The Reformations

This is Unit Fifteen of Western Civilization One, part two of two: the Catholic Reformation from Paul the Third to Trent and the Jesuits, the four procedures the exam tests on the Reformations, and the capstone. Part one ended with the confessional map set by the fifteen sixties. Carry the same idea through this part: two reformations, one result. The second reformation was the Church's, late and then hard. At first there was no response, because print outran the Renaissance popes. Then Paul the Third admitted abuses, made the Inquisition permanent and approved the Jesuits; Trent reaffirmed nearly every doctrine while banning the sale of indulgences and founding seminaries; Paul the Fourth issued the Index and kept the Bible in Latin, which is why the exam's ninth sample question has one false option. Teresa and the baroque reconnected the Church with the laity. The result: doctrine kept, clergy remade, and no confession anywhere thought another could be saved. By the end you will be able to say why the Church held and answer the sample question on Trent. To describe seminaries, Jesuits and Teresa. To sequence, classify, read the Theses, and compare Luther with Calvin. And to state the two reformations.

Three entries on the Church's late, hard answer: why it held at all, the Holy Office and the Index with a Latin Bible, and a council that reaffirmed almost everything.

No response at first, then a hard line.

WC1 1415 From Counter to Catholic Reformation: Why the Church Held

Historians now say Catholic Reformation, not only Counter-Reformation, the anchor notes, and the exam may use either name. At first there was no response, since print outran the Renaissance popes; moderation ran to fifteen fifty, then a hard line. The Church held by habit, hierarchy, wealth, princes' fear of disorder after the peasants of fifteen twenty-four, and the baroque.

Abuses admitted, doctrine not, and the Bible kept in Latin.

WC1 1416 Paul III, the Holy Office, Paul IV, the Index, and the Latin Bible

Paul the Third's report of fifteen thirty-six admitted abuses, not doctrine, and in fifteen forty-two the Inquisition became a permanent Roman office. Paul the Fourth issued the Index in fifteen fifty-nine, where the anchor gives fifteen forty-nine and fifteen seventy-one, and kept the Bible in Latin, since laypeople would misread it. That is the ninth sample question's key: no vernacular Bibles were required.

Everything reaffirmed, one thing banned.

WC1 1417 The Council of Trent, 1545 to 1563: What It Reaffirmed

Trent, fifteen forty-five to sixty-three, debated every Protestant charge and reaffirmed almost all doctrine: works with faith, all seven sacraments, indulgences' legitimacy while banning their sale for cash, the Inquisition strengthened, missions sent. Begun to reconcile, it was won by hardliners, and Charles the Fifth, who had hoped for concessions, got none. The ninth sample question: Trent did everything listed except require vernacular Bibles.

Three entries on clergy remade and laity reconnected: seminaries as Trent's one monumental change, Loyola's soldiers and schools, and Teresa with the baroque.

Doctrine unchanged, clergy transformed.

WC1 1418 Seminaries: Trent's One Monumental Change

Trent required formal training for every priest in seminaries: scholastic, then humanist, in Latin, the Bible and the Fathers, with bishops made to reside and celibacy enforced with moderate success. Moral laxity was not eliminated, the anchor says, but priests became experts, against the semi-literate rural clergy of unit eleven. Doctrine unchanged, clergy transformed: that is the exam's contrast.

Responsible to the pope alone, from Japan to China.

WC1 1419 Loyola and the Jesuits: Soldiers, Schools, Missions

Ignatius of Loyola, a wounded Spanish knight, founded the Jesuits in fifteen forty, responsible to the pope alone: preachers, royal advisers, and teachers of the anchor's two hundred fifty thousand students by sixteen hundred in free, selective schools, with the Spiritual Exercises. Missions reached Japan in fifteen forty-nine and China under Ricci from fifteen eighty-two; the anchor's fifteen fifty-two is Xavier's death.

Emotional worship, and no tolerance anywhere.

WC1 1420 Teresa of Avila, the Baroque, and Reconnecting With the Laity

Teresa of Avila reformed the Carmelites from fifteen sixty-two, the anchor's fifteen thirty-five being her entry into Carmel, and the Ursulines taught. Print carried saints' lives and prayer books, emotional worship against Protestant austerity, and both Reformations raised literacy to the anchor's five to ten percent by sixteen hundred. No tolerance anywhere by the fifteen sixties, the anchor says.

Four procedures: the Reformations hung on Luther's spine, a confession classified by salvation, sacraments and governance, the Theses read for what they attack and spare, and Luther against Calvin.

Luther's spine first, then the other tracks.

WC1 1421 Sequencing the Reformations, 1517 to 1563

Four tracks overlap, so build Luther's spine first: fifteen seventeen the Theses, fifteen twenty-one Worms, fifteen twenty-five the peasants' defeat, fifteen fifty-five Augsburg. Zwingli's death in fifteen thirty-one falls between the peasants and Augsburg; Henry's Act of Supremacy in fifteen thirty-four three years later; Calvin's Geneva in fifteen thirty-six two years after that. The Jesuits in fifteen forty and the Inquisition in fifteen forty-two begin the Catholic track. Trent opens in fifteen forty-five and closes in fifteen sixty-three, so Augsburg, Elizabeth's accession in fifteen fifty-eight and the Index in fifteen fifty-nine all fall inside it. The Catholic Reformation started late, so Trent before Worms is wrong by a generation, and Augsburg settled Germany while Trent still sat; the two are not cause and effect.

Saved how, which sacraments, governed by whom.

