01.01.

10 EARTHQUAKE & STORM

OUTLINE

PROTEST AND REFORM

Call for reform
Luther and faith
Indulgence and theses
Worms and Wartburg
Muntzer and Peasants War
Lutheranism

RADICAL REFORM
Zwingli and Zurich
Anabaptism
Satler and Schleitheim
Munster
Menno Simons
Hutterites

ESTABLISHMENT AND REFORM

Huguenots
Farel the evangelist
Calvin the scholar
Church in Geneva
Knox and Scotland
Arminius and Dort

ENGLAND AND REFORM

Stirrings and influences
Henry and schism
Edward and progress
Mary and reaction
Elizabeth and settlement
Brownists and Separatists

RESPONSE TO REFORM
Protestant and Catholic
Council of Trent
Society of Jesus
Francis Xavier

Questions
Open Reflection
Reading & Resources

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 SALVATION LANDSCAPE

An opportunity to understand, discuss and reflect upon the story of the people of
God; seamlessly integrating biblical and church history against a background of
world history and applying our observations to the Christian community today.

LEARNING GOALS:

Unit Objective: To enable learners to understand the relationship between history,

mission and eschatology in defining the environment, inspiration and the purpose of
Christians as the people of God.

Module Objective: To enable learners to recognise and understand the biblical

presentation and historical development of Christianity
Learners will:
Review historical events
Analyse different interpretations
Identify the spiritual dimension of world history
Reflect on the relevance to the students own times
Learners will acquire a knowledge and understanding of:
Sequential events
Historical context
Methods of history telling
Influence / impact of events on subsequent events

Session Learning Goal:

Learners will assess the events surrounding the Reformation and their
significance to the whole Christian church

Session Description:
The Reformation and its consequences

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 01.01.10 EARTHQUAKE & STORM

PROTEST AND REFORM

Call for reform

For all the optimism of some humanists, the 16th century began as the 15th had
ended, with deep anxiety. There was frequent foreboding about an imminent end of
the world, and uncertainty about personal salvation. People sought respite in
devotion to the Virgin, the cult of the rosary, pilgrimages and indulgences; or in
deepening personal faith and a study of the Scriptures. There was little confidence in
the church as an institution; there was moral and pastoral corruption among priests
and bishops and the papacy was doing nothing to check the abuses. In fact the
popes were most concerned about raising money for extravagant banquets and their
building programmes, inspired by renaissance indulgence and expressed in projects
like the basilica of St Peter in Rome. The desire for money led the papacy to permit
unsuitable and absentee bishops provided there were favourable financial
considerations. There were constant cries for reform everywhere. Ironically, the fifth
Lateran Council which ended in March 1517 promised yet another reform
programme, which came to nothing; within seven months Martin Luther had begun
his protest.

Church reform was what everyone wanted; but there were powerful political and
social forces at work across Christendom, which once released were to change the
shape of the church and western Europe beyond all expectation.

Luther and faith

Martin Luther was born in Eisleben in Saxony in 1483, the son of a god-fearing and
reasonably prosperous copper miner. He studied law at Erfurt; but then in 1505,
after a disturbing spiritual experience in a thunderstorm, joined the Augustinian
canons. Martin was a tough, solid man of peasant stock. He had deep-set, disturbing
eyes, but a character as open as the daylight. Nothing about him was sophisticated;
he had a vigorous mind but he was not an intellectual gymnast; he was earnest
rather than subtle. He could be a man of rough and vulgar language; he expressed
loud laughter but he was not a wit. Years later, in heated debate with guests around
the meal table, his wife Katie would complain, Martin, you are so rude! To which he
would reply, But they make me so rude!. His writings carried the same passion. He
said, My pen gets irritated very quickly!

In 1512 Luther began to teach Scripture at the new university at Wittenberg. He was,
however, someone whose conscience never knew genuine peace. His constant
spiritual anxiety led his spiritual advisors to despair of his introspection. He

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personally came to believe he was a castaway; irredeemably damned. Staupitz, his
vicar general, encouraged him to study Pauls letter to the Romans with the aid of
the writings of Augustine. This proved to have dramatic consequences. It brought
him to a new understanding and deep peace as he pondered the words the just
shall live by faith [Rom 1:17]. He realised that Gods forgiveness was free and
absolute on the basis of repentance and faith in the atoning work of Jesus; Gods
grace, not human effort, was the basis of personal salvation. He began to teach his
new and growing understanding in the university and the ideas spread among
teachers and students. However, events were soon to take place that would
dramatically focus Luthers new understanding.

Indulgence and theses

We have already mentioned that indulgences had been used by the papacy during
the medieval period as one of the means by which to finance itself. An indulgence
was a papal document that promised the purchaser forgiveness for sin for either
themselves or someone deceased. It was quite simply selling the grace of God, of
which the church saw itself to be the administrator.

1517 saw Tetzel, a Dominican, employed to preach and sell the indulgence to raise
tax money for the Archbishop of Mainz and finance for the work on St Peters in
Rome. Tetzel was a master of his craft, crying out:

Another soul to heaven springs,

when in the box a shilling rings.

Because the medieval peasant mind was so spiritually fearful, it really believed in the
efficacy of the indulgence and sales were high.

Luther, watching at the edge of the crowd, was shocked at Tetzels crudity and the
peoples credulity. He believed it was essential to have a public debate about the
whole issue of indulgences that he believed was contrary to the declaration of Gods
free grace clearly stated in Scripture. So on 31 October 1517 he fixed a document to
the Castle Church door in Wittenberg; it presented 95 Theses on Indulgences,
which he announced he was prepared to defend in public debate. This was not an
act of revolution; the theses were not intended for the general public. Martin loved
the church and he believed the pope himself would have been appalled if he knew
the real harm the sale of indulgences was doing.

Luthers protest and the debate that followed brought a sharp drop in the sale of
indulgences; the subsequent loss of money brought the matter to the popes
attention who demanded that Staupitz, the head of Luthers order, keep his monks
quiet.

Next, the Dominicans, the guardians of orthodoxy, tried to prove Luther was a
heretic. They argued that the indulgences were sold on papal authority, so it was the
pope he was really attacking. So the matter became a debate about papal authority;
people said things Luther had not intended. He replied, Sadly, the song has been
pitched in a key too high for me to sing.

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How long Luther could have lasted unprotected we simply cannot say, however,
King Frederick of Saxony and popular opinion supported him. The theses had been
printed and spread throughout Germany, bringing even more support. Tetzel could
no longer walk the streets of Wittenberg without being attacked! A popular
movement, with national as well as spiritual issues entwined within it had started:

1518 [Oct] Augsburg: the papal legate Cajetan told Luther to recant, but Martin
respectfully said he could not and would die for the truth. At this time he was
probably in the greatest danger, friends hurried him home under cover of darkness.
He printed an account of his interview with Cajetan, plus an attack on papal
infallibility.

1519 [Jan] Altenburg: an interview with Miltitz, a papal diplomat, who said, an
army of 25,000 would not get Luther to Rome such was the popular German
feeling. He persuaded Luther to write to the pope, submissive in tone but retracting
nothing, which he did.

1519 [July] Leipzig: a public disputation between Dr Eck and Luthers friend
Carlstadt. Luther joins in and Eck brilliantly got him to agree with the ideas for which
Jan Hus had been condemned at Constance. The assembly was in turmoil. This was
a vital moment for Luther, he had had to choose between the authority of Scripture
or the traditions of the church. Later he wrote, We are all Hussites without knowing
it; St Paul, St Augustine are all Hussites.

Luther was now famous. He published numerous pamphlets in his genius of

polemics. In 1520 in his document, To the Christian nobility of the German nation,
he called princes and rulers, as their moral duty before God, to rise up and withstand
the papacy.

