Page 224 - Encyclopedia Of World History Vol IV

protestantism 1525

Martin Luther: Defying
the Catholic Church

In 1521, Luther was forced to stand trial at the
ble and best-remembered among them were the university- Diet of Worms (in Worms, Germany), where he
based reforms at Wittenberg in Saxony.A cluster of monks openly—and personally—defied Emperor Charles
and professors led by Martin Luther (1483–1546) set V, and thereby both the state and church authori-
out to attack the Church’s modes of dealing with people ties. One question remained:Would Luther recant?
who sought salvation and attempted to live a moral life. He answered this question in no uncertain terms,
Luther and his followers saw the Papacy as repressive, as the excerpt below makes clear. Luther was
self-centered, and corrupt, and declared their intent to re- soon excommunicated from the Catholic Church.
cast Church teachings from within Catholicism. However,
Since then your serene majesty and your lord-
they became so upsetting to both the Church and the
ships seek a simple answer, I will give it in this
Holy Roman Empire that Rome took action—usually, as
manner, neither horned nor toothed. Unless I am
in the case of Luther, it excommunicated them as heretics.
convinced by the testimony of the Scriptures or
Many other critics left voluntarily.
be clear reason (for I do not trust either in the
The map of early Protestantism indicates that a great
Pope or in the councils alone, since it is well
number and variety of sites developed quickly. In England,
known that they have often erred and contra-
a controversy between the Pope and King Henry V led to
dicted themselves), I am bound by the Scriptures
a sundering of ties and the birth of the Anglican church.
I have quoted and my conscience is captive to the
In Switzerland, reformers such as Huldreich Zwingli
Word of God. I cannot and I will not retract any-
(1484–1531) and John Calvin (1509–1564) comple-
thing, since it is neither safe nor right to go
mented or competed with Luther and the Germans and
against conscience. I cannot do otherwise, here I
with Scandinavian reformers, while more radical reform-
stand. May God help me. Amen.
ers spread through Switzerland and the Lowlands. By mid-
century essential changes in allegiances had occurred and Source: Retrieved from http://www.whatsaiththescripture.com/Voice/History.
Protestant.v1.b6.html#CHAPTER%206
Protestantism had reached its early geographical limits.
However, Mediterranean Catholics on the Iberian penin-
sula, in France, and in the Italian states were unmoved as
were Eastern Europeans, whose Catholic churches abutted members’ lives with the message of grace as mediated
Orthodox churches in Russia, Poland, and Greece. only by the Christian gospels and voiced in the acts of
preaching and prayer.
The Inner and Outer The inner expression of Protestantism arose from the
Expressions way some Christians gave expression to this evangel,
The early Protestants, who acquired their name almost how they worshiped and lived. The outer expression
accidentally from the act of some princes who “protested” refers to the ways in which Protestants in various soci-
imperial and Catholic action at the Diet of Speyer in eties and cultures related to governments and economic
1529, were more frequently referred to with a more con- and social powers.
genial and positive term, evangelical. Although five cen-
turies later that name appears to characterize only The Gospel and the Inner
conservative Protestantism, in the beginning it simply Life of Protestants
implied that those who professed it were devoted to the Once the hold of the papacy and the Catholic hierarchy
evangel, the message of the New Testament gospels.They was tested and broken, the people called Protestant set to
were not to be confined by Roman Catholic church law work to give voice and form to personal and church life in
and did not define themselves as legalistic followers of ways that would distance them from Rome and yet keep
Jesus and the Church. Instead, they professed to take the them within the Christian tradition, a tradition that they
risk of governing the church and inspiring individual were soon to claim as belonging more rightfully to them