The Protestant Reformation - Church History Simplified

Here's how people think the Reformation happened. The church sucks, so I'm walking out the door. Everyone go interpret the Bible for yourselves! In reality, the split between Catholics and Protestants was a lot more complicated. It didn't start with Luther, he didn't want to leave, and he didn't think anyone could start their own church. In reality, it started much, much earlier. For centuries, there had been diverging streams of thought, but they didn't become formally separate until the Reformation. In this video, we talked about how the early church solved debates with councils, but not everyone accepted every council. Then, during the debates on icon veneration, both sides ping-ponged councils back and forth at each other for centuries. It took a lot of bloody conflict and persecution for the image venerators to emerge on top. But before they did, the other side started criticizing many growing practices in the church, like prayers to saints, not just icon veneration. In the 9th century, these monks and bishops who rejected icon veneration said a lot of things that sound kind of Protestant. Gottschalk taught salvation by grace alone and a strict double predestination. Retramnus defended him, denied transubstantiation, and denied a lot of growing ideas about Mary. And Claudius taught that faith is all you need to be saved, that praying for the dead is useless, that the church is fallible, and that the pope is not the head of the church. Now, these were all minority positions, but they were still up for debate in the church at this time. However, they never really caught on because they didn't have the support of the pope. And in the West, church power was increasingly centered on the pope. This is one of the things that led to the Great Schism with the East, who said the pope never had that authority, and after that, the pope's authority in the West became even more centralized. The East claimed authority because they had the Byzantine Empire, so the pope created the Holy Roman Empire to legitimize his authority. The side effect was corruption. Popes appointed emperors, but were often appointed by emperors. So they got lots of money, fancy palaces, and had lots of orgies in those palaces, some of which women were invited to. Popes would have children with prostitutes who would themselves become popes. There was also the sale of indulgences, which went something like this. What? I have to suffer a thousand years in purgatory for forgetting St. France of Belgium's feast day? Afraid so. But if you donate all your money to the church, I can get you 500 off. Okay. Hey, Pope! We can afford a fifth swimming pool now! Yay! Now, it's not like people were okay with this. Everyone knew the church needed to be reformed, but nobody wanted to leave it. Over the next 500 years, there were many attempts to reform the church from within before the time of Luther. The first solution was to give the pope more authority, not less. They thought the problem wasn't the pope himself, but outside kings controlling the pope. So instead, let's have a special group of bishops called cardinals elect the pope. Also, the monasteries were often cesspools of wealth and corruption, and they were often owned by local bishops and kings. So let's give the pope direct control of the monasteries. Monastic reform movements included vows of poverty and strict obedience to the rules. This kind of worked, but this kept happening. The monasteries would be corrupt and degenerate, so somebody would start a new monastic movement based on strictly following the rules, and those new monasteries would become famous for their holiness and attract a lot of tourists, which would make them rich, which would make them degenerate again, and the cycle would repeat. It seemed that there was no way of fixing the monasteries. Peter Waldo was one of these people who started a reform movement based on radical poverty, but he knew he needed to take it a step further to break the cycle. So he didn't just criticize corruption in the church, but underlying church teachings that were leading to this corruption. He translated the Bible into the language of the people, which made him really popular. His followers were called Waldensians, and they were a much more radical reform movement than previous ones. They didn't just say indulgences were getting corrupt, they thought they should be banned because purgatory's not real. They didn't just say relics were getting out of hand, they thought relics were no different than ordinary objects. They didn't just say the popes were getting corrupt, they thought the office of the papacy was not biblical. They rejected transubstantiation, prayers for the dead, and thought holy water and pilgrimages were useless. They were influenced by the 9th century iconoclasts for a lot of their beliefs. But despite all this, they never left the church because that would be the sin of schism. But soon, they were excommunicated and massacred, so they had to go into hiding for centuries until the Reformation when they joined up with the Calvinists. The Franciscans were another monastic reform movement started by Saint Francis of Assisi after he had a vision of Jesus telling him to reform the church because it was so corrupt. At first, people wondered if they were going to be like the Waldensians because they preached radical poverty, denounced corruption, and claimed they were the first ones to really follow Jesus since the apostles. But they ended