Jan. 29

The Reformation II: Building Authority

I. So, after the initial burst of reform, the great problem will be: how to build authority. So what the revolutionaries discover, very quickly, is that they have to build new institutions that will guarantee order in society and will make the kind of people that they want.

II. So, what we need to look at, then, is how Protestants went about creating this new authority, and, also, how Catholics reformed their church and reestablished the authority of the hierarchy in Catholic lands.

III. The character of the Holy Roman Empire and early modern society.

IV. The Unfolding of the Reformation 1517-26.

A. Ultimately, an alliance with the princes.
B. The Lutheran answer to the problem of order:

1. Visitation
2. A state church

C. 1526 Recess of the Diet of Speyer: until an ecumenical council could take place, princes and imperial cities could regulate religious matters according to their own consciences.
D. 1529 the Recess revoked at a new Diet of Speyer. Edict of Worms reinstated with added clauses prohibited dissemination of new writings of Luther. Six evangelical princes and representatives of 14 imperial cities sign a protest: could not follow the will of the majority in a matter of conscience. Hence, the term Protestants.
E. Formation of Catholic and Protestant (Schmalkaldic) alliances, latter led by Saxony and Hesse. Warfare back and forth.
F. Peace of Augsburg 1546. "Where there is one lord, let there be one religion." That is, prince or govt. of imperial city could decide the religion of his region. Those in territory who opposed it free to move, and promised compensation for their property. Limited to Catholics and adherents of 1530 Augsburg Confession, that is, Lutheranism, not Calvinism or more radical groups.

V. Zwingli, Calvin and Reformed Protestantism.

A. Huldrych Zwingli (1484-1531)
B. Jean Calvin (1509-64)

1. Comes to Geneva in 1536, also the year the first edition of Institutes of the Christian Religion published.

C. Reformed solution to the problem of order: the theocratic state.

VI. Catholic Reformation.

A. The issue of Catholic or Counter Reformation. Reforming impulse within Church at same time as Luther´s break with Rome.
B. First manifestation: new orders or reinvigoration of existing ones, many with emphasis on spirituality, but some directed toward good works in the world.
C. Loyola and the Jesuits, the ones who take the lead in defending the papacy.
D. Finally, papacy moves behind reform. Paul III (1534-49). Convenes reforming commission that leads to Council of Trent (despite his own hesitations and fears). Convenes in three sessions 1545-47, 1551-52, 1561-63. The Tridentine reforms:

1. Clarified dogma, reaffirming most of Catholic theology.
2. Reforms of church structure.

E. Revived Catholicism when on brink of total defeat. Established character of Roman Catholicism for next 400 years. Next great council won´t be until early 1960s under John XXIII.