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The Protestant Reformation, How Did it Happen?

By: James Shillingaw

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Contents

Why did the Protestant Reformation Succeed where so Many others Failed?....................3

Protestantism and Heresies..................................................................................................3

The Preaching Press.............................................................................................................4

The 16th Century Catholic Church......................................................................................5

Neither Holy, Nor Roman, Nor an Empire..........................................................................7

Concluding and reflecting....................................................................................................9

Works Cited.......................................................................................................................10
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Why did the Protestant Reformation Succeed where so Many others Failed?

We all know about the protestant reformation. A time of brutal upheaval in Christendom

where the Catholic church, once the most dominant institution in Europe, faced a level of

opposition it could have never prepared for. The world would be forever changed by the

resulting schism in the church; however, Protestantism was not the first Catholic Heresy to have

arisen in human history. Yet, despite having come up earlier, some by over a millennium, many

of these breakaway faiths never caught on to the same effect that Protestantism did. In this essay

I will be delving into the factors I believe led to the rise of Protestantism, and why despite nearly

the same circumstances occurring, so many attempts to reform Christianity in the past failed.

Protestantism and Heresies.

Heresy is a term that is heavily overused, and it comes with a lot of assumptions.

However, as defined by the catholic church; “to commit heresy is not simply a matter of going

against the teachings of Church. It is refusing to be corrected after the fact.” (Karl Keating,

2004). Protestantism is thus a heresy as a result of several factors: rejecting the infallibility of the

catholic church, believing that through belief alone we get into heaven, and by allowing priests

to marry. At the Diet of Worms, Martin Luther refused to recant his above beliefs; thus, for

refusing to be corrected he was branded a heretic. However, over human history there have been

many other different heresies that have developed over the centuries. Most if not all of these

dwindled, or even died out, long ago. Looking into those that came before gives insight into

Protestantism’s rise. Starting off with one of the first heresies; The Circumcisers from the first

century AD is one of Christendom’s first heresies and derives itself from the time when

Christianity was first taking shape. Simply put, they adhere to the Hebrew practice of

circumcision, and believe it to be required to get into heaven (Karl Keating, 2004). Today,
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circumcision is a debatable choice, back in the first century before modern medical practices, it

can be said that it would have been even less appealing. As such, this heresy died quickly,

disappearing within only a few decades. Another good example is Catharism. First appearing in

the eleventh century in southern France, this sect practiced complete pacifism, considered having

children an evil deed, and forbad its practitioners from eating any form of food derived from a

reproducing creature (Karl Keating, 2004). Forced vegetarianism in an age where you were

lucky to get even scraps of meat, it is no wonder that Catharism died out.

It is hard to compare the above two to Protestantism, which seems almost mild in its

approach, especially to your average medieval peasant; to whom life was pain and toil. In

addition, the tenets of Protestantism; Sola fide (by faith alone), the ability for priests to marry and

with it, the emphasis on family itself, both speak to aspects already apparent in their lives, while

not demanding anything more from them. While still distinct from Catholicism, Protestantism

retains most of its mother faith’s aspects and traditions. Along with these popular changes, it is

easy to see why it gained a large following, and why the other two did not. There is one more

advantage that Protestantism had over other previous heresies however…

The Preaching Press

Before 1455, the only way for anyone to receive information, was by word of mouth. The

only way for an idea, or belief, to spread was by teaching it to others face-to-face, and then

having others do the same. However, In the mid 15th century, a new revolutionary machine was

invented. Where once a book needed to be written by hand, taking months, now it could be made

in… a month or two. By no means was the printing press a bad invention, but it still had its

limits. A complete bible, once taking decades to write by hand, could be made in only three

years. A long time to be sure, but in comparison to before, much quicker.

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The demand for the printing press was as modest as the improvement in production time.

At first, only monasteries, affluent towns, or the great noble courts of the time deign to possess

printing presses. Ultimately, this would continue on for the rest of the 15nth century, where a

class of technologies and older traditions, a few books were printed, but not to the extent we

would see later on. It would not be until Martin Luther that the printing press would truly come

into its own. As he believed in a personal relationship with God, he sought a way to make both

the bible and his treatises available to the average lay follower. In the printing press, Martin

Luther saw a way. Between 1517 and 1546 it is estimated that more then 2’721 works were

turned out, an average of 91 per year, which roughly translates to almost three million individual

copies. Many of which were Martin Luther’s German Bible. This industrial level of mass-

production lead to the essential birth of the printing industry. Martin Luther’s part in the rise of

this new industry cannot be overstated. His belief for the laity to read the bible for themselves,

had him advocate for universal childhood literacy (Karant-Nunn, Heuman, & Ute, 2017).

