A thread on the Protestant Reformation, origins of Secularism and the Westphalian model of nation states.

I will discuss all of these events and concepts in a brief and in a simple language. It`s a long read, please read till the end.

The catalyst for the Reformation was about the sale of indulgence grants - trade number of years in the Purgatory (intermediate planet before Heaven) with money - by the Catholic Church. If you committed a sin and didn't want to be punished after death - just pay money to Church.

Luther wrote his famous 95 these against against the indulgence system, which he saw as commercializing the religion and going against sola fide (justification by faith alone). The Pope had commissioned fresh indulgence grants to rebuild St Peter’s Basilica.

They were not really revolutionary in their content, still assuming Catholic beliefs like existence of purgatory, theology of works, etc. However this issue blew up because Luther had made this a public matter, by sending it to the local Archbishop, Albrecht of Brandenburg.

The matter reached the Church in Rome, however sparking a general debate with the newly-invented printing press. This led to formation of independent public opinions, outside the centralizing control of the Church, like never before.

In fact, there were proto-Protestant movements like Lollards & Hussites before Luther. However, these couldn't take off as they didn't have the printing press to spread their word, and hence did not expand. There were 3 million+ copies of Luther’s works sold by 1525 in German.

In a debate in 1519, Luther openly questioned the infallibility of the Pope, who then passed an edict threatening Luther with exclusion if he didn’t withdraw his statements. Luther refused to, before Emperor Charles V in the Diet of Worms, and was thus outlawed as a heretic.

Luther inspired the Peasants’ War in 1524, Europe’s biggest popular uprising before the French Revolution. Landlords found it hard to collect debts from tenant farmers; anti-authority atmosphere inspired by the Reformation led to a breakdown in negotiations, leading to clashes.

Luther was ashamed of this. He sided with the authorities and asked peasants to obey them, supporting violence against rebellious peasants. Radicals formed refuge in a new movement which we know today as Anabaptism, splitting away from Lutheranism.

We see many subdivisions being drawn up throughout this period a la the Mosaic Distinction. Each of these new sects sent the followers of the other sects to hell just for minor disagreements.

Some other issues of controversy include
-custom versus scripture
-idolatry (holy art) and saint worship
-Bible as the only source of authority, versus custom as an extra source
-Grace by faith versus authority
-Inner religion vs outer religion
-Infant baptism

Calvin was a power-hungry reformer, who envisioned a working model of a Reformed (Calvinist) Protestant Church in Geneva. He was famous for burning a rival, Servetus, on a stake, signaling strength across Europe. Soon main division among Protestants was Lutheran vs Reformed.

Massacre of St Bartholomew, 1572: Marriage between a Huguenot and Catholic royal couple in France witnessed an attempted assassination; Royals preemptively attacked Huguenot leaders on St Bartholomew’s Day, inspiring mob riots; around 5000 Catholics were killed.

This was the start of confessionalization - people bought into abstruse theological conflicts and were genuinely prepared to kill for their sect. Before, it was mostly princes and nobles who cared about such theological trifles.

"cuius regio,eius religio" : ‘whose realm, his religion’ - key theme of Reformation politics. Was introduced during 1555 Peace of Augsburg. Here, a ruler was allowed to enforce either Lutheranism or Catholicism (only) in his domain. Credited with increasing intolerance in Europe.

Thirty Years War –a concoction of dynastic rivalry, power politics, and above all, religious zeal. A key catalyst was the Defenestration of Prague–Catholic emissaries of Ferdinand II were thrown out of a window by Prots, after failed negotiations. Army mobilization soon commenced

In the key Battle of White Mountains of 1620, the Habsburgs defeated the Bohemian Protestants, starting a three-century period of Habsburg military dominance in Bohemia. The Uraquist Church was soon eliminated.

Others like France and Sweden joined in, but it wasn't merely a Cath vs Prot war. The war was brutal; up to 40% of Germans died due to its direct or indirect effects . In the Sack of Magdeburg, a Free City, most of its 20k residents were massacred, sending a chill across Europe.

The Peace of Westphalia (1648), signaled the end of the war; territorial sovereignty became a key idea ever since. Centralization of state power grew as a result of these wars; states increased taxes and grew in complexity. ‘State-nations’ gradually became nation-states.

Catholics underwent a Counter-Reformation in response; Jesuits grew as parallel movements, famed for their educational institutions. There was a renewed drive to expand Catholicism globally - Asia, Americas. Theological conflicts of Reformation were resolved in Council of Trent.

Witchcraft: Both Catholics and Protestants joined hands in killing upto 50,000 ‘witches’ . Driven by inquisitions and commended by the Pope, Caths led the persecution. Not wanting to be seen as less zealous Christians, Prots too joined the war against these "agents of the Devil".

Reformation of Manners : Sexuality became more publicly regulated, as a result of the introduction of Syphilis, as well as the ideas of the thinker Erasmus. Premarital sex became widely seen as sinful. Puritans imposed death penalty for incest and adultery in 1650 in England.

/End/

Thanks for reading this far, please drop your doubts below, I will explain origins of liberalism and Westphalian model of states in more detail in separate threads.