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ECONOMIC ABUSE OF THE LAITY: A PRIMARY CAUSE OF THE REFORMATION

Gary Graham Oklahoma City University. Oklahoma City. Oklahoma

Time and again scholars have evaluated The church began to accumulate lands the Reformation period in Europe, seeking and by the 16th century was the largest land­ morc evidencc for the causes of the revolt. owner in the whole of Europe. By the golden Too often they have been unduly influenced age of the high Renaissance, the pope had by the abuses of the Renaissance popes and become a "landowner first, then a political have not realized that the causes of the prince and then a prince of the world" (3, Reformation had been developing since the pp. 69-70). As Europe dozed away the years time of Grcgory VII. In the re-evaluation of under the palsied hand of feudalism, the the causes of the great religiolls upheaval, church expanded its control of religions, p0­ there are at least three prime factors which litical and economic affairs. Its administra­ precipitated the movement, namely: (a) in· tive apparatus and canon law were expanded creased control of the church over political to include its own language, income and gov­ and economic policies of Europe, (b) rising ernment. The church came to be regarded antic1ericalism, and (c) economic and re­ as a state superior to other states. The temp­ ligions abuse of the laity. tation to abuse their power was irresistable Temporal control by the church over (4, p. 29). Europe began to develop after the discovery Abuses perpetuated by churchmen were of the "Donation of Constantine" during both spiritual and economic. Church poli­ the reign of Pippin the Short, King of the cies were flexible and could be changed to Franks (751-768). That remarlcable docu­ suit the needs of affluent individuals who ment declared that the " ... districts and were willing to purchase exceptions. The cities of Italy and the western regions" were result was disintegration of moral precepts subject to the pope (I, p. 186). The dra­ of the church. This debilitating influence matic growth in church influence was evi­ effectuated a general decline of the spiritual denced in 800 A.D. with the crowning of life of both higher and lower clergy, a per­ Charlemagnc by Pope Zacharias. This his­ nicious malevolence that reached into the toric event moved the crown of Constantine monasteries and finally to the people. back to Westcm Europe and enhanced both the power and influence of the papacy The people were incensed by the shame­ over rulers and politics (I, p. 186). ful conduct of the clergy. The scandalous deportment of such individuals as Cardinal The constantly gro\\ing control of the Rodrigo Borgia, who later became Pope church over temporal affairs brought about Alexander VI, brought the holy state and a need for reform, and for the first time office into disgrace. The wealth of the reform emanated from the papal office. Dur­ church, extracted at great sacrifice from its ing the pontificate of Gregory VII, a papal­ sanctioned reform was initiated to renew the people, was often used to achieve secular the spiritual fervor of the church. To main­ goals of important clerics rather than to pro­ tain purity of corrective measures, the curia, mote spiritual guidance for the Christiall a papal court was established. Until the time faithful. Among means utilized by clerics to of the last Gregorian reformers, Paschal II, fill their bottomless coffers, no abuses weT' the curia held firm to spiritual principles of more flagrant than those which attendel! the church. Under the latter Paschal, sig­ the selling of church offices. Bishops weT nificantly, the curia began to favor the ordained for gold, and thus in tum, sol, church's control over the temporal realm of church offices often for princely sums. Th Europe. (2. pp. 290(292). iniquity of simony reached into the lowe' Proc. 0lJa. Acad. Sci. 50: 18+186 (1970) 185