In the summer of 1520 the pope issued a Bull stating that Luther was a heretic. On
10 December, Martin led a crowd of students and townsfolk outside Wittenberg to a
huge bonfire on which he burnt the Bull along with the books of Eck and others. On
3 January 1521, Luther was finally excommunicated. A papal legate wrote, All
Germany is in revolution, nine tenths shout for Luther, the others care nothing for
Luther but shout, Death to the court of Rome. Peasants on the road to Wittenberg
would ask travellers, Are you for Martin? If they were not they were beaten up!

Worms and Wartburg

The youthful Charles V, King of Spain and Emperor of Germany, called Luther to a
diet at Worms, with the promise safe conduct [remember Jan Hus] to resolve the
issue. Luther told his fearful friends that he would go in the face of all the demons of
hell. On 15 April 1521, he was asked if he would recant. He replied:

I will apologise for genuine faults in my writings, but not for attacking
the pope. Unless I am proved wrong by Scripture or evident reason,
then I am a prisoner in conscience to the Word of God. I cannot, I will
not recant. To go against conscience is neither safe nor right, so help
me God. Amen.

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He probably did not say, Here I stand, I can do no other. Luther saw the whole
event as an anti-climax; he said, I expected the emperor to have collected 50
doctors of the law to confute the monk in argument, but all they said was, Are these
your books? Yes. Will you recant? No. Then get out! The verdict was that he
could return to Wittenberg, but within a month he would be an outlaw, and his life
forfeit to anyone who wished to take it.

Frederick of Saxony, Luthers protector, was in a dilemma; the only solution was to
get Martin kidnapped en route from Worms. He was hidden in the castle, the
Wartburg, while rumours that he had been found dead abounded. He was given the
pseudonym, Squire George, and went through a period of emotional reaction after
the years of strain. Once he was well again he began to translate the Bible into
German that, in Erasmus words, the plough boy ought to be able to recite Scripture
while ploughing, and the weaver to the hum of their shuttle.

With Luther absent it did not mean that the reform movement ceased. Without his
presence, friends like Andreas Carlstadt and Philip Melanchthon took the lead. They
believed it was time to stop simply criticising abuses and to act. They involved
themselves in increasingly provocative behaviour that led to rioting in Wittenberg;
destroying images and pictures in the churches. When the news reached Luther he
was shocked and felt he could not stand by and watch. In March 1522 he entered
Wittenberg once again; he quelled the tumult by the force of his presence alone.
Sadly, because of disagreement with Luther, Carlstadt was forced to leave Saxony.

Muntzer and Peasants War

Luthers conflict with Rome unleashed many different forces within Germany. The
central government was weak and real power lay in the hands of a miscellany of
local princes, nobles and knights. They involved themselves in a struggle to gain
control of church lands. Under their rule were the peasant populations who for years
had been bitter and discontented against both the clergy and their exploitive
overlords; time and again their feelings had erupted in revolt under the emblem of a
shoe, led by starving disbanded soldiers and bankrupt knights. Events surrounding
Martin Luther led them to hope for justice in equality under God. Matters came to a
head with the preaching of Thomas Muntzer.

Muntzer was an early friend of the Reformation and on Luthers recommendation he

got a pastoral position in a church in Zwickau by 1520. In his teaching he
emphasised inner faith inspired by the Spirit and personally appropriated. In his
pastoral work he became concerned with the needs of the peasant population, which
led to his involvement in social protest. Opposition to him led to his being forced to
leave the city in 1521. After a brief period he became pastor of a church in Allstedt in
Saxony. He carried out wide-ranging local reforms, and drew crowds from the
surrounding area to his services with German liturgy. He taught that the individuals
experience of the Spirit undercut the authority of the clergy who, along with political
authorities, were in fact reprobate in placing themselves between God and
humankind. Both these would eventually be annihilated by the elect who would
establish just spiritual government. Muntzer came increasingly to identify the
common people with the elect.

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There was strong opposition from the Catholics, but also from Luther. He, in turn,
was now personally attacked by Muntzer for putting Scripture between God and
people. Soon disorder broke out in Allstedt with the destruction of a chapel
dedicated to the Virgin Mary. Muntzer called on the princes to help the godly destroy
the wicked and establish Gods kingdom. They refused and expelled him from
Allstedt. From now on Muntzers life became increasingly unsettled. He helped to
organise peasant marches in southern Germany between 1524 and 1525, and
taught that the coming confrontation with the authorities would be the last judgment.
He eagerly joined the peasant army that confronted the princes near Frankenhausen
on 15 May 1525 when 6,000 peasants were slaughtered. Muntzer himself escaped
only to be captured and executed 12 days later.

The events of this Peasants War during the days of 1524 to 1525 not only shook
the nation, but also filled Luther with dread. He hated disorder, but he failed to
understand the true concerns of the peasants. His writings fuelled the situation
against the poor:

Princes must brandish their swords to free, save, help and pity the
poor people forced to join the peasants but the wicked stab, smite
and slay all you can These times are so extraordinary that a prince
can win heaven more easily by bloodshed than by prayer You
cannot meet a rebel with reason.

These are astonishing words from a man who once said, I do not want to struggle
for the gospel by violence and murder. However, his naivet and desire for order led
him to support the nobility in their use of terrible force and atrocity to suppress the
peasants.

Lutheranism

Luther had no intention of founding a new church; he believed that rediscovering the
truth of the gospel the church would reform itself. It did not happen like that. He
spent the concluding years of his life establishing what he had begun with doctrinal
definition and minimal church organisation. His love of tradition meant that he
permitted anything that was clearly not forbidden by Scripture, but he would allow
nothing that denied the pre-eminence of Scripture and personal faith. What mattered
was the universal priesthood of all believers. Lutheran churches became state
churches, with the prince having power entrusted by God. So the very person who
had challenged ecclesiastical political power himself reinforced the power of the
state over the churches. Lutheranism was destined to spread its influence
throughout Germany and Scandinavia.

In 1525, the year of the Peasants War , Martin married a former nun, Catherine von
Bora. He was to write to a friend soon after the wedding to say he could not get used
to waking up and finding pigtails on his pillow! They were to have six children. In fact
the German memory of Luther is not so much the friar but the loving father with his
children around his ample knee. He was to say of his wife, I would not change my
Katie for France or Venice, because God has given her to me, and other women
have much worse faults and she is true to me and a good mother to my children.
Luther was eventually to die in 1546 after a long period of ill health.

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RADICAL REFORM

Zwingli and Zurich

On 27 December 1518, Ulrich Zwingli moved to Zurich to become a peoples priest

on the staff of the central church, the Grossmunster. Zwingli was born high in the
Swiss Alps, the son of a village magistrate and prosperous farmer. As a student in
Vienna and Basle he encountered humanism, the writings of Erasmus having had a
particularly strong influence on his thinking. Added to this, he also brought with him
to Zurich 12 years experience as a priest. His reading of the New Testament in
Greek had made him determined to preach only the gospel at his new post. A near-
death experience in the plague of 1519 sharpened his commitment even more.
Exactly when Zwingli took the decisive step to fully embrace Reformation thinking is
unclear. He claimed he had been teaching the ideas before he had heard of Luther,
and that his work was wholly independent of him. Whatever the truth of this claim, it
seems that the writings of Carlstadt were a formative influence on him.

What is clear, however, is that as reform began in Zurich there was nothing
haphazard about its development. Zwingli was an attractive and eloquent preacher
whose daily expositions of Scripture drew a growing audience. To this he added
teaching and disputation. The first clear act of challenging the old order was a group
who broke the Lent fast, by eating pork, in 1522. The group was publicly supported
by Zwingli from the pulpit and in writing, and was followed by challenging other
issues such as clerical marriage, monastic vows, indulgences, the use of images
and eventually ending the mass. By the end of 1522 Zwingli resigned his position as
a priest in the church and was employed to preach directly by the city council. From
now on the authority of the council was to prove decisive in Zwinglis view as to how
the reforms were to progress. He believed that the authority of Scripture was
paramount, but his desire for order led him to believe the authorities should be
persuaded about truth by preaching, which would then be followed by changes in
legislation in favour of reform. This approach was to have significant consequences
in the very near future.

