CHURCH HISTORY

1. The Reformation (16th Century)

The Reformation, also known as Protestant Reformation, refers to
the major religious revolution that took place in many countries of
the Latin Church in the 16th Century. It started as reform movements
which sought to reform the Roman Catholic Church but soon
developed into a challenge of the Catholic Church and papal
authority, which ultimately led to the split of Christendom. The
Reformation marked the start of Protestantism and the separation of
the Protestant Churches from the Roman Catholic Church. The period
of time when these movements and revolution occurred is also
known as reformation.
The publication of the 95 Theses by Martin Luther in 1517 is usually
considered by historians as the beginning of the Reformation. But
there was no schism until 25 th May 1521, when Emperor Charles V (†
1558), at the instance of the papal legate at the diet 1, (Cardinal
Girolamo Aleandro = † 1542) issued the now famous Edict of
Worms denouncing Martin Luther and banned all citizens of the
Roman Empire from defending or propagating his ideas. Historians
are not agreed on the dating of the end of the Reformation. While
some see the end of the Reformation in the enactment of the
Confessions of faith by many Protestant groups, others date the end
of the Reformation within the Counter-Reformation or the Peace of
Westphalia (1648).2 Historians who regard the time of the
Reformation as extending into the time of the Counter-Reformation
usually see the end of the Reformation in the beginning of the
Second Vatican Council which called for an end to the Counter-
Reformation.
The most major reformers were Martin Luther, Ulrich Zwingli and
John Calvin.

1.1 The Background of the Reformation:

Several factors led to the Reformation. The most important of these
factors was the state of the Church in the 15 th century, the political
instability of this epoch and the weakened authority of the pope
occasioned by a disastrous foray of the papacy into the politics of

1
Diet – a gathering of princes and officials of the Roman Empire in the town of Worms (Germany) to deal with
the religious ideas of Martin Luther.
2
The Peace of Westphalia refers to the two peace treaties signed in 1648 in Osnabruck and Münster which ended
the Thirty Years’ War (that killed about eight million people) and allowed Catholics and Protestants to co-exist.

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the Roman empire, conciliarism and the unfortunate struggles over
the papal thrown.

1.1.1 A Weakened Papacy:

In the time leading up to the Reformation (15 th century and the first
half of the 16th century) the papacy was a weakened institution. For
forty years Christians witnessed three men lay claim to the papacy,
anathematizing each other. Again there arose conciliar movements
(conciliarism), which sought to transfer the authority vested in the
papacy to ecumenical councils. And the efforts of the papacy to
defend Papal States against the aggression of emperors and princes
sometimes led it to use means that undermined its moral and
spiritual authority. Although these situations had already been
overcome before the beginning of the 16th century, papal authority
did not quite recover from their effects.

1.1.1.1 The Scandal of Three Popes:

The death of Pope Gregory XI in 1378 posed a problem in Rome.
The cardinals, who were to elect a new pope, were predominantly
French. This meant that a French cardinal could be elected pope,
who may decide to move the seat of the papacy back to Avignon
(like some of his predicessors). This meant, in turn, that the Roman
populace could lose the pope and the economic advantages brought
by his presence in Rome (pilgrims throng Rome because of the
presence of the pope in Rome). Hence, the populace was said to
have brought pressure to bear on the cardinals to elect an Italian as
successor to Gregory XI. This pressure was said to have included
assaulting cardinals on the streets of Rome and warning them to
elect an Italian. Even the guard of the conclave was said to have told
the cardinals in the conclave that they risk death if they fail to elect
an Italian or a Roman as the next pope. Whatever may have
influenced their decision, the cardinals elected the archbishop of
Bari, Bartholomew Prignano, (an Italian) as pope, a prelate they
believed to be a dependable personality. The new pope took the
name Pope Urban VI.
But soon the new pope showed himself to be a tyrant. He scolded
the cardinals publicly for their (alleged) vices, their treachery, their
luxury and their simony.3 His conduct brought degradation to the
papacy and eroded its authority greatly. Misgivings arose among the
3
See Bokenkotter Thomas, A Concise History of the Catholic Church, New York: Image Books, 1990, page
166.

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cardinals. Thirteen of them fled to Fondi and declared the election of
Pope Urban VI invalid. They denounced him as anti-Christ. They were
soon joined by the queen of Naples and three other Italian cardinals.
On 20th September 1378 this group elected Robert of Geneva as the
new pope. He took the name Clement VII.
This schism soon split the political Europe. The Roman Emperor,
England, Netherlands, Castille, Hungary, Poland and Portugal
supported Urban VI while France, Scotland, Luxembourg and Austria
supported Clement VII. In 1379 Clement VII moved his headquarters
to Avignon. There was soon recourse to arms which involved a lot of
costs. Papal taxation became harsher on both sides, destroying
papal popularity the more. Urban VI died in 1389 and was succeeded
by Boniface IX.
This division and derision of the papacy was a terrible scandal for
pious Catholics. Realising the futility of the recourse to arms, many
scholars, bishops and noble but pious Catholics began to look for a
solution. Three solutions were proffered: arbitration, a general
council or resignation of both popes. The last solution was favoured
by most. And at the death of Pope Clement VII in 1394, all hoped for
an end to the schism. But this hope turned out to be in vain.
Although the successors of Clement VII (Benedict XIII) and Boniface
IX (Gregory XII) promised to embrace the option of resignation to
achieve Church unity, none resigned. In fact, each of them seemed
to resist this solution.
Seeing that the option of resignation had failed, cardinals on both
sides decided to pursue the option of a general council. The theory
was propounded that “… in case of dire necessity a council could be
called without the pope’s consent or even against his will, and its
decrees would be valid without the pope’s consent.” This doctrine of
conciliar supremacy over the pope is known as conciliarism. On 25 th
March 1409, cardinals from both sides and dignitaries of the Church
gathered in Pisa and deposed the two popes, Pope Gregory XII in
Rome and Pope Benedict XIII in Avignon. This gathering
consequently elected Cardinal Peter Philargi of Milan as the unity
pope. He took the name Alexander V. But this brought no solution.
On the Contrary, it made the situation worse. For Christendom soon
discovered that it has now not a unity pope but three popes.
Alexander V died shortly after his election on 3 rd May 1410 and was
succeeded by John XXIII (Baldassare Cossa).
At this point, Sigismund of Luxemburg († 1437) was elected Holy
Roman Emperor in the year 1411. In his quest to unite the Roman
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empire, he secured the agreement of Pope John XXIII for a universal
council of the Church. On 28 th October 1414, Pope John XXIII
convoked a general council at Constance. But, against his hope of
engineering the council to his favour through the vote of those he
placed in power, the council decided to vote according to nations.
Seeing that he has been outmanoeuvred, he abandoned the council.
But the council did not disperse but was rather strengthened by
strong cardinals like Cardinal Francesco Zabarella († 1417). The
council went ahead to pass a number of decrees among which was
the most radical conciliar decree in history, Sacrosanta of 6th April
1415. This decree claimed that the council possess authority from
Jesus Christ, is superior to the pope, and all (including the pope)
must obey it in matters concerning faith, end of schism and the
reform of the Church of God. The council succeeded in deposing all
three claimants to the papacy (Pope John XXIII, Pope Gregory XII of
Rome and Pope Benedict XIII of Avignon).
On 11th November 1417, six delegates each from 6 nations (Italy,
France, Germany, England and Spain joined the cardinals to elect
Oddo Colonna as the new pope. He took the name Martin V.
Christendom was once gain united.
Thus, the scandal of this schism was overcome. But the effects of the
derision of the papacy had weakened its authority and popularity.

1.1.1.2 The Rise of Conciliarism:

Conciliarism, which we already mentioned above, is the theory that a
general (ecumenical) Council of the Church is superior to the pope,
has a supreme authority in the Church, its decrees are superior to
the decrees of the pope and do not need the assent of the pope to
be valid and binding. Conciliarism further claims that a general
council has its authority from Jesus Christ and need not be convoked
by the pope.
As we saw above, the idea of a general council as solution to the
struggle over the papacy was first suggested by cardinals from both
sides of the schism as a solution to the schism between the two
popes in Rome and Avignon. Eminent theologians like Pierre D’ailly
(† 1420) of France and Jean Gerson (also of France) took the idea up
and developed out of it the basic ideas of conciliarism according to
which a council could (in necessity) be convoked without the pope’s
consent or even against his will, and its decrees would be valid
without the pope’s consent.

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The first attempt to apply this theory (and so legitimize it) was at the
council of Pisa. This council sought to depose the two claimants to
the papacy and replace them with a unity pope. Instead, it created a
third pope and worsened the schism in the Church. Conciliarism
became an official teaching of the Council of Constance after Pope
John XXIII tried to sabotage the council by abandoning it. With the
conciliar decree Sacrosanta of 6th April 1415, the Council of
Constance raised conciliarism to new levels. But even here, the
theory achieved limited results. Although through it, the Council was
able to depose three claimants to the papacy and unite the Church,
but it soon met its limits in the attempt to reform the Church.
Differing interests of individual nations hindered meaningful reform
of the Church in the Council.
Most importantly, the Council saw the limits of conciliarism and
reverted back to the pope convening councils. With the decree
Frequens of 9th October 1417, the council mandated the pope to
convoke ecumenical councils regularly.
Conciliarism became a problem to the popes. Already in 1424 Martin
V dissolved the Council of Pavia-Sienna which he had convoked in
1423. His successor, Eugenius IV († 1447), convoked the Council of
Basel on 23rd July 1431 but was soon at daggers point with the
council. He gave orders for the dissolution of the council. The council
defied him and took measures that alienated the pope. But owing to
the violent disagreements at the Council and the success of Pope
Eusebius at reuniting the Greek and Roman Churches, he was able to
triumph over the Council of Basel and over conciliarism.
But despite this, the papacy failed to re-establish its moral and
spiritual leadership over Christendom. The modern state had already
capitalised on the disputes to expand their authority over the
Church. The emergence of national Churches was the ultimate
result.

1.1.2 A Church in Need of Reform:

The state of the Christian community in Europe before Martin Luther
was not promising. On the contrary, it gave cause for alarm. From
the leaders down to the led, there was disorganisation and decay.
From the Roman curia to the lower clergy and the religious, the
Church was in dire need of reform.

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1.1.2.1 The Roman Curia and Simony:
At the beginning of the 16th century, the pope had gained control of
many ecclesiastical appointments. During the pontificate of Leo X (†
1521) there were about two thousand such appointment which were
all up for sale. This practice served as a source of income to the
papacy. The Roman curia levied a variety of taxes on such
appointees. The appointees, in turn, levied taxes and promoted
indulgencies among the people in order to meet the demands of the
curia. A typical example was the case of Albrecht of Brandenburg
(Archbishop of Mainz) who had to pay the curia the sum of ten
thousand ducats as tax and promoted taxes and indulgences to raise
this sum. Even a cardinal’s heart was sold to the highest bidder.
Moreover, since it had become difficult for Church officials to meet
the financial obligations of their office due to rising inflation, the
Roman curia also developed a practise called pluralism in which
more than one benefice was conferred to one person. For instance, a
bishop may be placed in charge of several dioceses so that he may
have enough income to meet the expectations of his office. The
bishop of Mainz (Albrecht of Brandenburg), for instance, held two
other bishoprics and a large member of abbeys beside the diocese of
Mainz. Since these bishops could not bilocate, absenteeism set in. It
was alleged that some bishops never even saw the dioceses they
took charge of. Many pastors (parish priests) too were not resident in
their parishes. And since there was no authority to administer such
dioceses, abuses grew unchecked, affecting adversely the moral of
Church members.
Again, the monopolization of high ecclesial offices by the nobility
worsened matters. Princes appointed their sons bishops as a means
of improving royal income. These prince-bishops were morally
bankrupt, preoccupied mainly with pleasure and material things. At
the emergence of the Reformation, they failed to provide any
meaningful spiritual leadership but switched allegiance in order to
gain political and economic advantage from the Reformation
movement.
These malpractices of the curia were criticized in many writings of
that time and became a principal theme of castigation by the
reformers.