WC1 1422 Classifying a Confession: Lutheran, Calvinist, Anglican, Anabaptist, Catholic

Ask three questions: how is one saved, what are the sacraments, and who governs the church. Catholic: faith and works, seven sacraments, the pope. Lutheran: faith alone, baptism and communion with Christ present, the prince. Calvinist: faith alone by predestination, the same two with Christ present spiritually, elders and consistory. Anglican: Catholic ritual, Protestant headship, the monarch. Anabaptist: adult baptism, no state church. A congregation baptizing only adults and refusing oaths is Anabaptist. A church whose prince chose under the treaty of fifteen fifty-five is Lutheran or Catholic, the only two Augsburg allowed. A city where elders fine dancing and teach election before birth is Calvinist. A church with bishops and a queen as supreme governor is Anglican. A church that reaffirmed indulgences while banning their sale is Catholic after Trent. Augsburg excluded Calvinists, which is why unit seventeen's wars followed, and Anglicans are classified by headship.

What is attacked, what is not, and the tone.

WC1 1423 Reading the Ninety-Five Theses: Three Claims and Their Tone

For a thesis, read in translation from Fordham's Modern History Sourcebook, ask what practice is attacked, what is not, and what the tone tells you. A soul flying from purgatory when a coin rings is a human doctrine: the sales pitch is attacked, purgatory is assumed, and the tone is a professor exposing an abuse. The pope's pardons cannot remove the least sin as to its guilt: the extent of indulgences is attacked, the pope's right to grant some pardon is not, and the tone is a limit, not a denial. Buying pardons is not to be compared with works of mercy: priorities are attacked, the teaching office is not, and the tone is pastoral. Together, a reformer inside the Church attacking a practice, not yet a rebel against the office, which is why the anchor calls the Theses moderate. The break came at Leipzig two years later, under questioning, and fifteen seventeen is not a declaration of independence.

God's offer, or God's decree.

WC1 1424 Luther and Calvin Compared: Salvation, Sacraments, Church and State

Compare on four paired features. Salvation: Luther by faith alone, freely offered; Calvin by predestination, the elect chosen before birth. Communion: Luther Christ present in the bread; Calvin present spiritually. Rule: Luther under the prince, a territorial church; Calvin under elders and the Consistory, a disciplined community. Spread: Luther through northern Germany and Scandinavia by princes' choice; Calvin through France, Scotland, the Netherlands and England as minorities and rivals. A state church chosen by its ruler is Lutheran; a congregation policing dress and drink is Calvinist; the elect is Calvinist; a German Bible is Lutheran. Both held faith alone and both damned the other, the anchor says; the difference is what faith alone rested on, God's offer or God's decree. Neither taught tolerance.

One capstone entry: two reformations told as one story, and the result no side wanted to share.

Abuse, doctrine, protest, princes, rivals, and a late answer.

WC1 1425 Two Reformations, No Tolerance: How Western Christianity Divided for Good

The exam gives the Reformation half of one band, and the anchor's chapter tells it as two reformations that produced one result. The first began inside a Church that touched every life and had already turned some believers inward, and it began with an abuse, the sale of indulgences. Luther, who had found faith alone about fifteen ten, attacked the sale in fifteen seventeen, was driven by Eck's questioning to deny the pope's authority, refused to recant at Worms in fifteen twenty-one, and lived because an elector sheltered him and an emperor was busy. Print made him a celebrity; the peasants read him their own way in fifteen twenty-four and he backed the princes who killed them. By fifteen fifty-five, at Augsburg, each German prince chose his people's religion. Meanwhile Zwingli reformed Zurich, Anabaptists went further and were crushed by everyone, Calvin built Geneva on predestination and discipline and sent Huguenots, Presbyterians and Puritans across Europe, and Henry the Eighth took England out of Rome for a son and kept the ritual. The second reformation was the Church's, late and then hard. Paul the Third admitted abuses in fifteen thirty-six, made the Inquisition permanent in fifteen forty-two, and approved the Jesuits in fifteen forty; Trent reaffirmed nearly every doctrine from fifteen forty-five to sixty-three while banning the sale of indulgences and founding seminaries; Paul the Fourth issued the Index and kept the Bible in Latin, which is why the ninth sample question has one false option; Teresa, the Ursulines and the baroque reconnected the Church with the laity. By the fifteen sixties the map was set, Catholic south, Protestant north, Orthodox east, and no confession anywhere thought another could be saved. The exam does not ask which side was right, and the course states every doctrine as its confession states it. It asks what an indulgence was, what faith alone meant, what happened at Worms and Augsburg, what predestination is, what the Act of Supremacy did, what Trent reaffirmed and what it did not, who the Jesuits were. The anchor's figures are attributed, its dates for the divorce, the Index, the China mission and Teresa are corrected, Zwingli, the Anabaptists and Knox come from the witnesses, and its judgments on Luther and the Church's non-reaction are attributed, not repeated.

Look at what you can now do. You can say that the Church held by habit, hierarchy, wealth and princes' fear, that Paul the Third admitted abuses and Paul the Fourth kept the Bible in Latin, and that Trent reaffirmed everything the sample question lists except vernacular Bibles. You can describe seminaries as the one monumental change, Jesuits responsible to the pope alone from Japan to China, and Teresa with the baroque against Protestant austerity. You can hang the Reformations on Luther's spine with Trent a generation after Worms, classify a confession by salvation, sacraments and governance, read the Theses as a reformer inside the Church, and compare Luther's offer with Calvin's decree. And you can state the two reformations and their one result, doctrine kept, clergy remade, tolerance nowhere, which is this unit's one idea. Unit sixteen opens on the same century's other story, Europe overseas, from Prince Henry's captains to the commercial revolution.