Between 1350 and 1650 the church in Western Europe experienced significant administrative, moral, and doctrinal reform that brought major changes to the church. These reforms were accompanied by conflict between those committed to the beliefs and practices of the medieval church and those persuaded that major doctrinal and moral reform was necessary. Conflict also arose between those committed to different approaches to reform and to different .

This resulted in a lasting through much of and Scandinavia, schism in the church in Western Europe and new urban movements appeared in that had essentially remained unified for and Germany. Radical reform more than one thousand years. The existence movements sprang up throughout Europe, of more than one Christian church was led by people who rejected the ‘Magisterial difficult to accept after a millennium of Reformers’ who worked with the magistrates religious unity, and only reluctantly was it or rulers. In , led a acknowledged when it became increasingly reform movement that was soon imitated clear that neither dialogue nor suppression in much of Europe. Henry VIII initiated a Introduction could restore the church’s unity. Religious Reformation in England for reasons that divisions – together with political, social, had little to do with church reform, but the and economic factors – led to military English church also experienced a Protestant conflict that plagued Europe between 1550 Reformation which reached fruition in and 1648. the reign of Henry’s daughter, Elizabeth. The first section of this atlas surveys A Protestant Reformation was also firmly the pre-Reformation period: the setting in established in Scotland. which the events took place, late medieval The Roman was society, the role of the church in that society, stimulated to reform itself – and also and the various reform movements of the to respond to the rapid growth of late Middle Ages. Although the late medieval – movements which are church met the religious needs of society covered in section three. When attempts more adequately than many historians to heal the breach between the Church of have been willing to concede, people were Rome and the growing Protestant movement sufficiently alienated from the church to failed, the papacy called the reforming support the Protestant Reformation. , which defined the The second section of this book of the medieval church in opposition to examines the outbreak of the sixteenth- Protestantism and encouraged moral and century Reformation. Martin was spiritual reform within the Roman Catholic of course the primary protagonist in the Church. The discovery of the Americas led events that resulted in this lasting schism to a new interest in spreading the gospel in the church, believing that the teachings abroad. The Society of – the Jesuits, of the church had been distorted during founded by Ignatius Loyola – took the the Middle Ages and needed to be brought lead within the Catholic Church and sent back into line with Scripture. There soon missionaries to the Americas, India, China, appeared a number of different reform and Japan. Protestants attempted to bring movements and a great expansion of the the gospel to Native Americans in the Reformation churches. spread English colonies.

20 Atlas of the European One result of the competing reform the , and England were all movements was theological and military convulsed by religious wars. When neither conflict, dealt with in the final section side was able to overcome the other, they of this atlas. In addition to theological had eventually to agree to compromise conflicts between Protestants and Catholics, settlements, dividing the respective areas Lutherans, Zwinglians, and Calvinists between the competing confessions. Only engaged in ferocious debates, and there were the English Civil War, fought between also deep divisions within both Lutheranism Protestants, had a different result. The Peace and , while all parties were critical of Westphalia of 1648, which ended the of the Anabaptists and persecuted them. For Thirty Years’ War, is a clear concluding point their part, Anabaptists were divided among for the Reformation era on the European themselves and on occasion resorted to continent; in England it comes ten years violence in pursuing their objectives. later, as the Civil War was followed by the During the second century of the restoration of the Stuart dynasty in 1660. Reformation era, Germany, France,

INTRODUCTION 21 Part 2 Reformation

I am bound by the Scriptures I have quoted and my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will not recant anything, since it is neither safe nor right to go against conscience. May God help me.

Martin Luther

Early sixteenth-century Western Europe was dominated by a trio of powerful and ambitious monarchs. Henry VIII (r. 1509–¬47), the first English king to be addressed as ‘majesty’, was courted by both the French king and the Holy Roman Emperor, and famously broke with the pope. Francis I (r. 1515–47) reinforced the absolutist claims of his immediate predecessors as King of France and unsuccessfully challenged Charles V for the title of Holy Roman Emperor. Meanwhile the Ottoman Turks under Suleiman the Magnificent (r. 1520–66) were looking enviously at the Christian north. The Sultan’s armies took Belgrade in 1521 and defeated the Hungarian army at Mohács in 1526. However, Suleiman’s siege of Vienna in 1529 was eventually raised, while his foray into Austria in 1532 was successfully resisted at Güns.