1.1.2.2 The Lower Clergy:

Among priests, the lower clergy, decay could be seen everywhere.
Because pluralism was also practised among pastors, there was
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neglect of pastoral residence and pastoral duties. Worldliness
became very common. The clergy was often poorly educated and, in
their ignorance, peddled superstitions. Preaching and the
proclamation of the Gospel were at best of low quality. Some
members of the clergy lived too in concubinage.

1.1.1.3 Religious Orders:

The religious orders too were not in a good shape. Wars and the
Bubonic Plague (the Black Death) had incapacitated monasteries in
France. In Italy and Germany, strife between the parties, the struggle
between popes and emperors and the scandal of schism have
adversely affected monasticism.
The Benedictines no longer followed the Benedictine rule faithfully.
Many of their monasteries were directed by non-resident, secular
abbots. And their monasteries were no longer centres of secular
learning. The Cistercians maintained some level of vitality. But there
was practically no community life anymore: no regular common
prayers, common property was replaced by private property and
many monks lived outside the monasteries. The mendicant orders
were in such a poor state that they became favoured objects of
satirists. Many people, including loyal Catholics, regarded
Franciscans and Dominicans as ignorant people.

1.1.3 The Church Fails to Reform:

From the foregoing, it was obvious that there was a great need for
reform of the Church and most Catholic leaders were aware of this.
But in the end neither the leadership nor the grassroots could
accomplish any meaningful reform of the Church

1.1.3.1 Church Leadership Fails to Reform

Among the methods recommended for achieving this reform, most
Catholics favoured a reform by a Council of the Church. But after the
failure of the Council of Basel, it was obvious that such a Council
could only be carried out successfully under the leadership of the
popes. Unfortunately, a papal reform Council did not materialize for
the following reasons.

1.1.3.1.1 Renaissance Papacy: Absorption in Worldliness

and Politics
It was the period of the Renaissance papacy when the popes were
more concerned with Italian politics than with the interests of the
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universal Church. Externally, it was a time of papal grandeur as the
popes made Rome a foremost centre of the Renaissance and
inspired imperishable works of art that, to this day, adorn the
Vatican. But morally and spiritually, it was a time of terrible decline.
It is said that the three papacies at the end of the 15th and
immediately at the beginning of the 16th centuries wallowed in
corruption unparalleled since the tenth century. They bought the
tiara4 and used it mainly for the furtherance of personal and dynastic
interest. They filled the College of Cardinals with relatives and
unworthy candidates, completely subordinating the religious
functions of their office to unworthy temporal aims.
Politically, they were great successes. But it was all achieved at the
tremendous cost of the integrity of the pope’s spiritual mission.

1.1.3.1.2 Confusion over the Authority of the Pope and the

Councils
There was confusion over the authority of the pope and the Council.
We can recall the struggle of supremacy between the popes and the
Councils of Constance and Basel. Although Pope Eugenius IV († 1447)
was able to defeat the Council of Basel, it was mainly through
political tactics that did not scotch the conciliar theory itself. Pope
Pius II († 1464) tried later to kill conciliarism and reassert papal
authority by enacting the bull Execrabilis in 1460, a bull which
condemned conciliarism in any form. But this bull was resisted in
France and Germany. In fact, outside Rome, the bull did not receive
much acceptance. Secular princes and various ecclesiastical bodies,
supported by a number of leading canonists and universities,
favoured the conciliar theory and continued to use appeal to a
Council over the head of a pope as a legitimate canonical device. In
the minds of the popes, therefore, the call for a Council was often
interpreted as a cry of revolt. Several popes, therefore, avoided
convoking Councils, giving flimsy excuses for not doing so and
making counterproposals.
This attitude of the popes was made worse by the fact that secular
princes abused the conciliar idea. Secular Princes convoked Councils
merely to score political points. Hence, even popes concerned about
reform preferred direct papal action, through legislative acts such as
papal bulls and decrees, or through the work of papal legates. This
was the method used by Pope Pius II, who drew up a bull, Pastor
4
A crown that was worn by popes of the Catholic Church from as early as the 8th century to the mid-20th
century. It was lst used by Pope Paul VI in 1963 and only at the beginning of his reign.

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Aeternus, which bound the pope himself to certain procedures in the
government of the Church. But Unfortunately, Pius II died before it
could be issued. Alexander VI († 1503) also drew up a bull that
condemned the political preoccupations of the cardinals and insisted
on the duty of bishops to reside in their dioceses. But he was soon
distracted from the whole reform intention and never published it.

1.1.3.2 Reformation at the Grassroots Fails Too

Since the Church could not be reformed from above (from the
leadership), another method of reformation was proposed. This
proposal saw the Church being reformed at the grass roots, on a
small scale, with devout souls who by their personal sanctification,
works of charity and apostolic activity would move their own
religious order or parish to undertake reform.

1.1.3.2.1 Reform of Religious Orders

In religious communities the desire for reform led to movements
which sought to return the religious orders to their ideals. Such
movements made efforts at renewal of the common life, common
prayer, and common table. When such a reform movement gathered
strength, it tried to secure religious superiors of like minds. Such
reform efforts were noticeable in the Franciscan Observances led by
the great saints and preachers Bernardine of Siena († 1444) and John
Capistrano († 1456), the Dominican Lombard congregation and the
Augustinian monastery.
But unfortunately, not a single order was completely reformed. The
reform work was hampered by the failure of the leaders of the
Church to support them.

1.1.3.2.2 The Secular Clergy

There were also reform attempts among non-religious clergy. There
were bishops and pastors who ministered industriously to their
flocks, held synods, and tried to engender a renewal of the Church.
Such reform work was most noticeable in Germany.

1.1.3.2.3 Lay Reform Movements

There were also reform movement that began with the laity. For
instance, the Oratory of Divine Love, founded in Genoa shortly
before the year 1500, gathered members who sought to achieve
personal sanctity by means of good works on behalf of others.

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Some secular princes attempted reforms too. Some German
territorial princes (like the Saxon Dukes) were authorised by the
pope to reform monasteries. Some French kings used the enormous
powers they had over the Church to further reforms. But it was only
Spanish kings who made progress with such reform efforts.

1.1.4 The Failure of Reform Attempts

Although the general picture of reform activity before Martin Luther
showed a number of bright spots, the general state of the Church
was one of pervasive corruption. Even Catholic authorities, including
Pope Adrian VI and the commission of cardinals appointed by Pope
Paul II in 1538 to draw up proposals for reform, admitted it at the
time. The attempts at reform failed because it did not reach the top
of Church leadership. As Hubert Jedin wrote: “The Protestant
Reformation owed its success to the fact that the attempts at
reform, which sprouted from the soil of the Church, did not come to
maturity.”5

1.2 Martin Luther

Martin Luther was born on 10th November 1483 in Eisleben,
Germany. His father was Hans Luther and his mother was Margarete
Luther (nee Lindermann). The family moved to Mansfeld in 1484
where his father became a leaseholder of foundries and mines.
Martin Luther went to school in Mansfeld and, later, in Magdeburg
(1497) where he attended a school operated by a lay group called
Brethren of the Common Life. In 1498, he went to school in Eisenach.
In these schools, he was drilled in Latin in addition to grammar,
rhetoric and logic which were customary in the schools of his days.
In 1501, at the age of 17, he entered the university in Erfurt, where
his father wanted him to study law. Instead, he studied philosophy
and obtained Master of Arts degree in 1505.
Luther sought assurances about life and was drawn to theology and
philosophy with particular interest in Aristotle, William of Ockham
and Gabriel Biel. But philosophy proved to be unsatisfying to him,
since it offered assurance about the use of reason but none about
loving God. Reason, he thought, could not lead men to God. Only
through revelation can one learn about God. Scripture, therefore,
became important to him.

5
Jedin, Hubert, A History of the Council of Trent, Vol. I, London: thomas Nelson and Sons, 1957, 165.

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On 17th July 1505, Martin Luther left the university and entered St.
Augustine’s monastery in Erfurt because of a vow he made to God
during a thunderstorm in which a bolt of lightening threw him to the
ground. In the Augustinian monastery, he was bound to a daily
regimen of prayer, meditation, study, frequent fasting and silence.
Martin Luther must have performed his duties very diligently, for he
found favour with his superiors. He was ordained a priest on 4th April
1507 and chosen to continue his theological studies. As a religious
novice, Luther seemed to have enjoyed some spiritual peace. But as
he advanced in his study of theology, he fell into moods of
depression and suffered terrible trials, anguish of spirit and despair.
It seems that the source of this anguish of spirit was his
consciousness of his own sinfulness and the fear of God’s retribution
and hell. Craving certainty, he prayed the more and went to
confession frequently. But he found little relief.
During all this, Luther’s theological career continued. He was
appointed lecturer on Aristotle in the University of Wittenberg. On
9th March 1508, he received bachelor’s degree in Biblical Studies
and in 1509, another bachelor’s degree in the Sentences of Peter
Lombard. In the same year (1509), he began to lecture on the
Sentences of Peter Lombard at the university in Erfurt. It was at this
point that he began to read the works of St. Augustine. The bible and
the theology of St. Augustine were later to play decisive roles in the
formation of his own theology.
In 1511, he went back to the University of Wittenberg where he
obtained the doctorate in theology. Two years later, he took over the
chair of Biblical Theology as professor of exegesis in the University of
Wittenberg, a position he held for the rest of his life. It was at
Wittenberg that he delivered before students his remarkable
commentaries on Psalms, Romans, Galatians and Hebrews –
commentaries which contained the substance of his theology. It was
also at the beginning of these lectures (in 1513) that his spiritual
crisis was resolved. His crisis was resolved when he read about the
“justice of God” in Romans 1:17 with the phrase that follows it; “the
just man shall live by faith.” He came to realise the true meaning of
the phrase “the justice of God”. He had misunderstood this phrase to
mean the justice of God by which he punishes sinners. But now, he
realized that it meant the justice of God by which he justifies us
though faith. In other words, we are saved not through our merits
but through the boundless mercy of God. God justifies the believer in

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spite of his sins. The believer plays not an active but a passive role
in the process of his justification.
With this doctrine of justification by faith, Luther’s anguish and
despair were ended. Now that he has seen that the basis of his
justification was not his own holiness but the mercy of God, he got
complete assurance of his salvation. And this became his theology, a
theology that formed the basis of all subsequent reformation
theology.

