The Impact of Luther and the
Radical Reformation
|
|
By the early 1520s, Luther had attracted a vast following while the
printing presses spread his message and reputation across The explanations for Luther's success may be endlessly debated by scholars
but for the most part, and leaving theological opinion aside, we can say that
the people were prepared for the message Luther delivered. Is it simply a
matter of Luther appearing at the right time and in the right place? Perhaps.
Since the 15th century there had been a growing resentment against clerical
privilege. The clergy paid no taxes and were exempt from those civic
responsibilities that increasingly fell on the shoulders of the urban
dweller. Added to this simple fact was the increased visibility of the clergy
-- there in the cities the common person could witness the luxury and
splendor of a church whose purpose was to minister the spiritual needs of its
flock but which now seemed indifferent, lax and, in a word, corrupt. Luther,
then, offered an alternative that was appealing perhaps for the simple reason
that is was an alternative. Luther's religion was also spread by preachers who were to deliver
approximately one hundred sermons per year, each lasting about forty-five
minutes. Although Luther thought the Eucharist to be one of the most
important sacraments in the Lutheran religious gathering, it was clearly the
sermon that became the central focus of the service. Meanwhile, German peasants in the countryside flocked to Luther's camp.
Such a development was perhaps unsurprising since Luther himself was of
peasant stock. The peasants also backed Luther's criticism of the authority
of the Roman Church. In 1520, Luther had written, "A Christian man is
the most free lord of all and subject to none"
(On
Christian Liberty). Such a statement would have fallen on ready ears
since there were numerous instances of social unrest throughout the 15th
century. The situation was made worse in the 16th century by crop failures in
1523 and 1524. In 1525, representatives of the peasants of But Luther was no revolutionary and wished to avoid
social rebellion at all costs. In his An Admonition to Peace, he took
the side of the peasantry and criticized the manorial lords. However, he did
not justify armed force. In There were also across In 1523 Luther offered his German translation of the New Testament. Since
Luther had argued persuasively that everyone at the right to read and
comments on the Scriptures, his translation attracted supporters from the
literate middle classes. For the merchant and other members of the commercial
classes, Luther perhaps offered hope that salvation may even be possible for
the person whose sole interest was financial gain. Meanwhile Luther wrote hymns, psalms and a variety of other works. His A Mighty Fortress Is Our God
was perhaps his most important hymn (indeed, it is the one hymn truly
attributable to Luther's pen), since it reflected deep human feelings and
gave to be listener key points of Luther's doctrine. The Large
Catechism, intended for an adult audience, contained brief
expositions on the main articles of a Lutheran faith. The Small
Catechism did pretty much the same thing only in a condensed version
and was intended for the education of children. By the mid-16th century, many inhabitants of towns and villages had
deviated from Christian dogma: many of these people were heretics; many
believe that Nature was God (pantheism); and still more believe that witches
had just as much spiritual power as did priests. The number of radical groups
which appeared during the 16th century makes them difficult to classify. They
make up what historians call the Radical Reformation. There were men and women, many of them poor and illiterate, who claimed to
have knowledge of their own salvation through an inner light. That is, these
men and women believed they had a direct an immediate communication from God
to his chosen people. Should this be that surprising? Such knowledge made his
chosen people free. These Saints, as they called themselves, said the poor shall inherit the
earth which they believed was now governed by the anti-Christ, i.e., the
Pope. Their task was to purge the world of evil and make the world ready for
the second coming of Christ. For these people, the Holy Scriptures became
inspiration for their brand of social revolution. All of this, as you might
have expected, was condemned by Luther and Calvin (as well as the Church).
The largest groups of radical reformers were the Anabaptists (literally
"re-baptizers," used as a term a derision). Luther and Zwingli had argued that intense baptism marked the moment of
one's entry into the Church, even though this had no sanction in the Bible.
The Anabaptists believed the first baptism did not count since only mature
adults could make a conscious choice for Jesus not to young children who are
totally incapable of understanding God's grace. The Anabaptists were a
diverse group of people. Some rejected the Trinity while others refused to
take oaths, pay taxes, hold public office or serve in the army. Since the
Anabaptists gave the individual free choice, it was indeed possible that
Church organization was unnecessary since many believed in personal
communication with God. Many radicals formed their own voluntary associations
and abandoned the world in order to pursue their faith, regardless of what
Luther or the Church might think. Many practiced a primitive communism in
which everything was held in common, including property and wives. When all
of this was coupled with their idea that the end of the world was imminent, their
mission was one of urgency. Of course, Luther, Calvin, and Zwingli detested the radicals. By
practicing a Protestant faith that deviated from Lutheranism or Calvinism,
Luther and Calvin both argued that the radicals were damned. At an imperial
Diet held in 1529, the death penalty was issued against all Anabaptists. In 1534, the Melchiorites, an inflammatory sect of Anabaptists,
captured the German city of Münster. They immediately burned all books except the
Bible, banned the use of money and seized the property of non-believers. They
killed Protestants and Catholics and practiced polygamy and sexual excess.
Their leader, John of Leyden, had sixteen wives. As
to be expected, they proclaimed the Day of Judgment was close at hand.
Lutheran princes and Catholic bishops joined forces to condemn and defeat the
Anabaptists, who were placed in cages and hung from the church steeples where
they were eventually tortured and left to die. The radicals were pursued
wherever they found themselves and to survive, many of them fled to While Luther and Calvin struggled against the Anabaptists and other
radical sects, the Roman Church was also gathering momentum to enact a
genuine reform movement -- the Catholic Reformation . |