Charles V The third in this trio, the Holy Roman Bohemia, Moravia, and Silesia. In 1519 Emperor Charles V (r. 1519–56), attempted Charles was elected Holy Roman Emperor to maintain order, repel the Turks, heal becoming, at least in name, sovereign of the the schism in the church caused by the central lands of Europe too. Reformers, and defend and increase his However Charles’ extensive holdings hereditary holdings. As a descendant and ambitions did not allow him an easy of Ferdinand of Aragon (r. 1479–1516) rule. Charles and Francis I both laid claim and Isabella of Castile (r. 1474–1504), he to the Kingdom of Naples, Milan, Burgundy, inherited the Spanish crown in 1516, taking Flanders, and Artois. There was also rivalry the title Charles I. With the fall of Granada between the Pope and Charles, and it was in 1492, the last of the Muslim Moors had papal policy that no power should control been driven from the Iberian peninsula. both Naples and Milan. The pope often Through Ferdinand and Isabella, Charles backed Francis rather than Charles: Pope also received Sardinia, Sicily, the Kingdom Leo X supported Francis over Charles in the of Naples, and the Balearic Islands. In imperial elections, and Pope Clement VII addition, the newly colonized Spanish allied himself with the French king at a time territories in North, Central, and South when concerted action with Charles might America poured wealth from the New otherwise have crushed the Reformation. World into his treasury. During the 1550s Charles gradually Charles also inherited from his paternal abdicated from parts of his empire. He gave grandmother, Mary of Burgundy (r. 1477– Sicily, Naples, and Milan to his son Philip in 82), much of the Netherlands, Franche- 1554; he abdicated from the Netherlands in Comté, and Luxembourg; and from his 1555; and from his Spanish Empire in 1556. paternal grandfather, Maximilian I (r. 1508– Finally his brother Ferdinand succeeded as 16), the Habsburg lands of Germany. Shortly Holy Roman Emperor in 1558, shortly before afterwards the Habsburgs also claimed Charles’ death. the eastern flank of the Empire: Hungary,

52 Atlas of the European Reformations 014 EMPIRE CHARLES V 06 The Empire of Charles V map 14

Edinburgh DENMARK N ORTH S EA

Danzig IRELAND Francis I and Charles V both claim Artois and Flanders

ENGLAND HOLY POLAND

London ROMAN E lb e LUSATIA O R d S Cologne EMPIRE . e OI Ghent r R RT . A RS SILESIA DE AN FL Mainz 1530; Lutherans present Charles V with BOHEMIA . S R e e MORAVIA in n D e i a R. Paris h nu R be Y R. Vienna R Duchy of Burgundy Augsburg A claimed by Vienna 1529 G Francis and Charles DUCHY COUNTY N OF OF Budapest Nantes BURGUNDY BURGUNDY AUSTRIA U A TLANTIC H CHAROLAIS Trent O CEAN VENICE Mohacs 1526 FRANCE Milan Venice

1516 Charles proclaimed Ottoman King Charles I of Spain Genoa Turks Toulouse Avignon Francis I and Florence A Charles V both PAPAL D OTTOMAN claim Milan STATES R I A EMPIRE NAVARRE T I C CORSICA Rome S E ARAGON A SPAIN Barcelona NAPLES 1519: Charles V crowned Naples A Holy Roman Emperor L Madrid I by the Pope N

A I

D

G

R A

U Tagus R. Toledo S Francis I and Charles V T Balearic Is. both claim Naples

Lisbon R

O P E R R A N E A N D I T S S Seville M E E A ICILY Granada Algiers Tunis Inherited by Charles V Miles 0 100 200 Oran Gained by Charles V boundary 0 100 200 300 N.B. This does not include Charles V’s overseas empire. Kilometers

CHARLES V 53 (1483–1546) was born in Eisleben, a small mining town in north-east Germany, grew up in Mansfeld, and was educated in Eisenach, Magdeburg, and the , where he studied law. In 1505 he joined a closed Augustinian friary in Erfurt, after having made a dramatic vow during a thunderstorm. Ordained in 1507, he studied theology and rose through the academic ranks at the university. Transferring to the new University of in 1511, he was linked with that institution for the rest of his life. In 1510–11 Luther visited Rome for his order, and was profoundly shocked by the corruption and extravagance he encountered in the papal city. In 1512 he became a doctor of theology and professor of biblical studies at Wittenberg.

