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Course: Europe 1300 - 1800 > Unit 8
Lesson 1: Beginner's guide- The Protestant Reformation
- Introduction to the Protestant Reformation: Setting the stage
- Introduction to the Protestant Reformation: Martin Luther
- Introduction to the Protestant Reformation: The Counter-Reformation
- Introduction to the Protestant Reformation: Varieties of Protestantism
- The Council of Trent and the call to reform art
- Iconoclasm in the Netherlands in the Sixteenth Century
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Introduction to the Protestant Reformation: The Counter-Reformation
Learn about the Catholic response to the Protestant Reformation. Created by Beth Harris and Steven Zucker.
Want to join the conversation?
What is a Jesuit?(6 votes)
Jesuits are the members of the Society of Jesus, a religious order of the Roman Catholic Church, created to reaffirm the church and counter the Protestant Reformation. This organization was founded by Ignatius of Loyola, a Catholic soldier, who was wounded in battle and experienced religious conversions.(12 votes)
So how did Martin Luther die? Did the Church get to him?(4 votes)
Martin Luther was suffering from a variety of illnesses, including Meniere's disease and vertigo. He died in 1546 from a apoplectic stroke.(15 votes)
- Popes from the time before and near and during the Reformation have some pretty bad reputations.
Would you say that the Council of Trent was successful in that the Church began appointing men of greater piety to high church office and began trying harder to win people to their way of thinking?(6 votes)
The Council of Trent did carry out much of the necessary reforms for the Church, and actually led to a sort of revival in the Church that prevented the Protestant movement from spreading farther south. Catholics in the south were strengthend in their resolve, and corruption was greatly curtailed, and art became more dramatic.(5 votes)
Is purgatory to equivalent of Hell?(1 vote)- The big difference is the time aspect, if you are in Hell you are there for eternity that is considered for the ones doing the really bad things, Purgatory is like a limited sentence after you have done your time you can then go to Heaven. The picture is this that your soul gets stained with all the little sins that are part of life that even the best of people commit, Purgatory burns away those stains and once your Soul is burned clean you can go on to Heaven.(8 votes)
Why does the old woman represent hate?(5 votes)
The serpent is heresy, from the time of Adam and Eve when the snake tempted them to deviate from the divine truth. The man is the heretic, falling alongside the serpent. Old age was often associated with negative traits like bitterness, resentment, and hostility, thus the old woman represents Hatred. Religion is a woman, and she is dressing modestly as women were expected to dress at that time, symbolizing virginity, spirituality, nurturing, and wisdom, she is the embodiment of the woman they thought of as religious and pure. As you can see, it was all about Duprè's particular ways of depicting concepts, influenced by the culture he was in, that defined such meanings.
Replying 6 years after, but might help people that have the same questions.(1 vote)
Does the Roman Catholic Church still sell indulgences?(3 votes)
Yes they are still 'issued'. This continues for good works and prayers.
They can never result in the forgiveness of sins because they can only kick in if sins have already been forgiven. If you haven't repented and God hasn't forgiven your sins then you don't qualify.
Until a few decades ago indulgence was said to remove a certain number of "days" from one’s discipline—for instance, an act might gain "200 days’ indulgence. The amount of remission granted was meant to be proportionate to what ancient Christians would have received for performing that many days’ penance. However that created confusion with time off in purgatory. Therefore Pope Paul VI issued a revision of the handbook of indulgences to eliminate the confusion some people had that the days referred to were time taken off a stay in purgatory. As a result of his changes numbers of days isn't used any more but they are instead classified as plenary or partial.
They were never sold. The financial scandal surrounding indulgences that assisted the Reformation get off the ground involved indulgences in which donations to some charitable fund or foundation was used as the occasion to grant the indulgence. It had previously been believed that giving money to God or the poor for the right motives would not go unrewarded but that didn't work out too well.
The fact that giving donations to charitable purposes could result in grant of indulgence was used as an excuse for the Reformation because the bona fides was questioned due to the cash payment. Given the problems such as that charitable donations to get indulgences were banned not long after. In 1567 Pope Pius V canceled all grants of indulgences involving money. But indulgences continue.
