THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION at 500 YEARS from RUPTURE to DIALOGUE Jaume Botey
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THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION AT 500 YEARS FROM RUPTURE TO DIALOGUE Jaume Botey 1. Introduction ........................................................................................... 3 2. Luther’s personality and the theme of justification ...................... 7 3. The great controversies, and the progressive development of his thought ................................................................. 10 4. The great treatises of 1520 and the diet of worms .......................... 16 5. The peasants’ war .................................................................................... 21 6. Consolidation of the reformation ....................................................... 24 7. Epilogue .................................................................................................... 28 Notes ............................................................................................................. 31 Bibliography ................................................................................................. 32 In memory… In February, while we were preparing the English edition of this booklet, its author, Jaume Botey Vallés, passed away. As a member of the Cristianisme i Justícia team, Jaume was a person profoundly committed to ecumenical and interreligious dialogue, and he worked energetically for peace and for the other world that is possible. Jaume, we will miss you greatly. Cristianisme i Justícia Jaume Botey has a licentiate in philosophy and theology and a doctorate in anthropology. He has been a professor of the History of Culture at the Universitat Autònoma of Barcelona. He has published the book El collapse del sistema. Bases per a pensar el nou milleni (2014) [The collapse of the system: bases for thinking about the new millennium] and in this collection: Bush and his God (booklet 118, June 2004). He is a member of the team of Cristianisme i Justícia. Publisher: CRISTIANISME I JUSTÍCIA - Roger de Llúria 13 - 08010 Barcelona +34 93 317 23 38 - [email protected] - www.cristianismeijusticia.net Printed by: Ediciones Rondas S.L. - Legal deposit: B 6852-2018 ISBN: 978-84-9730-412-2 - ISSN: 2014-6566 - ISSN (virtual edition): 2014-6574 Editor: Santi Torres i Rocaginé - Translated by Joseph Owens Cover drawing: Roger Torres - Layout: Pilar Rubio Tugas Printed on recycled paper - March 2018 Privacy Policy: The Fundació Lluís Espinal makes it known that your data are kept in a file under the name BDGACIJ, legal title of the Fundació Lluís Espinal. These are used only for providing the services we render you and for keeping you informed of our activities. You may exercise your rights of access, rectification, cancelation or disagreement by writing to the Fundació in c/Roger de Llúria, 13, 08010 Barcelona. 1. INTRODUCTION On 31 October 2017 some 500 years will have passed since Luther, ac- cording to legend, nailed his treatise about indulgences on the door of the church of the Wittenberg castle. That date is considered the beginning of the Protestant Reformation. The treatise caused a rupture that went be- yond the religious terms in which it was presented. The consequences of this cataclysm revealed the existence in Europe of two different cultures, two models of social relations, two forms of understanding politics and power, and even two economic models, which are evident to this day in the differences between northern Europe and Mediterranean Europe. The doubts and misgivings of a decadent ing-point of its main protagonist, Martin society became evident in the great de- Luther. bates that took place concerning ration- alist and empirical models, Platonism and Aristotelianism, lay power and hier- 1.1. Attempts at reform before archy, the Church’s temporal power and the Reformation poverty, faith and religion. At the same time, the society was conscious that it Luther’s movement was an indication of contained within itself the seeds of a new the deep fissures that had been appear- model that was just being born. Many of ing since the end of the 13th century; the those debates that roiled the early years bonds between papacy and Empire on of the Renaissance have become once which feudalism was based had become again topics of debate in today’s world, frayed. The symptoms announcing a in a society as perplexed as the society change of epoch included the birth of in- of those days. To understand today’s Eu- dividual conscience, the tendency toward rope it is important to understand the sit- secularization, the desire for a new mod- uation that produced the Reformation of el of social relations, the appearance of the 16th century and especially the start- new inventions (printing press, compass, 3 