After a long spiritual crisis, Luther rejected Holy Roman Emperor in person, and fearing theology based on the inherited tradition, for his life, Luther again refused to recant. emphasizing instead the individual He was declared an outlaw, but kidnapped understanding and experience of Scripture, for his own protection by the sympathetic crucially believing justification not to be Elector Frederick of Saxony and taken to by works, but by faith alone. Luther’s views the Castle. There he devoted his became more widely known when he sent energies to translating the New Testament

Martin Luther a letter to the bishops, including Albrecht, into German. Bishop of Mainz, on 31 October 1517 and Since 1483 Saxony had been divided later (probably mid-November) posted his into two parts: Ernestine and Albertine, or 95 Theses – intended for academic debate Electoral and Ducal respectively. During about the sale of and the church’s his career as reformer, Luther was fortunate material preoccupations – on the door of to live in Electoral Saxony, where the ruler, Wittenberg’s Castle Church. Their effect was to Elector Frederick the Wise (r. 1483–1525), undermine the basis of contemporary practice. despite remaining a Catholic, protected In December the Archbishop of Mainz complained to Rome about Luther. Martin Luther (1483–1546). The latter refused to recant, travelled to Heidelberg in 1518 having prepared a set of theses for before his Augustinian order, and was then examined by Cardinal Thomas Cajetan (1469– 1534) in Augsburg. When he heard he might be arrested, Luther fled. In July 1519, during a disputation at Leipzig with his sharpest opponent (1486–1543), Luther denied the supremacy of the pope and the infallibility of church councils. Two years later he was excommunicated. At the famous in April 1521, standing before the

54 Atlas of the European Reformations 015 MARTIN LUTHER _ BEGINNINGS OF REFORMATION 06 Martin Luther and the Beginnings of the Reformation map 15

BRUNSWICK-WOLFENBÜTTEL BRANDENBURG MAGDEBURG H A Magdeburg R Z Jüterborg M Wittenberg 1517 Tetzel preaches on indulgences O U 1517 Luther’s 95 Theses LUSATIA N T 1521 Luther excommunicated A E I l N be S Eisleben R. 1501 Luther university student W es 1505 Luther Augustinian monk 1483 Luther born Halle er 1546 Luther dies R. Leipzig 1519 Debate between Kassel Eck and Luther . R ale T Sa Dresden H Wartburg Weimar U R Erfurt Freiberg E I N G Marburg G R I Neustadt I 1529 Luther discusses A Zwickau B N E Lord’s Supper with Zwingli F G SILESIA O R Z Giessen 1521-2 Luther in hiding E S R translates New Testament T E 1534 Translates Old Testament Coburg WÜRZBURG BOHEMIA Frankfurt BAYREUTH MORAVIA

B Mainz Bayreuth O H ain R. E M M I Worms A 1521 Edict condems N

Luther as heretic R PALATINATE F h i O n R e Nuremberg E

R S . Heidelberg T 1518 Disputation called by Staupitz

Rome 1510 Luther disillusioned after visit . R Territory of Frederick the Wise, be Miles Danu Elector of Saxony (Ernestine, 1485-1525) 0 10 30 50 Luther’s protector R. 1530 Augsburg kar Confession presented 0 20 40 60 Nec Territory of the Albertine Dukes of Saxony Kilometers Augsburg

him when both Empire and Church turned the narrower limits of Saxony. The ‘Luther against him. Ducal Saxony, on the other Lands’ are bounded by the Erzgebirge hand, was ruled by Duke George, a fierce (Bohemian Massif) on the south-east, opponent of Luther. The took Electoral Saxony to the north-east, the place in his territory. Harz Mountains in the north-west, and the In 1529 Luther travelled to Marburg for Thuringian Forest around the Wartburg a colloquy with Zwingli and other reformers in the south-west. No city in this region is from Switzerland and south Germany; but more than 75 miles from Wittenberg. the majority of his days were spent within

MARTIN LUTHER 55 Given the revolutionary nature of Lutheranism and the economic and political tensions of the time, it is not surprising that the Reformation soon became marked by violence and extremism. The German Knights’ War of 1522–23, in which members of the lower nobility – some of them strong supporters of Luther – rebelled against the authorities in south-west Germany, was quickly crushed.