1.2.2 Martin Luther’s Theology

Hence, Martin Luther’s theology begins with the idea of God’s
justice. God’s justice means his saving righteousness, by which he
extends to us in Christ the gracious gift of salvation. Man is totally
corrupt, as is evident from concupiscence. Thus, there is no free will.
The human will is in itself totally enslaved to sin and totally
rebellious to God. It is only through faith that we appropriate the
salvation that God has effected for us in Christ. For God does not
impute this sinfulness once we confess it by faith and hate it and
seek to be healed of it. The righteousness of Christ becomes our
righteousness. This righteousness of Christ is the personal presence
and work of Christ and the Holy Spirit in the believer through faith.
Now, it has to be noted that Martin Luther did not construct his
theology according to the motto: “believe in Christ and do what you
like”. His understanding of the Christian faith was not static. On the
contrary, there was progress and the constant struggle against the
passions. There was growth into righteousness. But this growth too is
not the work of the individual but a constant entering more deeply
into Christ’s righteousness.
The question arises then of the role of good works in the Christian
faith and the salvation of the believer. Since the righteousness of
Christ has already justified us, are good works not superfluous?
Martin Luther addresses this question by teaching that the faith can
always and ought always to be increased. For the increase of faith,
good works are to be done and bad ones avoided. But, again, he
emphasised the divine initiative and action in our works. The
believer is only an instrument of God who is the craftsman. Grace
and faith are infused apart from our work, and when they are
infused, then the works follow.

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1.2.3 Luther’s Theology Versus Church Doctrine and
Practice
Now, it has been contended by many theologians that Martin
Luther’s theology was in consonance with the official teaching of the
Church. In any case, it was in consonance with the theology of St.
Augustine. But it challenged the actual practice of indulgences at the
time.
In 1343 Pope Clement VI had officially sanctioned the view that
Christ and the saints had left a deposit of merits that other members
of the Church could draw on for the remission of the temporal
punishment due to their sins. One obtained a share in these merits
by means of a Church indulgence usually granted by the pope in
exchange for some good work. This good work was, at that time,
often in the form of donation of money to the Church by the recipient
of the indulgence. Official Church doctrine always insisted on the
need for an accompanying interior repentance on the part of the
recipient too.
Later, the Church taught also that indulgences could be applied to
the souls in purgatory on the supposition that, as equal members of
the Mystical Body of Christ, they too could participate in the merits
of their saintly fellow members. This development minimized the
aspect of personal repentance that was always an important part of
receiving an indulgence. This opened the door for the unscrupulous
to present indulgence as an automatic and easy means of salvation.
This was what happened in the preaching of indulgences at the time.
This was diametrically opposite to what Martin Luther understood as
the teaching of Jesus Christ, as the perennial teaching of the Church
as witnessed in the scriptures. He felt that the Church was
abandoning the teaching of Jesus Christ.

1.2.4 Martin Luther Clashes with the Official Church

Now, at the time, indulgence was preached in Martin Luther’s
Germany purportedly in order to collect money for the rebuilding of
St. Peter’s basilica. The particular preaching that stirred his
opposition was that of Johann Tetzel, a Dominican priest, who was
specially commissioned by the archdiocese of Mainz to preach
indulgences for the purpose mentioned above. But in actual fact, it
was a deal among the Fugger banking firm, the Roman Curia and the
archbishop of Mainz, who agreed to split the proceeds. Through this
arrangement, the archbishop of Mainz hoped to pay the ten
thousand ducats levied on him by the Curia for the dispensation he
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needed in order to hold three dioceses – archdioceses of Mainz and
Madgeburg and the diocese of Halberstadt.
In the year 1517, Martin Luther drew up his now famous 95 theses.
In it, among other things, he questioned the power of the pope over
the souls in purgatory or that the pope could control the merits of
Christ and the saints. And he condemned the indulgence preachers
for giving people a false sense of security by leading them to believe
that a payment of money could appease the wrath of God. On 31st
October 1517, he sent the 95 theses to his bishop and to the bishop
of Mainz who had licensed Johann Tetzel. After they failed to
respond, he made the 95 theses public, thus challenging his
academic colleagues to a debate on the subject of indulgences. At
this point, he was challenging only the form of indulgences preached
by the Dominican priest, Johann Tetzel. He wanted to point out the
spiritual dangers involved in this corrupted version of the teaching
about indulgences. For he felt that it was an obstacle to the
preaching of true repentance and interior conversion.
The debate Martin Luther intended to provoke did not happen. But
within a few weeks, the theses were translated into German and
circulated widely. Sides were taken and Luther became a champion
of all those who for a multitude of reasons were dissatisfied by the
state of the Church. He enjoyed the sympathy of German patriotic
knights like Ulrich von Hutten and Franz von Sickingen (who
resented papal opposition to the Holy Roman Empire in the Italian
Peninsula) and Erasmus of Rotterdam.
But He made enemies too. Chief among his enemies were the
Dominicans who were annoyed that Martin Luther attacked a fellow
Dominican, Johann Tetzel. They condemned the 95 theses as
heretical and, instead of debating with him, reduced the issue to one
of authority, challenging him to accept the whole system of
indulgences or be condemned as a heretic. Being quite influential in
Rome, they tried to get Martin Luther condemned in Rome as
heretical. The archbishop of Mainz, concerned about the loss of
income from the preaching of indulgences, reported Martin Luther to
Rome too. But the reigning pope, Pope Leo X had no interest in
theology and regarded the situation at first as just another monks’
squabble. He showed neither an inclination to dialogue nor any
readiness to condemn Martin Luther.

14
1.2.5 Martin Luther Splits Christendom
Finally, the popes attention was drawn to Martin Luther. Martin
Luther himself appealed to him on 30th May 1518. But the pope did
not listen to him. On the contrary, the pope summoned him to
appear in Rome within sixty days to answer to the charge of heresy.
The summons, written by the pope’s theologian, Sylvester Prierias, a
Dominican, contained insults. Martin Luther refused to answer the
summons. Instead, he engaged with Sylvester Prierias in a series of
theological exchanges fraught with errors on both sides.
Now, a political factor intervened in Martin Luther’s favour and
forced Rome to take a more conciliatory posture. Martin Luther
enjoyed the sympathy and protection of his own ruler, Frederick, the
elector of Saxony. Pope Leo X needed the assistance of Frederick in
order to keep the Habsburg claimant (Charles of Spain) from the
throne of the Holy Roman Empire. So, the pope relented and, instead
of summoning Martin Luther to Rome, sent Cardinal Cajetan to meet
with him at Augsburg to secure his recantation. At the meeting with
Cardinal Cajetan, the two disagreed on the relation of the faith to the
sacraments. Cardinal Cajetan upheld the primacy of the sacraments
and Luther insisted on the primacy of faith. At this meeting, Martin
Luther questioned papal authority. A few months later, he appealed
for a general Council.
At this time, Rome was preoccupied with political matters and the
whole affair was not given attention for over two years. In those two
years, Martin Luther went to work. He threw himself into the public
debate, winning public interest and support. In sermons, pamphlets
and debates, he preached an alternative to the Church’s
ecclesiastical and sacramental system. Against fifteen hundred years
of Christian tradition, he declared the Church not to be a divinely
founded institution but a number of communities whose origin was
human and historical. In this vision of the Church, not only papal
authority but the entire hierarchy of the Church collapsed. There was
no longer any distinction between the laity and the clergy. For him,
‘Scripture alone’ (sola scriptura) was the supreme authority in
religion. And his alternative appealed enormously to his German
public.
When the papacy finally recognised the crises for what it really was,
the pope nominated several commissions to study Martin Luther’s
writings. After the report of these commissions, the pope issued the
bull Exsurge Domine on 15th June 1520. The bull condemned forty-
one propositions drawn from Martin Luther’s writings as heretical,
15
scandalous and offensive to pious ears. The German theologian, John
Eck, who once had a heated debate with Martin Luther, was
commissioned to bring the bull to Germany. In Germany, John Eck
met a populace that was ready to revolt should any attempt be
made to squelch Martin Luther.
At this point, Martin Luther increased his attacks against the pope.
He called the pope anti-Christ. As part of his strategy of reform, he
wrote three revolutionary manifestos: To the Christian Nobility of the
German Nation, On the Babylonian Captivity of the Church, and On
the Freedom of the Christian Man.
i) To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation, in which he
wove a list of long-standing German grievances against the Roman
Curia into an effective campaign. He called for an end to celibacy,
masses for the dead, and other traditional practices. He denied any
special religious power to priests. All Christians, by virtue of their
baptism, are priests. Ordained men are just baptized Christians
designated by the community to fulfil a particular function. He
proposed the abolition of the pope’s temporal power. The pope’s
function was to be reduced to a kind of spiritual overseer of
Christendom. He called upon the German nobility to reform abuses
in the Church. Practically, he called for a break with Rome, the local
election of bishops – one bishop to a see, the ignoring of papal
legates, the cutting of German money flowing to Rome in the form of
taxes, stipends and fees. No cases should be appealed to Rome.
Feast days should be abolished because they encourage idleness
and drunkenness. In September 1520, Pope Leo X excommunicated
Martin Luther.
ii) On the Babylonian Captivity of the Church was Martin
Luther’s response to his excommunication. In it he outlined a new
theory about the nature of the Church and its sacramental system.
He rejected the idea of apostolic succession and proposed the
common priesthood of all believers which they share by virtue of
their baptism. No sacrament has efficacy apart from the faith of the
recipient. Luther recognised only two sacraments: baptism and the
Eucharist.
iii) The Freedom of a Christian, in which he reiterated his
theology of justification.
Soon, Martin Luther and his followers began to reform the Church.
The stripped the Catholic Mass down to its barest essentials and
emphasized participation by the whole congregation who were
taught to sing stirring new hymns, many of them composed by
16
Martin Luther himself. The sermon became the centre of the Mass.
Participants were invited to receive the communion in the hand and
to partake of the wine.
On 10th December 1520, Martin Luther, his students and supporters
burned the pope’s bull Exsurge as well as a copy of the Canon Law,
signalling his break with the Roman Catholic Church.

1.2.6 The Diet of Worms

The emperor finally decided to act. On 18th April 1521, he
summoned Martin Luther to the diet (a general imperial assembly
consisting of the emperor and the dignitaries of Germany) taking
place in Worms. Since his forerunner in revolt, Hus, was burnt a
century earlier in Constance due to a similar heresy, it was expected
that, faced with a similar prospect, he would recant his position. But
he refused to budge from his theological position. The emperor could
not immediately order his execution because the estates were
reluctant to concur. Consequently, the emperor declared him an
outlaw. This meant that anyone in the kingdom could kill Martin
Luther.
Now, Martin Luther was granted a safe passage back to Wittenberg
after the meeting at the diet of Worms. On his way back, the elector
Frederick sent his men to bring him to safety. He was hidden away in
a castle at Wattburg, where he translated the bible in German and
wrote his two catechisms.

1.2.7 The Spread of the Reformation

In spite of the fact that the recently elected emperor, Emperor
Charles V, had vowed to root out heresy in the empire, Martin
Luther’s reformation continued to spread. The free cities of Germany
(Hamburg, Lübeck, Bremen and Frankfurt) were the first to declare
for the Reformation and its emerging structures. They were followed
by the electors. Political calculations began to weigh more than
religious factors in the spread of the movement. The exigencies of
practical life soon proved decisive. Priests who joined Martin Luther
began to marry. The Reformation movement began to erect
ecclesiastical structures, train their own ministers and organize new
congregations. Slowly, Protestant congregations were set up in
opposition to and parallel to the old Catholic parishes. In the long
run, the leadership of the new Protestant Church devolved on these
ministers so that, in spite of Martin Luther’s theory of the priesthood
of all believers, a new clergy emerged that soon clericalized the new
17
Church along the same lines as the old Church. Unfortunately, both
sides began to organize militarily at this point.
In the face of the growing conversions to Protestantism, Emperor
Charles V tried to limit its expansion. But the most powerful princes
and the richest cities rose up against him and were ready to lay
down their lives and their fortune to prevent a return to Roman
Catholicism. Faced with menacing powers in the western and
eastern frontiers, the emperor knew he could not afford internal war.
So he temporized and Martin Luther’s movement continued to
spread.
At the diet of Augsburg in 1555, the emperor accepted Lutheranism
as part of his empire. The diet determined that the ruler of each
imperial territory would decide which religion his state would follow.
Those who did not like the religion imposed were free to leave for
another state. Thus Lutheranism became an official religion in the
empire.
Martin Luther’s movement spread to other parts of Europe and was
received in many countries of Europe other than Germany.

1.2.8 Nascent Divisions among Protestants

While Martin Luther was still hidden in Wattburg, two of his disciples,
Andreas Carlstadt and Thomas Müntzer, came to Wittenberg to
spread their version of the new movement. Fired by Martin Luther’s
teaching that all Christians were priests, they abolished the Mass in
Wittenberg, substituting it with a communal meal. They replaced
altars with tables and destroyed crucifixes and statues. Communion
was received as a mere reminder of Jesus Christ – in disagreement
with Martin Luther who believed in the real presence of Jesus in the
Eucharist.
The fanatical Thomas Müntzer taught that only those who accept his
message were saved. Church ceremonies, tavern (pub or inn), civic
affairs or wedding feasts were for him worldly and, therefore, evil. It
was the duty of the save to destroy the damned. Further, he
declared infant baptism as worthless since infants could not freely
accept Jesus as their saviour by a conscious act of commitment. To
be saved, therefore, one has to be baptised again. Because of their
rebaptism of adults, they were call Anabaptists – those who baptise
again. This practice shocked both Lutherans and Catholics.
This situation forced Martin Luther to return to Wittenberg on 1st
March 1523. And within a week he won back the populace. Andreas
Carlstadt and Thomas Müntzer had to leave Wittenberg. They
18
became enemies with Martin Luther. Thomas Müntzer called Martin
Luther ugly names like “leader of the synagogue of Satan”, “the
pope of Wittenberg”, “Doctor liar”, etc. But Thomas Müntzer’s
version of Protestantism did not end there. The peasants of Suabia,
Thuringia, Westphalia and Alsace followed him. Probably reacting
against their burden of feudal taxes and forced labour, their revolt
turned violent. They killed those they regarded as their oppressors –
secular and ecclesiastical. Martin Luther was shocked and reacted
equally in a violent manner, although he was a staunch supporter of
law and order. In a pamphlet titled’ Against the Murderous and
Thieving Hordes of Peasants’, he called on everyone who can to
‘slay, smite, and stat’ the rebels. The peasants’ revolt was
accordingly put down with immense loss of lives by an alliance of
Catholic German princes and Lutheran Philip of Hesse, who captured
the last stronghold of the Anabaptists, Munster, in 1535.

1.3 Ulrich Zwingli (01.01.1484 – 11.10.1531) and the

Reformation in Zürich
Ulrich Zwingli was born on 1st January 1484 in Wildhaus, in the
Toggenburg valley in canton Sankt Gallen, Switzerland. His father,
Ulrich Zwingli, was a local magistrate. His mother, Margaret Meili,
was the sister of the abbot of Fischingen in Thurgau. Zwingli's
primary schooling was provided by his uncle, Bartholomew, a priest
of Wildhaus and later dean of Wesen. At ten years old, Zwingli was
sent to Basel to obtain his secondary education where he learned
Latin under Magistrate Gregory Bünzli. After three years in Basel, he
stayed a short time in Bern with the humanist, Henry Wölfflin. He
enrolled in the University of Vienna in the winter semester of 1498
but was expelled, according to the university's records. However, it
is not certain that Zwingli was indeed expelled, for he re-enrolled in
the summer semester of 1500. Zwingli continued his studies in
Vienna until 1502, after which he transferred to the University of
Basel where he received the Master of Arts degree (Magister) in
1506.
Zwingli was ordained in Constance (a diocese to which Zürich
belonged) in September 1506. He first worked in the town Glarus,
where he stayed for ten years. It was in Glarus, whose soldiers were
used as mercenaries in Europe, that Zwingli became involved in
politics. The Swiss Confederation was embroiled in various
campaigns with its neighbours: the French, the Habsburgs, and the
Papal States. Zwingli placed himself solidly on the side of the Roman
19
See. In return, Pope Julius II honoured Zwingli by providing him with
an annual pension. He took the role of chaplain in several campaigns
in Italy, including the Battle of Novara in 1513. However, the decisive
defeat of the Swiss in the Battle of Marignano caused a shift in mood
in Glarus in favour of the French rather than the pope. Zwingli, the
papal partisan, found himself in a difficult position and he decided to
retreat to Einsiedeln in the canton Schwyz. By this time, he had
become convinced that mercenary service was immoral. Zwingli
stayed in Einsiedeln for two years during which he withdrew
completely from politics in favour of ecclesiastical activities and
personal studies.
In late 1518, the post of the Leutpriestertum (people's priest) of the
Grossmünster church in the centre of the medieval town of Zürich
became vacant. The canons of the foundation that administered the
Grossmünster church recognised Zwingli's reputation as a fine
preacher and writer. His opposition to the French and to mercenary
service was welcomed by Zürich politicians. On 11th December
1518, the canons elected Zwingli to become the stipendiary priest
and on 27th December he moved permanently to Zürich.
Zwingli's theological stance was gradually revealed through his
sermons. He attacked moral corruption in the Church and accused
monks of indolence and high living. In 1519, Zwingli specifically
rejected the veneration of saints and called for the need to
distinguish between their true and fictional accounts. He cast doubts
on hellfire, asserted that unbaptised children were not damned, and
questioned the power of excommunication. His attack on the claim
that tithing was a divine institution, however, had the greatest
theological and social impact. This contradicted the immediate
economic interests of the foundation. One of the elderly canons who
had supported Zwingli's election, Konrad Hofmann, complained
about his sermons in a letter. Some canons supported Hofmann, but
the opposition never grew very large. Zwingli insisted that he was
not an innovator and that the sole basis of his teachings was
Scripture. Zwingli also opposed the preaching of indulgences in
Zürich. Through his influence, the city council denied the indulgence
preacher, Bernhardin Sanson, entry into the city.
In August 1519, Zürich was struck by the outbreak of a plague
during which 25% of the total population of the city died. All of those
who could afford it left the city, but Zwingli remained and continued
his pastoral duties. In September, he caught the disease and nearly
died. In the years following his recovery, Zwingli's opponents
20
remained in the minority. When a vacancy occurred among the
canons of the Grossmünster, Zwingli was elected to fill that vacancy
on 29th April 1521. In becoming a canon, he became a full citizen of
Zürich. He also retained his post as the people's priest of the
Grossmünster.

1.3.1 The Start of the Zürich Reformation (1522 – 1524)

The first public controversy regarding Zwingli's preaching broke out
during the season of Lent in 1522. On the first fasting Sunday, 9
March, Zwingli and about a dozen other participants consciously
transgressed the fasting rule by cutting and distributing two smoked
sausages (Wurst). Zwingli defended this act in a sermon which was
published on 16th April 1522, under the title Regarding the Choice
and Freedom of Foods. He noted that no general valid rule on food
can be derived from the Bible and that to transgress such a rule is
not a sin. The event, which came to be referred to as the Affair of the
Sausages, is considered to be the start of the Reformation in
Switzerland. Even before the publication of this treatise, the diocese
of Constance reacted by sending a delegation to Zürich. The city
council condemned the fasting violation, but assumed responsibility
over ecclesiastical matters and requested the religious authorities
clarify the issue. The bishop responded on 24 May by admonishing
the Grossmünster and city council and repeating the traditional
position.
Next, Zwingli and other humanist friends petitioned the bishop on
2nd July to abolish the requirement of celibacy on the clergy. Two
weeks later the petition was reprinted for the public in German. By
this time, Zwingli had secretly married a widow, Anna Reinhart. 6 As
the petition was addressed to the secular authorities, the bishop
responded at the same level by notifying the Zürich government to
maintain the ecclesiastical order. Other Swiss clergymen joined in
Zwingli's cause which encouraged him to make his first major
statement of faith, Apologeticus Archeteles (The First and Last
Word). He defended himself against charges of inciting unrest and
heresy. He denied the ecclesiastical hierarchy any right to judge on
matters of church order because of its corrupted state.
The events of 1522 brought no clarification on the issues. Not only
did the unrest between Zürich and the bishop continue, tensions
were growing among Zürich's Confederation partners in the Swiss
6
Their cohabitation was well-known and their public wedding took place on 2 April 1524, three months before
the birth of their first child. They would eventually have four children: Regula, William, Huldrych, and Anna.

21
Diet. On 22th December, the Diet recommended that its members
prohibit the new teachings, a strong indictment directed at Zürich.
On 3th January 1523, Zürich city council invited the clergy of the city
and outlying region to a meeting to allow the factions to present
their opinions. The bishop was invited to attend or to send a
representative. The council would render a decision on who would be
allowed to continue to proclaim their views. This meeting, the first
Zürich disputation, took place on 29 January 1523. The meeting
attracted a large crowd of approximately six hundred participants.
The bishop sent a delegation led by his vicar general, Johannes Fabri.
Zwingli summarised his position in the Sixty-seven Articles. Fabri,
who had not envisaged an academic disputation in the manner
Zwingli had prepared for, was forbidden to discuss high theology
before laymen, and simply insisted on the necessity of the
ecclesiastical authority. The decision of the council was that Zwingli
would be allowed to continue his preaching and that all other
preachers should teach only in accordance with Scripture.
In September 1523, Leo Jud, Zwingli's closest friend and colleague
and pastor of St. Peter’s Church, publicly called for the removal of
statues of saints and other icons. This led to demonstrations and
iconoclastic activities. The city council decided to work out the
matter of images in a second disputation. The essence of the mass
and its sacrificial character was also included as a subject of
discussion. Supporters of the mass claimed that the Eucharist was a
true sacrifice, while Zwingli claimed that it was a commemorative
meal. As in the first disputation, an invitation was sent out to the
Zürich clergy and the bishop of Constance. This time, however, the
lay people of Zürich, the dioceses of Chur and Basel, the University
of Basel, and the twelve members of the Confederation were also
invited. About nine hundred persons attended this meeting, but
neither the bishop nor the Confederation sent representatives. The
disputation started on 26 October 1523 and lasted two days.

Zwingli again took the lead in the disputation. His opponent was the
aforementioned canon, Konrad Hofmann, who had initially supported
Zwingli's election. Also taking part was a group of young men
demanding a much faster pace of reformation, who among other
things pleaded for replacing infant baptism with adult baptism. This
group was led by Conrad Grebel, one of the initiators of the
Anabaptist movement. During the first three days of dispute,
although the controversy of images and the mass were discussed,
22
the arguments led to the question of whether the city council or the
ecclesiastical government had the authority to decide on these
issues. At this point, Konrad Schmid, a priest from Aargau and
follower of Zwingli, made a pragmatic suggestion. As images were
not yet considered to be valueless by everyone, he suggested that
pastors preach on this subject under threat of punishment. He
believed the opinions of the people would gradually change and the
voluntary removal of images would follow. In November the council
passed ordinances in support of Schmid's motion. Zwingli wrote a
booklet on the evangelical duties of a minister titled Short Christian
Introduction, and the council sent it out to the clergy and the
members of the Confederation.

1.3.2 Zürich Becomes Reformed (1524 – 1525)

In December 1523, the council set a deadline of Pentecost in 1524
for a solution to the elimination of the Mass and images. Zwingli
gave a formal opinion in Proposal Concerning Images and the Mass.
He did not urge an immediate, general abolition. The council decided
on the orderly removal of images within Zürich, but rural
congregations were granted the right to remove them based on
majority vote. The decision on the Mass was postponed. Evidence of
the effect of the Reformation was seen in early 1524. Candlemass
was not celebrated, processions of robed clergy ceased, worshippers
did not go with palms or relics on Palm Sunday. Opposition to the
changes came from Konrad Hofmann and his followers, but the
council decided in favour of keeping the government mandates.
When Hofmann left the city, opposition from pastors hostile to the
Reformation broke down. The bishop of Constance tried to intervene
in defending the Mass and the veneration of images. Zwingli wrote
an official response for the council and the result was the severance
of all ties between the city and the diocese.
Although the council had hesitated in abolishing the Mass, the
decrease in the exercise of traditional piety allowed pastors to be
unofficially released from the requirement of celebrating mass. As
individual pastors altered their practices as each saw fit, Zwingli was
prompted to address this disorganised situation by designing a
communion liturgy in the German language. This was published in
Act or Custom of the Supper. Shortly before Easter, Zwingli and his
closest associates requested the council to cancel the Mass and to
introduce the new public order of worship. On Maundy Thursday, 13
April 1525, Zwingli celebrated communion under his new liturgy.
23
Wooden cups and plates were used to avoid any outward displays of
formality. The congregation sat at set tables to emphasise the meal
aspect of the sacrament. The sermon was the focal point of the
service and there was no organ music or singing. The importance of
the sermon in the worship service was underlined by Zwingli's
proposal to limit the celebration of communion to four times a year.
Further, Zwingli suggested the monasteries be changed into
hospitals and welfare institutions and incorporate their wealth into a
welfare fund. This was done by reorganising the foundations of the
Grossmünster and Fraumünster and pensioning off remaining nuns
and monks. The council secularised the church properties and
established new welfare programs for the poor. Zwingli requested
permission to establish a Latin school, the Carolinum at the
Grossmünster. The council agreed and it was officially opened on
19th June 1525 with Zwingli as one of the teachers. It served to
retrain and re-educate the clergy.

1.3.3 Conflict with the Anabaptists (1525–1527)

Shortly after the second Zürich disputation, many in the radical wing
of the Reformation became convinced that Zwingli was making too
many concessions to the Zürich council. They rejected the role of
civil government in Church affairs and demanded the immediate
establishment of a congregation of the faithful. Conrad Grebel, the
leader of the radicals and the emerging Anabaptist movement,
spoke disparagingly of Zwingli in private. On 15th August 1524 the
council insisted on the obligation to baptise all newborn infants.
Zwingli secretly conferred with Grebel's group and late in 1524, the
council called for official discussions. When talks were broken off,
Zwingli published Whoever Causes Unrest, clarifying the opposing
points-of-view. On 17th January 1525 a public debate was held and
the council decided in favour of Zwingli. Anyone refusing to have
their children baptised was required to leave Zürich. The radicals
ignored these measures and on 21st January, they met at the house
of the mother of another radical leader, Felix Manz. Grebel and a
third leader, George Blaurock, performed the first recorded
Anabaptist adult baptisms.
On 2nd February, the council repeated the requirement on the
baptism of all babies and some who failed to comply were arrested
and fined. More debates were held before the Zürich council. From
6th – 8th November, the last debate on the subject of baptism took
place in the Grossmünster. Grebel, Manz, and Blaurock defended
24
their cause before Zwingli and other reformers. There was no serious
exchange of views as each side would not move from their positions
and the debates degenerated into an uproar, each side shouting
abuse at the other.
The Zürich council decided that no compromise was possible. On 7th
March 1526 it released the notorious mandate that no one shall
rebaptise another under the penalty of death. Felix Manz, one of the
radical reformers, continued the practice of rebaptising adults. He
was arrested, tried, and executed on 5th January 1527 by drowning
in the Limmat River. He was the first Anabaptist to be executed;
three more were to follow, after which all others either fled or were
expelled from Zürich.

1.3.4 The Spread of Zwingli’s Reformation in Switzerland

On 8th April 1524, five cantons, Lucerne, Uri, Schwyz, Unterwalden,
and Zug, formed an alliance, (called the Five States) to defend
themselves from Zwingli's Reformation. They contacted the
opponents of Martin Luther including John Eck, who had debated
Luther in the Leipzig Disputation of 1519. Eck offered to dispute
Zwingli and he accepted. However, they could not agree on the
selection of the judging authority, the location of the debate, and the
use of the Swiss Diet as a court. Because of the disagreements,
Zwingli decided to boycott the disputation. On 19th May 1526, all
the cantons sent delegates to Baden. Although Zürich's
representatives were present, they did not participate in the
sessions. Eck led the Catholic party while the reformers were
represented by John Oecolampadius of Basel, a theologian from
Württemberg who had carried on an extensive and friendly
correspondence with Zwingli. While the debate proceeded, Zwingli
was kept informed of the proceedings and printed pamphlets giving
his opinions. The Diet decided against Zwingli. He was to be banned
and his writings were no longer to be distributed. Of the thirteen
Confederation members, Glarus, Solothurn, Fribourg, and Appenzell
as well as the Five States voted against Zwingli. Bern, Basel,
Schaffhausen, and Zürich supported him.
The Baden disputation exposed a deep rift in the Confederation on
matters of religion. The Reformation was now emerging in other
states. The city of St Gallen, an affiliated state to the Confederation,
was led by a reformed mayor, Joachim Vadian, and the city abolished
the Mass in 1527, just two years after Zürich. In Basel, although
Zwingli had a close relationship with Oecolampadius, the
25
government did not officially sanction any reformatory changes until
1st April 1529 when the mass was prohibited. Schaffhausen, which
had closely followed Zürich's example, formally adopted the
Reformation in September 1529. In the case of Bern, Berchtold
Haller, the priest at St Vincent Münster, and Niklaus Manuel, the
poet, painter, and politician, had campaigned for the reformed
cause. But it was only after another disputation that Bern counted
itself as a canton of the Reformation. Eck and Fabri refused to attend
this debate and the Catholic cantons did not send representatives.
The meeting started on 6th January 1528 and lasted nearly three
weeks. Zwingli assumed the main burden of defending the
Reformation and he preached twice in the Münster. On 7th February
1528 the council decreed that the Reformation be established in
Bern.

1.3.5 Zwingli’s Theses

At the disputation that took place in Bern before the city joined the
reformation, Zwingli summarised his theses as follows: (1) that the
church is born of the Word of God and has Christ alone as its head,
(2) that its laws are binding only insofar as they agree with the
Scripture, (3) that Christ alone is man’s righteousness, (4) that the
Holy Scripture does not teach Christ’s corporeal presence in the
bread and wine at the Lord’s Supper, (5) that the Mass is a gross
affront to the sacrifice and death of Christ, (6) that there is no
biblical foundation for the mediation or intercession for the dead, for
purgatory, or for images and pictures, and (7) that marriage is lawful
to all.

1.3.6 The Kappel Wars: Zwingli Dies in Battle

Urged by Zwingli, an alliance of the reformed states of Switzerland
was formed soon after Bern became a reformed state. The alliance
was called Christliche Burgrecht (the Christian Civic Union). The
members of the alliance were the states Zürich, Bern, Basel, Biel,
Mülhausen, Schaffhausen and St. Gallen. The five Catholic states,
Lucerne, Uri, Schwyz, Unterwalden, and Zug felt encircled and
isolated. They formed an alliance with Austria. The alliance was
called Die Christliche Vereinigung (The Christian Alliance).
Soon after the Austrian treaty was signed, a reformed preacher,
Jacob Kaiser, was captured in Uznach and executed in Schwyz. This
angered Zwingli who called the Christian Civic Union to attack the
Catholic states. But Bern was against a war, fearing that the
26
neighbouring Catholic Wallis may attack it. Zürich decided to go to
war alone. War was declared on 8th June 1529. Zürich was able to
raise 30,000 soldiers. Austria abandoned the Catholic states which
were able to raise only 9000 soldiers. The two sides met at Kappel,
but war was averted due to the interventions of a certain Hans Aebli,
a relative of Zwingli. Zwingli was obliged to state the terms of the
armistice. He demanded the dissolution of the Christian Alliance,
unhindered preaching by reformers in the Catholic states, prohibition
of the pension system, payment of war reparations and the
compensation to the children of Jacob Kaiser. In the end the five
Catholic states only pledged to dissolve the alliance with Austria. The
war ended on 24th June 1529.
But the peace treaty of the First Kappel War did not define the right
of the unhindered preaching in the Catholic states. Zwingli
interpreted this to mean that preaching should be permitted, but the
five states suppressed any attempts to reform. The Civic Union
decided to apply food blockade to force the Catholic states to allow
reform. The measure failed and Bern decided to withdraw the
blockade. Zürich urged the continuation of the blockade.
On 9th October 1531, the five Catholic states declared war on
Zürich. This time Zürich was only able to mobilise 3500 soldiers.
Many pastors including Zwingli were among the soldiers. The five
Catholic states were able to mobilise almost double that number.
The battle lasted less than one hour and Zwingli was among the 500
casualties in the Zürich army. He died on 11th October 1531. Both
Catholics and Lutherans were relieved at his death.

1.4 John Calvin

John Calvin was born at Novon, France on July 10, 1509. His father
was Gérard Cauvin (Calvin is the Latinized form). His mother was
Jeanne Lefranc. In preparation for the priesthood, John Calvin studied
Latin and theology in Parish with the help of Church benefices. But
he later changed to Law and classical languages, which he pursued
in Orléans. He was converted to the Protestant movement in 1533 or
1534. What led to this conversion is not known exactly. John Calvin
was very reticent about the course of his life. But the reply he wrote
to Cardinal Sadoleto, who encouraged Genevans to abandon
Protestantism and return to the Catholic faith after they drove
Calvan out in 1536, gives some inkling. In the Letter, he relates the
story of a hypothetical conversion to the Protestant faith which is
most likely drawn from his own experience. The convert gives the
27
following as reasons for his conversion to the Protestant faith: i) the
failure of the medieval system of satisfactions to give peace to his
soul ii) the comfort offered by the Protestant doctrine of the
sufficiency of Christ’s work of satisfaction, iii) the conviction that the
reformers did not intend schism, iv) his conviction that the office of
the pope is not biblical.
Whatever was the cause of his conversion to Protestantism, Calvin
soon became one of the activist Protestants in France. But after the
Affair of Placards in 1534 in Paris, the authorities began to take
measures against Protestantism in France. Calvin Fled to Basel (in
Switzerland). It was in Basel that he published the first edition of a
handbook on Protestant doctrine titled: Institutes of the Christian
Religion.
Passing by chance through the city of Geneva (Switzerland), he was
persuaded by the Protestant reformer, Guillaume Farel to remain in
Geneva. The city council offered him employment as a teacher of
Scripture. Geneva was already a Protestant city, having driven out
the Catholic bishop of Geneva, suspended the Mass, and adopted a
set of regulations that imposed the reform of the citizenry. But since
opposition to these changes were still strong in the city, Farel hoped
that Calvin would help the city’s Protestants complete the work of
turning the city into a vibrant Protestant city.
Accepting to remain in Geneva, Calvin almost immediately began to
seek an organization of the Church and ministry which should ensure
decency and order. He was a man said to have hated ‘public mess’
and he set for himself the task of creating a ‘well ordered and
regulated’ Church in Geneva. He assumed that this could be
achieved by a reproduction of the practices of the primitive Church
as history and the New Testament disclosed them. He challenged
the citizens of Geneva to declare their allegiance to the Protestant
cause by drawing up a confession of faith to be signed by every
citizen. Rules were also drawn up for the celebration of the ‘Lord’s
Supper’. Disciplinary laws were also enacted to regulate the
behaviour of Genevans to rather minute details. His wish to secure
the right of the Church to enforce its discipline by the penalty of
excommunication was rejected by the magistrates, since they saw in
this an attempt to set up the Church as an independent power. Other
issues caused tensions which reached its peak with the
disagreement on the use of the baptismal font (which Calvin
opposed). Consequently, he, Farel and their associates were driven
out of Geneva into exile.
28
While in exile in Strassburg, Calvin devised a simple rite of service
that preserved the outline of the Roman Mass. There too, he
published a revision of his Institutes of the Christian Religion and
began Commentaries on the books of the Bible. In 1540 he married
Idelette of Buren, who bore him a baby boy that died soon after
birth.

