas- l and within a See also:year and a day should be outlawed, and this clvl/ govgeneral principle was not lost sight of . It was a See also:capital era meats offence in the eyes of the State to disagree with the teachings of the Church, and these, it must be remembered, included a recognition of the papal supremacy . The civil authorities burnt an obstinate heretic, condemned by the Church, without a thought of a new trial . The emperor See also:Frederick II.'s edicts and the so-called etablissements of St See also:Louis provide that the civil See also:officers should See also:search out suspected heretics and deliver them to the ecclesiastical judges .

The civil government recognized monastic vows by regarding a professed monk as civilly dead and by pursuing him and returning him to his monastery if he violated his pledges of obedience and ran away . The State recognized the ecclesiastical tribunals and accorded them a wide jurisdiction that we should now deem essentially secular in its nature . The State also admitted that large classes of its citizens—the clergy, students, crusaders, widows and the miserable and helpless in general—were justiceable only by Church tribunals . By the middle of the 13th century many lawyers took the degree of See also:

doctor of both laws (J.U.D.), civil and canon, and practised both . As is well known, temporal rulers constantly selected clergymen as their most trusted advisers . The existence of this theocratic international state was of course conditioned by the weakness of the civil government . So long as feudal monarchy continued, the Church supplied to some extent the deficiencies of the turbulent and ignorant princes by endeavouring to maintain order, administer See also:justice, protect the weak and encourage learning . So soon as the modern national state began to gain strength, the issue between secular rulers and the bishops of Rome took a new form . The clergy naturally stoutly defended the powers which they had long enjoyed and believed to be rightly theirs . On the other hand, the State, which could See also:count upon the support of an ever-increasing number of prosperous and loyal subjects, sought to protect its own interests and showed itself less and less inclined to tolerate the extreme claims of the pope . Moreover, owing to the spread of See also:education, the king was no longer obliged to rely mainly upon the assistance of the clergy in conducting his government . The chief sources of friction between Church and State were four in number .

First, the growth of the practice of " See also:

reservation " and " See also:provision," by which the popes assumed the right to appoint their own nominees to vacant See also:sees and other benefices, in See also:defiance of the claims of the See also:crown, the chapters and private patrons . In the See also:case of wealthy bishoprics or abbacies this involved a serious menace to the secular authority . Both pope and king were naturally anxious to See also:place their own friends and supporters in these influential positions . The pope, moreover, had come to depend to a considerable extent for his revenue upon the payments made by his nominees, which represented a corresponding drain on the resources of the secular states . Secondly, there was the great question, how far the lands and other property of the clergy should be subject to taxation . Was this vast amount of property to increase indefinitely without contribution to the See also:maintenance of the secular government ? A decretal of Innocent III. permitted the clergy to make voluntary contributions to the king when there was urgent See also:necessity, and the resources of the laity had proved inadequate . But the pope maintained that, except in the most See also:critical cases, his consent must be obtained for such grants . Thirdly, there was the inevitable See also:jealousy between the secular and ecclesiastical courts and the serious problem of the exact extent of the See also:original and appellate jurisdiction of the Roman Curia . Fourthly, and lastly, there was the most fundamental difficulty of all, the extent to which the pope, as the universally acknowledged head of the Church, was justified in interfering in the See also:internal affairs of particular states . Unfortunately, most matters could be viewed from both a secular and religious standpoint; and even in purely secular affairs the claims of the pope to at least indirect control were practically unlimited . The specific nature of the abuses which flourished in the papal monarchy, the unsuccessful attempts to remedy them, and the See also:measures taken by the chief European states to protect themselves will become apparent as we hastily See also:review the See also:principal events of the 14th and 15th centuries .

As one traces the vicissitudes of the papacy during the two centuries from See also:

Boniface VIII. to Leo X. one cannot fail to be The impressed with the almost incredible strength of the papacy in ecclesiastical state which had been organized and the 14th fortified by Gregory VII., See also:Alexander III., Innocent III. century. and Gregory IX . In spite of the perpetuation of all the old abuses and the continual See also:appearance of new devices for increasing the papal revenue; in spite of the jealousy of See also:kings and princes, the attacks of legists and the See also:preaching of the heretics; in spite of seventy years of See also:exile from the See also:holy See also:city, forty years of distracting schism and discord, and thirty years of conflict with stately See also:oecumenical councils deliberating in the name of the Holy Spirit and See also:intent upon permanently limiting the papal prerogatives; in spite of the unworthy conduct of some of those who ascended the papal See also:throne, their flagrant political ambitions, and their greed; in spite of the spread of knowledge, old and new, the development of historical criticism, and philosophical See also:speculation; in spite, in short, of every danger which could threaten the papal monarchy, it was still intact when Leo X. died in 1521 . Nevertheless, permanent if partial See also:dissolution was at hand, for no one of the perils which the popes had seemingly so successfully overcome had failed to weaken the constitution of their empire; and it is impossible to comprehend its comparatively sudden disintegration without reckoning with the varied hostile forces which were accumulating and combining strength during the 14th and 15th centuries . The first serious conflict that arose between the developing modern state and the papacy centred about the pope's claim that the property of the clergy was normally exempt from royal taxation . Boniface VIII. was forced to permit See also:Edward I. and See also:Philip the See also:Fair to continue to demand and receive subsidies granted by the clergy of their realms . Shortly after the bitter humiliation of Boniface by the See also: