Calvinists, Anabaptists, and Anglicans

FOUNDATIONS OF THE ATLANTIC WORLD HIST 1301 | History Calvinists, Anabaptists, and Anglicans Following the failure of attempts to suppress Martin Luther, Protestantism—a new branch of Christianity—spread throughout the German-speaking regions. It had spread over western and central Europe by the end of the sixteenth century. Luther urged the German princes to reject the pope's authority since the new religion was sometimes embraced by governing bodies as justification for doing so. Protestantism was fiercely resisted by the Catholic Holy Roman monarch Charles V, also known as Charles I of Spain. Nonetheless, the 1555 Peace of Augsburg guaranteed the authority of Lutheran (as Luther's adherents were known) emperors to declare Lutheranism the state religion of their nations, should they so choose. The church that a prince selected had to be supported by his subjects. While the Roman Catholic Church continued to hold sway in Austria and Bavaria, in the southern regions of the Germanspeaking kingdoms, many rulers in northern Germany converted to Lutheranism. Other religions were not allowed. In the Swiss city of Zurich, Ulrich (Huldrych) Zwingli accepted the concepts of the reformation that Luther started. The former priest Zwingli demanded drastic measures, such rejecting the Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation, which maintained that Jesus was actually present in the communion wine and wafer consecrated at each Mass. Not even Martin Luther had gone as far as that. Zwingli also advocated for the removal of religious iconography from churches and preached against fasting during the days leading up to significant religious holidays. He closed monasteries and convents, forbade the playing of organs in churches, and had the Bible printed in German instead of Latin. Zwingli further declared that the Bible never mentioned purgatory and demanded an end to clerical celibacy. He was slain in 1531 during a battle in Switzerland between the Protestant and Catholic regions. One person who was influenced by Zwingli's theories was the Swiss businessman Konrad Grebel. Zwingli's assertions that baptism—which is the process by which a person is welcomed into the church—should not occur until adulthood, when a person is mature enough to make the decision to abstain from sin, particularly affected Grebel. Because Grebel thought Zwingli was moving too slowly to change the Zurich Christian society, he founded the Swiss Brethren, a new religious organisation, in 1524. The Swiss Brethren were among the several Anabaptist churches that were founded in the sixteenth century, mostly in central Europe and the Low Countries. These congregations rejected baptism of infants in favour of baptism of adults. Infant baptism was customary practice for both Catholics and the majority of Protestants because it was thought that baptism would wash away the stain of original sin —the transgression of Adam and Eve. However, the Anabaptists held that a true renunciation of sin and profession of faith could only be made by adults. Therefore, the decision to become a Christian had to be made consciously by adults. However, a Catholic doctrine was broken by anybody who had a second baptism as an adult, as individuals were only permitted to be baptised once. The Amish, who separated from the main Mennonite movement in the seventeenth century, were among the other Anabaptist groups, along with the Hutterites and Mennonites. In addition to supporting adult baptism, Anabaptist communities typically had pacifist views and supported the division of church and state. Most European monarchs dreaded Anabaptists and frequently attacked them violently because they refused to serve in the military, take public office, or acknowledge the authority of secular authorities over religious matters. The city of Geneva in what is now Switzerland was another hub of Protestant ideas. John Calvin, the head of the city's religious movement, was born and reared a Catholic in France, but he converted to Protestantism either before or soon after leaving for Switzerland to avoid being persecuted for his views. Though they were comparable in one important way, his thoughts were not the same as Martin Luther's. Calvin promoted the idea of predestination, which maintained that God had already decided which souls would go to hell after death and which would be saved. There was nothing a person could do to guarantee their salvation, and they could never know for sure if they were saved or condemned. Calvinists accepted the theory and attempted to live a strict moral life centred on diligence and piety, seeking confirmation that they had been saved even in the face of the doctrine's rejection of human action. They condemned dancing, intoxication in public, gambling, and profane speech as immoral and subject to punishment by the Consistory, a special tribunal. Outside of Geneva, Calvinism gained traction quickly. Its followers founded the Dutch Reformed Church in the Netherlands, the Presbyterian Church in Scotland, and the Huguenot movement in France. The leaders of the Anabaptist movement, including Ulrich Zwingli, John Calvin, and Martin Luther, were sincere believers in the beliefs they preached. On the other hand, the English Reformation was different. Reform was first pushed in England from the top down, not by a devoted convert but rather by a monarch seeking a convenient excuse to swap one queen for another. Prior to his decision to abdicate the pope's jurisdiction, Henry VIII of England was well-known for being a devoted Catholic and an opponent of Luther. He was wed to Catherine of Aragon, the daughter of the renowned Spanish kings Ferdinand and Isabella, who drove out Jews and Muslims from the Iberian Peninsula and overthrew the Muslim state of Granada. Mary, a girl, was the only child that Henry and Catherine had together. Despite the fact that women might inherit the kingdom under English law, Henry wanted a son whose authority would not be disputed since he didn't want to take any chances with the succession after his death. Henry thereupon requested the dissolution of his marriage against Catherine's desires in order to wed Anne Boleyn, whom he thought would bear him sons. An annulment, as opposed to a divorce, which the Catholic Church forbade, only proclaimed a marriage to be invalid since it had never been lawful. Henry said that the Catholic Church's ban on close relatives being married should never have permitted Catherine and Henry to get married since she had previously been married to his late elder brother Arthur. Henry proclaimed that the English church was no longer subject to the pope's authority when the pope declined to revoke the marriage. The Act of Supremacy, approved by Parliament in 1534, established the Church of England and placed the English king as its head. The marriage of Henry and Catherine was ultimately dissolved by the archbishop of Canterbury, who is the nation's most powerful spiritual figure. In silence, Henry had already wed Anne before she gave birth to Elizabeth, who would ultimately become Elizabeth I. The Church of England, also referred to as the Anglican Church, continued to be mostly Catholic in both doctrine and ceremonial under Henry's direction. Henry shut down the monasteries in England, but many Protestants were upset that he did not completely eradicate all Roman Catholic components from the English Church. Edward VI, the monarch after Henry's death, was born to Jane Seymour, who had been Henry's third wife. Edward was in favour of the Anglican Church becoming increasingly Protestant, even though he was still a minor and England was ruled by regents. Priests might be married. The custom of praying with rosary beads was condemned. It was forbidden to march in churches, and stained-glass windows and sculptures were taken down. Many Roman Catholic traditions were dropped from the mass ceremony, and the new church service was outlined in the English-language Book of Common Prayer, which was published in 1549. Refusing to use the Book of Common Prayer put ministers at danger of losing their jobs and going to jail.