1.4.1 Geneva: Calvin’s Christian Police State

Calvin’s supporters in Geneva later regained ascendency in the
government of Geneva and Calvin was recalled. He returned to
Geneva on 13th September 1541 and, within a few months,
presented the General Council of Geneva his Ecclesiastical
Ordinances. The city council modified his ordinances to safeguard
their own civil jurisdiction and adopted it on 20th November 1541.
Together with his Institutes of the Christian Religion, Ecclesiastical
Ordinances became the organizational basis for all the Protestant
Churches that accepted Calvinism. The Ordinances established four
offices (according to biblical example): pastors, teachers, elders, and
deacons. It also created a body called Consistory which had the task
of supervising the behaviour of citizens and recommending
punishment for bad behaviour. The Consistory was made up of the
ministers (pastors) and elders.
Calvin’s consistory set about enforcing the laws regulating even
private behaviour with such Consistency and severity that was
unique even for the medieval period. The records of the Consistory
show that people were brought before the elders and magistrates for
even very trivial offences like laughing during a sermon, singing
songs defamatory of Calvin, dancing, or frequenting a fortune-teller.
Prostitution was stamped out. Theatres were closed. Adultery carried
the death penalty which was actually imposed in some cases.
Calvin was accused by his opponents of ruling Geneva like a dictator.
Not seldom was he called the pope of Geneva – with all the negative
connotations attached to that name in the Protestant world. To pick
a quarrel with Calvin was a very dangerous undertaking in Geneva.
Those who tried it and lost paid for it dearly. Two cases suffice here
as examples:
i) Jacques Gruet was one of the Libertines in Geneva who resented
the regimented life-style imposed on Geneva by Calvin. He was
arrested, tortured, convicted and beheaded.
ii) Michael Servetus, a Spanish physician and anti-Trinitarian was
fleeing from the Inquisition in Spain. He mistakenly stopped at
29
Geneva. At the order of Calvin, he was arrested, tried for heresy,
convicted and burned at the stake.

1.4.2 Calvin’s Theology

Calvin was the theological genius of Protestantism. His theology is
regarded as the foundation of subsequent theological developments
in the Protestant non-Lutheran Churches. Calvin agreed with Luther
on the basic principles of Protestantism: i) Scripture alone as the sole
source of saving truth (sola scriptura), ii) salvation by faith alone
(sola fidei)+, iii) the priesthood of all believers. But he also differed
with Luther on a number of other issues having to do with the
understanding of the Lord’s Supper, the Canon of Scripture,
predestination, the doctrine of the Church (ecclesiology), Christology
and the sacraments.
God’s Absolute Sovereignty: Calvin accused the Roman Catholic
Church of domesticating God. He insisted on God’s absolute
sovereignty, his absolute transcendence and total otherness, the
incomprehensibility of his essence, how unfathomable his purpose
and how inscrutable his decrees are. He was a hidden God who can
be known only through the Scriptures.
Scripture: Calvin taught too that it is through the interior witness of
the Holy Spirit that we come to recognize in Scripture the Word of
God. Scripture in turn testifies to the all-embracing sovereignty of
God and reveals Him as the Ruler who governs all things by his
providence.7
Predestination: Relying on the theology of St. Augustine of Hippo,
Calvin formulated a doctrine of predestination according to which by
God’s eternal decree some are ordained infallibly to eternal life and
others infallibly to eternal punishment.
Original Sin: Echoing the Augustinian theology of the original sin,
Calvin taught that through original sin man became utterly depraved
and in his relation to God capable only of sinning. Only faith in Christ
can save man from this depravity.
Faith: Like all other reformers, Calvin taught that only faith in Christ
can justify man (save man). Faith itself is the work of the Holy Spirit
and not of man. It is initiated not by man but by the Holy Spirit. Faith
is only the instrument whereby we obtain freely the righteousness of
Christ which is only imputed to us.

7
See Bokenkotter Thomas, A Concise History of the Catholic Church, New York: Image Books, 1990, page
230.

30
If justification is only through faith, what about infant baptism?
Calvin justified infant baptism by contending that infants could be
saved from birth in some unexplained way. For him, the infant
examples of John the Baptist and Christ are a proof that the age of
infancy is not incapable of receiving sanctification. This seems to
indicate that Calvin allowed for the possibility of salvation apart from
the faith. But this is not so. He rather allowed for the possibility of
faith in infants but could not explain how. It was certainly not the
kind of faith adults have, Calvin maintained, but he stated he would
rather leave the question undecided.
Justification and Sanctification: Like Martin Luther, Calvin taught
the Protestant doctrine of justification. But unlike Luther, he also
emphasised the doctrine of sanctification. By sanctification he did
not mean that we grow in righteousness but only that we become
more and more aware of our own impotence and sinfulness as we
are more deeply grafted into Christ who accomplishes for us what we
should have done ourselves. Furthermore, even after justification,
our works are still contaminated by sin, but God accepts them. God
not only justifies the sinner but justifies also the justified in a process
of double justification.
Christology: In his doctrine on Christ, Calvin affirmed the dogmas of
the ancient councils as to Christ’s consubstantiality with the Father
and the Holy Spirit and the unity of Christ’s two natures.
Ecclesiology: Unlike Luther, Calvin viewed the Church as a divine
willed institution. The Church is, for him, an institution willed by God
to help weak and infirm man along the path to salvation. He
recognised two forms of the Church: the invisible supreme Church of
the elect and the visible Church formed by the believers in a parish.
He rejected the Catholic view that the Church existed where there is
a bishop and posited that the Church existed where the word of God
is preached and the sacraments administered according to Christ’s
institution. According to him, it is Jesus who constitutes the Church
through his word and sacraments.
Sacraments: For Calvin there are only two sacraments attested to
in Scripture: Baptism and the Eucharist. He rejected the doctrine that
the sacraments conferred grace ex opera operato. For him, this
leads to magical and mechanistic use of the sacraments. The faith of
the recipient and the role of the sacraments as part of a personal
dialogue between the believer and God are, according to him, what
is necessary for the effectiveness of the sacrament. Consequently,

31
he held that the administration of the sacrament must always be
preceded by the preaching of the word of God.
Following his friend Martin Bucer, who held the view that the divine
gift is not given in or under the forms of bread and wine but with the
bread and wine, John Calvin taught that the bread and wine of the
Eucharist are instruments by which Our Lord Jesus Christ distributes
his body and blood to the faithful. He rejected the view that the
Eucharist is merely a psychological aid to grasping spiritual reality. It
is a means by which God accomplishes his promise. He, therefore,
regarded the presence of Christ in the Eucharist (but not in the
consecrated host and wine) as an objectively real presence.

1.4.3 The Spread of Calvinism

Calvinism soon became the most favoured form of Protestantism. It
spread from Geneva to other parts of Switzerland, some parts of
Germany, France, Holland and Scotland, Poland, Bohemia, Hungary,
Belgium, Luxemburg, etc. Its spread in Switzerland was aided by the
formula signed by Calvin and Zwingli’s Successor, Heinrich Bullinger
in 1549 and the Second Helvetic Confession which was signed by
nearly all the cantons in Switzerland (except Basel and Neuchâtel.
Germany: No German city became Calvinist during Calvin’s lifetime.
But after the death of Calvin, under the Elector Frederick III (1515 –
1576) Calvinist doctrines began to find acceptance especially in
south-western Germany (a region called the Palatinate or the
Rheinish Palatinate or Lower Palatinate). Frederick III invited two
Calvinist scholars, Zacharias Ursinus and Caspar Olevianus, to the
University of Heidelberg and they collaborated in producing the
Heidelberg Catechism of 1563. This catechism became the creed of
the reformed Churches in Germany, Poland, Bohemia, Hungary and
Moravia. Other German states which later accepted Calvinism were
Bremen, Anhalt, Hesse and Brandenburg. In Brandenburg Lutherans
remained in the majority though.
France: Calvinism also penetrated the southern and western parts
of the Kingdom of France. The Protestants of this region of France
were called Huguenots. The Huguenots were fanatically opposed to
the Catholic Church. They attacked priests, monks, nuns,
monasticism, images, and church buildings. Most of the cities in
which the Huguenots gained a hold saw iconoclast riots in which
altars and images in churches and sometimes the buildings
themselves were torn down. Ancient relics and texts were destroyed:

32
the bodies of saints exhumed and burned. The cities of Bourges,
Montauban and Orléans saw substantial activity in this regard.
The Huguenots transformed themselves into a definitive political
movement thereafter. Protestant preachers rallied a considerable
army and formidable cavalry, which came under the leadership of
Admiral Gaspard de Coligny. But the Huguenots suffered a
calamitous blow when thousands of them were killed on St.
Bartholomew’s Day. But they regrouped under Henry of Navarre and
continued their struggle. Henry of Navarre later turned Catholic in
order to become the king of France and unify the country under his
rule.
Burgundian Netherlands: By 1564 Calvinism had already made
significant inroad in the 17 provinces of the Burgundian Netherlands
(Holland, Belgium, and Luxembourg). Calvinism was made strong in
Netherlands not just by the share force of conviction of Calvinist
doctrines but moreso by the courage the Calvinists showed during
the struggle of the Netherland against their Spanish rulers. When the
Spaniards were driven out, Calvinist Dutch Republic was established
in the Netherlands (today’s Holland).
Scotland: Calvinism was spread in Scotland chiefly by the Scottish
ex-priest, John Knox. John Knox joined the Reformation movement
early in his career. He was part of a rebel group that assassinated
the primate of Scotland (Cardinal Beaton) and occupied the castle of
St. Andrews. The group was later defeated and the rebels taken
prisoner. John Knox later ended up in Geneva with Calvin. There he
learnt Calvinism. He later returned to Scotland and helped to steer
the Scottish parliament to Protestantism after English and French
armies were withdrawn from Scotland.

1.5 The Reformation in England

The Reformation in England was a political revolution driven not by a
theologian for doctrinal reasons but a king for selfish political
reasons. Its author was King Henry VIII who wanted the nullification
of his marriage to his first wife, Catherine of Aragon. But its history
went through further rulers – King Edward VI, Queen Mary and
Queen Elisabeth I - before it became a protestant Church.