For the first time, thoughts and ideas could spread without word of mouth. By printing

his beliefs, Martin Luther was able to preach to a wider congregation than anyone had before.

Thoughts, beliefs, and all forms of information can be likened to the spread of diseases. In

isolation, a disease is far easier to contain until its eventual passing. Thus, in the past, religious

movements were often stamped out quickly, as they spread too slowly by word of mouth and

were isolated. Martin Luther and his ideas, however, spread like wildfire, and by the time of his

death, the beliefs of Protestantism existed, in some form, nearly everywhere in Europe.

The 16th Century Catholic Church.

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Starting in the early 16th century, the catholic church was at the height of its power, and

power by its very nature is corruptive. The Absolute control of the church, or more specifically

the papacy, had corrupted it to the point of near parody to what it preaches. Throughout the early

1500’s the church’s integrity and moral authority had been greatly diminished. This was in part

because of the papacy’s involvement with the Italian wars, which while mainly fought between

the French and Holy roman empires, was greatly influenced by the papacy. The Pope’s primary

concern at this time was politics, not piety, and those who headed the papacy were far removed

from spiritual matters. In fact, many popes, bishops, and even monks and nuns often had children

or married despite this blatantly going against both their solemn vows and the church doctrine

(Institute, 2019) (Roman Catholic Church in 1500, 2015).

This shift in priorities, as well as expenditures on both mercenaries and exceedingly

lavish lifestyles, lead to the sale of indulgences and the sale of Simony as well as other practices.

Indulgences were pieces of paper that “forgave” its purchaser or whomever it was addressed to

of a sin, thus allowing them to essentially “buy” their way into heaven. Simony, on the other

hand, was the direct sale of church offices and or leadership positions. Instead of being chosen

on merit or piety many individuals simply purchased their offices; sometimes more than one, and

sometimes in multiple towns or cities without ever even having set foot there or doing any of

their duties. Both practices were done purely out of the sake of raising money for the church, and

both deeply disturbed many Catholics at the time. Some enterprising bishops even deigned to

charge pilgrims to see relics or the tombs of saints (Institute, 2019).

All this sparked calls for reform, some going as far back as the mid 1300’s, as many of

these practices had been practiced to a lesser extent in earlier centuries. Jan Hus was one such

reformer, whom in 1400’s called for the purification of Catholicism, calling the true head of the
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church to be Jesus Christ himself, and not the pope. In addition, he wished both the bible and

Mass to be performed in common languages instead of Latin, more than a century before Martin

Luther. He was tried end executed for heresy in 1415. Another reformist whistleblower, and

perhaps the most important one, was Desiderius Erasmus. In 1509 he wrote a book by the name

of “The Praise of Folly”, which attacked corruption in the catholic church, including abuses by

the clergy. While he insisted that he was not a Protestant and did not want to split from the

church, his outspokenness against the corruption of the church influenced many Catholics to

break away and convert to Protestantism. It is commonly agreed upon by many scholars that

despite his opposition to Protestantism, he played a key role in its rise, as summed by the

assertion that “Erasmus laid the egg, Martin Luther simply Hatched it” (Institute, 2019).

Neither Holy, Nor Roman, Nor an Empire.

In the year 800 AD, Charlemagne, king of the Franks, was crowned Emperor of the

western roman empire. At the time, this was little more then a prestigious title. The western

roman empire had long since been dismantled, but the idea of a revived roman empire persisted.

Long after Charlemagne’s death and the dissolution of the Carolingian empire, Otto the First,

the then king of Germany, consolidated a majority of the lands (with the exception of France) of

the former Carolingian empire in the year 962 AD. This new Empire would eventually be known

as the Holy Roman Empire by the 13th century. However, it is by its very name an oxymoron,

and because of this, the reformation flourished under it for several reasons (Meagher, 2002).