Zwingli the scholar, humanist and evangelical reformer was clearly an attractive and
forceful personality. However, he did not have Luthers openness of character and
his respect for the past. For that reason reform in Zurich was much more thorough-
going than in Germany, producing a greater simplicity in faith and practice. Both
believed that nothing must be contrary to Scripture; but as we have seen Luther
permitted what Scripture did not forbid, while Zwingli only allowed what Scripture
explicitly sanctioned. Their debate and disagreement over the eucharist illustrates
this most clearly.

Zwinglis belief that the Reformation had to move in harmony with the civil authorities
led to his becoming increasingly involved in political activity; he believed that this
would open up the whole of Switzerland to the gospel. He saw some success, but
some of the strongly Catholic cantons joined forces with the Austrians, and Zurich
was one of the cities they attacked. Zwingli stood on the battlefield with his people,
sword and battle axe in hand. He died in the Battle of Cappel in 1531. Zwingli was
an important reformer, often called the third man of the Reformation, whose work in
Zurich was to serve as a model for other reformed cities.

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Anabaptism

The simple outline of Zwinglis ministry and reform in Zurich belies the fact that
during the same period, and in the same place, events more radical and far-reaching
in their significance were taking place. By 1521 the learning and attractive
personality of Zwingli had drawn around him a number of gifted young humanists
with a shared interest in studying the Greek classics. Zwingli then used their
common admiration for Erasmus to focus study on the Greek New Testament. By
1522 all the members of this group had come to share Zwinglis zeal for reform; one
of the most significant of whom was Conrad Grebel, a vagabond scholar whose
father was a member of the Zurich city council.

By October 1523 very real tensions had begun to emerge between Zwingli and
some of those who had been his closest and most enthusiastic supporters for
reform. Initially it was over changes to make the mass into a simple observance of
the Lords supper in which both wine as well as bread were shared with all the
participants. Zwingli was convinced biblically but would make no move until the city
council approved and legislated for the change. Conrad Grebel believed he was
seriously compromising truth and what he had professed.

By 1524 Conrad Grebel had drawn like-minded people around him, among who
were Simon Stumpf and Felix Manz, a Hebrew scholar. They were soon to be known
as the Swiss Brethren. The debate had now moved to the subject of infant baptism.
Already Wilhelm Reublin, the pastor of Witikon, a village near to Zurich, was
preaching against infant baptism. Three families in another village of Zollikon had
withheld their children from baptism. In Zurich, on 17 January 1525, there was a
formal debate about baptism. The official ruling of the city council was that infant
baptism was biblical, that all infants were to be baptised within eight days and that
the group led by Grebel and Mantz were forbidden to meet.

One evening, four days later, 21 January 1525, the small forbidden group met in the
home of Felix Mantz in shadow of the Grossmunster. They were filled with anxiety,
and after earnest conversation and prayer that God would give them strength and
show them mercy, a former priest named George Blaurock asked Conrad Grebel to
baptise him. He stepped forward and poured water over him. Blaurock then baptised
all the others in the room. This was the single most radical step of the whole
Reformation movement:

it challenged and broke the link between the church and the
state and confronted the whole concept of Christendom;
it was the first believers baptism since the early centuries of the
church and it gave focus and identity to the various radical and
dissenting groups with the name Anabaptist or rebaptised.

Within days of the events in Zurich, the majority of the inhabitants of Zollikon were
baptised with the assistance of Grebel, to become the first Anabaptist congregation.

From this spark Anabaptism spread with missionary fervour out into the surrounding
areas and then across Europe, for the most part by ordinary men and women
preaching, baptising, teaching and forming congregations, inspired by the

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expectation of Jesus near return. However, it was in the face of the most severe
hostility. To both Catholic and Protestant authorities and leaders. Anabaptism was
simply treason; sedition, anarchy, blasphemy, sacrilege and hypocrisy all in one.
Their response was to call for arrest, imprisonment and torture. Because this failed
to halt the movement, execution soon became the norm. The first known Anabaptist
to die for their faith was a preacher, Eberli Bolt, burnt by the Catholics on 29 May
1525. Grebel had sensed that this would be the reaction when he said that, Christ
must still suffer more in his members.

Grebel, Manz and Blaurock were all arrested in October 1525 while spreading the
gospel of Anabaptism. They were condemned to life imprisonment in the Zurich
tower. The court also ruled that anyone performing the act of baptism would be
sentenced to death. Their sentence only lasted 14 days, because someone helped
them all to escape. Within ten months Conrad Grebel had died of the plague; only a
20 months after his baptism. Felix Manz was to be rearrested within two months of
his escape; accused of practising baptism he was sentenced to death with the
agreement of Zwingli. He was rowed out into the middle of the Limmat River, which
runs through Zurich, tied to a hurdle and drowned; the third baptism. He died, the
first of many martyrs at the hands of Protestants, urging those around to respond to
the truth. He was executed on 5 January 1527 with the dying words:

Into your hands I commend my spirit.

Satler and Schleitheim

Events in Switzerland seemed to inspire, ignite and find parallels with other similar
groups across Germany, the Netherlands and into Moravia. The conditions that gave
rise to Anabaptism in Switzerland were found across Europe:

a spiritual expectancy and restlessness;

a sense of economic grievance;
a reaction to the aftermath of the suppression of the Peasants War;
a disenchantment with the results of the official reform movements.

Above all it was the tireless activity of the preachers, inspired by the great
commission of Jesus, that energised the movement. The missionaries were often
sent by the local authorities as they expelled them from one territory after another.
Much of the early evangelism was quite uncoordinated, but increasingly preachers
and leaders of the movement made contact and developed strategies.

A key figure in the consolidation of Anabaptism was Michael Satler who, before his
conversion to Lutheran and then Anabaptism thinking, had been the prior of a
Benedictine monastery. Having been driven from city and town he spent time in
Strasbourg debating Anabaptism with mainstream reformers, which almost certainly
prepared him for his greatest work by sharpening his understanding of his own
position. He then went to Germany to continue his work.

In February 1527 Satler appears to have been a leading influence in a meeting of

Anabaptist leaders at Schleitheim on the German/Swiss border. We do not know
exactly who was at the meeting or how long it lasted, but it produced a Confession,

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which was not a doctrinal statement of faith but it highlighted the distinctive
characteristics of Anabaptism in its concern with church order and discipleship.
While not every Anabaptist group would accept all the ideas, it presented a yardstick
by which to measure mainstream Anabaptism, especially in Switzerland and
Germany. The main themes of the Schleitheim Confession are:

Discipleship: they chose a daily walk with God shaped by

Jesus teaching and example;
Love: they were committed to pacifism, mutual aid, community,
and practising the hard sayings of Jesus;
Church: they aimed at restoring the church to its earliest vigour;
authority was congregational with teaching, prophecy, Lords
supper and evangelism;
Baptism: they practised baptism as true Christian initiation but
only on the clear personal confession of faith;
Discipline: there was clear understanding of separation from
the world and excommunication;
State: they insisted that the church was to be separate from the
state; with Christians as free, unforced and uncompelled people;
they refused the oath.

