Introduction
The Protestant Reformation of the 16th century is one of the most important occurrences in the history of modernity. In its wake, the ancient Catholic Church hegemony was ended and political and economic fortunes across Europe reshaped and redefined. However, the causes of Reformation have been a source of controversy for many historians and other interested scholars. Given the polemical nature of this topic, different historians and scholars have written varying accounts of the real causes of the Protestant Reformation in Germany. Nevertheless, one account of events cannot be adjudged to be better than the other.
Therefore, in a bid to understand this issue from a neutral point of view, learners should have a historical horizon to look beyond the commonly accepted theories and stands concerning the Reformation. As such, a different approach to the subject should be used to avoid the reinforcement of ingrained assumptions about this topic, which ultimately hinders its comprehensive interrogation and understanding (Lindberg, 2010). Apart from the commonly held beliefs about religious causes of the Reformation, social, economic, and political powers were also responsible for this revolution as discussed in this paper.
An Overview
In the 16th century, the Catholic Church had entrenched its hegemonic rule across Europe, and thus it controlled socio-political and economic fronts in society. Anyone who dared speak against the church and its aristocracy would be burned at the stake of heretics. However, in 1517 Martin Luther revolted against the Roman Church, especially on matters related to indulgences through the famous ninety-five theses also known as the Disputation on the Power of Indulgences. At the time, Luther did not understand the scope of what he had just started as it would change and shape the history of the world.
According to the mainstream understanding of the Reformation, Luther was acting against the overarching corrupt nature of the church, which had become aristocratic (Lundberg, 2010). The clergy abused its power and privileges and thus most people, after reading Luther’s criticisms, joined the revolt. In addition, the society was stratified into different classes with the clergy occupying the top and peasants wallowing in poverty at the bottom (Cantoni, Dittmar, & Yuchtman, 2018).
Additionally, the clergy did not respond to the numerous cries of the locals, who were the majority poor, and thus dissent was growing by the day. This problem was compounded by the fact that the clergy did not speak the local language hence communication breakdown between the leaders and the led. However, most historians maintain agree that the revolts were mainly based on doctrinal differences as opposed to the corruption allegations (Becker, Pfaff, & Rubin, 2016). Among the many doctrinal issues that Luther raised included the fact that the Bible during those times was only written in Latin, thus the locals could not understand what it said or investigate whether the clergy was doing the right thing.
On the central issue of Indulgences, Luther noted, with concern, that the Roman Church would sell forgiveness from sins to the rich. This doctrinal practice did not make sense to Luther and many other like-minded scholars at the time. As such, only the rich could go to heaven or rather buy their way to heaven while the poor were condemned to eternal suffering here and in the afterlife. Therefore, Luther sought to address these issues and he started with popularizing the idea that any believer could qualify for the priesthood.
Ultimately, masses started acknowledging Luther’s claims and this aspect gave the Reformation crusades the much-needed support to topple the Catholic Church and render the papacy powerless in a quickly changing world (Becker et al., 2016). However, despite this compelling account on the causes of the Reformation, different historians and scholars have suggested other theories to explain various forces behind the movement as explained in the following sections.
Diarmaid MacCulloch
An accomplished Oxford Professor, MacCulloch is a respected figure in the authorship of historical accounts touching on different areas including the Reformation. In the 2004 book, Reformation: Europe’s House Divided 1490-1700, MacCulloch (2004) departs from the mainstream accounts about the causes of the Protestant Reformation and pursues a different line of thought altogether. He acknowledges the entrenched belief that the Reformation was a revolt against the Roman Catholic Church in Europe.
However, MacCulloch (2004) focuses on the multiplicity nature of the reform movements in Europe and notes that various sides involved were determined to come up with a version of their understanding of God and to assert that they were the authentic descendants of Christ. The author thinks that the roots of Reformation can be traced back to 1490 when St. Augustine’s scholarly work was published. From this perspective, MacCulloch (2004) argues that the Reformation was not a product of social, political, and religious disquiet in late medieval Germany, but a technological aspect fuelled by the invention of the printing press.
This innovation revolutionized the way people consumed and interacted with religious knowledge by reading materials for themselves without having to rely on corrupt clergy for interpretation. The invention and liberalization of the printing press gave Europe the humanity that they had been deprived of for so long by the Catholic Church. Therefore, according to MacCulloch (2004), reading religious materials by the masses created a different form of religion made of enlightened people.
MacCulloch’s views are several strengths and weaknesses as well. First, the author is a professor and such an accomplishment gives his work scholarly credibility. Second, MacCulloch understands the Christian doctrine extensively and thus he puts across his arguments appealingly and even someone without basic knowledge about the same can read and understand the contents.
In addition, he writes with a neutral tone without sounding judgmental to those with differing opinions. He also references numerous scholarly materials and thus his arguments are not personal opinions but well-researched ideas. However, at the beginning of the book, he notes that he is currently an agnostic or an atheist, but he has foundational knowledge in Christianity as a practicing Anglican at one time.
While this stand may be seen as an advantage to a historian because he would address the topic without any form of confessional bias, it could achieve the exact opposite. As an atheist, the author might fail to acknowledge some of the events and decisions made before the Reformation to give an unbiased view of what exactly caused the movement. Nevertheless, the book is generally credible and it could be used to understand the causes of the reformation.