The Holy Roman Empire was little more than a German pretender to the legacy of Rome.

By the 1500’s it was little more than a loose confederation of principalities and fiefs. The

emperor could not raise armies, levy taxes, or go to war without the support of the princes. Since

its founding, the empire had only been ruled by the majority German Nobility, and at the start of
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the 14th century, would be continued to be ruled by the Habsburgs up until its dissolution in

1806. It did not function as other monarchies did: instead of direct inheritance, the rulers of the

German empire were elected from a body of “electors”, which were commonly high-ranking

noble landowners, typically dukes. This was by and large a slightly tweaked version of the way

rulers were selected in Pre-catholic Saxony and Germany. The largest difference in this case was

the Pope’s role. The Pope had final say in crowning the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire,

and occasionally, used his authority to control the empire. This system caused great tension

between the electors and the Holy Roman Emperor, who at times was seen as little more than the

pope’s lapdog. This resentment increased over time; however, they were limited in their options.

The emperor derived his power from the church and the pope, and to challenge them would lead

to excommunication. When Martin Luther posted his thesis, his ideas gave the rebellious electors

a Casus Belli to defy the emperor; and through him, the Papacy. At the time of his

excommunication at the Diet of Worms, nearly all the electors sought to support him. This desire

to support and protect Martin Luther would lead the Elector of Saxony, Frederick III, to grant

him refuge and asylum (Meagher, 2002).

By the beginning of the Reformation, tension within the Holy roman empire was at its

height. At the same time, the empire itself was at its weakest, especially because of its losses in

the Italian wars in the century prior. With power decentralized, the empire could not respond

effectively enough to stop the spread of Protestantism. In addition, as Martin Luther was

protected by his supporter Electors, the emperor was not able to simply have him executed, an

act which may have stopped the reformation in its tracks, because he lacked the influence to do

so at this point in the Empire’s history.

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Concluding and reflecting.

It sometimes can be a hard thing for us to look back upon the past and see things through

the eyes of those who lived, but it can grant us an understanding of why things happen as they

do. I believe that all that occurs is simply the culmination of all that came before; the choices we

and others made. By the 16th century, central Europe was on course to some kind of upheaval.

There were simply too many culminating factors leading up to the events of the Reformation.

Even if Martin Luther did not hammer his 95 theses onto the church door and spark the

proverbial powder keg, I have no doubt that things would have proceeded without him. The

changes that many were calling for up until the reformation were popular and had some support

from within the church as well. Things may not have turned out similarly, but the corruption

within the church with both Indulgences, Simony, and the Papacy’s increasing involvement in

politics started talks of reformation as early as 1376, and with the Holy Roman Empire’s state at

the time, it would have been unable to suppress talk of reformation. John Calvin is a good

example, who despite preaching after Luther, was not even called before a Diet and

excommunicated like Luther. A reformation of some kind was inevitable, it was only a matter of

time. Things may have happened differently, had Martin Luther not made his stand when he did.

What if he hadn’t? What if John Calvin or another reformer took up the mantle? Would

Protestantism have become something more akin to the religion the Puritans Practiced in the

17nth century? There are many “What ifs” one may glean insight from; however, it does not

change the course of history, only our understanding of it.

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Works Cited

Institute, T. C. (2019). The Reformation Begins. Retrieved from Cusd49.com:

https://www.cusd49.com/wp-content/uploads/The-Reformation-Begins.pdf

Karant-Nunn, Heuman, L., & Ute, S. (2017). After 500 Years: Print and Propaganda in the

Protestant Reformation. Retrieved from University of Arizona Special Collections:

https://speccoll.library.arizona.edu/online-exhibits/exhibits/show/reformation/role-of-

printing

Karl Keating. (2004, August 10). Tract The Great Heresies. Retrieved from Catholic.com:

https://www.catholic.com/tract/the-great-heresies

Meagher, J. (2002, October). The Holy Roman Empire and the Habsburgs, 1400–1600.

Retrieved from The Met Museum:

https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/habs/hd_habs.htm

Roman Catholic Church in 1500. (2015). Retrieved from History Learning:

https://historylearning.com/german-reformation/roman-catholic-church-in-1500/

#:~:text=The%20Roman%20Catholic%20Church%20in,for%20the%20Church's

%20financial%20gain.