up being very loyal to the pope. But some of their theological ideas did pave the way for the Reformation. Now, they weren't Protestants, they were hardcore about the Immaculate Conception, but they did criticize a lot of the theology of the day. For example, Thomas Aquinas said things are the way they are because they're that way, but Scotus said things are the way they are because God wants them that way, and Occam said things are the way they are because God declares they're that way. So for the sacraments, Thomas would say they work because they do, but the Franciscans said they work because God decides to work through them, but God could also work through other things, so that shifts the focus away from the sacraments themselves and more towards God's grace. They also said God can forgive your sins before he actually makes you better, which paves the way for justification by grace alone. And Occam even denied papal infallibility. John Wycliffe was a 14th century Catholic priest and professor at Oxford, so he was familiar with these scholastic debates, and with the Waldensians, and with those old 9th century theologians. He agreed with Rotramnus on the Eucharist, that we receive Jesus spiritually, but the bread doesn't change. He coined the term real presence to distinguish this view from transubstantiation. He also taught double predestination, salvation by faith alone, and iconoclasm. He also thought, based on the early church, that the church should be a decentralized network of autonomous national churches, so the pope might be the legitimate bishop of Rome, but the bishop of Rome hath no jurisdiction in the realm of England. This is how the Eastern Orthodox churches have always worked, and this would become the model for the Protestant churches. He also translated the first English Bible, which made him really popular. His followers were called the Lawlords, maybe because they laugh a lot, I don't know. And keep in mind, despite being a reformer, he died in the Catholic Church because leaving would be the sin of schism. But still, the church declared him a heretic after his death, dug up his body, and burned it, and then burned his followers alive at the stake. These reformations never got off the ground, because the pope was too powerful and always able to suppress them. But then something would happen that would shake everyone's faith in the papacy. These cardinals elected this pope, but then they changed their mind and elected this pope. So now who's the pope? Europe splits over which pope to follow, and each pope damns everyone under the other. This council tried to fix it by electing a third pope, but the first two had no reason to listen because popes are above councils. At least most people thought so. There was a group of moderate reformers called conciliarists who believed popes had to submit to ecumenical councils, but nobody took them seriously until now that their theology was necessary to mend the schism. So the conciliarists held the Council of Constance that declared it was above popes, and that finally solved the schism and elected Morton V as pope. Thanks guys, but you're still wrong. What? But we saved the church! I don't care. But you wouldn't even be pope if it wasn't for our theology! Okay, well, I'm pope now, and I say I'm above councils. But there was this radical conciliarist named Jan Hus who said the Bible's above the pope and councils, that the pope's not the head of the church, that Wycliffe was right, and that we should give people the bread and the wine in communion because many priests were just giving people the bread. Those views are extreme. You want to come to the council to, uh, debate us? We promise we won't hurt you, okay? You lied to me. Well, you're a heretic. We can lie to heretics. Well, in a hundred years, God will raise up a man whose calls for reform cannot be suppressed. So the Council of Constance excommunicated anyone who agreed with Hus' ideas, including the idea that people should receive both kinds in communion. Why'd you cook that guy? We liked him, said the country of Moravia. He was a heretic. Now stop teaching his heresies. No. I order you! No. Then I'll call a crusade against you! I won. So the pope was forced to compromise. Never before had a nation so blatantly defied the pope. But this was gonna get more common, since the Middle Ages were ending, and feudalism was being replaced by strong nation-states ruled by kings who didn't want to be bossed around by a bureaucrat in Rome. The pope claimed political authority over the entire world, but the kings were sick of it, and ready to jump at any opportunity to be independent from him. The pope was quickly losing his grip on Europe. Okay, gang, Europe's about to implode. This is the council where we finally reform the church. Psych! This is the council where I reassert my authority over everyone! Dude. Also, the printing press was just invented, so it'll be easy to distribute bibles and pamphlets to the masses. Now all we need is an obsessive angry monk who makes fart jokes every three seconds. You know of anyone? Martin Luther was a German monk who was obsessed with living a holy life, so he would spend hours in confession. I have sinned. Yesterday, I came across an injured caterpillar and did not help it. And today, I felt ungrateful for my pizza because it had pineapple on it. You're forgiven. Who's next? Me! I forgot something. Today, I felt glumpy about the weather and— Can you please commit adultery or something so you have something real to