161
See also: The Investiture Controversy 96–97 ■ The beginning of the Italian Renaissance 152–55 ■
The Defenestration of Prague 164–169 ■ The execution of Charles I 174–75 ■ Henry VIII breaks with Rome 198so initiating the Reformation—the
rise of churches based on reformed
practices, and a focus on scripture
rather than on priestly authority.
Because of the churches’ origin in
protests against Catholic practices
and beliefs, they became known as
Protestant churches.Spread of the Reformation
Luther was not alone in seeking
religious reform. Swiss preacher
Ulrich Zwingli (1484–1531) led a
Protestant church based in Zurich,
and Frenchman John Calvin broke
from the Catholic church in around- Forced to flee France, he went
to Geneva, Switzerland, where he
supported the reform movement,
eventually helping to shape
Protestant doctrine.
Reformers’ beliefs did not
necessarily concur. Calvinists were
markedly different from Lutherans,
and Anabaptists were persecuted
by Protestants as well as Catholics
for their radical views. Luther
himself supported the brutal
suppression of the Anabaptist-led
Peasants’ Revolt in the 1520s. What
the Protestants had in common
was that their views brought them
into fundamental theological
conflict with the Catholic church.
Reformers’ ideas spread via the
relatively new technology of the
printed word. Before movable type
and presses made printed books
possible in the 1450s, books were
all written by hand in Latin, the
international language of the
church. Print allowed information
to be reproduced cheaply and
quickly, and demand rapidly grew
for books written in the vernacular.
Luther wrote his theses in Latin, but
before long they had been translated
and printed in German, French,
English, and other languages. Books
and pamphlets describing church
abuses and outlining Protestant
theology soon followed, and were
printed in large numbers.THE EARLY MODERN ERA
Injury is done to
the Word of God when,
in the same sermon, an equal
or larger amount of time is
devoted to indulgences
than to the Word.
Martin Luther, 1517Importance of The Word
A central idea in Protestant theology
was that authority came not from
the priesthood, but from scripture
itself. For this reason, access to
the Bible was essential both for
the reformers and their followers.
Bibles printed in native European
languages were appearing by the
16th century, Luther’s German
translation of the New Testament
was published in 1522, and a
translated version of the whole
Bible including the Apocrypha
followed in 1534. A year later, Miles
Coverda le (1488–1569), sometime
friar, preacher, and Bishop of Exeter,
produced the first complete Bible
in English. A French translation
by theologian Jacques Lefèvre
d’Étaples (c.1450 –1536) appeared
between 1528 and 1532.
By the mid-16th century,
Reformation ideas had been widely
disseminated. Lutheranism spread
across Germany and Scandinavia;
Calvinism took hold in much of
Switzerland, and made significant
inroads in Scotland. There were ❯❯At the Diet of Worms in 1521,
Luther refused to recant: “Unless I
am convicted of error by the testimony
of Scripture... I cannot and will not
retract.... Here I stand. God help me!”US_160-163_Martin_Luther_Wittenburg.indd 161 15/02/2016 16:42