There Protestant reform It is the split of the Christian world occurred in the 16th century. The October 31st 1517 The Augustinian monk Martin Luther made his famous public 95 thesiswith which he expressed hard criticism to the papacyand in the following years he developed a doctrine that provided for the principle of predestination, the free examination and abolition of the priesthood. The reform was caused by the malcostume spread in the church and, in particular, by sale of indulgences. Luther’s preaching was successful in some Regions of Germany and, thanks to other theologians and preachers, spread – with some variants – in several European countries. From the reform they derived Religion wars between Protestant and Catholic countries, which ended only in the mid -seventeenth century. The split of the Christian world it has never been recomposed.
Martin Luther and the 95 Protestant theses
The Protestant reform began the October 31, 1517, When Martin Luther, an Augustinian monk of Wittenbergin Saxony, made his 95 theses who criticized the Church and the Papacy public (in general it is said that Luther posted the thesis at the door of the church of Wittenberg, but the event is not historically ascertained and perhaps Luther disclosed the theses in anything else way).
The criticisms of Luther were mainly directed against the sale of indulgencesthat is, the sale for money of the salvation of the soul in the afterlife. The Church argued that, by paying a sum of money, the faithful could obtain the remission of sins and access to paradise. In 1517 a great trade of indulgences was underway to finance the Construction of the Basilica of San Pietro and priests did not scrup each other to use unscrupulous propaganda slogans to increase sales. More generally, the church of the weather was in many cases inefficient, also because often bishops and priests chose their ecclesiastical career for personal interest and not for spiritual conviction. Luther, with the 95 theses, intended to protest account the malpractice and gained the support of some sectors of the German population.
The Lutheran doctrine and the principles of Protestantism
After 1517 Luther elaborated one more Specific theological doctrineat least partially different from the Catholic one. First of all, introduced the Principle of predestinationclaiming that the salvation of the soul was decided by God and did not depend on the works, that is, on what men did during earthly life. This, however, did not mean that earthly life was not important, because, if you were successful, one could prove that it was predestined.
Luther also, abolished the priesthoodbelieving that an intermediary was not necessary between man and God and that only shepherds were enough to act as a religious guide of the communities. From this also derived the Principle of free examination: Each faithful had to read the sacred texts in person, and not to let them explain to them by the priests.
For the affirmation of the reform, the role of the pressexisting for a few decades, because he allowed Luther to spread his writings and influenced his doctrine, making the principle of free examination possible.
The Church, for its part, could not accept the criticisms of Luther and in 1520 the Pope Lion x He threatened the monk of excommunication if he had not portrayed his beliefs. Luther publicly burned the bubble with which the Pope ordered him retraction to Wittenberg. Leo X therefore proceeded to excommunicate and the conflict became incurable. In fact, the reform subtracted those who accepted it to the authority of the Pope and the Church of Rome.
The spread of the Protestant reform in Germany
According to the laws of the time, after the excommunication Luther should have been arrested by the political authority. Germany was part of the Holy Roman Empirewhich also held power on other territories, but was divided into numerous states governed by monarchies subject to the emperor. Luther gained the protection of his sovereign, theVoter of Saxonywho hosted him in his castle. Moreover, the reform was appreciated in different sectors of German society, because it subtracted the Church and the population from the influence of Rome. He therefore broke out a rebellion of Knights supporters of Luther. Emperor Charles V did not accept the reform, but could not intervene vigorously against those who supported it, also because it was engaged in fighting on other fronts. After the revolt of the knights, the peasant warwho radically interpreted the reform, thinking that it would question the established order. The rebellion, which did not enjoy the support of Luther, was repressed in the blood.
Among the aristocrats, however, the reform had increasingly successful. In 1529, at the Spira diet, a meeting of exponents of the nobility, Charles V accepted that the states where the reform had established himself to keep it, but filed the conversions of other territories and reiterated the edict of excommunication of Luther. This provoked The “protest” of the Lutheran principlesfrom which the term Protestant.
The following year the principles formed an alliance, the League of Lonchaldain order to defend himself from any interventions by the emperor. After various vicissitudes, in 1555 the principles and empire signed the Peace of Augustawhich sanctioned the principle of Cuius Regio, Eius Religio (approximately translatable as “of who (is) the territory, his (is) religion”): in essence, in every state one professed only one religion. The principle will remain in force for many centuries throughout Europe.
Protestant reform in Europe and the consequences
The reform spread beyond the borders of Germany, both following the Lutheran model and some variants. In Switzerland the doctrines of Ulrich Zwingli in Zurich and, above all, that of Giovanni Calvino in Genevawhich proposed a very rigid interpretation of the principle of predestination. Calvinism also spread to Scotland, in some regions of France and in other territories. In England, however, in 1534 it took place The Anglican schismwith which the sovereign Henry VIII decided not to recognize the authority of Rome and to accept some principles of the reform.
Europe, in essence, lost the religious unity. The reform established itself in the Northern countries, in parts of Germany and France, in Switzerland, in Great Britain. About a third of the population European It belonged to reformed confessions and no longer recognized the authority of the Church of Rome.
The reform, therefore, was the most serious split in the Christian world after the 1054 schism, from which the Orthodox Christianity. The papacy replied with the “Counter -Reformation” (or Catholic reform), trying to eliminate the malpractice that afflicted the church and modifying the liturgy. The religious wars continued for over a century and ended only with the end of the Thirty Years War In 1648.