Alec Ryrie
Ryrie is a Professor at Durham University majoring in the history of Christianity and an accomplished author in this area. In his 2007 book, The origins of the Scottish Reformation, he seeks to answer why the Scottish Reformation was different from that of England and other European countries. The answer to this question lies in the history of the movement in the region, especially given its late medieval ecclesiastical and political affiliations.
According to Ryrie (2004), the central cause of the Reformation in Europe was the Catholic Church’s corruption and greed. He posits, “After 1560, when Roman Catholics looked back on the disaster that had engulfed their Church…they knew who to blame. There was the greed of the nobles, the lassitude of the common people and of course the depravity of the Protestants” (p. 12). Therefore, Ryrie disagrees with MacCulloch’s arguments linking Reformation with the invention of the printing press.
On the contrary, he maintains that greed, which bred corruption among the clergy, inflamed the majority of poor masses to revolt against the Catholic Church. Ryrie (2004) argues that the priests learned the art of corruption from their fathers in God and they perfected it making the church to sink too deep into sin to reform itself and thus the Reformation set in to correct such errors. The author argues that if it were not for the deeply entrenched corruption in the church, the Protestants could not have succeeded in their quest to challenge papacy and the hegemonic Catholic rule.
The book is written professionally using a neutral tone, which rids it of the author’s biases. In addition, Ryrie references a wide range of both primary and secondary sources in the bibliography, thus making the book a credible source of information for this topic. The book is also written in simple language for readers to engage its contents and derive meaning from their interacting with this rich source of history.
However, the author overlooks the different forms of Protestant groups in Scotland and their role in advancing the cause. He also fails to acknowledge that Protestantism in Scotland mainly succeeded due to Calvinists. Nevertheless, despite the few shortcomings, the author’s claims that corruption in the Catholic Church contributed significantly to the start of the Reformation are consistent with other literature materials, and thus it can be termed as a credible source.
Oscar Marti
Oscar Marti was a Professor of History at Central Missouri State Teachers College, hence a respected historian and authoritative figure on the topic of the Reformation. In his book, Economic causes of the Reformation in England, he argues that the Roman Catholic Church in England and other places in Europe had abandoned its core business of spreading the gospel to become a feudal system motivated by greed and thirst for power.
He posits, “financial abuses of the Roman ecclesiastical system on the eve of the English Reformation fall into four typical groups centering on vacancies, administering the sacraments, the church courts, and papal taxation” (Marti, 1929, p. 128). Before the Reformation, monasteries and bishoprics hoarded the largest part of Europe’s wealth in the pretext of church estates that were not subject to taxation or any other form of regulation.
Therefore, when the Reformation movement started in Germany, people started revolting against the extensive control of wealth by the church. As such, economic, not religious, factors played a leading role at the start of the Reformation movement in England. This classic book is written professionally with extensive use of both primary and secondary references to back the claims made therein. Therefore, the arguments made are not Marti’s personal opinions, but well-researched claims backed with scholarly sources.
The book is divided into short sections that the reader can follow easily. In addition, it is written in a simple language for anyone interested in reading to find it resourceful. However, with only 258 pages, the book does not offer an in-depth analysis of the issues that Marti raises concerning the role of economic factors in starting the Reformation. Nevertheless, other historians and scholars such as Cantoni et al. (2018), support the economic perspective as a contributing factor to the Reformation, not only in England but also in other parts of Europe including in Germany where the movement started. Therefore, the book can be used as an authoritative source when researching on the real causes of Reformation in Europe.
Conclusion
The Protestant Reformation that started 1517 when Martin Luther wrote the ninety-five theses to challenge the Catholic Church hegemony shaped the future of Europe and the world at large. However, given that the Reformation movement spread quickly to other places, its causes differed from one place to another. Nevertheless, historians have continued to advance a single cause of the movement, which prevents scholars from understanding the topic in context. The commonly held belief is that the Reformation was purely a religious phenomenon as Luther sought to discredit the papacy and challenge false doctrines enshrined in Catholicism.
However, some historians have given different opinions concerning the real causes of the Reformation. Diarmaid MacCulloch held that the Reformation was caused by the technological innovation of the printing press, while Alec Ryrie focused on the corrupt nature of the Catholic Church as a central cause. On his part, Oscar Marti argued that economic reasons were the major causes of the Reformation, especially in England. The three historians make a compelling case of their arguments backed with extensive referencing of both primary and secondary sources. The most reasonable analysis is by MacCulloch because the printing press allowed people to read for themselves. In addition, without this innovation, it would have been impossible for Luther to spread the ninety-five theses, which heralded the official start of the Reformation movement.
References
Becker, S., Pfaff, S., & Rubin, J. (2016). Causes and consequences of the Protestant Reformation (ESI Working Paper 16-13). Web.
Cantoni, D., Dittmar, J., & Yuchtman, N. (2018). Religious competition and reallocation: The political economy of secularization in the protestant reformation. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 133(4), 2037-2096. Web.
Lindberg, C. (2010). The European reformations (2nd ed.). West Sussex, United Kingdom: Wiley-Blackwell.
MacCulloch, D. (2004). Reformation: Europe’s house divided 1490-1700. New York, NY: Penguin.
Marti, O. (1929). Economic causes of the Reformation in England. New York, NY: MacMillan.
Ryrie, A. (2004). The origins of the Scottish Reformation (politics, culture, and society in early modern Britain). Manchester, United Kingdom: Manchester University Press.