Answer gotten from http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20111017224708AAY8Jij(2 votes)
- At6:57what is the "index of forbidden books"? Was it books by Martin Luther and others like him?(2 votes)
Any book with theories against the church were banned
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Index_Librorum_Prohibitorum(4 votes)
why did the protestant reformation mostly spread in the north?(2 votes)- Because it was far enough away from Rome.(4 votes)
I have never heard of the Index of Forbidden Books. Does anyone have any resources or information on that?(4 votes)
How many countries are now Protestant?(2 votes)
With the demise of "state churches" and the rise of recognition of all religions, it's almost impossible to declare any country "Protestant" or "Roman Catholic" any more. Even the Church of England (Protestant) was dis-established long ago, and the church of Norway just separated from an official role on January 1 of this year.(3 votes)
6:57Video transcript
[MUSIC PLAYING] DR. STEVEN ZUCKER: In the
previous three videos, we looked briefly at
what it was like to be a Christian before the
Reformation, before 1517. Then we looked at Martin Luther. We looked at his ideas, and
the spread of his ideas. As well as the
violence that resulted. DR. BETH HARRIS: And
for our final video, we want to look at the response
by the Catholic Church. And so, whereas we call what
Luther and his followers did the Protestant Reformation,
the Church's response is referred to as the
Counter-Reformation. The word "counter,"
here, meaning against. DR. STEVEN ZUCKER: Well
the Church had lost a lot. The church had lost lands. It had lost-- DR. BETH HARRIS: Faithful. DR. STEVEN ZUCKER: That's right. It lost souls. DR. BETH HARRIS: And
in the last video, we ended talking about violence. DR. STEVEN ZUCKER:
But the violence wasn't always against people. Sometimes it was also
against things, and churches. That is, the architecture
of the Roman Catholics, which existed throughout
Western Europe, was an important
focus of the violence of the Protestants against
the Catholic church. DR. BETH HARRIS: The
practice of Catholicism was incredibly visual. And there was a real concern
among the Protestants, not so much by Luther, but
mostly by his followers, that images were being abused. That they were being prayed
to as if the images had power themselves, instead of
just a way of reaching the divine-- of passing through
the images to the divine. DR. STEVEN ZUCKER: That's right. Calvin, specifically,
had a problem with this, and believed that the
images in churches were actually creating
a kind of idolatry. This goes back to the
second commandment, "Thou shall not make unto
thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing
that is in the heaven above, or that is in the
earth beneath, or that is in the water
under the earth." So this notion that to
create is, in a sense, usurping a little bit
of God's responsibility. That is, God creates. When an artist creates it
is a kind of falsehood-- it is creating an idol. DR. BETH HARRIS: So Protestants
began waves iconoclasm. That is, the
destruction of images. DR. STEVEN ZUCKER:
Let's take apart that work for a
moment, iconoclasm. It's a compound. It's made of two words, "icon,"
which is Greek for image, and "clasm," which
means of violence. So it is literally
violence against images. DR. BETH HARRIS: And there
were iconoclastic riots within five years or so
after Luther's 95 Theses. DR. STEVEN ZUCKER: This is
one of the great tragedies in the history of
art, actually, where an untold number of paintings,
of sculptures, were destroyed. DR. BETH HARRIS: And this
happened, especially, in northern Europe,
in the Netherlands. DR. STEVEN ZUCKER:
So in essence, what the Protestants
often did is they took over a
Catholic church, and they stripped it of all
of those central forms, all of that sculpture,
those tapestries, and left it a kind
of pristine space. DR. BETH HARRIS: So we know that
Luther is going against Church teaching in all
these different ways. Faith is the path to
salvation, not good works. Scripture is the way
to understand God, not listening to the
teachings of the church. Now, the Catholic
church didn't take all of this lying down, right? We know that there
were efforts to make Luther bend to
their will, right? At the Diet of
Worms, for example. Luther was excommunicated
after that. DR. STEVEN ZUCKER: And by
excommunicated, we mean, basically, is no longer
a member of the Church. DR. BETH HARRIS: In 1545. the Church holds something
called the Council of Trent. Essentially, a kind of
meeting of all of the highest levels of the Church in Europe. At first, the idea was really to
reconcile with the Protestants. The Protestants were invited. They didn't show up,
however, and in the end, reconciliation was
clearly impossible. DR. STEVEN ZUCKER: One of
the most important outcomes of the Council of Trent,
was that the Catholic Church reaffirmed its doctrines. That is, it doubled down. It said the very things
that Luther had taken issue with were reaffirmed. DR. BETH HARRIS: So regarding
the issue of whether good works have a role in salvation, the
Church said, indeed they do. Regarding Purgatory and the
efficacy of indulgences-- do indulgences do anything? Does purgatory exist? The Church affirmed all of that. The Church affirmed