As medieval society began to crumble, the Revolt lesser nobility of the German states found The knights rose in revolt under Franz themselves squeezed between powerful von Sickingen (1481–1523) and Ulrich forces they could neither control nor von Hutten (1488–1523). Both became moderate. Many depended upon dwindling adherents of the Lutheran cause, seeing in payments in kind from their lands, a shortage it an opportunity to recover the declining of income made more acute by the spiralling influence of the Christian nobility in inflation that followed the discovery and the German nation. Sickingen, who plundering of the New World. The increased had previously fought for the emperors authority of kings, together with the power Maximilian and Charles V, was sometimes and wealth of some princes of the church, called ‘the last knight’. With Hutten, he further jeopardized the status, and excited proposed the unification of German- the envy, of the knightly class. Their self- speaking lands and secularization of image had been flattered by the medieval ecclesiastical principalities. Influenced by code of chivalry and their role in the Crusades; now both their economic base and The Sickingen Heights, in the Palatinate, Germany, political power were declining rapidly. near von Sickingen’s town, Landstuhl. The German Knights’ War GermanThe Knights’

56 Atlas of the European Reformations 016 GERMAN KNIGHTS WAR 04 The German Knights’ War 1522–23 map 16

Route of von Sickingen and Knights Retreat of von Sickingen Advance of forces of Hesse Advance of Archbishop of Trier and his forces R h in Holy Roman Empire boundary e R . H E S S E Cologne 1 von Sickingen and knights of Franconia, Swabia and Rhineland declare war on Archbishop of Trier 2 . R Sickingen’s attack e Frankfurt s repulsed Waldstein u . M e R a l i M e n s Mainz R o . M Trier Ebernberg Worms St Wendel F R A N C O N I A Kaiserslauten Odenwald Nuremberg Speyer 3 Landstuhl Landau Forces of Palatine, . D R N Hesse and Trier besiege e A Sickingen’s castle: in L h Danube R. he capitulates and dies R E I N H Strasbourg R Augsburg

B I A S W A 4 Miles Hutton ees to 0 10 30 50 Basel 0 20 40 60 Kilometers

Hutten, Sickingen made his Rhineland estate, a prominent opponent of Luther. His assault the Ebernburg, into a refuge for Lutheran failed and he retreated to his supposedly sympathizers and a centre for Lutheran unassailable stronghold at Landstuhl, where propaganda. He gave shelter to the reformers he was defeated and killed by an alliance of and Johannes Oecolampadius, three German princes. Following Sickingen’s and even offered refuge to Luther following defeat, Hutten fled to Basel, Switzerland. the Diet of Worms. The common refusal to pay church tithes While Charles V was away in Spain, during the revolt spread to the peasants and Sickingen summoned a gathering of knights inspired them to refuse to pay the tithe – one and declared war on the Archbishop of Trier, of the factors that led to the Peasants’ Revolt.

THE GERMAN KNIGHTS’ WAR 57 While Martin Luther was in protective custody at the Wartburg Castle, back in Wittenberg his colleague Andreas Karlstadt started to attack clerical celibacy and the ritual of the . Also outsiders (the ‘’) arrived, claiming direct inspiration by the Holy Spirit and that the eucharistic bread and wine were symbols and in no sense the body and blood of Christ. Baptizing babies was also called into question. Luther soon intervened to bring matters back under his control.

But Luther’s ideas and protest – particularly against the French, but after gaining a his emphasis on Christian freedom – were decisive victory at the Battle of Pavia in helping rapidly to produce socio-religious February 1525 his forces, under Georg III, ferment throughout Germany. Significant Truchsess von Waldburg-Zeil (also known numbers of led attacks on the as Bauernjorg, 1488–1531), turned north Mass; various towns introduced reforms; to Germany, where with the aid of local many nobles imposed religious change princes, such as Philip of Hesse and George in their estates; and monks and nuns of Saxony, they set about putting down the abandoned their vows. rebellion with bloody battles, torture, and Late in 1524 rural strikes and armed mass killings. protests flared up across much of the country, escalating into the so-called Luther’s room in the Wartburg Castle. Peasants’ (or better ‘Tenants’’) War, the biggest and most widespread popular uprising in Europe until

