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476 Chapter 23 477 THE FRAGMENTATION OF WESTERN impose a strict code of morality and discipline on the city. Roman church and make himself Supreme Head of the EUROPEAN CHRISTENDOM translation of the Bible into German stimulated the produc- O Calvin also composed an influential treatise, Institutes of the Anglican church-in essence. an English pope. While Henry Christian Religion (1536), that codified Protestant teachings reigned, the theology of the English church changed little. Although the peoples of western Europe spoke different lan tion and distribution of religious books and pamphlets and guages, ate different foods, and observed different customs, proved to be a decisive factor in the spread of literacy. A growing literate public eagerly consumed printed works on and presented them as a coherent and organized package. but under pressure of reformers. his successors replaced Roman Catholic with Protestant doctrines and rituals. By the church of Rome provided them with a common religious and cultural her both religious and nonreligious themes, as both supporters Although Calvin believed in the basic elements of itage. During the sixteenth and seventeenth Luther's Protestant teachings, his ideas differed from those 1560 England had permanently left the Roman Catholic community. Indeed, by the late sixteenth century, Lutherans. centuries, however, revolts against the Roman Catholic church and critics of Martin Luther took their own works to the printers, Religious controversies kept the presses busy of Luther in important ways. Most fundamentally, Calvin emphasized the awesome power of God more than Luther Anglicans, and Calvinists together had built communities shattered the religious unity of western Europe. Followers of large enough that a return to religious unity in western Martin Luther and other Protestant reformers established a churning out millions of pamphlets and treatises for a century and more, did. Indeed, he believed not only that humans could never In his publications, writings, and speeches, Luther at- earn salvation through prayers and good works but also that Europe was inconceivable. series of churches independent of Rome, and Roman Catholic leaders strengthened their own church against the challengers. God had in fact already determined which individuals would Throughout early modern times, religious controversies fueled tacked the Roman church for a wide range of abuses and called social tensions. for thorough reform of Christendom. He advocated the clo- be saved from damnation even before The Catholic Reformation sure of monasteries; translation of the Bible from Latin into they were born. These individuals, Partly in response to the Protestant known as "the elect," were predes- Reformation, Roman Catholic author- The Protestant Reformation regional languages; and an end to priestly authority, including the authority of the pope himself. Most important, Luther be- tined for salvation regardless of their ities undertook an enormous reform lieved that salvation and the entry to heaven could never be deeds on earth. This doctrine of "pre- effort within their own church in the begin to Roots of Reform The Protestant Reformation dates from earned through good works or through the prayers of others. destination" grew increasingly im- sixteenth century. To some extent their the early sixteenth century, but many of the underlying con- portant to the Calvinist church in the efforts represented a reaction to Prot- ditions that prompted reformers to challenge the authority of Instead, he argued, humans could be saved only through faith er pro in the promises of God as revealed in the Bible, This idea of generations after Calvin's death. estant success. Yet Roman Catholic the Roman Catholic church had existed for hundreds of Calvin's Geneva was bound by a authorities also sought to define points ation , years. Over the course of centuries, the church and its top "justification by faith alone" became the core of Protestant officials had become deeply involved in the political affairs of beliefs. When opponents pointed out that his reform program strict code of morality and discipline. of doctrine and thus clarify differences Calvinists were expected to dress sim- between Roman and Protestant western Europe, But political intrigues, combined with the ran counter to church policy, Luther rejected the authority of church's growing wealth and power, also fostered greed and the church hierarchy and proclaimed that the Bible was the ply, to study the Bible regularly, and churches, to persuade Protestants to only source of Christian religious authority. to refrain from activities such as return to the Roman church, and to corruption, which undermined the church's spiritual author- Luther's works drew an enthusiastic popular response, dancing or playing cards, It was, in deepen the sense of spirituality and re- daction ity and made it vulnerable to criticism. The blatant pursuit of and in Germany they fueled a movement to reform the church effect, a Protestant model commu- ligious commitment in their own com- pleasure and crass materialism of church officials-including, along the lines of Luther's teachings. Ordinary Christians nity. Geneva