confess? Problem is, Luther knew even his smallest sins were real and offended an infinitely holy God. The Catholic view at this time wasn't exactly salvation by works, but it was that you had to do your best to remain in a state of grace, and Luther knew that he wasn't doing his best. No matter how hard he tried, he kept sinning, and he knew he deserved hell based on his actions. Know what'll help you? A pilgrimage to Rome. That always helps. How was it? I saw some selling sex and some selling salvation. Instead, Staupitz tried to distract Luther with work, so he moved him to Wittenberg, where he'd be a priest at the church there and a professor at the university there. But when he was teaching Romans, he noticed something. The righteousness of God had terrified him, but Romans said this righteousness is by faith, and that we're justified by faith, not works. So he didn't have to live up to God's righteousness. He just had to have faith in God, and then God would give him righteousness as a gift. Luther said faith is like a marriage between you and Jesus. Jesus takes on the punishment of your sins and gives you his righteousness. But of course, if this is real faith, Jesus is also going to make you more holy. This changed everything for Luther. He couldn't wait to tell his church the good news that they didn't need to earn their way into heaven. I'm selling indulgences to raise money for St. Peter's Basilica. Timmy, your grandma's burning in purgatory. Buy this to free her. Okay, here's my college money. Kyle, I saw you steal flour yesterday. Buy this or you'll burn in hell forever. Enough! Indulgences are fake. You can't buy your way into heaven. Just repent and have true faith. So Luther wrote 95 theses criticizing indulgences and nailed them to the door of his church. Now, Luther wasn't trying to start a movement. He just wanted to debate with some other professors. But thanks to the printing press, his 95 theses spread like wildfire. This made him really popular with the people and not so popular with the church. Luther, can I see you in my office? Explain this. I was trying to warn about the dangers of indulgence. I don't care. It's wrong. Recant of all this. Can you show me from the Bible why it's wrong? Well, you contradicted several recent councils and papal decrees. So what? They contradict each other and the Bible. I'm sorry, are you the Pope? Well, no. Only the Pope can interpret the Bible. Get out. Despite being a genius theologian, Cajetan had no interest in debating Luther. He just wanted to shut him down. But interestingly enough, Cajetan agreed with Luther on the canon because that was still up for debate at this point. So it's not true that Luther removed seven books. Still, Luther was very popular with the other professors, the people, and even the local prince. So Cajetan couldn't get rid of him. But when the Pope heard about the theses, he was real pissed because the recent rise in indulgences was his idea to fund the building of St. Peter's Basilica. Hey, come to Rome for a heresy trial. We promise we won't hurt you. That's what you told Huss. Fine, we'll do it near you. Okay, Luther, you've made some interesting arguments, but unfortunately you're wrong because the Pope said so. But if the Pope is wrong... You're sounding like a Hussite. I'm not a Hussite. Actually, yeah, I am a Hussite. Bro, that's heresy! Unless you can show me why from the word of God, I will not recant. Here I stand and I can do no other. Lord, help me. So the Pope wrote a letter excommunicating Luther and anyone who agreed with him. We agree with you, Luther. Does that mean we're excommunicated? The prince thought Luther's excommunication was unjust, so he sided with him over the Pope. Many other German princes joined in because they were sick of Rome's corruption. So now the churches in these lands are free to implement Luther's reforms. Indulgences are banned, everyone can read the Bible in their own language, priests can get married, and they'll say the Mass in the language of the people. At first, the emperor promised religious freedom, but then he went back on it, so the princes protested and got called Protestants. So the churches wrote a confession explaining their beliefs and how they're in line with historic Christianity, and the emperor accepted it. The Reformation in Germany was now a success. Is the Reformation happening anywhere else? Yes, actually, in Switzerland, but it's got a different flavor. You see, all this was happening during the Renaissance, which was a rebirth of classical learning. People were discovering that many old texts, like the Donation of Constantine, which supposedly gave the Pope authority over all kings of the earth, were forgeries. So the top scholars wondered what other lies the church had told them. They discovered early Greek New Testament manuscripts and studied them to make better Bible translations. Hey, why is that necessary? We have the Latin Vulgate, what else could you need? Okay, but many of your texts are forgeries, mistranslations, or very late manuscripts, so we'll keep doing our own scholarship, thank you. These cities were a popular hangout spot for those scholars, and a young priest named Zwingli spent years studying the Bible and the church fathers with them. He came to many of the same conclusions as Luther and was famous for his preaching skills, so he got moved to Zurich, where he drew massive crowds for explaining the gospel to people for the first time ever. So the Zurich city council let Zwingli do some