On returning home from Schleitheim, Michael Satler was arrested, along with his
wife and others. He was imprisoned in the tower of Binsdorf and eventually tried. His
testimony was clear and unequivocal though he was mocked throughout. His
sentence of death was prefaced by torture. A piece of his tongue was cut out, and
on six occasions en route to the fire red-hot tongs tore lumps of flesh from his body.
While praying for his persecutors he was then tied to a ladder that was thrown into a
huge fire. As his wrists burnt free he raised an arm as a silent signal to Anabaptists
in the crowd that a martyrs death was bearable. Several days later, his wife
Margaretha, who was once a Begine and described as a talented, clever little
woman was drowned in the River Neckar, all attempts to secure a recantation
having failed. It has been suggested that few other Anabaptist executions had such
a far-reaching influence as that of Michael Satler; Wilhelm Reublins account of it
circulated Europe, encouraging Anabaptists and challenging Lutherans, Reformed
and Catholics.

However, Anabaptists were to be tortured and executed in their thousands; more

than 2,500 in the Netherlands alone. The true numbers will never be known because
accurate records were never kept; to the authorities most of the men and women
were nobodies, simply a social threat to be removed. The massive martyrology, the
Martyrs Mirror, which was to nourish the self-identity of later generations, tells of
some as a testimony to the many. What comes through the pages is the courage
and character of these ordinary people:

Dirk Willems came from Asperen in the Netherlands. He was arrested

and convicted of being an Anabaptist. One winter night he managed to
escape, but was seen and pursued by a guard, however, Dirk escaped
across frozen water. On reaching the other side he heard a cry from
his pursuer as the ice broke under him. Dirk made his way back over
the ice and dragged the half-drowned man to the safety of the shore.

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 The burgomaster ordered his immediate rearrest and he was burnt to
death on 16 May 1569. The godly compassion motivating his selfless
act in the knowledge of almost certain martyrdom symbolises the
Anabaptist spirit.

Munster

Exactly ten years after the momentous baptisms in Zurich a tragedy took place in
Munster, in northern Germany, which shook Anabaptism to the core, and became a
scandal throughout Europe.

Melchior Hoffman was the person through whom Anabaptism reached the
Netherlands. He was strongly influenced by eccentric interpretations of the books of
Daniel and Revelation that led him to believe that he was Elijah and Strasbourg
would be the site of the New Jerusalem in Jesus imminent return. He allowed
himself to be imprisoned in Strasbourg to hasten the fulfilment of the prophecy. At
this point a baker named Jan Matthijs claimed leadership of Hoffmans followers in
Amsterdam and sent out 12 apostles in pairs to preach. Some of the apostles
reached Munster and found a priest called Rothman in the city; he had accepted
Anabaptist teaching and through his influence it was becoming a haven for
Anabaptist refugees.

In 1534 Jan Matthijs settled in Munster and prophesied that this in fact would be the
true scene of the fulfilment of Hoffmans prophecy. But more significantly, we
suddenly see violence being preached: the faithful are to annihilate the wicked by
force to hasten Christs return. Everyone in the city was forced to be baptised or to
leave the city. Messages were sent out to all those wanting to be part of the New
Jerusalem urging them to come to Munster. Preparations were made for the final
battle that would usher in Gods kingdom. As far as conflict was concerned they
were not to be disappointed, as the absentee Catholic Bishop of Munster gathered
an army with the support of German princes and laid a siege. Matthijs led a small
Gideon band against the troops in certain belief of a miraculous victory; he and his
companions were all killed.

Leadership passed to a Jan van Leiden, and a bad situation got worse. He became
more extreme than Matthijs; he proclaimed himself the new King David, the
mouthpiece of God who executed anyone who disobeyed him. Community of goods
was organised and, because there were now three women to every man, so was
polygamy. Then Van Leiden had himself crowned the King of the New Zion; a
madness gripped the city. When supplies ran low the old, children and the women
were sent from the city; many being brutally murdered by the besieging army. On 25
June 1535 the city of Munster was betrayed by an informer and the 800 remaining
men were overwhelmed by 3,000 troops. The killing lasted two days and almost
everyone left in the city died. The leaders were taken alive, interrogated, tortured,
executed and their bodies hung in cages for all to see. Across Europe it was
believed that Anabaptism began with Thomas Muntzer and ended with Munster. The
truth about its origins and character was of course quite different.

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Menno Simons

In the year of the Munster disaster, a Dutch priest called Menno Simons, who was
troubled by Catholic doctrine, started to search the Scriptures as the result the
execution of an Anabaptist. He was impressed by the zeal and courage of the
Munster supporters in Holland, but saw them as in error and like sheep without a
shepherd; his own brother is thought to have died in the events. However, the
events galvanised his thinking and he was baptised in 1536. The same year he
married his wife Gertrude who faithfully shared his years of hardship and
persecution.

Menno was soon asked by six or eight people to lead their Anabaptist group. For the
rest of his life, until his death in 1561, he worked to rally and shape the lives and
scattered communities of Anabaptists throughout the Netherlands and Germany. He
was always travelling and hiding, preaching at night and writing tracts that he printed
on his simple press, which he carried about with him. He soon had a price of 100
gold guilders on his head, with the promise of a free pardon to any Anabaptist who
would betray him. He once compared himself to the ministers in the Protestant
churches:

I with my poor, weak wife and children have for years endured
excessive anxiety, oppression, affliction and persecution Yes, when
the preachers repose on easy beds and soft pillows, we generally have
to hide ourselves in out-of-the-way corners We have to be on our
guard when a dog barks for fear the arresting officer has arrived our
recompense and portion be but fire, sword and death.

Mennos life was also fraught by theological debate; but his final years were spent in
relative safety on the estates of a German baron who, while not an Anabaptist , had
sympathy for their sufferings. It has been said that Mennos abiding contribution to
Anabaptism was his character; it was also his pastoring care and resolute pacifist
commitment that did so much to see the movement survive in northern Europe. It is
for this reason that many of their descendants call themselves Mennonite.

Hutterites

It was in Moravia that another expression of Anabaptism emerged; it came to be

known as Hutterite, named after Jakob Hutter, an early influential leader who was
publicly burnt at the stake in 1536. Moravia appeared to promise a safe haven for a
group of Anabaptists who wanted not only to practise non-violence but also the
community of goods. A cloak had been thrown on the ground into which everyone
had placed their meagre resources. This step of communal sharing had initially been
taken in 1528 as the only means of survival, but they were soon sharing the things
they consumed and produced together as a community. The early years of the
community saw tensions due to lack of experience in communal living and it was for
this reason that they asked Jakob Hutter to come and help them, which he did by
bringing the skills of organisation and leadership. He spent only a few years helping
them but his influence is reflected in the fact that they are called the Hutterian
Brethren to this day.

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They came to believe that there could be no true Christian love without renouncing
private possessions and committing oneself to the community of the brethren; this
belief that this is the only path of true Christian discipleship is a tradition that has
continued with them for the past 450 years. In the 16th century their skills at
community saw their Bruderhofs become wealthy and large, with up to 30,000
members across Moravia and Hungary at one point. Their communities were
described as being like a beehive where all the busy bees work together to a
common end not for their own need but for the common good of all. This
prosperity and their refusal to pay taxes brought envy and hostility from their
neighbours, and in 1595 persecutions began with confiscation and repression.
Eventually the survivors sought a future by migrating to the Ukraine.

ESTABLISHMENT AND REFORM

Huguenots

The story of Protestantism in France is both stormy and bloody; the earliest
reformers were executed for heresy in the crusades that were sent against them. By
1560 the French Protestants had organised themselves and had become known as
Huguenots; a French form of the German name for the citizens of Geneva, which
illustrates their Calvinistic character. This led to some years in which they achieved a
degree of toleration as a result of merchants and landowners often supporting them.

The first Huguenot services were held in secret in houses, barns, woods and fields,
often requiring an oath of silence about identity. Ministers were rare; those that there
were travelled about the countryside in disguise under assumed names. In time
Calvins longing that France would become Protestant would lead to his school in
Geneva pouring many young pastors into the nation to meet the crying need. By
1561 Huguenots had begun to come out increasingly into the open; by that date
there were some 2,150 known Huguenot congregations in France as a whole.

