THE REFORMEDThe European World

Recap: Luther’s Reformation conditioned by its

context: Peculiarities of the Holy Roman Empire Printing Press

Two key principles: Sola fide (Faith Alone) Sola Scriptura (Scripture Alone) Huge challenges to the Catholic Church

A ‘GERMAN’ EVENT?

A SAUSAGE:

Defined Swiss Reformation:

1) attitude to the Law of God.

2) context in which it emerged. What is this

about?- Freedom- The ‘right’ of the Church to impose

unscriptural rites on the laity.- Uncharitable- Idolatrous- Human invention, not Scripture- OBSCURED the law of God.

LECTURE STRUCTURE: The Swiss context Zwingli The ‘Image’ problem ‘Lutheranism’ & ‘The Reformed’ War between the Cantons Bullinger & beyond

The swiss context:

CONTEXT: Not a NATIONAL event.

Series of City States – cantons. Sense of freedom

opportunity for Reform to flourish reform often threatened the ties which maintained

the balance of power between the cities Two centuries of weakening the authority of the

Church and its independence: Bishops courts curtailed Reigned in clerical independence ‘Traditional’ Catholicism flourishing

THE SWISS CANTONS:

CONTEXT CONDITIONS RELIGION: Civic politics Interaction of Church and State Lay involvement

All hallmarks of the Swiss Reformation which spawned the ‘Reformed’ tradition.

Zwingli

ZWINGLI:• Same social level as Luther – both the cleverest sons of

the wealthy middling sort.BUT:

• Luther – cloistered monk• Zwingli – parish priestSO WHAT?

• Zwingli never experienced the detachment from everyday pastoral concerns which had been possible for Luther

• Christianity embodied in everyday concerns.

Erasmus & Zwingli shared the view that God intended Christianity to be the engine of change and improvement in human society

Strong emphasis on the spirit as the critical relationship between God and humanity

Influence of Erasmus separated Zwingli from Luther• Met Erasmus in Basel & became his admirer.

• Erasmus’s influence would be important in the Swiss context

• Not a ‘Nation’ – a collection of City States.• Fiercely independent• Enthusiasm for Humanism• Classical culture & City States

Beginnings: 1518 – priest at the

Grossmünster in Zurich.• Went beyond his brief – serious of

sermons on the Gospel of Matthew (remember, rare to preach) in 1519. This ignored the ‘traditional’

liturgical cycle. Book of Acts

• Intensity and piety blossomed into conviction that the Church was in need of reform – set out to convince the city council that this was so 1520/21. Ceased to receive papal pension

in 1520.

Context ripe for reform: ‘Sausage scandal’ turned into a

public event in which issues had to be debated.

• City authorities agreed to a series of public disputations on religion in 1523. Distinct – German, not Latin. Therefore the city councillors – and

by extension the civic community – were engaged in the future of their church.

Church authorities angered by the novelty – refused to speak.

No ‘official’ defence to slow reform down.

Result: bible only source of authority in religious matters.

BEYOND LUTHER: Denied indebted to Luther.

Euan Cameron: ‘if Zwingli really did develop the distinctively “Reformation” message of salvation by free forgiveness, apprehended through faith, simultaneously but entirely independently of Luther, it was the most breathtaking coincidence of the sixteenth century’.

Significant difference: Especially re: Law and Gospel.

Luther – a powerful distinction between the two.

Zwingli – Bible WAS divine law, represented divine will.

FORMS of Reformation Who had the right to

implement reform? Luther stalled on this question Hesitancy increased the

likelihood of the trouble he hoped to prevent

Karlstadt – clerical marriage & cleansed images.

Priesthood of All Believers became a mandate for laymen to conduct reform

Iconoclasm incensed Elector Frederick.

The ‘image’ problem:

1523 – Leo Judd: 2nd Commandments made

visible representations of the divine a grave sin against the majesty of God

‘you shall not make yourself a graven image, or any likeness [of God]...you shall not bow down to or serve them].

If Bible = Divine Law, the eradication of images was a NECCESSITY.

Ammunition that the Papal Church = Antichrist.

Population began to pull down images. 1523 2nd Zurich Disputation re:

images. Also the Mass – was that, too, an

idolatrous image? Result – 1st statement of doctrine

produced anywhere during the Reformation Action – banning of images in

1524; the Mass in 1525. Whole fabric of medieval

religion gone – where was purgatory now?

All by power of lay authority – clergy no longer the sole mediators.

THE ‘IMAGE’ PROBLEM:Luther – a conservative:• Images should be removed if ‘abused’ i.e. if they were

subject to idolatrous and excessive devotions which offended against the majesty of Christ.

• But, fundamentally, there was nothing wrong with art in the Church.

Zwingli/Calvin – no representations in a religious setting:• Divine Law• Offends God’s Majesty• Humanity prone to idolatry

Cleansing the Temple

Iconoclasm:

LORD’S SUPPER: Luther: unclear & conservative.

Denied transubstantiation. But Christ still ‘present’ in the Host.