also became an import- munity. Taken together, their efforts in some cases, living in luxury and taking mistresses-only flocked to hear Luther preach in Wittenberg, and several ant missionary center from which constituted the Catholic Reformation. further emphasized the perceived betrayal of Christian ide- als. Although the church continued to enjoy the loyalty of princes of the Holy Roman Empire warmed to Luther's views- Calvinist doctrine spread to other partly because of personal conviction but partly because reli- parts of Europe. Calvinist missionar- The Council of Trent Two institu- most Christians, it faced a disapproval of its abuses that be- gious controversy offered opportunities for them to build their ies were most active in France, where tions were especially important for de- came increasingly strident in the decades before 1517, Along- own power bases. During the 1520s and 1530s, many of the they attracted strong interest in the fining the Catholic Reformation and side such criticism came a growing demand for a more most important German cities-Strasbourg, Nuremberg, and cities, but they ventured also to Ger- personal involvement with God, Efforts by church authori- advancing its goals-the Council of Augsburg, among others-passed laws prohibiting Roman many, the Low Countries, England, ties to eliminate pre-Christian traditions and alternative Trent and the Society of Jesus. The Catholic observances and requiring all religious services to Scotland, and even distant Hungary. kinds of spirituality only intensified the desire among laypeo- Council of Trent was an assembly of follow Lutheran doctrine and procedures. They established churches in all these ple for forms of devotion that would connect them more di- bishops, cardinals, and other high rectly with God than the church allowed. By the mid-sixteenth century, about half the German pop lands and worked for reform along church officials who met intermit- ulation had adopted Lutheran Christianity, and reformers had Protestant lines. They were most suc- launched Protestant movements and established alternative tently between 1545 and 1563 to ad- cessful in the Netherlands and Martin Luther Martin Luther coalesced these expres- churches in other lands as well. By the late 1520s, the prosper- dress matters of doctrine and reform. Scotland. sions of religious discontent into a powerful revolt against ous cities of Switzerland-Zurich, Basel, and Geneva-had Drawing heavily on the works of the the church. Martin Luther (1483-1546) attacked the sale of fledgling Protestant churches. The heavily urbanized Low thirteenth-century scholastic theolo- The English Reformation In indulgences as an individual, but he soon attracted enthusi Countries also responded enthusiastically to Protestant England a Reformation took place gian St. Thomas Aquinas (discussed astic support from others who resented the policies of the appeals. Protestants appeared even in Italy and Spain, for political as well as religious rea- Inspired by the Catholic Reformation. in chapter 19), the council defined the Roman church. Luther was a prolific and talented writer, although authorities in those lands handily suppressed their elements of Roman Catholic theology challenge to the Roman church. sons. Lutherans and other Protes- many devout individuals sought mystic and he published numerous works condemning the Roman in detail. The council acknowledged tants worked to build a following in union with God. One of the most famous church. His cause benefited enormously from the printing that abuses had alienated many people John Calvin Meanwhile, an even more influential Refor- England from the 1520s, but they of the mystics was St. Teresa of Avila press, which had first appeared in Europe in the mid- faced significant government resis- (in Spain), who founded a strict order of from the Roman church, and it took fifteenth century. mation was taking shape in France and the French-speaking tance until King Henry VIII (reigned nuns and often experienced religious steps to reform the church. The coun- Johannes Gutenberg (ca. 1395-1468) introduced print- parts of Switzerland. The initiator was a French lawyer, John visions. A famous sculpture by the cil demanded that church authorities ing to Europe and his invention of mechanical movable type Calvin (1509-1564), who in the 1530s converted to Protest 1509-1547) came into conflict with the pope. Henry wanted to divorce Italian artist Gianlorenzo Bernini observe strict standards of morality, printing, around 1439, started a printing revolution. From tant Christianity. Because the French monarchy sought to depicts St. Teresa in an ecstatic trance and it required them to establish C suppress Protestants, Calvin slipped across the border to his wife, who had not given birth to Gutenberg's hometown of Mainz, Germany, printing soon accompanied by an angel. schools and seminaries in their dis- spread to more than two hundred European cities. Luther's French-speaking Geneva in Switzerland. There he organized a male heir, but the pope refused to a Protestant community and worked with local officials to allow him to do so. Henry's response Stefano Valeri/Shutterstock tricts to prepare priests properly for was to cut off relations with the their roles