At this time there was a power struggle for the throne of France, which sadly the
Huguenots allowed themselves to become involved in. The deeper they became
involved the more dangerous their situation became. The burning question for them
was, Should they take up arms? The advice from Theodore Beza in Geneva was
clear:

No, it is truly the lot of the church of God to endure blows rather than
to strike them, but may I remind you that the church is an anvil that has
worn out many hammers.

But the pressure grew and in March 1562 a flash point was reached in an incident
that involved Catholic troops and Huguenots at worship. Who started the conflict is
uncertain, but it ignited what became known as the Wars of Religion. In the
subsequent fighting thousands were to die. The conflict culminated in the notorious
St Bartholomews Day massacre in 1572, when Huguenot gentry, in Paris for a
wedding, were treacherously attacked. It was only in 1589 that a measure of peace
emerged with the Edict of Nantes. This gave the French Protestants political rights.
The Wars of Religion came at a time when the Huguenots were beginning to win

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favour in the public eye. The fact they allied themselves to politics and took up arms,
which turned public opinion against them saying, What religion is this?

In 1685 the Edict of Nantes was revoked; Huguenots lost their legal standing, they
had to meet in secret and many fled to England. The small numbers that remained
went on to form the nucleus of beleaguered Protestantism in France today.

Farel the evangelist

In 1489 Guillaume Farel was born in France; he studied in Paris and in 1520 began
to aid the growing reform movement. However, in 1523 intolerance and persecution
led to his expulsion to Switzerland.

By 1526 Farel had become the leader of a travelling band of evangelists preaching
throughout French-speaking Switzerland. Wherever possible they engaged in public
disputation with local Catholic priests and bishops; the zeal and superior knowledge
of Scripture and reformation ideas usually led to the fiery evangelists clearly winning
the arguments. They moved from town to village seeing one after another turn to
reformation. Often the preachers were met kindly, but just as frequently they were
attacked, beaten, stoned or imprisoned. Women would scream abuse during their
sermons, men would bang drums outside the church and dogs would be set upon
them.

As reform spread through French-speaking Switzerland, members of Farels

company were frequently urged to stay on and pastor the newly reformed village or
town once the local priest had been discredited; this left him with ever depleted
numbers in his group. In 1528 Berne turned towards the Reformation as a result of
Farel debating reform doctrine there; this event focused his desire to see the
strategically significant city of Geneva won for the Protestant cause.

In 1532 Farel began evangelism in Geneva. He was given the freedom to preach by
the city council, but he soon met hostile reaction from armed priests; tension in the
city increased. Farel won the public debates, but still there was still great hostility.
Catholic forces attacked the city, which led Farel and his companions to stand
defending the battlements with the townsfolk in the fighting. The city council decided
to resolve the debate for or against reform once and for all by hearing each side
clearly put its case; the result was a decision in favour of reform.

Although in 1535 Geneva had officially declared herself Protestant, the social and
spiritual life of the city needed strong pastoral care. Farel was a evangelist and
recognised his limitations as a person to build what was required to consolidate
Geneva in reform. However, he was certain that he knew just the person with the gift
to do it. As we shall see, on a fateful night in 1536 John Calvin, who was simply
passing through Switzerland on his way to Strasbourg, stayed one night in Geneva
when Farel burst in upon him in a manner that was to change the whole direction of
his life.

From this time on Guillaume Farel was to be closely associated with John Calvin,
though increasingly his base became Neuchatel. In 1558 he married a young girl,

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much to Calvins disapproval. Over the years he continued to do evangelistic work in
France, especially Metz, where he died in 1565.

Calvin the scholar

It was in 1509, in the cathedral town of Noyon in Picardy, France, that John Calvin
was born. His father had a position of considerable standing by being in the
employment of the bishop. Calvin was quiet and sensitive; he had a brilliant intellect
and a very strong will. He studied law and theology in Paris and Orleans and by the
age of 23 was being acclaimed as a scholar of the highest ability.

It was in Paris that Calvin came into contact with Luthers writings, which were to
have a decisive effect upon him. By 1533 he had had a deep conversion experience,
in his own words, God subdued and brought my heart to docility. Calvin soon
became one of the leaders of the Protestant movement in Paris. Matters came to a
head in 1535 when he helped prepare an address that launched an attack on the
church and called for reform upon the lines of Luthers teaching. This was read
publicly. As a result there was uproar in the Sorbonne, he was accused of heresy
and was forced to flee for safety.

In Basle in March 1536, at the age of 26, Calvin published the first slim edition of
what was to become his famous Institutes of Christian Religion. The initial seven
chapters were to be reworked and expanded into a number of subsequent editions
over the ensuing years, to become the foundation of Reformed theology.

It was in the same year that Calvin, having made a brief visit to Paris for family
reasons, was travelling to the city of Strasbourg where he planned to live quiet life as
a Reformation scholar. Because of war his journey was diverted through
Switzerland, and led to a one-night stay in Geneva. It was here in his inn that Farel
burst in upon him, imploring him to stay in the city and establish the church. He
initially refused, but Farel declared that he would pray for God to curse all his
subsequent endeavours should he refuse he reluctantly agreed! From that time
forward the life of John Calvin and the course of the Reformation in much of Europe
was changed.

Church in Geneva

The city counsellors of Geneva disliked John Calvin at first; they referred to him as
that Frenchman. However, events soon made them revise their opinions. His daily
expositions of the epistle to the Romans slowly impressed them, but this was just the
beginning. During the same year a disputation in Lausanne saw some 400 Catholic
monks and clergy gather to refute Ten Theses put forward by Farel and others. In
the event only four Catholics spoke. One asserted that the reformers never read the
Christian Fathers, because if they did they would see that their teachings did not
support their cause. At this challenge Calvin stepped forward, unknown by most
present, and proceeded to quote from every Church Father of note, in context and in
full, from memory; he built up a powerful evangelical defence with absolute certainty.
It is said that a hush fell on the gathering as they realised that here was someone
with great learning to defend the Reformation.

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Calvin was a medieval man; he saw the church and the city of Geneva as one and
the same. Building on this model he brought both instruction and organisation to
what had been a profligate community, in a dramatic way. He gave daily expositions
of Scripture, and there was the weekly celebration of the Lords Supper. There was
public worship and prayer, and the careful instruction of children. He certainly did
regulate personal and community life by the use of municipal law; this was of course
the medieval way he saw himself as simply reforming it.

Because of the ecclesiastical discipline they introduced, Calvin and Farel made
enemies. In 1538 they were ordered by the Geneva council to institute changes.
Calvin objected to the way the matter was handled and refused. The event led to
their expulsion from Geneva. John Calvin went to Strasbourg. The following years
are thought to have been some of Calvins happiest; he faced poverty, but enjoyed
life, he also married an Anabaptist widow, Idelette de Bure. He became pastor of a
Huguenot refugee congregation. It was, however, in 1541, that the city council of
Geneva, faced with mounting problems in the church, urged Calvin to return. He was
reluctant, but he did.

Geneva had a reputation for immorality across Europe. Calvin wanted to make it a
holy city, conformed to the will of God. He exerted moral influence upon the city
leaders not only to make some of the laws more humane, but also to influence every
area of life. He sought to make Geneva a Christian commonwealth. Calvin saw the
church not only as an institution for the worship of God but also as an agency to
make people fit to worship him; seeking to establish this end became his lifes work.
He established an academy to which students from many nations came, to become
sound in learning and godly in discipline, to return to become ministers in often
struggling congregations across Europe.

