Protestant+Reformation

=P rotestant Reformation =

1. The Protestant Reformation is a political, cultural, economic, social, and religious reformation in Europe beginning in 1517 with Martin Luther and ending in 1648 with the Peace of Westphalia. Before the reformation most European monarchies had ties to Catholicism and experienced very little, if any, separation of church and state. The Protestant Reformation started on October 13, 1517, Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door of a church. These were points that criticized the Pope and the practices of the Catholic Church. Among these were points of contention about the sale of indulgences, or saleable forgiveness for sins, and the existence of a Purgatory or state between Heaven and Hell. Shortly thereafter, Martin Luther was banished and the Reformation condemned by the Pope. By this time, however, Luther had gathered a large following of people, and began his own church, which will later develop into Lutheranism. Several other thinkers such as John Calvin took the ideas of Luther and added their own ideas. Some of these branches developed into what is currently known as Protestantism.

The Reformation then spread to other countries such as France, Scandinavia, and influenced the Reformation in England. The Protestant Reformation culminated in what is known as the Thirty Years War where the Catholics in mainly Spain, Italy, and monarchial Germany fought the German Princes, supported by Denmark and Sweden. However, the war came to a close when France aligned itself with the Protestants. The Peace of Westphalia, the document ending the Thirty Years War, was the end of the Protestant Reformation. It was signed in 1648. The main stipulations of the Peace of Westphalia were that each Prince could choose the denomination of his territory, and that Christians living in a non-Christian denomination state were allowed to practice their religion openly.



2. The Protestant reformation began with rising theological and philosophical ideas of moral and righteousness. These ideas gave way to the suspicion that the Catholic church placed too much importance on their religious art, and accusations of idol worshiping surfaced. Ideas such as this fueled the radical reformation process and sparked an iconoclastic revolt leading to the damaging of much religious artwork of the Catholic church. Peasants who were moving to urban areas were becoming frustrated with the high taxes that were to be paid to the Catholic church, not to mention the corruption among the religious hierarchy that was taking place in many major European cities. This frustration persuaded many peasants to support the moral reformation, quickly uniting under any of the rising revolutionist leaders. Nearly every country in Europe saw flare-ups of peasant revolts. Many European governments adopted Lutheran based teachings and disassociated themselves from the papacy. This resulted in violent uprisings among Catholic citizens and the Protestant governments, most notably in Ireland and Hungary. At first, France actually rejected the Protestant movement, executed many of its followers, but later allied itself with the Protestants in battle. A series of religious wars erupted in the late 16th and early 17th centuries between Catholic Southern European nations and Protestant Northern European nations, not to mention numerous civil wars.

3. By the end of the 16th century most of Northern Europe had adopted Lutheran or Calvinistic based teachings and had officially denounced the papacy. This was fueled mainly by an opposition to the strict and seemingly immoral standards of the Catholic church at the time, such as taxes to the Church but not to the nation. Early Puritan movements in the Church of England ultimately resulted in emigration and the laying of a foundation that was to become the United States. Although there was an official and political peace drawn between the Protestants and Catholics of Europe with the Peace of Westphalia, a large amount of tension existed between them for centuries to follow. There were migrations among many Europeans as an outcome of this.



4. The Protestant Reformation was the first move that the Western World made towards secular rule. Religiously based monarchies only survive because a large enough sector of the population believes in that particular faith. By allowing additional religions to be practiced within government structures (a tenant of the Peace of Westphalia), the government was introducing large enough groups of diverse religious groups. Eventually, these groups grew large enough that they began to lobby for a fair representation in the national government, ergo the rise of secular governmental rule. However, some states like England simply modified their preexisting governments to include Protestant ideals. For example, Henry VIII of England created the Anglican Church as a government sanctioned expression of his own religious beliefs (which included Protestantism).

The Protestant Reformation also marked the decline in Roman Catholicism, the last truly powerful remnant of the Roman Empire. At the time, the Pope and the Vatican was able to maintain control over many large powers at the time, such as Germany, England, Spain, and France. With the introduction of other religious beliefs into the area, the sway of the Vatican over outside governments rapidly decreased.

The Reformation brought about such technologies as the printing press. Martin Luther was able to use the presently novel concept of the printing press to spread his message quickly and cost effectively to the masses. Many scholars attribute the success of the Protestant Revolution to the use and application of such novel technologies.