reforms, like giving people both kinds in communion and removing all images from churches. Hey, what's going on here? Would you like to debate these reforms? I don't need to debate you, you're a heretic! Well, we like what Zwingli's doing, so if you won't debate, we side with him! Now there's two reformations. Wouldn't it be great if they could team up and reform the entire church? So Zwingli meets Luther and Marburg to see if they agree on the issues. What do you think about communion? So bread is the body of Christ, right? Not exactly, but... Jesus said, this is my body! Well, is can mean represents. Nein! Is means is! So that failed, but the Reformation is still going strong in Switzerland and spreading quickly because the scholars love the intellectual freedom of the Reformation. Reformers are stationed at each major city and the Swiss cantons are now divided between Reformed and Catholic. But both sides believe you have to be part of the established church of whatever place you're in. So both sides hate these radicals called Anabaptists who refuse to submit to the institutional church. They don't baptize babies because they think being a Christian is about a personal choice, not belonging to an institution. At first, Zwingli flirted with the Anabaptists, but then teamed up with the Catholics to persecute them because they were a threat to established Christianity everywhere. So Zwingli defended infant baptism based on Old Testament circumcision. But then Zwingli died in battle, so Bollinger took over after him and kept developing covenant theology. Fahel wants this nerdy lawyer to take over after him. No, I just want the quiet life. You're the smartest theologian alive! We need you! If you don't do this, God will punish you! So Calvin took over in Geneva and got famous for being good at solving theological issues. Issue 1, how is Jesus present in communion? Luther said the bread is his body, and Zwingli said the bread represents his body. Zwingli wasn't denying that we receive the body of Christ, but couldn't explain how. So Calvin said the body of Christ is in heaven, but the bread is the instrument by which we receive his body if we have faith. He thought that was most consistent with earlier reformers. Issue 2, are we saved by faith or works? We're saved by faith, not works, but both come from union with Christ. So somebody who doesn't have works doesn't have faith. Okay, but who's united to Christ? The elect. Isn't that unfair, though? Calvin wasn't the first to teach predestination, but basically it's the idea that God decides who's going to be saved and who won't. What Calvin did was explain that we all suck and deserve hell, so if God saves just one person, he's being a lot nicer than he needs to be. This made Calvin care a lot about equality, since kings and peasants alike were all totally depraved. Many scholars think modern democracy and human rights are rooted in Calvin's Geneva. Calvin made many reforms in Geneva, making sure everyone had healthcare, education, and rights. He started the University of Geneva, which many scholars from all over Europe flocked to. This started the Calvinist tradition of starting universities. The University of Geneva becomes the seminary and training ground for future Protestant ministers, and Geneva becomes the hub of the Reformation. So now it's the Calvinist flavor of the Reformation more so than the Lutheran one that spreads across Europe. One of the places it spread was England. Now, many people think this is how the English Reformation happened. Oi, Pope, can I divorce my wife? Dude, no. Alrighty, watch this. In reality, Henry was a hardcore Catholic. He called Luther a heretic and got the English reformer William Tyndale burned at the stake for translating the Bible into English. But he was married to his brother's widow, which is unbiblical, but the Pope wouldn't give him an annulment, so he made himself Pope in England. He still wanted the Church to be theologically Catholic, but believed in Cicero-Papism, which means the king is Pope. This was a popular idea at that time, since many kings wanted independence from the Pope, and John Wycliffe had proposed a vision of the Catholic Church that looks more like the Orthodox Church with autonomous national churches. Despite this, many leaders in the Church wanted to make it fully Protestant, and when Edward became king, he let them do that. Cranmer wrote the Book of Common Prayer, which was very influential on the English language, and the Thirty-Nine Articles, which expressed Calvinist doctrine. But when Mary became queen, she made England Catholic again. She was called Bloody Mary for how much she persecuted the Protestants. Cranmer, give up your Calvinism or I burn you at the stake. Okay, fine. Let's go! Just kidding, I do not recant. But when Elizabeth became queen, she allowed some moderate reforms. And for that, the Pope excommunicated her along with the entire Church of England. So she's the founder of Anglicanism, not Henry. And she helped define Anglicanism as moderate Protestantism. At the time, England was a spectrum between Catholic and Protestant. She wanted a church that would appeal to the majority, but she also alienated both the Catholics and people who wanted the Church to be purely Protestant or Puritan. So she persecuted both of them. Lutheranism is spreading to Scandinavia. Technically, it's all one kingdom, but the king doesn't really have power in Sweden. So the king massacres the Swedes, but that makes him really unpopular. I gotta keep my power