John Calvin was a private and complex person who both impacted and imposed his
ideas upon the lives of many. There was harshness and intolerance that raises very
serious questions about the concept and expression of church which he proclaimed.
These are revealed in incidents like the case of the Spaniard, Michael Servetus, who
had been sentenced to death by the Inquisition for denying the doctrine of the
Godhead. Calvin believed he had come to Geneva deliberately to cause trouble and
so denounced him. With the approval of both Catholics and other Swiss Protestant
cities Calvin authorised his burning at the stake in 1553. The fact that he has been
described as a heretic wandering Europe just waiting for someone to burn him does
not justify the loveless intolerance shown.

Calvins wife died in 1549 leaving him a sad and lonely man. He took little care of
himself and suffered stomach ulcers to the end of his life. Nevertheless, he worked
tirelessly for the Reformation until his death on 27 May 1564. His influence upon
generations of Christians within the Reformed tradition of the church, and beyond, is
indisputable. Whatever one may conclude about John Calvins teachings, his
unmarked grave in Geneva is a tribute to his desire to eschew human honour and
only be a voice in preaching the gospel.

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Knox and Scotland

Scotland in the 16th century was a proudly independent nation. However, the church
was in dire need of reform because of its self-interested control by the nobility; there
was widespread lawlessness, political strife and clerical unrighteousness. There had
been at least some Lollard influence and the writings of Luther had had some effect,
but early moves towards reform had met a violent response.

The outstanding influence for reform in Scotland was John Knox. He was born in
1514 of peasant stock, educated in Edinburgh and became a priest in 1536. He was
influenced towards reform thinking by individuals like George Wishart who was
martyred in 1546. Knox was closely connected with the early reform efforts; as a
result he was made a galley slave for the French for 19 months. On his release in
1549 Knox came to England during the reign of Edward VI where he was an
influence until the reign of Mary Tudor. He found his way to Geneva and become an
ardent disciple of John Calvin. By 1555 Knox was back in Scotland giving impetus to
the reform movement that was now well underway. There was considerable political
strife; with Protestants having English support and the Catholics getting support from
France.

By 1561 Protestantism was established in Scotland along Calvinistic lines. When

Mary Queen of Scots returned from Catholic France in the same year the battle lines
drawn; the conflicts between her and John Knox are legendary. When Mary was
finally arrested and taken to England her infant son James was brought up under the
shadow and influence of the great reformer. John Knox was clearly a man of
conviction and courage who undoubtedly shaped much of the future church
expression in Scotland. His attacks on idolatry are most remembered. His writings
did much to sow seeds for the Covenant movement in later generations. His
ecumenical attitude towards Protestants in England tempered the Scottish
nationalism of his day. It was said of John Knox, While others sawed off the
branches of the papacy, he laid an axe to the trunk of the tree.

Arminius and Dort

Jacobus Arminius [15601609] was a Dutch theologian who pastored a Reformed

church in Amsterdam from 1588. During this time he came to question the teachings
of John Calvin. After many disputes he went to teach theology at the university of
Leyden. His ideas led to divisions in the student body, among the Reformed pastors
and in the political arena.

After the death of Arminius his followers issued a Remonstrance in 1610 which
clearly stated their departure from Calvinism:

salvation applies to all who believe on Christ and persevere in

obedience and faith;
the death of Christ was for everyone;
the Holy Spirit helps people to faith and good works;
the saving grace of God is not irresistible;
it is possible for Christians to fall from saving grace.

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Between 1618 and 1619 a synod was held at Dort, which was to be one of the most
famous gatherings in the history of the Reformed churches. It made a point-by-point
refutation of Arminianism and affirmed Calvins teaching as orthodox:

total depravity of human nature;

unconditional election;
limited atonement;
irresistible grace;
perseverance of the saints.

ENGLAND AND REFORM

Stirrings and influences

As we shall see, the Reformation in England takes on a unique character, being

motivated initially by political concerns rather than theological issues. However, the
ground for reform had begun to be prepared by important factors:

Lollards: the influence of the Lollard movement, standing in the spiritual tradition
of John Wycliffe, with its anti-papal, anti-clerical emphasis, and its focus on
preaching and the biblical text did much to stir spiritual life and religious dissent in
particular parts of England prior to the Reformation.

Humanism: the impact of humanism was a serious force in stirring in individuals

the desire for reform particularly through the study of Erasmus edition of the New
Testament Greek text. Study groups like the one led by Thomas Binley in the
Whitehorse Tavern in Cambridge, with participants such as Hugh Latimer, which
used to read the Scriptures and discuss German theology, had significant influence.

Scripture: the Lollards and humanism both focused attention on the reading and
study of Scripture. The belief that ordinary people would only really know the truth if
they had the Scriptures in their mother tongue was the inspiration that drove William
Tyndale in his pioneer work of translating the Scriptures from the original languages
into English. Tyndale left England for the Continent because of hostility; he faced
shipwreck and loss of manuscripts, he lived in hiding to escape secret agents, his
printer suffered police raids and finally he was betrayed by friends. His English
translation was published in 1526 and was to have an important impact on the
reform movement. He was arrested near Brussels in 1535 and faced execution the
following year by strangling and burning. His dying prayer was:

Lord, open the King of Englands eyes!

Henry and schism

It was the Kings matter that began the events of Reformation proper in England.
The matter involved Henry VIIIs marriage to Catherine of Aragon. Henry had come
unexpectedly to the throne in 1502, on the death of his older brother, Arthur. It had
been expedient to marry his brothers widow because of the political and financial
benefits secured by the union with this Spanish queen. Marriage to a deceased
brothers wife was contrary to canon law and had only been possible only after much

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pressure for a special papal dispensation. The consequence, however, was that
Catherine had been unable to bare him a living son. Henry believed it was essential
to have a son if the nation was to have peace after his death and prevent it falling
back into an equivalent of the Wars of the Roses once again. Believing his marriage
to Catherine to be cursed by God, Henry decided he must find himself a wife who
could produce sons. The papacy, having granted the original special dispensation,
could find no way of now agreeing to a divorce. Wolsey searched for a solution and
failed.

In 1529 Thomas Cranmer, a teacher at Cambridge University, suggested the Kings

matter should be debated in the European universities. He was given the task of
initiating the debate that was said to find in Henrys favour. Nevertheless, Rome
would still not agree to a divorce and so a break with Rome became inevitable:

in 1532 certain payments were withheld and Cranmer was made

Archbishop of Canterbury;
in 1534 Henry announced himself, Supreme head on earth of
the church in England.

The break was complete; heads rolled, Europe shuddered, but Henry was unmoved.
Within two years of the break with Rome doctrinal statements began to appear.
Initially, they were moving, under Cranmers direction, nearer to a Reformation
position. However, in 1539 Henry issued his infamous Six Articles; these were
orthodox Catholic theology, but without the pope, and were referred to by pro-
Reformation critics as, That bloody whip of six strings. It all shows how mixed,
limited and politically motivated the first steps towards reform really were:

by 1540 the monasteries were being depleted of their wealth

and power;
between 1536 and 1539 editions of the Bible in English were
being placed in all the churches for people to read.

On 28 January 1547 Henry died. He was physically gross and syphilitic, he had
been the husband of six wives, and he had fundamentally affected the English
church; but real reform still waited. At his side was trusted Cranmer; a person who
moved reform patiently forward as opportunity allowed, who often pleaded for the
lives of Henrys victims, but whose main work still lay ahead of him.

Edward and progress

Edward VI was the son of Henrys third wife, Jane Seymour. He was only nine years
old when he came to reign; he was always frail, but was intelligent and clearly had a
mind of his own. He was deeply religious and strongly Protestant in his faith. Edward
was to die before his 16th birthday, but the six and a half years of his reign were to
carry the nation well down the path to Protestant reform:

the six articles of Henry were repealed;

all images in churches removed;
the laity became more involved in worship;

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 there was a welcome to continental reformers wanting refuge
from persecution;
the marriage of priests was legalised;
the Book of Common Prayer, the work of Cranmer, was issued
in 1549.

