The Consequences of the Protestant Reformation Featured the religious movement led by Martin Luther in 1517, which gave rise to a theological division between Roman Catholics and Protestants.
Luther was a German monk who sought to reform the corruption that existed in the Catholic Church of the time. Although the movement was primarily spiritual, Protestantism led many to rebel against the authority of the church and the powerful monarchs of that time, who used their authority to control great empires.
The reform significantly changed the political landscape in Western Europe and culminated in the Thirty Years War of the seventeenth century.
Consequences of Protestant Reform in Society
1 - Rupture with Rome
Martin Luther
The Reformation had an impact on religious and philosophical thought, mainly due to dissatisfaction with the Catholic Church of the time, which was a pre-eminent authority in Europe in the 1500s. Martin Luther claimed that authority came from the Bible and not Of the Catholic Church or the Pope.
As a result, the Church fractured, resulting in a multitude of Christian denominations, including the first, the Lutheranism , And many others that still arise and continue in modern times.
2 - Emergence of the Anglican Church
The story begins with the breaking of King Henry VIII with the Roman Catholic Church. This reform in England was closely related to the King's personal affairs, because he was desperate to be freed from his marriage to Catherine of Aragon.
Thus, in 1532 a law was passed in Parliament to curb the influence of the papacy in England and the King was appointed as the Supreme Head of the Church, Anglicanism .
Henry VIII took some measures. The convents were dismantled and their wealth secularized, so each parish should have a Bible in English and the New Testament in the translation of Tyndale dated 1526.
Nevertheless, Henry VIII felt strong bonds with the catholicism, reason why although he founded a separated Church of Rome, tried to be faithful to the catholic doctrine.
After his death in 1547, his son Eduardo VI opened the doors completely of the Reformation in England. But a few years later, his sister Maria (daughter of Catherine of Aragon and Henry VIII) was crowned and, as a Catholic devotee, restored Catholicism in England under the authority of the Pope and persecuted the Protestants.
Five years later, after the death of Mary, Isabel I (daughter of Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII) became his successor thanks to Protestants, reinstating the Law of Supremacy, thus affirming his position as queen and sole head of The Anglican Church of England.
However, the queen retained some features of the service and organization of the Catholic Church, so she did not depart completely from this tradition.
3- Persecution between Catholics and Protestants
As a result of the Protestant Reformation, the Church of Spain and Portugal operated inquisitorial courts throughout their empires, so that Lutherans and Protestants were persecuted and murdered without mercy.
The intolerance of Protestantism was no less cruel. In England, for example, after having achieved supremacy, they established a new tyranny. They ended up with monasteries and monasteries, expropriated their property, pursued and murdered them.
4- The Catholic Reformation
The desire for reform within the Catholic Church had begun before the propagation of Luther, but the Protestant Reformation pressed for a revived Catholicism, clarify and reaffirm Roman Catholic principles. Many men of great thought and intellect were involved in this Reformation.
Cardinal Ximenes of Spain reinforced clerical discipline and encouraged knowledge in schools and universities. On the other hand, Matteo Giberti, secretary of Clement VII, was one of the first members of the Oratory of the Divine Love founded in Rome in 1517 to foment good works in the daily life.
In 1524, Gian Pietro Caraffa (later Paul IV) helped find the Teatinos, an order in which the priests worked within the community, but lived in monastic austerity.
A decisive man in the Reformation, Ignacio de Loyola, founded in 1534 the order of the Jesuits. They transformed the Roman Catholic Church and sought to bridge the gap between Thomism and Augustinian.
Pope Paul III initiated the Council of Trent in 1545, in order for a commission of cardinals charged with institutional reform to address controversial issues such as bishops and corrupt priests, indulgences and other financial abuses.
Some Catholic reformers were also influenced by late medieval mysticism, such as Master Eckhardt and Thomas a Kempis. In France, Lefèvre d'Etaples published translations of these writers. The Dutch Jesuit Peter Canisius was greatly influenced by mystics and founded Jesuit colleges throughout Germany.
A succession of potatoes during the second half of the sixteenth century followed the policy established in the Counter-Reformation. Their conscious administrations eliminated much of the incentive to rebellion.
5- The Thirty Years' War
The Thirty Years' War (1618-1648), in which most of the European powers (especially the Holy Roman Empire) intervened, drew a new geopolitical framework in later years.
It was born as a battle between those who defended the reform and those who supported the counter-reform, but it led to a conflict related to religion in general and as an incentive to achieve hegemony in Europe.
Finalized, the Peace of Westphalia was signed, which modified the religious and political map of Central Europe.
6- Literacy and promotion of education
In the context of the Protestant Reformation, Becker and Woessmann (2009) argue that Luther was interested in making all Christians read the Bible, thereby encouraging universal schooling in Protestant areas.
In turn, in the Catholic Reformation, with the appearance in the Catholic Church of San Ignacio de Loyola and its Jesuit order, schools are founded by all Europe and the education is fomented.
