The Day the Universe Changed - James Burke [58]
The reaction to Luther was swift and savage. All over Europe papally-inspired cartoons like this depicted him as literally the instrument of the Devil.
Luther’s message of revolt had spread through Germany like wildfire. The aristocracy joined him against Rome because they hoped a break with the Pope might place valuable Church property in their hands. Inside the Church itself Luther’s desire for reform was shared by many. The ecclesiastical organisation had long been in need of overhaul. But Luther’s aim was reform, not destruction, and when the German peasants rose in armed support he denounced them. His denunciation came too late. In spite of his protestations, Luther found himself running a new Church, independent of Rome and bearing his name. The German princes offered him protection, because it was in their political interests to do so.
At the time Europe was in turmoil for other reasons, the principal one being the attempt of the Emperor Charles V to realise his dream of the restoration of the Holy Roman Empire. This grandiose scheme was meeting serious opposition from his unwilling vassals. Henry VIII of England broke with Rome in 1531. France, while violently anti-Protestant, was jealous of her sovereignty, and fought the Emperor for control of Italy.
Intellectual life was in ferment, too. The Italian humanists had spread their secular doctrine throughout the Continent and their questioning attitude, combined with the early Renaissance contacts between craftsmen and scholars, threatened established authority in almost every field.
The Portuguese had circumnavigated the globe and returned unscathed through regions south of the Equator which theology had decreed to be incandescent. Common sailors refuted the teachings of Rome. The discovery of the New World had unbalanced the economy due to the inflation which American silver was already bringing to the market-place. The very discovery itself created problems for the Church. If America had not figured in early Christian teaching, which had been taken to be comprehensive, what more might be waiting to be revealed for which the Church had not prepared?
Some of the 95 ‘theses’ (really, suggestions and criticisms) set out by Martin Luther which triggered the Reformation.
There was little help to be gained from the once-powerful universities, for they were now buttresses of theology, their teachers defenders of the faith. The major humanist thinkers took no part in university life. New scientific and technological discoveries had no place in college lecture rooms. Even in theology there was a shortage of teachers. Student strikes and mass absenteeism reduced attendance at lectures. The colleges had become echoing, dusty halls of irrelevant logic-chopping.
The Council of Trent met all these threats with vigour. The meetings continued for over thirty years, with increasingly large congregations of clerics who hammered out a new policy of tighter control. While some reforms of malpractice were instituted, such as placing a limit on the number of parishes a single priest could possess and forcing bishops to reside in their dioceses, the Council approved decrees which exacerbated German objections. The real presence of body and blood in the Eucharist was declared dogma. The Mass was promulgated as the only true and proper liturgical service.
The Council also adopted wide-ranging changes designed to make the organisation more efficient. It recommended the preparation of an official catechism, breviary and missal. There would be a seminary in every diocese, and priests would take examinations before being accepted. The Inquisition was strengthened, to deal with heretics and deviation. There would be periodic updating of the list of proscribed books.
The Jesuit