The Peasants’ War Peasants’ The the French Revolution of 1789. Similar protests had occurred previously, but this was far more extensive, representing the coming together of economic and social grievances with ideas derived from the Reformation. In German- speaking areas as widely scattered as Alsace, the fringes of the Alps, the borders of Bohemia, Hungary, and the kingdom of Poland there were strikes, disorder, and rebellions. Hostility was particularly aimed at clerical landlords. The first three of the Twelve Articles drawn up by the tenant farmers (Bauern) of Swabia called for the right to elect the parish priest, to use the tithe locally for the priest and poor, and for the end of serfdom. Initially the Emperor was preoccupied with Italian wars

58 Atlas of the European Reformations 017 PEASANTS WAR 06 The Peasants’ War 1524–25 HOLSTEIN map 17

POMERANIA Area of peasant rising Elb e R. Area of major con ict BRANDENBURG Holy Roman Empire 1525 Philip of Hesse and POLAND George of Saxony Berlin defeat peasants, Müntzer killed Münster Wittenberg 1525 Luther repudiates O Allstedt peasant uprising de r R Frankenhausen . SAXONY FLANDERS Erfurt Dresden R Cologne h THURINGIA in e Fulda SILESIA R . 1525 Götz von Berlichingen Frankfurt defeats peasants: 8,000 killed RHINELAND Würzburg BOHEMIA Prague Königshofen Worms 1525 Major defeat of peasants FRANCONIA MORAVIA Speyer 1625 Major defeat 1625 Peasants’ War PALATINATE of peasant army spreads to Austria WÜRTTEMBERG Boblingen Strasbourg Ulm Augsburg AUSTRIA LORRAINE Da BAVARIA nube FRANCE Freiburg BLACK R. FOREST Memmingen Salzburg SWABIA 1525 25 villages rebel Basel Radstadt 1524 STYRIA BURGUNDY Peasant uprisings Solothurn SWISS Brixen CONFEDERATION CARINTHIA Bolzano Male Trent Site of urban violence VENICE HUNGARY Important defeat of peasants Venice Miles Campaign against peasants,SAVOY March-April 1525 0 50 100 Campaign against peasants, May-July 1525 0 50 100 150 Kilometers

Luther responded to the Peasants’ unleashed and wrote Against the Robbing Revolt with an Admonition to Peace (April and Murdering Hordes of Peasants. This 1525) that laid the blame for the rebellion was published just days before the rebellion on princes, lords, and ‘blind bishops, mad collapsed and appeared to justify the ensuing priests, and monks’, but reminded the reign of terror by the Emperor and princes peasants that ‘the governing authorities in which the final death toll may have are instituted by God’. However after a reached 100,000. Luther, the champion of lay perilous journey to negotiate with the rebels, Christians, seemed to have turned himself Luther became convinced anarchy was into an apologist for state butchery.

THE PEASANTS’ WAR 59 The Reformation progressed strongly in the Swiss city of Zurich. Following the logic of the prohibition in the on ‘making graven images’, enthusiastic citizens began to destroy religious statues. Study of the New Testament led some to conclude that the apostles had baptized believing adults – not newborn babies. In accordance with this, in January 1525 a small group of Zurichers first baptized themselves and then others. Since all had been baptized as babies, opponents dubbed them ‘Anabaptists’, or re-baptizers. The Anabaptists did not regard this as re- but as their first, since was no baptism at all.