1.5.1 King Henry VIII Seeks the Nullification of his Marriage

Catherine of Aragon, the daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella (aunt of
Charles V, King of Spain and Holy Roman Emperor) had been
33
contracted to Henry’s elder brother Arthur. Arthur married Catherine
at the age 15 and died soon afterwards. Catherine was therefore
ineligible for marriage with Henry. Canon Law forbade such
marriages. But since Henry wanted to marry Catherine, he applied
for and got papal dispensation for the marriage from Pope Julius II.
Catherine had only one surviving child from six children she bore
Henry. She was a female child – Mary. And after sixteen years of
marriage, Henry wished to end his marriage with Catherine and
sought the nullification of the marriage from the pope, Pope Clement
VII. Several reasons have been adduced for this wish:
i) King Henry VIII thought that it was necessary for the unity and
prosperity of England that a male and legitimate heir should be
begotten by the king. Without a male heir to the throne, the Tudor
dynasty was, in his calculation, insecure.
ii) He believed that the sickly children Catherine bore him and the
absence of a male heir were proofs that God’s blessing did not rest
upon his marriage to Catherine which was forbidden by God’s law.
But biblical arguments on this matter were contradictory. There are
Old Testament passages which seemed to both condemn and
require the practice of marrying a brother’s widow. In any case, the
king began to believe that his marriage to Catherine was not the will
of God.
iii) Moreover, Catherine was ageing before her time and was too
bleak to content the bounding energy of the king. Complicating
matters was that the king had already fallen in love with another
woman, Anne Boleyn who would not consent to be Henry’s mistress.
The manipulative Anne Boleyn insisted on being the king’s wife
despite the complications that he was already married to a woman
from the most powerful family in Europe.
Driven not only by his bullish lust for Anne Boleyn but also by his
conviction that he had committed a Levitical sin that resulted in his
not having a male heir, King Henry VIII argued that the papal
dispensation given him by Pope Julius II was wrong and that canon
law was right. He, therefore, sought to undo his previous wish and
have his marriage to Catherine of Aragon annulled so that he could
marry Anne Boleyn. Through his chief servant, Cardinal Wolsey, he
petitioned the pope to nullify his marriage to Catherine and sanctify
his marriage with Anne Boleyn.

34
1.5.2 Pope Clement VII in Dilemma
Pope Clement VII was said to have been too prudent to refuse the
king’s request outright. He kept postponing the decision. Or better
said, the pope gave the king’s arguments serious consideration.
Some authors argue that under favourable circumstances, the pope
might have given the king what he wanted. There are even some
who claim that there exists in the Vatican archives a draft of a papal
bull giving the king what he wanted. But in the end, the pope did
what was right and refused the nullification of the king’s marriage
with Catherine of Aragon. Now, several factors were said to have
informed the pope’s decision:
i) The king was asking the pope a doctrinal and a practical
impossibility. He was asking him to declare that the act of a
predecessor was invalid. Pope Clement couldn’t have done this
without thereby undermining his own authority.
ii) Moreover, Catherine, whose character was unimpeachable,
testified that her marriage to Henry’s brother (Arthur) had never
been consummated. Every chivalrous instinct in the papal court
rallied to Catherine’s tearful plea to the king not to destroy their
marriage. Since no unequivocal answer could be derived from the
Old Testament, theological opinion was split on the issue. But the
better part of theologians supported the fact that Henry and
Catherine were legally and unbreakably married. Hence, there was
no great enthusiasm in the papal curia for ruling that a papal
dispensation had been in error.
iii) The pope’s decision seemed also to have been influenced by
some measure of realpolitik. The armies of the Emperor Charles V,
who was nephew to Catherine of Aragon, sacked Rome in 1527 and
captured the pope. The pope was probably very reluctant to insult
the emperor again by nullifying the marriage of his aunt to the
English king. On the other hand, the papacy did not want to alienate
the most loyal king of England from the Church, a king whose
defence of the Church had made a pope confer on him the title
‘defender of the faith’. There is even the belief that the last political
calculation did not stop the pope from denying Henry’s request only
because England did not seem vulnerable to a Protestant revolt and
Henry did not seem to him to be a king who could incite one.

35
1.5.3 King Henry VIII Separates England from Papal
Authority
The refusal of the pope to grant King Henry VIII the annulment of his
marriage to Catherine did not quench his lust for the object of his
passion. Anne Boleyn herself was a very manipulative woman and
she did not want to lose the opportunity of becoming the king’s wife.
She, therefore, conceived a means of circumventing the decision of
the pope. She encouraged the king to take over the leadership of the
Church in England and have this Church do his will. She gave the
king a book by William Tyndale titled On the Obedience of Christian
Man and How Christian Rulers Ought to Govern. In the book Tyndale,
a protestant, argued in favour of the Protestant doctrine that kings in
their separate kingdoms, not the pope in Rome, were God’s
instruments. Church and state, he further argued, should be one,
with the king supreme. After the king read the book, his appetites for
power and for Anne Boleyn submerged his Christian orthodoxy. And
he decided to exclude the authority of the pope from his dominion
and to make himself the supreme head of the English Church.
In the summer of 1529 the king dismissed Cardinal Wolsey from his
service. He summoned the parliament of 1529 and allowed lay and
anti-clerical lawyers to draft a series of bills for reforming the
ecclesiastical administration. Now, since 1393 there existed a law,
called the statute of Praemunire8, which was meant to restrict papal
intervention in the English Church. In origin the statute of
Praemunire had been intended to exclude from the realm papal
decrees which interfered with rights of the English bishops. The
courts now began to widen its application. Cardinal Wolsey was
accused, after his removal from office, under Praemunire on the
grounds that he had acted as papal legate in England. In January
1531 the statute of Praemunire was used by lawyers as a weapon
against all the clergy of England. They were charged with an offence
against Praemunire because they had administered Roman canon
law in their courts. The law was so vague that it could be interpreted
by the king and his agents in any direction. An imperial legate one
said: ‘No one can fathom the mysteries of this law. Its interpretation
lies solely in the king’s head, who amplifies and declares it at his
pleasure, and applies it to anyone he pleases.’ The Convocations of
the Church, after stiff protest and without verbally admitting guilt,
8
The Statute of Praemunire was an act of the parliament of England enacted in 1392 (during the reign of Richard
II). Its intention was to limit the powers of the papacy in England by making it illegal to appeal an English court
case to the pope if the king objected, or for anyone to act in a way that recognized papal authority over the
authority of the king.

36
bought their forgiveness for £118,000 (£100,000 for the Convocation
of Canterbury, £18,000 for the Convocation of York) and were then
forced by the king into recognizing the king as the head of the
church – ‘special Protector, only and supreme Lord, and, as far as the
law of Christ allows, even supreme Head’. The king appointed
Cardinal Wolsey’s lieutenant, Thomas Cromwell, as his secretary (in
place of Wolsey). Thomas Cromwell hat learnt from Cardinal Wolsey
the method of controlling Church and State as a unity. Now, he
aimed at a similarly unified control achieved by king and parliament
with the pope excluded from the realm.
In 1532 King Henry forced the Convocation through the parliament
to give up their law-making power (for the Church) to the law-making
power of the king. They were to enact no new ordinances without
licence from the king and would submit the existing canons to a
royal committee for revision. Further, a law was enacted forbidding
the payments of the ‘first fruits’ to Rome. In 1533 an Act abolished
appeals from England to Rome. In 1534 the payment of the ‘first
fruits’ was transferred to the king and all legal rights and duties of
the pope were transferred too to the king. In the same year
parliament enacted a law declaring the king the supreme head of the
Church of England.
Also in 1533 the new Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer,
declared the marriage between King Henry VIII and Catherine of
Aragon a nullity. Anne Boleyn was crowned Queen. In June and July
1535 Bishop Fisher of Rochester and the ex-Chancellor, Sir Thomas
More, were beheaded because they refused to repudiate papal
authority in England and swear to the royal supremacy.

1.5.5 The Suppression of the Monasteries

In all the countries where the Reformation occurred, all Protestants
were agreed that the monastic life was a mistaken form of Christian
life. And in many of the cities and countries dominated by
Protestants, different methods were adopted to do away with
monastic life and with monasteries. Some repealed laws which
penalised monks and nuns who ran away from monasteries. Others
encouraged monks and nuns to leave the monastic life by providing
pensions for run-away monks and dowries for upon marriage for
nuns who ceased to be nuns. In some countries (like Switzerland) the
monasteries were simply suppressed and their properties
confiscated. Other countries simply allowed the monasteries to
continue to exist until they had no members anymore.
37
In England, the king pretended that he would not suppress the
monasteries forcefully. But in 1535, Cromwell (the king’s secretary)
organised a visitation of the monasteries. The visitors reported much
foulness in the monasteries, a report which impartial observers
doubted. Thereafter, the small monasteries were suppressed by an
Act of 1536. Even at this time, the king still pretended that he didn’t
want to suppress monasteries by founding to monasteries in 1537.
From November 1537 the bigger and wealthier monasteries began to
dissolve themselves by agreement. Visitors toured the country to
persuade monks to agree to be dissolved. This persuasion was
accompanied by the more or less threatening rumour that the
monasteries would soon be dissolved whether the monks agree to it
or not. In May 1539 Parliament passed an act vesting in the crown all
monastic possessions surrendered after the Act of 1536. Thus, the
real motive of the suppression of the monasteries was laid bare. A
Court of Augmentations was set up to receive and administer the
surrendered property of the monasteries. Through this Court the
property of the monasteries was leased to the king and his servants.
Some lands belonging to t he dissolved monasteries were sold to the
public.
Now, it has been pointed out by some historians that the ease with
which the monasteries were suppressed showed that the monks and
nuns themselves were not opposed to the suppression. This
supposed wilful surrender of the monasteries by the monks and nuns
has been attributed by some other historians to the greed of some
monks who were offered some pensions or some property from the
property of their monasteries. Some Catholics believed that many
monks were indifferent to the dissolution of their monasteries,
provided that they could divide the money among themselves or at
least receive an adequate pension. There is also the possibility that
the monks were enticed into giving up their monasteries through a
promise of the leading positions in the emerging English Church.
Many ex-monks were later made parochial clergy. The abbots and
priors received large pensions from the monastic revenues. The king
also converted some of the wealthiest abbeys into bishoprics. Nearly
all the new cathedrals had ex-monks as their deans and bishops.
Between twenty and thirty superiors became bishops within a few
years of the dissolution of their monasteries. Some others became
heads of colleges or hospitals. Where the old cathedrals had been
monastic foundations (like Canterbury, Durham, Winchester,

38
Norwich, etc), the monasteries were converted into chapters of
canons, and many of the old monks continued as new canons. 9
Other historians point to the fact that the monks and nuns were
forced through subtle threats to ‘surrender’ their monasteries for
dissolution. This later explanation is even more convincing in the
face of the executions and persecutions with which the abbots who
resisted the dissolution were visited. The abbots of Glastonbury,
Reading, and Colchester were hanged in 1539. Some abbots, monks
and nuns also retired to private houses to continue to live their
monastic life. In some places, the whole monastery revolted against
the dissolution and had to be put down by force. Some monks and
nuns even fled overseas in 1539/1540 to practise their familiar
monastic life (denied them in England) in Catholic countries.
In some parts of England, the suppression of monasteries roused
anger and there was a resort to arms.

1.5.6 The Looting of the Property of the Monasteries

Since the monasteries were suppressed, the question arises as to
what was done with the wealth of the monasteries most of which
were quite wealthy, having money, land and landed properties.
i) Some part of the wealth of the monasteries was used to provide
pensions for the ex-monks and pensions or dowries for the ex-nuns.
Some of these pensioners lived quite long. The last of them in
England died in 1607.
ii) A fragment of the monastic lands were given to new sees as
endowments
iii) A small proportion of the land went to education. A few colleges
were founded or refounded at Oxford and Cambridge. A small
amount of money was acquired by local municipality which used it to
found schools. But these schools could not compensate for the loss
of the monastic schools.
iv) The government needed money and confiscated a good
proportion of the lands of suppressed monasteries to help the
purpose of the state, to reward servants of the state and to enrich
the Crown of England which gained an increased annual revenue of
over one hundred thousand pounds. In some cases the money and
land of the monasteries were put into the hands of lords.
v) Some of the abbey10 buildings, which were in towns, became
valuable property to be acquired by lords or sold to the public. Some
9
A canon is an Anglican priest with special duties in a cathedral.
10
An abbey is a large church together with a group of buildings in which monks and nuns live or lived.