7- Economic Development
A classic consequence is the work of Max Weber on the relationship between Protestantism and economic development.
Weber's theory was motivated by the observation that in Baden (a state of southwestern Germany), Protestants earned more than Catholics and were more likely to attend technical arts schools.
While the Protestants in Baden were mostly Lutherans, most of Weber's theory turns around Calvinism and ascetic branches of Christianity.
According to their hypothesis, these sects succeeded in instilling the idea that work and the creation of money should be seen as a vocation, an end in itself, arguing that this attitude was central to the early development of modern capitalism.
However, an investigation by Davide Cantoni (2009) of Harvard University, asserts that there are no effects of Protestantism on the economic growth of the time. This according to the analysis of population figures in a dataset comprising 272 cities between the years 1300 and 1900.
"While there are many reasons to expect that Protestant cities and states have been economically more dynamic over the last few centuries, because of their work ethic, their attitude towards business and their encouragement of literacy, this document does not An effect of religious denominations as a likely indicator of economic development,"writes Cantoni.
The Harvard researcher concludes that, despite different views on religious matters, Protestants and Catholics may not have been so different in their economic behavior after all.
8- Jewish migration to Eastern Europe
As for the Jews, Luther made a mistake. He was sure that the Jews would support him and even become Lutherans. He had shaken the Church to its core, had endured excommunication, and had risen before the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. He thought that by their actions the Jews would become.
However, it was not even rejected, but ignored. The Jews of Germany were not interested in becoming Protestants or being attracted to the forces fighting in Europe. In addition, a much more radical element emerged within Protestantism, the Anabaptists, who claimed that Luther was not Protestant enough.
Consequently, the Jews suffered terribly in the Thirty Years War, although this was a war between Catholics and Protestants.
The war led to chaos and anarchy, and armed bands looted and killed everywhere. At the end of the war, Jews preferred to be in areas under the control of Roman Catholics, since in Protestant areas these were left to the wrath of the multitude.
The Jews would be rebuilt in the seventeenth century, but they would never again be able to recover in Western Europe. That is why after this period, Jewish life migrates to Eastern Europe (Poland, Lithuania and Russia), where the Protestant Revolution had no reach.
9- Changes in religious art
The Reformation inaugurated a new artistic tradition that emphasized the Protestant belief system and diverged dramatically from the humanist art of Southern Europe produced during the High Renaissance. Many artists in Protestant countries diversified into secular art forms.
In terms of subject, the iconic images of Christ and scenes of the Passion became less frequent, as were the representations of the saints and the clergy. Instead, the narrative scenes of the Bible and the moralistic representations of modern life were prevalent.
The Protestant Reformation also capitalized on the popularity of engraving in northern Europe. This technique allowed the art to be mass produced and broadly reach the public at low cost, so that the Protestant church was able to bring its theology to the people in a more persuasive way.
10- Destruction of religious images
The Protestant Reformation induced a revolutionary wave with respect to religious images. The most radical Protestants who promoted destruction, we find Protestant leaders Huldrych Zwingli and John Calvin, who actively wiped out images of their churches.
John Calvin
On the other hand, Martin Luther encouraged the exhibition of a restricted range of religious images in the churches. However, the iconoclasm of the Reformation resulted in the disappearance of religious figurative art, compared to the number of secular pieces of art that emerged.
11- Division of Europe
At the beginning of the sixteenth century, Western Europe had only one religion, Roman Catholicism. The Church C Catholic era was rich and powerful and had preserved the classical culture of Europe.
The Protestant Reformation created a North-South division in Europe, where generally the countries of the north became Protestants, whereas the countries of the south remained Catholics.
Towards the end of the sixteenth century, the Catholic Church was recovering people in half of the lands that had lost Protestantism. Europe was divided along almost the same lines that still exist today.
12- Division of Protestantism
The Protestant Reformation gave rise to many divisions within itself. Although the origin was Lutheranism, many others distanced themselves from it, giving rise to a variety of churches (some more radical than others), such as: Protestant Church, Anglican Church of England Episcopal Baptist Pentecostal Methodist or Calvinism Presbyterian Reformed, among many more.
Currently the number of Protestant churches is difficult to account for, it is believed to be more than 30,000.
References
- Sascha O. Becker (2016). Causes and Consequences of the Protestant Reformation. Warwick Economics Research Paper Series. Retrieved from: pdfs.semanticscholar.org.
- Boundless (2017). "Impact of the Protestant Reformation." Boundless Art History Boundless. Retrieved from: boundless.com.
- Berel Wein (2015). The Reformation. Jewish History. Retrieved from: jewishhistory.org.
- Davide Cantoni (2009). The Economic Effects of the Protestant Reformation. Harvard University. Recovered from: davidecantoni.net.
- The Counter Reformation. The History Learning Site. Retrieved from: historylearningsite.co.uk.
- Aggelos (2017). The Anglican Reformation in 16th century. Virtual Museum of Protestantism. Retrieved from: museeprotestant.