offices of the church unbl the people felt The German states because of the rupture its burden (5, p. 215). of their economy, broke under the fiscal Religious unrest, growing since the Baby­ burden of the church. Widespread dissatis­ lonian Captivity (1309-1376) and the faction with the religious establishment Great Schism (1378-1417), developed into spawned a tidal wave which swept all before a strong anticlerical movement by the be­ it in one of the great reform movements of ginning of the 16th century. Symptoms of Western History. the laity's hostility were noted as early as Two fateful attempts at financial exploita­ the Diet of Worms (1495), when the Saxon tion of Germany through the sale of indul­ nobleman, Hans von Hermannsgrun, pro­ gences, the first by Pope Leo X in 1512, posed to the emperor that the "pope should the second by the Archbishop of Mainz in be refused obedience and a German patri­ 1517, motivated the lower clergy to cry out archate erected." In Switzerland the grow­ for fiscal reform. When their appeals for ing desire for a national church incited the change went unheeded, the situation de­ cantons to demand that "the pope, bishops, teriorated rapidly. Pope Leo X, engaged in abbots and the generals of religious orders contracting for the construction of St. be ousted" (2, p. 159). Peter's Basilica, sought to extract still more The movement soon spread into a revolt funds, from a laity already groaning under over Roman Catholic dogma. It became an oppressive financial weight, by issuing evident that reformers were supported by the infamous St. Peter's Indulgence. He sent large numbers of dissatisfied patrons who John Tetzel, a cleric skilled in arts of re­ could not be suppressed or destroyed be­ ligious extortion, into the mining fields of cause their composite opposition was deep­ St. Anaberg, Germany. Little concerned ly rooted in the economic, political and in­ with the spiritual meaning of the Indul­ tellectual attitudes of the day. The move­ gence, this purveyor of pardon occupied his ment affected economic doctrine, political every waking hour with the tasks of filling theory and state policy. The international the papal coffers. Tetzcl promised that if scene was marred by hostilities such as the the miners of the area contributed readily wars caused by the unsuccessful Hussite and bought grace and indulgence, the movement, a harbinger of things to come. hills of St. Anaberg would become masses As long as the economy of Europe could of pure silver (5, p. 218). support the heavy pressure of the church's It was not until the Archbishop of Mainz economic policies, cries for fiscal reform authorized the resale of the Indulgence, were weak and scattered. The intensity of that the scandalous issue came to a head. Europe's economic burden was greatly in­ The archbishop was in debt to the pope and creased as capitalism's advocates negotiated to the House of Fugger for a papal dispen­ with higher ecclesiastics. Out of these ne­ sation by which he had purchased the right gotiations the merchants of the Antwerp to occupy three church offices concurrently. Bourse gained the concession that capitalism The income derived from the 1517 indul­ was not adverse to cannon law, while John gences was to be divided equally between Eck secured authority to charge interest. the archbishop and the pope. The Mainz Thercafter, banking, a lucrative but unpopu­ cleric could payoff his debt for the dis­ lar function once confined to the manage­ pensation, and the pope would be furnished ment of the Jews, became a vocation both additional funds for the erection of his be­ proper and profitable for Catholics to pur­ loved St. Peter's. -;ue (6, p. 73). Once again John Tetzel was summoned When Portugal opened maritime trade and authorized to practice his black arts. ·outes from Western Europe to the Far East The abuse of the people by the church, lUring the early 15th century, trade was without regard to the economic or spiritual iiverted from Venice, the mistress of com­ condition of the laity, so infuriated Luther ncree, and her German consignees. This that he wrote to the archbishop denounc­ eft Germany in a state of financial collapse. ing Tetzel's hawking of indulgences with 186

the pious pretense that they would pur­ the Roman curia. The Reformation resulted. chase the forgiveness of future sin and This religious cataclysm was a result of the would instantly release the souls of loved acquisition by the church of powers which ones from Purgatoty. Further motivated, its derics were ilI-equipped to exercise or Luther prepared his ninety-five theses, and curb. The scandalous deportment of the nailed them to the door of the Wittenburg clergy resulted in the anticlerical movement. castle church. In his "Address to the Chris­ Most important of all, however, the Re­ tian Nobility of the German Nation," Lu­ formation developed as a result of the ther asked that the church return to the church's economic abuse of its laity. The pattern of purity of the primitive church. reform sprouted in Germany, but it blos­ He requested the calling of councils to rec­ somed throughout the Holy Roman Em­ tify abuses of the papacy, but the only reply pire. When the movement had run its the church hierarchy offered was that the course, the Catholic church would never pope alone had the power to call councils. be as it was before. Thus it became clear to Teutonic critics that reform was not to come from within REFERENCES the church, but must be developed outside I. W. W AUER, A History of the Christian (7, pp. 109-117). Church, Charles Scnbner's Sons, New York, Religious reformers were convinced that 1959. Z. N. F. CANTOR, Medieval History, MacMillan unscrupulous commercialism of the church Co., London, 1969. had to be terminated. The church had to 3. J. P. DoLAN, History of the Reformation, return to the economic posture that had Desclee Co., New York, 1945. prevailed prior to the Medieval period. The 4. J. LoRn, The Reformation In Germany, Dar­ curia, however, repudiated the ideas of the ton, Longman & Todd, London, 1968, v. I. 5. T. C. MENDENIIALL. B. D. HENNING, and A. German critics and the reformers turned to S. FOORD, Ideas and Institutions in European secular authorities to rectify the abuses. History, 800-1715, Holt, Rinehard & Win­ Continuation of Luther's crusade against ston, New York, 1960. the ecclesiastical abuses of the laity promp­ 6. R. H. TAWNEY, Religion and the Rise of Cap­ ted the development of a new power strug­ italism, Mentor Boob, New York, 1960. 7. H. E. FOSDICk, Great Voices of the Reforma­ gle between the princes of Germany and tion, Modem Lrbmy, New York, 1949.