Europe on the eve of the Reformation

1. Europe on the eve of the Reformation

2. Announcements • Two new workshops added: one is today ay 5pm, and another one is today again, at 6pm. To enroll, just go on the same website as for the first ones • Today NO office hours: I am out of town. Please just contact me to set an appointment and I will be happy to accommodate you next week!

3. How we study the Reformation in this course: • In 16th century many new things came about: the invention of the printing press, the Humanist way of looking at texts and at the Bible, etc… • Also in the 16th century the Reformation happened: in this course we are going to study both the ‘novelty’ of the Reformation, but also the ‘antiquity’ of it. • Attention then: Erasmus did not bring Luther, and Luther did not start something utterly new, but all these things are complicated, and we will study them one by one. • Also, attention to POLITICS: the Reformation was not only a fundamental break in the religious outlook of Europe, but gave also an important start to the consolidation of the early modern state!

4. Luther’s Background: three issues • Was the Reformation a ‘revolution’? • The old and the new: Luther and Augustine • The question of indulgences

5. Protestantism: a real ‘Revolution’? • What does Revolution mean? What did it mean in Luther’s time?

8. No! The first instance of this use of the term Revolution is 1649…

9. Revolution=Astronomical term; ‘return to the origin’!

10. So the Reformation was not about starting something ‘new’, but about going back to the ‘old’

11. Who was Luther? The influence of Augustine Young Martin Luther, Lucas Cranach 1522-4

12. Augustine of Hippo (IV c. AD) • His battle against Pelagius: the emphasis of grace in Augustine’s soteriology (which means doctrine of salvation) • 1506: Augustine’s ‘Opera Omnia’ (which means all the works by Augustine) is published

13. Luther is an Augustinian monk! • Theology is important for Luther • He inherited, so to speak, the salvation question from Augustine • But there was something that pushed Luther, who was already reflecting about grace and salvation, over the edge….

14. What are the indulgences? • In Catholic doctrine, when you die you can go to Heaven, Hell, or to Purgatory • Purgatory, ‘invented’ in 1215, was a sort of prison, when the soul gets punished for the sins the person committed, and at the end of the punishment it was ready for Heaven • But people on earth could do something to ease the prison-time, by acquiring from the Church ‘indulgences’, like ‘get-out-of-Purgatory-card’

15. Imagine that you are in Purgatory…

16. ..and your parents were left home thinking how to make it easier for you!

17. Indulgences, Luther and Tetzel • 1510s: Rome needs money, selling of indulgences to finance St.Peter’s Cathedral • Johann Tetzel sent to Saxony to ‘sell’ indulgences to the people, and give the money to Rome

18. ‘As soon as the coin in the coffin rings/ the soul out of Purgatory springs’

19. October 1517: 95 Theses in Wittemberg

20. Summarizing… • The Reformation ‘started’ in 1517 around a question of corruption • Luther’s Theses spread quickly thanks to the printing press • However, the Reformation was not only about corruption, but it has also profound theological implications • Luther did not want to invent a ‘new’ theology, but to go back to the ORIGINAL one, and in fact he was reading and interpreting Augustine

21. Luther’s Theology Luther, Lucas Cranach,1529

22. Main elements: • Direct relationship with God • Sacramental doctrine • ‘Sola Scriptura’ (‘Scripture alone’) • ‘Sola Fide’ (‘by means of faith alone’)

23. From ‘The Freedom of the Christian man’,1520 • ‘A Christian is a perfectly free lord of all, subject to none….a Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant of all, subject to all’: what does that mean? • On the one hand, humans are free from the Church: they do not need middlemen, but they can now talk directly with God • On the other hand, humans are left alone without the Church, and now there is nobody that can negotiate with God for you

24. Sacramental Doctrine • 2 Sacraments left: Baptism and Eucharist (in traditional Catholic theology there were 7) • Baptism remains the same: in particular, Luther maintains infant Baptism. Importance of social character of Baptism • Eucharist: doctrine of consubstantiation

25. ‘Sola Scriptura’

26. Luther’s New Testament • First ed. published in 1522 • What are the implications of translating the Scriptures in a vernacular language? • Not simply that ‘the people’ could read the Scripture for themselves (remember not everybody knew how to read), but that there is no need for the clergy to interpret the Latin! • Reading Scripture: a way to restructuring the social, cultural and intellectual history of Europe

27. Erasmus & Luther • In 1524 Erasmus published ‘De Libero Arbitrio’ (on the free will) • In 1525 Luther replies by publishing ‘De Servo Arbitrio’ (on the enslaved will)

28. ‘Sola Fide’, or faith alone: NO faith+good works!

29. Luther and the Reformation: there is more than theology! • Luther’s theology is based on this THEOLOGICAL concept of freedom: • Freedom FROM the Church • And Freedom to talk with God without intermediaries • We talked about the Eucharist in Luther, and the role of the Scripture and the role of grace • But….

30. Politics • Many people before Luther made the same theological points (e.g. Wycliffe and Hus, but also Erasmus or even St. Francis), but either the Church followed some of their suggestions, or they got eliminated • So why didn’t the Church listen to Luther? And why didn’t they try and eliminate him? POLITICS!