The Anabaptists soon won many converts, Waldshut and Zurich, and Jakob Hutter particularly in villages south and east of (c. 1500–36), who brought his followers the city. When the Zurich Anabaptists from Tyrol, the ‘Hutterites’ developed a were arrested most recanted, but in 1526 communal lifestyle and in the third quarter four were executed by drowning and the of the sixteenth century possibly numbered others expelled. Anabaptist membership 30,000. But soon Moravia ceased to be a was voluntary and groupings appeared, safe haven and over the next two centuries disappeared, and fluctuated. They were survivors of these groups were driven from normally only a small minority, and three place to place in Eastern Europe until they main strands can be detected. found eventual refuge in North America. An influential group of ‘Swiss Brethren’ The behaviour of a third stream – in met in 1527 near Lake Constance and agreed north-west Europe – largely accounted for upon the ‘Brotherly Union of a Number the paranoia concerning Anabaptists that of Children of God Concerning Seven came to dominate the sixteenth century. In Articles’. They claimed adult baptism was the Low Countries the evangelist Melchior mandatory, the was a memorial Hoffman (c. 1500–c. 1543) won many ordinance, pastors were to be elected, and converts to a form of Anabaptist belief that believers should separate themselves from expected the imminent arrival of God’s society – taking no part in civic affairs final triumph. This region was under the and renouncing the use of force. They also direct rule of the Habsburgs, who initiated a refused to swear oaths. However although merciless persecution of such ‘heretics’. Their in Wittenberg Karlstadt had also questioned victims fled, finding refuge in the episcopal The RadicalThe Reformation infant baptism, and Luther had ejected the city of Münster, where reform was already in enthusiastic Zwickau prophets, no links have progress. By this time Hoffman was in prison been established between those radicals and in Strasbourg, but the ‘Melchiorites’ seized the Swiss Anabaptists. control of Münster and proclaimed the ‘New A second strand of the radical movement Jerusalem’. Thousands from Friesland and was focused on southern Germany, with nearby flocked to the city to be baptized and Augsburg an early centre, led by Hans Denck await the end of the age. (1495–1527) and a bookseller named Hans Hut (c. 1490–1527). Münster Eventually the Swiss and south German In April 1534, the Bishop of Münster joined Anabaptists were driven to take refuge in the forces with Lutheran nobles and cities to relative safety of Moravia. Led by Balthasar besiege the city, inside which radical steps Hubmaier (c. 1485–1528), a refugee from were being taken to inaugurate the new

60 Atlas of the European Reformations 018 06 The Anabaptists and the Radical Reformation map 18

Concentration of Anabaptists Witmarsum Emden ’ home town

Harlem Amsterdam 1521-2 Karlstadt questions infant baptism Leiden 1522 Luther ejects Zwickau ‘fanatics’ Wittenberg NETHERLANDS Münster Oder R. POLAND 1534-5 Anabaptists Jan Matthys and Jan Bockelson set up ‘New Jerusalem’ E lb e R . 1535 - Menno Simons nurtures THURINGIA Anabaptist congegations - HESSE ‘Mennonites’ 1521-2 ‘Prophets’ advocate R believers’ baptism h in Zwickau e 1528 Fugitive Anabaptists from R Nikolsburg form community . 1529 Hutterites eeing persecution HOLY Krakow ROMAN Prague FRANCONIA EMPIRE MORAVIA Worms Tabor Nuremberg BOHEMIA RHINELAND Brno 1526 Hubmaier forms D Anabaptist congregations anu Austerlitz (Slakov) be Paris R. Nikolsburg (Mikulov) S 1528-32 Marpeck leads Anabaptists e 1545-56 Marpeck Znojmo in 1529-33 Schwenckfeld and Hofmann Strasbourg (Znaim) Breclav (Lunderburg) e spread radical ideas ministers to Anabaptists R. Augsburg Vienna SWABIA 1528 Hubmaier burned Schleitheim by Charles V 1527 Swiss Brethren draw up Confession of Faith BAVARIA Basel AUSTRIA FRANCE Innsbruck HUNGARY Zurich 1536 Hutter burned to death SWISS CONFEDERATION TYROL

1520s Hutter forms Miles 0 50 100 150 Geneva Anabaptist congregations Lyons 0 100 200 Kilometers

society. Property was declared to be common a wave of persecution swept across Europe and polygamy made mandatory. The leaders, and thousands were slaughtered. Of the headed by the tailor Jan Beukels – ‘John of survivors, many turned to and Leiden’ – lost all connection with reality. inner enlightenment. The largest group was He lived in luxury, took sixteen wives, and nurtured by the clandestine ministry of a proclaimed himself king of the world. In former country priest, Menno Simons (1496– 1535 the city was betrayed to the bishop and 1561). These Mennonite communities – resistance collapsed in a bloodbath. quietist and pacifist – survived continual The fall of Münster marked the end of Habsburg persecution and when the Dutch militant – apart from the radical Republic was set up later in the century sect of Zwaardgeesten (‘sword-minded’) eventually achieved toleration. led by Jan van Batenburg (1495–1538) – as

THE RADICAL REFORMATION 61