transubstantiation, the changing of the bread
and wine during the Eucharist to the body and blood of Christ. DR. STEVEN ZUCKER:
And by doing so, it affirmed the power and
importance of the priesthood, and of the hierarchy
of the church. DR. BETH HARRIS: And
lastly, the Church affirmed that scripture
alone wasn't enough. That one really also
needed the teachings, the traditions of the Church. So they gave very little ground. All they did was agree
that in some areas there was room for reform. DR. STEVEN ZUCKER: They
did try to stamp out the kind of corruption
that had, in part, led to the Reformation. But let's get back to
the images for a moment. Because that was also important
in the Council of Trent. DR. BETH HARRIS: The council
said this-- "Images of Christ, of the Virgin Mother of God,
and of the other saints are to be placed and retained
especially in the churches, and due honor and veneration
is to be given to them." So they're reaffirming,
immediately, images belong in the church. DR. STEVEN ZUCKER: But
what's important is why. DR. BETH HARRIS:
They say, quote, "Because the honor
which is shown them is referred to
the prototypes which they represent." DR. STEVEN ZUCKER:
So if somebody is honoring a statue
of the Virgin Mary, they are actually
affirming the honor to the Virgin Mary herself. But the Church said there
was even more benefit. DR. BETH HARRIS: Yes. "Let the bishops
diligently teach that by means of the stories of
the mysteries of our redemption portrayed in paintings
and other representations the people are
instructed and confirmed in their articles of faith." DR. STEVEN ZUCKER: So
art was a way of actually didactically getting
the ideas of the Church across to the lay people, many
of whom were still illiterate. DR. BETH HARRIS: And deepening
their faith, that's right. "Also that great profit is
derived from all holy images because through the saints the
miracles of God and salutary examples are set before
the eyes of the faithful so that they may
fashion their own life and conduct in
imitation of the saints and be moved to adore and
love God and cultivate piety." DR. STEVEN ZUCKER: So
the way in which art functions as an example that we
can follow in our daily lives. DR. BETH HARRIS: So the
Church's response is threefold. One, they reaffirm all
the basic doctrines of the church that had been
attacked by the Protestants. They begin a major
campaign to spread the teachings of the Catholic
faith all around the world. DR. STEVEN ZUCKER: Remember,
this is the Age of Discovery. The New World has
been discovered. There is increasing trade
with Asia, and with Africa. And so, the Catholics
are really evangelizing in all these places. DR. BETH HARRIS: The last
in this threefold response of the Church is an effort
to stamp out heresy. So the Church establishes
the Inquisition, the Roman Inquisition. The Church also creates the
Index of Forbidden Books. DR. STEVEN ZUCKER: And
it's just at this time, that Ignatius Loyola
founds the Jesuit Order. The Jesuits are all
about faithfulness. They have an absolute
faith in the pope, and they are at the
pope's disposal. DR. BETH HARRIS: The
Jesuits establish schools, they spread the Christian
faith throughout the world, and they fought Protestantism. DR. STEVEN ZUCKER: There's a
fabulous, and very literal, example of all of these ideas
of the Counter-Reformation in a sculpture by an artist
whose name is Le Gros, in the mother church
of the Jesuits in Rome. DR. BETH HARRIS: The
title of this sculpture is Religion Overthrowing
Heresy and Hatred. DR. STEVEN ZUCKER: OK. Now, first of all,
it's important to know that the sculpture
is just to the right and below a very large alter
to Saint Ignatius Loyola. DR. BETH HARRIS:
At the top left, we see the figure
of religion wielding a thunderbolt and a cross. DR. STEVEN ZUCKER:
Now, by religion Le Gros means Roman Catholicism. DR. BETH HARRIS: And
religion is looking down at, and about to
attack, two figures. One is an older female
figure who represents hatred, and the other figure,
falling towards us, wrestling with sneaks,
is the allegorical figure that represents heresy. DR. STEVEN ZUCKER: He's
falling over a series of books. And one of those books has
on its spine Luther's name. So heresy here couldn't
be any more explicit. Heresy is Luther. It is Protestantism. And as if that isn't making
the point sharply enough, on the left, we see a
little angelic figure who's ripping pages
out of the book by Luther's follower Zwingli. DR. BETH HARRIS: It's
important to remember that each side saw the
other as the devil. Luther called the
pope the Antichrist. The pope called
Luther the Antichrist. It was a time of
black and white. There was no middle ground. DR. STEVEN ZUCKER: And
these divisions, literally, reshaped the
countries of Europe. Even now, the countries
in southern Europe are predominantly Catholic. The countries in northern Europe
are predominately Protestant. And even as late as
the 20th century, there is violence that erupts
between these fractions. We saw that through
most of the 20th century in Ireland, for example. DR. BETH HARRIS: It's
also interesting to think about the ways that the
Protestant Reformation set the stage for the modern world. This idea of not listening
to a single authority, but listening to
your own conscience. I think this is a key
feature of the modern world. [MUSIC PLAYING]