Heading into the sixteenth century, the Roman Catholic Church was undoubtedly the dominating religious power Europe. But this dominance throughout Europe would not extend to the next one hundred years. This was the time before the great Protestant Reformation begun by theologian Martin Luther that was to challenge the Catholic Church not only in its practices, hierarchy, and Biblical interpretation, but also maybe most importantly, challenge its widespread following in Europe. Historian Hans Hillerbrand, in his book The Protestant Reformation, comments that by the end of the sixteenth century one fact was beyond dispute: Western Christendom was tragically dividedinto no less than five religious factions (Introduction, xviii). How this transformation came to be is the subject of much debate and historical interpretation.
It is argued here that the rapid spread of the rebellion towards the Catholic Church known as Protestantism can be attributed to four main tenets: pre-existing displeasures with the Catholic Church, the accepting and all class incorporation of the ideologies of the Protestant Reformation, effective propaganda used by Luther and other reformers, and powerful factions that developed from the Reformation that led their respective nations away from the Catholic Church and towards other religions.
Even before the groundbreaking work of Martin Luther, there was an overriding displeasure with several facets of the Catholic Church. These widespread doubts on Catholicism at the time served as the perfect background for the soon to come Reformation. Carl Koch, in an excerpt from his book A Popular History of the Catholic Church, comments on this tense situation of the beginning of the 1500s: at the start of the 1500s, the church and the political situation were powder kegs waiting to explode; the forces of nationalism were in great tension with a church that was seen as corrupt (173). A main source of this corruption within the church was the abuse of power by the Popes, the highest office held in the Catholic Church. A form of this that came to light was the practice of indulgences, which was forgiveness from God given by the Pope that had begun to be sold to Christians.
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The idea of money cleansing the soul of the sinner did not sit well with many and was looked upon as one of the ways the Catholic Church had become corrupt. These types of corruption were the perfect social backdrop for, and a main reason for, the quick spread of Protestantism. In other words, people were looking for a change in the Catholic church, and when that change came, it was spread quickly. Another important aspect is that the need for reform was not only in the middle or lower classes. In fact, many clergymen and other high ranking church and governmental officials saw a need to clean up the corruption of the Catholic church. Owen Chadwick, author of The Reformation, states that at the beginning of the sixteenth century everyone that mattered in the Western Church was crying out for reformation (11). This dissatisfaction of influential citizens of Europe was crucial to the spread of the ideals of the Reformation because it was these officials that often decided if the propaganda and ideologies of Protestantism would be allowed to be practiced and acted up by the lower classes in which they possessed much influence.
Also contributing to the spread of the Protestant Reformation was the new populist ideas that it promoted. Regardless of class or other restrictions, Protestantism held the key to religious freedom and autonomy. Luther and his descendants urged people away from putting their religious faith in the hierarchy of the church and preached a more personal, Bible based faith. This type of religious shift appealed to people immensely. Hillerbrand comments on this Protestnat spirit: this spirit caught the imagination of the people perhaps more than the theological doctrines expounded by the Protestant divines. The point of the Protestant spirit was that religion was to be personal and creative (xxiii, Introduction). This type of religion inspired the devotion of people who tired of the corruption, regulations and regimentation typified by the Catholic Church. The Protestant Reformation gave them more freedom and power over their religious beliefs, and the masses took to this!
individualistic message. Hillerbrand further comments that Protestantism stressed the centrality of the individual; sought to reduce the intervention of political power in ecclesiastical affairs; cast the glow of vocation over formerly menial undertakings; and raised the spirit of free, personal, and creative inquiry. All this could not help but change the face of society (Introduction, xxiv). And thus, the groundwork had been set for the sweeping of the Protestant Reformation throughout Europe; religious followers were growing weary of the Catholic Churchs corrupt practices, and the message of the Reformation appealed to a great number of people in a new and exciting way.
Getting the word of the Protestant Reformers to many people was as important to the success of the movement as their actual message was. Luther and the others found their perfect medium with the invention of the printing press. Before the printing press, the Church could control what was being put into books, as they had immense control over scribes at the time. According to the Jones Telecommunications Online Encyclopedia
(www.digetalcentury.com/encyclo/update/print.html#Gutenberg), with the invention of the printing press in the mid fifteenth century, the production and distribution of an expanding variety of texts quickly became too widespread to contain. Thus, the Reformers could produce many pamphlets and brochures that captured the message of their movement and distribute them throughout Europe to the masses. These pamphlets were crucial to the Protestant Reformers success, as Hillerbrand even goes as far to say without Gutenbergs invention, the Protestant refor!
mers could not have made the impact they did (Introduction, xxiv). Not only were there many of these forms of propaganda available to the masses, but the way in which they were written appealed to many people. These booklets could be read quickly, were inexpensive, and were written in the common mans language. This was different than any other religious writings people had ever seen, as most other works were in Latin. This new type of language was an attempt to appeal to the everyday citizen, to speak the message of the Reformation directly to the masses unlike any religious writings ever had. They abandoned the traditional forms of theological exposition and replaced them with a fresh styleAn eminent characteristic of Protestant literature was its simplicity; profound religious thoughts were expressed simply, though with zeal and determination (Hillerbrand, xxvi). Not only did they have a message that the people wanted to hear, but reformers produced much literature o try to get their word out, and in this propaganda they spoke in a clear manner directly to the common man. The ingenuity of this type of propaganda undoubtedly led to the spread of the Protestant Reformation a great deal.
Another factor in the spread of Protestantism came in the form of descendants of Luther that continued his Reformation and eventually brought the ideals to their home provinces all across Europe. It was if Luthers original outline of the 95 thesis sparked the interests of many other influential leaders against the negative aspects of Catholicism. These leaders then helped spread the spirit of the Reformation to their homelands across Europe. Koch states that as with most periods of change, one change in the religious makeup of sixteenth-century Western Europe led to another (180). One of these leaders who changed the religious makeup was John Calvin, who took the main idea from Luthers beliefs and developed his own purist religion in Calvinism. Spreading his stricter religion to Geneva, Calvinism would eventually also spread heavily to Scotland, England, and become the dominant form of European Protestantism (Koch, 181).
Surprisingly, King Henry VIII also proved to be an influential leader in leading his nation away from Catholicism and further dividing its power. Because of the Popes refusals to annul his fruitless marriage, Henry, capitalizing on the popular sentiment against Rome (Koch, 182), established his own Church of England as the religion of his country. Though the Church of England was not necessarily a Protestant movement, the Protestant Reformation can be seen in Englands breaking away from Catholicism; Henry could only break from the Pope because of the weakening of its popularity caused by the sweeping Protestant Reformation. Also, Luther and Calvins movements and leadership caused other religious radical groups to gain popularity, such as the Anabaptists, that found their most fertile soil in cities of Switzerland, the Rhineland, and Holland (Chadwick, 189). Again, these more radical, Bible based groups would have never had the popularity or the momentum without the efforts of the Protestant Reformation to open the minds of Europeans to religious possibilities outside of Catholicism. The power of the Protestant Reformation and its growing popularity also helped open up Europe to many other religious possibilities with the help of Calvin, Henry, and others like them.