Zwingli: Erasmian prioritising of the spirit over the flesh: Luther too literal in taking ‘This is my body, this is my blood’ as REAL

flesh/blood. Christ could not be on the communion table if on right hand of God in

heaven. Sacrament = an oath:

Sacramentum: origins in the Roman army, a soldier’s oath. Swiss – regular swearing of oaths was FOUNDATION of society based

on independence and sense of local and civic loyalty. An oath, an expression of the believer’s faith. Remember what Christ had done for the community & express thanks.

Baptism: Also an oath.• Luther had insisted on the

importance of faith to the Christian in the process of salvation.

• Every example of faith in the New Testament involved a profession of faith. BUT: only possible for adults –

not infants or children Implications for the nature of

civil society: C4th – Christian Church allied

with the Roman Empire following the conversion of Constantine

Monopoly religion in the Empire.

All members of society were members of the Church:

That membership sealed in baptism.

Luther – infants MUST be baptised for social stability..

Zwingli, no, an OATH: welcomed children into the

Lord’s family – not a magical washing away of sin.

Symbols, not rites. Radicals would not go that far.

Defined the notion of the ‘Magisterial Reformation’ – those Reformers who would work with the magistrate – i.e. ‘the state’ in promoting reform

Crucial shift from medieval Catholicism:

Eucharist was the city meeting in love; baptism was the community welcoming – no sense of separation between Church and Zurich.

Sacrament altered from LMC - no longer something which God did for mankind, rather something which mankind did for God.

Zurich was to a purified, Godly city, living according to the Law.

‘Lutheranism’ & ‘The reformed’

‘LUTHERANISM’ & ‘THE REFORMED’: Fuller Reformation than

Luther. By compelling infant baptism,

the first Reformation to become rigid & orthodox: To move beyond questioning

& anarchy on 1521-25 into something concrete.

Humanism pivotal here: Learning lead to a virtuous

commonwealth Faith lead to ‘disciplined’

living.

Conflict with one another. Keen to point out that

THEIR understanding is correct.

Years c.1530 were marked by moves to distinction between different groups of Protestants.

Hinder the early Reformation as a political entity: AND its power as a political

challenge to emperor Charles V.

Philip of Hesse try to unite Luther and Zwingli. To build on the momentum

gained at the 1529 Diet of Speyer.

Summoned a discussion at Marburg (his family castle).

Problem: the Eucharist Luther has already branded

Zwingli a ‘fanatic’ on the issue.

Luther has a hissy fit Zwingli is moved to the

point of angry tears. Results were two-fold:

1) shaped and defined ‘Lutheran’ doctrine (14 key ‘articles’ drawn up to unify reformers in cities all over Germany) which the Princes supported.

2) defined – as a form of counter-reaction – another form of Protestantism which saw Luther as the problem, not the solution.

Marburg 1529Zwingli: ‘You were that one Hercules who dealt with any trouble that arose anywhere....You would have cleansed the Augustan stable, if you had the images removed, if you had not taught that the body of Christ was supposed to be eaten in the bread’.

Protestantism was now fractured, & the ‘Reformed’ tradition was born.

The ‘Reformed’: Homogeneity easily overstated:

Especially on the issue of Church structure & discipline.

Basle – more plural, spiritualists and ‘radicals’ present.

Berne & Graubunden – magistrates not have the same amount of authority to support Reform.

BUT did form an alliance. Short-lived.

Context is all again:IF THIS REFORMATION WAS MADE BY THE CITY STATE CONTEXT IN WHICH IT EMERGED, IT WAS SCUPPERED BY IT TOO.

Wars between the cantons

WAR BETWEEN THE CANTONS: 1520s – increasing disquiet

over the presence of Reform: Issues:

Evangelism Loyalty to the old Church Exacerbated existing political fault-lines Catholic Bishop keen to re-establish

control over Zurich.• 1529 Zwingli brought

together in the Christian Civic Union

Aggressive intentions: Intended to pull reluctant

areas into reform Encroach on the territories

of the Catholic Cantons.

Summer of 1529 war between Christian Civic Union and Catholic cantons: Zurich gained territories Peace of Kappel-am-Albis – each parish to

choose its religious affiliation. Voting undercut Catholic elites Synods – regional units of clerical/lay

authority overseeing networks of parishes. Significant re: Geneva/ Presbyterians in

England Peace short-lived:

Battle of Kappel in 1531, Zwingli butchered Ended of Christian Civic Union And of Zurich as a potential leader of the

Reformed. By 1555 Zurich could only stand and watch

as the Catholic cantons ordered Protestant minsters out of their cities.

BULLINGER & BEYOND: Heinrich Bullinger – Zwingli’s

successor Avoided involvement in politics. Aimed to unite Protestants

across Europe: Helvetic Convention (1566) Doctrinal syntheses. Sermons collections.

Covenant theology: Essential to Protestant identity

(chosen people). Moral obligation – to continue

to obey HIS law. Discipline & behaviour.