etc.), the new vision of the universe pro- in personal experience and contempla- posed by Copernicus and Galileo, the in- tion than in the rational, deductive pro- cipient capitalism, and the development cesses of scholasticism. What all these of nationalism and nation-states. Scho- movements had in common was the con- lastic philosophy and theology were in viction that “truth” is expressed more in decline, nominalism was ascendant, and deeds than in words, that a ready will is the empirical method became an impor- more important than rational knowledge, tant source of knowledge. In the religious and that personal experience of faith is sphere, there was a growing awareness worth more than intellectual grasp of a of the need to reform the Church, which dogma. They all agreed on the need to was too closely tied to temporal interests. return to primitive Christianity and a The late Middle Ages saw frequent Church that is poor. They wanted the sa- proposals and attempts to reform the cred texts to be available in the language Church, most of them sincere. We could of the people, and they promoted a warm mention Saint Bernard (11th century), and tender devotion to the human figure who completely renewed the monastery of Jesus. They had little tolerance for hi- movement, or Saint Francis (13th century), erarchy and extravagant liturgies. These who introduced a new model of spiritual- movements were a sign of the profound ity geared to city life and stressing evan- religious and moral crisis of the ecclesi- gelical imitation of the poor Jesus. In the astical institution. kingdom of Aragón we have figures like Giving priority to experiential knowl- Ramon Llull, Eiximenis, and Arnau de edge meant downplaying knowledge Vilanova. At the same time, there arose about the supposed “articles of faith,” a series of movements that wavered be- which were impossible to demonstrate tween fidelity and dissent; find them- in any case. Questions were therefore selves in constant conflict with the hierar- raised concerning concepts about whose chy and the Empire, they were persecuted meaning we cannot be certain, such as by both. For example, the Beguines and “justification,” “salvation,” “grace,” and the Beghards in the Low Countries and “forgiveness.” This stance was one of the the Waldensians (or the “Poor of Lyon”) effects of nominalism, which held that in northern Italy were movements that are priority should be given to knowledge now considered predecessors of Protes- that proceeds from reality, that is, from tantism, as was the movement of the Ca- concrete things that we see and touch, thars and Albigensians in southern Franc- rather than to the names or concepts of es in the 13th century. All of them suffered abstract philosophy. From this position severe persecution. it was just a further step to declaring The beginnings of the 14th century that the papacy, the hierarchy, the sac- saw the rise of new forms of spirituality raments, and the Church were all human of a more mystical and subjective char- inventions placed at the service of those acter, such as the “Devotio Moderna.” words without content. Ockham was one It was a time when the mystics Eckhart of the main representatives of this cur- and Tauler thrived on the banks of the rent of thought. Rhine, while the Brothers of the Com- This way of thinking helps to explain mon Life were finding more inspiration the popularity of John Wycliffe and John 4 Huss, who were condemned during the and the people’s sovereignty in electing Council of Constance, at the height of the emperor. He consequently saw no the Western Schism. Wycliffe was al- need for the emperor to be consecrated ready dead when he was condemned, by the Pope. while Huss was burned at the stake. To- This was the context in which the day they are considered precursors of Renaissance took shape. The first great Protestantism. humanists, especially Thomas More and The history of these centuries shows Erasmus of Rotterdam, contemporaries that the “rupture,” to give it a name, had of Luther, gave evidence of both rup- taken place prior to Luther. “Everything ture and continuity. They did not want that needed to be reformed but was not to break with anything, but they were became the cause and the justification of aware that the previous political unity, the Reformation.”1 with its concepts and social model, had come to an end. Socially and politically, the Holy Ro- 1.2. The situation of the Empire man Empire was a fragmented polity, di- and the Church vided into small states that were relatively autonomous –duchies, counties, ecclesi- The Church was at one of its lowest astical domains, and small city-states– all points. Since the 11th century there had of which were controlled by princes and been a long struggle between the Pope the great noble families of feudal times. and the secular powers about investiture,