GENERAL
CAUSES OF THE REFORMATION:
why did Reformation happen?
why did it happen in Germany?
I.
PRINTING
invented circa 1450, in
Mainz, Germany (Johan Gutenberg)
Chinese sources: block printing (wood cuts)
paper (rags) replaces parchment (sheepskin) & vellum
(calfskin)
Initial
impact of printing press as conservative
incunabula (cradle) period 1450-1500: earliest printed books
effort to produce effect of manuscript books with printing
press
"the art of writing artificially without a pen"
clerical needs for Latin Bibles, missals, psalters
- 100 editions of Latin Bible between 1450 and 1500
Long term revolutionary aspects
elimination of scribal error, repeatability, citations
scholarship becomes more collective activity, often to more
people
economic impact: individuals can afford books, not just
monasteries
change in learning; diffusion of images (woodcuts)
spread of Reformation:
1517-20, Luther alone published 30 tracts in 300,000 copies
systematic censorship of books: Rome, Index of Forbidden
Books, 1559
II. State of Religion, 1400-1500
Popular
Devotion: issue of “good works”
saint cults, relics, vows, pilgrimages, indulgences,
confraternities, rosary, stations of cross
theological support for performance of external "good
works,"
both charitable acts and religious observances
Clerical corruption:
simony, nepotism, multiple benefices, concubines,
absenteeism
Reform
attempt
1512 Fifth Lateran Council (Rome): problem
of Turkish war finance
III. Christian
Humanism as Critique of Church
DESIDERIUS ERASMUS OF ROTTERDAM (1466-1536)
Education:
l) Brethren of the Common Life, schools in Netherlands
"Devotio moderna" = practical piety for laymen imitating
Apostles
founder: Thomas a Kempis (1380-1471) author (1427)
2) College de Imitation of Christ Montaigu, Paris:
studied scholastic theology, ordained 1492
Achievements:
scholar of Latin and Greek: 1516 Greek New Testament
educator: Colloquies 15l8-23 - texts for Latin classes
in schools
Christian reformer: The Praise of Folly (Encomium
Moriae) 1511
genre: panegyric = rhetorical format; Folly as orator;
extended learned joke, as Folly praises herself
critique of externals & religious ceremonies;
against saints cults, relics, pilgrimages, fasting
anti-scholastic: folly calls scholastic theologians her
followers
fideism: mistrust of scholastic appeal to reason in religion
reliance on faith, dislike of dogmatic assertions, disputation
practical, moral philosophy; "philosophia Christi"
(of Christ)
pacifist writings: Complaint of Peace Against War
(first pacifist
tract in European history)
Julius Exclusus: Pope Julius II (l503-13) excluded from heaven
by St. Peter because of military role as "warrior Pope"
doctrine: remains Catholic, dislikes Reformation controversies
IV.
TREND TO NATIONAL CHURCHES
France, 1438 Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges
(King Charles VII)
assertion of "Gallican liberties"
of French church
1516 Concordat of Bologna: pact between French King &
Papacy
Bohemia, John Hus (executed for heresy by Council
of Constance)
Hussite followers start Utraquist Church (1431-1620)
V. Germany
& Holy Roman Empire ("Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation")
Lack of political centralization: compare France
& Spain
Golden Bull of 1356: diffusion of sovereignty
election of Emperor by seven Electors
(Archbishops of Mainz, Cologne, Trier; king of Bohemia,
margrave of Brandenburg, duke of Saxony, count Palatine)
confirmation of regalian rights of 300 separate states
in
Empire (also 2,000 imperial knights); power of Emperor limited
Inheritance
of Charles V (Burgundy, Spain + New World,
Holy Roman Empire)
Reichstadt = 65 "free imperial cities" role
in protecting Reformation
Diet (council) of the Empire:
1415-1521 GRAVAMINA (Grievances of the German nation)
many directed against Rome