While there was progress towards reform we must not imagine that the English
nation was widely committed to Reformation. Support depended on many factors;
thus it was mainly in London and the southeast where most support for the changes
was to be found.

Mary and reaction

At the time of Edwards death in 1553 England was in great economic distress:

the church had been plundered;

the monasteries had destroyed;
the universities were declining;
the politicians and courtiers were scheming rather than
governing;
the population, most indifferent to reformation, expressed social
disquiet.

It was into this scene Mary Tudor, the daughter of Catherine of Aragon, came.
People hoped that she would bring peace into the troubled times, but she was only
to make a bad situation worse, and it was for this reason that at the end of her reign
people were calling her Bloody Mary. She was a tragic figure who saw it as her
destiny to bring England back to the Catholic fold. She was 37 at her accession to
the throne, she was unwell, and she was to reign for a little over five years. It was a
period in which the sadness of her personal life was to yield its final bitter fruit.

Mary turned England towards Rome as swiftly as she could; but did not have it all
her own way. Many Protestants, prominent in Edwards reign, saw the writing on the
wall and fled to the relative safety of the Continent. Of those who stayed, many
such as Cranmer, Latimer, Ridley and Coverdale were imprisoned. By 1554 Mary
had married Philip II of Spain, she had Cardinal Pole returned as papal legate, and
England had been received back into the unity of our Holy Mother the Church.

Reformers in prison faced intolerable conditions of filth and hunger. A number

bravely produced confessional statements which declared the truths they firmly
held. However, the beheadings and the burnings soon began. About 300 died in all;
about one third were clergy, and about one fifth were women. These numbers were
small by continental standards, but they had a significant impact. They were more
than all the Lollards executed in the previous 125 years, and more than all the
Catholics who were to die in Elizabeths long reign. The most famous victims of
Marys purge were:

Ridley and Latimer: both men; Ridley the scholar and Latimer, an old man and
considered by some to be the greatest of all English preachers, were burnt together
in Broad Street, Oxford on 16 October 1555. Cranmer witnessed their deaths from

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his prison tower. Ridley endured unspeakable agonies because his wood was damp.
Latimer encouraged him with his timeless words, Be of good comfort Master Ridley
we shall this day light such a candle by Gods grace in England, as I trust shall
never be put out.

Cranmer: being an archbishop, Thomas Cranmer was under papal jurisdiction.

He was degraded as a heretic. In prison he was subjected to long periods of mental
torture. There were promises of leniency if he recanted; finally he broke and signed.
But Mary and Archbishop Pole had no plans to commute his sentence, their plan
was to discredit Reformation leadership. The scene was set. On 21 March 1556,
Crammer was expected to read his recantation before going to the stake. He prayed
publicly, and then as he spoke he recanted from his recantation. He said that he
stood by all his books and writings and he called the pope anti-Christ. Uproar broke
out. Before he could be properly restrained he virtually ran to the brazier where the
fire for his burning was held, he thrust in his hand holding the recantation that he had
signed, and watched as both the paper and his hand burnt to ashes. With this, this
venerable, peace-loving, old man was burnt at the stake.

Marys crusade continued on, unrelenting until her death on 17 November 1558. She
was wretched and unhappy; cursed by the people, spurned by the new pope,
neglected by her husband, dying of cancer and childless. She even interpreted her
terminal illness as pregnancy. She crumbled tragically among the ruins that she
herself had created.

Elizabeth and settlement

With Elizabeth, the daughter of Henry VIIIs second wife Anne Boleyn, ascending the
throne in England came a new era for both the church and the nation. As she was
the fruit of her fathers divorce, and therefore the living symbol of his break with
Rome, it was more or less inevitable that she would be committed to a Protestant
shape to the church. In 1559 her advisors steamrollered a new Settlement of
Religion through Parliament. The Elizabethan Settlement produces something of a
hybrid that is referred to as a broad church:

it had no links with Rome;

it restored the 1552 English Prayer Book;
it allowed clergy to marry;
it named the Queen Supreme Governor of the Church;
it retained the orders of bishop, priest and deacon.

While all the senior clergy were committed Protestants, and many were enthusiastic
Calvinists, there was, nevertheless, many who were unhappy with the established
state of affairs which Elizabeth refused all attempts to change:

Many felt that it still allowed practices that were considered

remnants of Catholicism; they wanted a fully reformed church
and with these people we see the beginnings of the Puritan
tradition within the English church.
Many felt that it had betrayed Catholicism and increasingly
refused to attend the official church; these were the recusants

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 who brought in Catholic priests from the Continent even though
the law said to do so was treason more than 300 clergy and
lay people were to be executed as a result.

These contrasting strands have run deep within the English church to the present
day.

Brownists and Separatists

There were increasing numbers of those with Puritan attitudes who felt they could no
longer remain within the official, national church; they felt it was incapable of real
reform.

In 1573 Robert Browne, a schoolteacher, began to preach in Cambridgeshire

churches without the bishops permission, which he declared was biblically unlawful.
By 1580 he had been forbidden to preach. Around the same time he had met Robert
Harrison in Norwich and together they organised separatist churches locally, with
Browne as the pastor and Harrison as the teacher of the church. This marks the
beginning of the Independent and Congregationalist church movement in England,
members of which became known as Brownists. Their communities faced
persecuted by the authorities, Browne was imprisoned on several occasions. By
1582 they settled in the Netherlands, which became an important centre for English
dissenters. Robert Browne eventually quarrelled with Harrison and was ex-
communicated by the church and returned to England. He renounced his separation
and became an Anglican minister for the next 43 years! Leadership of the separatist
churches then passed to others:

one group, in Leiden, pastored by John Robinson, who

eventually encouraged them to set sail to New England; they
are now remembered as the Pilgrim Fathers in the Mayflower;
one group, in Amsterdam, pastored by both John Smyth and
Thomas Helys, became Anabaptist; they were to be the
founders of the English Baptists, as we shall see.

RESPONSE TO REFORM

Protestant and Catholic

The events of the Reformation created not only a new religious landscape, but also,
because of the link between church and state, huge political changes as well.
Emperor Charles V hoped that he would be able to rebuild the unity of the empire.
During the decades between 1525 and 1555 he explored every option to this end;
the results began to define the new political and ecclesiastical shape of Europe a
process that, however, was not completed until the middle of the 17th century and
the conclusion of the Thirty Years War in 1648:

Diet of Speyer 1526: Charles V wanted military support against the Turks and
the suppression of Lutheranism as demanded at the Diet of Worms. Lutheran
princes, supported by some Catholic princes who wanted greater political freedom,

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agreed to give military support at the price of religious freedom in their domains; this
was agreed.

Diet of Speyer 1529: Charles V felt strong enough to rescind the original decision
and ordered German princes to endorse the decision of the Diet of Worms. Most
complied, but several, joined by 14 free cities, drew up a protest, the signatories of
which came to be known as Protestants; the first use of the name that was to
become the inclusive way of referring to all who left the Catholic church as a result of
the Reformation.

Peace of Augsburg 1555: Charles V reached agreement with the Protestant

princes of Germany, guaranteeing them equal security with Catholic princes. The
result was that the political unity of Germany and the medieval unity of Christendom
were permanently broken. It was a fragile peace from which both Calvinists and
Anabaptists were excluded.

Council of Trent

Trent was a town lying in a valley in the heart of the Alps; it was the scene for what
was to become an all-important Roman Catholic council in the light of the successes
of the Protestant Reformation. It opened on 13 December 1545 and was to last 18
years before it concluded; due to many interruptions. Emperor Charles V saw it as
one more possible means of reuniting Europe; the papacys single aim, however,
was to halt the advance of the Protestants. No council of the Roman Church
achieved so much; its chief decisions were:

it defined points of dogma which had never been precisely

defined in the past;
it demanded reforms in all the areas of pastoral care including
the founding of seminaries;
it published texts on broad doctrinal issues, as well as others
which were clear anti-Protestant statements;
it condemned the use of the liturgy in the vernacular.