39
that were in the country-side could not be sold. Government simply
ordered them to be demolished – an order that was too costly to
obey for some communities which let them decay into ruins. Some
communities which could not afford to cost of demolishing the abbey
building let them be used as quarries by those who needed the
stones. Government servants and relatives who wanted the lands on
which abbey buildings stood simply ordered the demolition of such
buildings.
vi) Some abbey chapels became parish churches. Some monasteries
were used by wealthy officials of government as factories. The king
himself used the chapel of the London Charterhouse to store his
tents and garden gear.
vii) The contents of the abbey houses and monasteries were
auctioned to speculators and dealers or collectors or conservatives.
These included glass, vestments, missals, candlesticks, censers, and
lead roofs. These articles were often sold at outrageously low prices
especially in the country-side where the sellers and buyers did not
know their actual worth.
viii) Some of the books of the libraries were destroyed. Most were
dispersed into the public book trade and found their way into the
hands of individuals who understood little of their value.

1.4.7 The Reign of Edward VI (1547 – 1553)

King Henry VIII died on 28th January 1547. His only son, Edward,
was crowned and became King Edward VI. He was nine years old
when he was crowned. Since he was still a minor, a Protector 11 was
appointed in the person of Edward Seymour (also called Edward
Semel), the first Duke of Somerset. He was simply known as Lord
Protector Somerset. Lord Protector Somerset was a friend of Thomas
Cranmer (the new Archbishop of Canterbury) and a supporter of
reform. The way was now open for the reformers of England.
First, the Act of Six articles 12 and the heresy laws ceased to be in
force. Protestant could now freely teach protestant doctrines and
Protestant churchwardens could remove images and alter the
appearance of churches. In July 1547 injunctions were issued
requiring the destruction of abused images or pictures. Later these
injunctions were widened to include the removal of all images from
11
A Protector is a person who governs a kingdom in the minority, absence or disability of the sovereign (king); a
regent.
12
The Act of Six Articles upheld i) the doctrine of transubstantiation, ii) reception of communion under one
species, iii) priestly celibacy, iv) binding character of the vows of chastity, v) private masses, and vi) auricular
confession.

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churches. In 1549 an Act of Parliament decreed that communion be
received in both species. A further Act permitted the clergy to marry.
Archbishop Thomas Cranmer’s secret wife began to appear publicly
at her husband’s side.
Perhaps the most revolutionary act of the reign of Edward VI was the
publication of Archbishop Thomas Cranmer’s Prayer book in 1549.
Thereafter an Act of Parliament (called Act of Uniformity) abolished
the Latin Mass and made Cranmer’s Prayer Book the legal form of
worship in England. The Prayer Book of 1549 was modelled upon the
German Protestant Church worship. Its principles for reform were the
principles of Luther. But in 1552 a new Prayer Book was issued which
was modelled according to the doctrines of the Reformation in
Switzerland. In it, every semblance of the doctrine of Real Presence
of Jesus Christ in the Eucharistic species was removed. The new
Prayer Book of 1552 became a vehicle for those Swiss doctrines
which taught that the Eucharist was primarily a memorial of a
sacrifice and that the gift as a spiritual gift received by the heart and
not the hand.
King Edward VI died on 6th July 1553.

1.4.8 The Reign Queen Mary (1553 – 1558)

Mary was the only surviving daughter of Catherine of Aragon. After
the dissolution of King Henry VIII’s marriage to her mother
(Catherine of Aragon) and the crowning of Anne Boleyn as queen,
she was often treated as a bastard by her father. She was crowned
the queen of England on 1st October 1553 at the age of 37. In 1554
she married Philip of Spain, the son of Emperor Charles V, who was
11 years younger than her. The English Parliament wanted her to
marry an Englishman and not a Spaniard, and gave offence by a
petition to this effect. From this marriage, Queen Mary had hoped for
a child who would continue her vision for England. This hope was
never realised and Queen Mary never recovered from the frustration.

1.4.8.1 The Restoration of the Catholic Faith in England

Mary grew up with an attachment to Rome so fervent as to be
fanatical. Even during the years of Protestant changes under the
reign of her half brother, Edward VI, she insisted on having her Mass
and had to suffer indignities because of that. Her aim was to restore
the Catholic faith in England. At her coronation she promised to
maintain the rights of the Holy See as well as the liberties of the
English kingdom.
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Queen Mary restored five bishops, who were deprived of their sees
during the Protestant revolution, to their sees. 2000 clergy, who
married after King Edward VI repealed the celibacy laws, were
dismissed from clerical service. An Act of Parliament repealed all the
legislation of the reign of King Edward VI concerning the prayer
books, uniformity, and the marriage of the clergy. The Convocation
of Canterbury declared the doctrine of transubstantiation to be true.
But the Queen wanted to go beyond these changes and restore the
authority of the See of Rome in England. But this was not easy. The
English Parliament did not want the restoration of papal authority in
England. The laity too did not want the restoration of papal authority
in England: for the feared that if they received the papal legate
(Reginald Pole) as their new Archbishop of Canterbury, they may
lose the old monastic lands in their possession. Since by canon law
church property was inalienable, the House of Commons feared too
that the restoration of papal authority in England would legally mean
the expropriation of many of the leading landowners in the country.
But on 7th November 1554 Pope Julius II gave a sufficient assurance
that former church lands will not be required back. Thereafter, the
papal legate was received in London and papal authority was
restored. Some monastic houses were later re-established.

1.4.8.2 Executions under Queen Mary

In December 1554, three old laws against heresy were re-
established. This enabled the extreme persecution of Protestants
under the reign of Queen Mary. Executions by burning were
commenced against Protestant heretics with the burning of John
Rogers at Smithfield.
In the cause of three years nearly three hundred people were burnt
as Protestant heretics. These include five former bishops among who
was Archbishop Thomas Cranmer, the archbishop of Canterbury
under Kings Henry VIII and Edward VI. The execution of Thomas
Cranmer was quite pathetic. Two Spanish friars were earlier sent to
convince him to renounce Protestantism. Consequently, he
submitted, in 1556, to the Catholic Church and to the Pope as its
supreme head, declared that he believed all the articles of the
Catholic faith and denounced the heresies of Luther and Zwingli. In
the same year, he signed a document of penitence that he had
abused his archbishopric and had declared the divorce of King Henry
VIII. But that did not save his life. On the day of execution by
burning, he revoked his recantations and declared that he had
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signed the documents of recantation not because he believed them
but only to save his life. As a sign of defiance, he held his right arm
in the rising flame that consumed him.
Among those executed during the reign of Queen Mary were
extreme Protestant fanatics. But among them were also eminent
representatives of opinions widely held among influential clergy and
laymen. Mary was not executing a few unpopular fanatics, but also
some of the chief leaders of a party in opposition. This reversed
feelings in England. The burnings attracted sympathy for Protestants
so that on 29th August 1556, about 1000 people cheered through
the streets a roped chain of twenty two men and women from
Colchester on their way to execution by burning. There were reports
of crowds gathering around the ashes of people executed by
burning, wrapping the ashes reverently. Others uttered menaces
against the bishops or wept in compassion. Since the executions
started with the arrival of the papal legate, Archbishop Reginald
Pole, the executions drove into English minds the fatal association of
ecclesiastical tyranny with the See of Rome. The old anticlericalism,
the resentment against the pope’s authority received fresh
justification through the executions. Five years before, the
Protestant cause was identified with church robbery, destruction,
irreverence, religious anarchy. It was now beginning to be identified
with virtue, honesty and loyal English resistance to a government
they considered half-foreign. If the Reformation was forced on
English people by King Henry VIII, Protestantism has been made
attractive to them by the fanatic executions under Queen Mary.
Queen Mary died on 17th November 1558.

1.4.9 The Reign of Queen Elizabeth

Elizabeth, the daughter of King Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, became
queen of England on 17th November 1558 and ruled England until
her death on 24th March 1603. As the daughter of Anne Boleyn, she
must be Protestant. Under Queen Mary she had suffered for the
Protestant cause and was regarded by most Protestants as their
champion.
Now, at the coronation of Elizabeth, Protestants who went into exile
under Queen Mary all hurried back to England. It was said that
Elizabeth wanted for England a Catholicism without the pope. She
wanted a Christianity with royal supremacy and a preferably celibate
clergy and the doctrine of real presence in the Eucharist. Indeed, she
did tell the Spanish ambassador that she was resolved to restore
43
religion as her father had left it. But this was not practicable,
because no one wanted it. The country had already been polarised
during the reigns of Edward VI and Mary, with Catholics becoming
more Roman and Protestants becoming more reformed.

1.4.9.1 Catholic Opposition to Queen Elisabeth

Many leaders of the Catholic Church in England resented the
accession of Elizabeth to power. The Archbishop of York, Archbishop
Heath, refused to crown the new queen. The Marian bishops, as the
Roman Catholic bishops were called, were not ready to cooperate
with her government. They opposed her reforming bills steadily in
the House of Lords. The opposition continued during the election of
Matthew Parker as the new Archbishop of Canterbury. Government
had hoped that at least four Marian bishops would agree to
consecrate Parker. The hope was vain. As a consequence of this
opposition to the new government, 14 bishops, 12 deans, 15 heads
of colleges and between 200 and 300 clergy resigned their offices or
were deprived of their offices. Only two Marian bishops retained their
sees. The queen surrounded herself with Lords who were
sympathetic to the Protestant cause.

1.4.9.2 England becomes Protestant Again

Ruling England was initially not easy for Elizabeth. She was opposed
by Catholic bishops who were loyal to Rome. About two thirds of
England was still Catholic. The royal treasury was impoverished. The
Queen of Scotland, supported by France, was claiming the English
crown. And the army of Catholic Spain was in the Netherlands. As a
leader, it was very imprudent to be a Protestant at the time. But she
was born and educated to be a Protestant. And she was clever and
shrewd enough to steer England back into Protestantism. This she
achieved by trying to reconcile conservatives and Protestants in
England and erecting a Church that could be acceptable to moderate
Catholics. Hers was a moderate policy. And she filled her
government with moderate Protestants and some moderate
Catholics.
Although she was known for her diplomatic talent, she had no
dealings with the pope. In fact, she withdrew the English envoy to
Rome unceremoniously. A Supremacy Bill in Parliament offered her
the Supreme Leadership of the English Church. Knowing that
Catholics (and to some extent also Protestants) disliked seeing the
crown as head of the Church, she accepted the power but refused
44
the tile of supreme head of the Church. Instead she preferred the
title Supreme Governor. This was acceptable to all sides.
Next, the Prayer Book of 1552 was reissued under an Act of
Uniformity. Again, amendments were made to please conservatives.
Traditional vestments were still worn by the clergy. The churches
were allowed to retain much of their medieval appearance.
At the death of Queen Elisabeth on 24th March 1603, the
appearance of many churches have been altered, the monasteries
dissolved, the clergy permitted to marry, the images and the
chasubles destroyed or sold, the independent power of the church
curtailed, and the secular authority of the bishops weakened. But
Protestant doctrine penetrated very little farther than the homilies
the clergy was compelled to read and the liturgy they were
compelled to use. Hence, some Protestants say that the accession of
Elizabeth to power was the beginning of the English Reformation, not
its end.

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