somehow. Maybe I'll use the Reformation. Everyone, I am the liberator of the Protestants. Bro, we ain't working with you. If you promote Catholicism, we'll give you armies. Everyone, I am the champion of Catholicism and will destroy the... Hi, I'm the new king. I overthrew my nephew. Now, I'm Protestant, but you're free to choose any Protestant. Protestantism is spreading to Scotland. Now, today we think of Scotland as a very advanced country, but it only got that way after the Reformation. Before that, it was a poor medieval backwater and the global hub of clerical corruption. We are but lowly peasants who would do anything for some food. Have you tried praying for food? So you can see why the Reformation in Scotland was much more hardcore than other countries. Patrick Hamilton was a Catholic priest who converted to Lutheranism and started preaching the Reformation, but he got burned at the stake. Then George Wishart was a Calvinist preacher who drew massive crowds, so Cardinal Beaton didn't like him. Beaton wanted to get him burned at the stake too, but he had a bit of a problem. Wishart had a gift of prophecy, so he was always able to avoid being captured. So Beaton had a plan. All right, here's a dagger. Hide this and use it on Wishart when he's done preaching. You there! Are you hiding something? So the priest confesses his sin and Wishart forgives him. Then Wishart evades capture again and again and again and again until God finally tells him it's time to be a martyr. So he surrenders to Cardinal Beaton at St. Andrews, where he gets burned at the stake. But while he's burning, he gives a sermon so powerful, the guy burning him repents. And just before he dies, he predicts exactly how Cardinal Beaton will die, and several months later, that happens when Beaton is killed by Protestant rebels. Wishart's bodyguard didn't kill Beaton, but he was involved with the rebels, so Queen Mary sends him to slavery in France. Most people don't survive being a galley slave, so Mary thought she'd gotten rid of him. But this guy was John Knox. Once he was freed, Knox went to Geneva to learn theology from Calvin and was really impressed with what Calvin had done to the place. He wanted to replicate that on a large scale in Scotland. So he went back to Scotland during a golden opportunity when there was a transition between queens. He had a few days to write a confession of faith, and the parliament accepted it. So the Church of Scotland officially became reformed. But unlike in England, they replaced the bishops with councils of elders, making the Church of Scotland Presbyterian. But Mary was still Catholic and didn't like the Presbyterian Church, so Knox discovered that she was plotting to overthrow Elizabeth in England, so Elizabeth helped capture her, ending Catholic rule in Scotland forever. Calvinism is spreading to the Netherlands. Spain rules the Netherlands, but the Netherlands don't like being ruled by Spain, so William of Orange leads them in a war of independence. At first, Spain kicks their butts, but Spain is Catholic and persecutes the Calvinists there, so William rallies up the Calvinists to push back the Spaniards, which works. So now the Dutch churches are reformed. Calvinism is spreading in France. French Calvinists are called Huguenots, and they tend to be the most educated people in society. At first, the monarchy tolerates them, but then they keep spreading and spreading, and somebody starts a rumor that they're going to overthrow the monarchy, which is believable because Protestants kind of did that in other countries. So on St. Bartholomew's Day, thousands of Huguenots are massacred, which ends the Reformation in France, and Huguenots have to flee elsewhere. As a result, many of the most influential Americans had Huguenot ancestry. There was a Reformation in Spain that failed, a Reformation in Poland-Lithuania that mostly failed, but there's still remnants of, and a Reformation in Hungary that kind of succeeded. So the Protestant dream of a bunch of autonomous national churches was partly realized, but much of Europe was still under the authority of the Pope, and it took several centuries for all the national Protestant churches to be in full communion with each other because they quickly solidified into Reformed, Lutheran, and Anglican. But it's hard to deny the positive impact the Reformation had on the world. The idea that everyone should read the Bible led to mass literacy in Protestant regions. The intellectual freedom of Protestantism contributed to the Scientific Revolution. Protestant principles laid the foundation for countries like America, and the Protestant work ethic led to high development in Protestant lands. The Reformation was also good for the Catholic Church. It took something like the Reformation for them to realize they finally needed to get their act together. They had the Council of Trent, which solidified Catholic doctrine, but banned many aspects of corruption, like the selling of indulgences, uneducated priests, and absentee bishops. The Counter-Reformation led to the best style of music ever, which Protestants also mastered. Recently, Pope Francis said Martin Luther was medicine for the Church, and that he was right about justification. The ecumenical movement of the 20th century brought Catholics and Protestants closer than ever to reunification. None of the Reformers wanted to leave the Catholic Church. They were all excommunicated. But the goal of Protestantism has always been Christian unity, so we'll see what happens.