Society of Jesus

Ignatius Loyola was born in 1491, in the Basque region of Spain. His father died
when he was four and by 14 he was pursuing a military career. In 1521 a cannonball
hit him and one leg was seriously damaged, ending his life as a soldier. While
recuperating he read an account of the life of Jesus that inspired him to an ascetic
life as a soldier of Christ. The next year was spent in a monastery, and led to
mystical spiritual experiences and the early development of his Spiritual Exercises.
After a pilgrimage to Palestine he entered university in Paris where he studied until
1535.

While in Paris, Ignatius gathered around him six dedicated colleagues. Together
they vowed a life of poverty, chastity, a career of service in Palestine, or wherever
they might be of service to the pope. This direct allegiance to the pope was to
become one of their distinguishing features. In 1540 they were officially recognised

Workshop notes are copyright to Anvil Trust and may not be reproduced without permission 01.01.10.24
as an order within the church; they were to be known as the Society of Jesus, or
simply as the Jesuits.

Early in 1548 Ignatius Loyola was unanimously chosen as the general of the
society. He provided the organisation for the group in his Constitutions with its
paramilitary structure built on obedience, discipline and efficiency. Ignatius refused
to turn the Jesuits into a contemplative order as he was convinced their task was to
minister to society. His ability to turn the old monastic ideas to the demands of a new
era were an important key to their success. They were to do great work among the
poor and in mission. They have been described as the most important missionary
group in the history of the Catholic church, who where to lay their bones in almost
every country of the known world and on the shores of every sea. They also were to
play a vital role in Catholic education. Jesuits made an important contribution at the
Council of Trent, spearheading the intellectual attack on the Reformation. By the
time of Loyolas death in 1556 they were a thousand strong. Without a doubt they
were a major force in the Catholic renewal following the events of the Reformation.

Francis Xavier

One of the six initial companions of Ignatius, Francis Xavier [150652] has been
described as one of the greatest missionaries in the whole history of the church. He
was sent to evangelise the East Indies and arrived in Goa in 1542. He spent three
years preaching and serving the sick; he baptised thousands of the pearl-fishers in
south-west India. He then extended his missionary activity to Japan where he
arrived in 1549. He studied the language and within two years had established a
Christian community of 2,000. He was driven out by Buddhist monks and the
community suffered great persecution. He made a short trip to China, but returned to
Goa. He died on the island of Sancian while again trying to gain permission to enter
China, which was being refused. Some of his evangelistic methods have been
criticised, but the accounts of his work did much to arouse interest in overseas
mission throughout Europe. Some estimates put the number of conversions
attributed to him at 700,000.

Questions

1. What do you understand by the word reform with regard to the church? Can the
church ever be fully reformed? What sense does the phrase reformed church
make? Is reform an event, a continual state or simply a hope?

2. The magisterial reformers such as Luther, Zwingli and Calvin, who insisted on
linking the church with the authority of the state, are see as having won the
Reformation. The Anabaptists, who refused the link between church and state, are
seen as having lost the Reformation. What is your opinion on the matter?

3. Scripture alone, Sola scriptura, was appealed to as the basis for authority in the
church by many of the reformers. How do you understand such a phrase? Does it
provide a sufficient basis for truth? Where do you believe final authority is to be
found in the church?

Workshop notes are copyright to Anvil Trust and may not be reproduced without permission 01.01.10.25
Open Reflection

If the Reformation were taking place in the church today, what do you think the
issues would be and why? What kind of person makes a reformer and are they
qualities that should be encouraged in everyone? How important is reformation? Is it
an event that should be expected from time to time or should it be nurtured as a way
of life and an attitude of mind?

Reading & Resources

J Atkinson, Martin Luther and the Birth of Protestantism, Penguin, 1968

M Bainton, Erasmas of Christendom, Scribner, 1969
R Bainton, Here I Stand [Martin Luther], Lion, 1983
G Barraclough, The Medieval Papacy, Thames & Hudson, 1968
J H S Burleigh, A Church History of Scotland, Oxford, 1960
O Chadwick, The Reformation, Pelican, 1964
N Cohn, The Pursuit of the Millennium, Temple Smith, 1970
J Comby, How to Read Church History [vol. 2], SCM, 1989
C Cross, Church and People, 14501660, Fontana, 1976
J Delumeau, Catholicism from Luther to Voltaire, Burns & Oates, 1976
A G Dickens, The English Reformation, Fontana, 1989
A G Dickens, Reformation and Society in Sixteenth-Century Europe, Thames &
Hudson, 1966
A G Dickens, The Counter Reformation, London, 1968
T Dowley [ed.], Lion Handbook: The History of Christianity, Lion, 1977
D F Durnbaugh, The Believers Church, Herald, 1968
C J Dyck [ed.], An Introduction to Mennonite History, Herald, 1981
B H Edwards, Gods Outlaw [Tyndale], Evangelical Press, 1986
G R Elton, Reform and Reformation in England, 15091558, Edward Arnold, 1977
W R Estep, The Anabaptist Story, Eerdmans, 1975
D Evenett ,The Spirit of the Counter Reformation, Cambridge, 1968
H J Goertz [ed, Reformation in England [3 vols.], Hollis, 1953
H Jedin, Crisis and Closure of the Council of Trent, Burns & Oates, 1967
J M Kittelson, Luther the Reformer, Augsburg, 1986
W Klaassen, Anabaptism in Outline, Herald, 1981
W Klaassen, Anabaptism: Neither Catholic nor Protestant, Conrad, 1973
T Lane, Lion Concise Book: Christian Thought, Lion, 1986
K S Latourette, A History of Christianity, Harper, 1953
K S Latourette, Three Centuries of Advance [History of the Expansion of
Christianity, vol. 3], Zondervan, 1970
A McGrath, The Intellectual Origins of the European Reformation, Blackwell,
1987
J A Moore, Anabaptist Portraits, Herald, 1984
J F Mozley, William Tyndale, Greenwood Press, 1971
M Mullett, The Counter-Reformation, Methuen, 1985
S Neill, A History of Christian Missions, Pelican, 1964
J Oyer & R Kreider, Mirror of the Martyrs, Good Books, 1990
T H L Parker, John Calvin, Lion, 1975
E Percy, John Knox, Hodder & Stoughton, 1964
G R Potter, Zwingli, Cambridge, 1976

Workshop notes are copyright to Anvil Trust and may not be reproduced without permission 01.01.10.26
B M G Reardon, Religious Thought in the Reformation, Longmans, 1981
E G Rupp, Patterns of Reformation, Epworth, 1969
E G Scheiebert, Luther and His Times, Concordia, 1950
R W Scribner, The German Reformation, Macmillan, 1986
H Sefton, John Knox, Edinburgh, 1993
K R Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, Penguin, 1973
J M Todd, The Reformation, Darton, Longman & Todd, 1972
L Verduin, The Reformers and Their Stepchildren, Baker Book House, 1980
F Wendel, John Calvin, Fontana, 1963
G H Williams, The Radical Reformation, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1962
A D Wright, The Counter-Reformation, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1982

Video Gods Outlaw: The Story of William Tyndale Gateway Films

Video A Man for All Seasons [Thomas More] Gateway Films
Video Martin Luther directed by Louis De Rochemont / Gatway Films
Video Martin Luther Heretic BBC / Gateway Films

Internet http://www.christianity.net/christianhistory

Workshop notes are copyright to Anvil Trust and may not be reproduced without permission 01.01.10.27