Introduction
The Protestant Reformation was one of the most earth-shattering moments in European religious history; the split of the Christian Church between Catholicism and Protestantism started out small, with Martin Luther’s thesese, and quickly spread and developed throughout Europe. The impact of the Reformation on European life and religion was vast and widespread, as well as far more complex than anyone could have anticipated – different regions had different reactions to the Reformation, leading to distinct reactions to the huge religious change in different parts of the continent. The work of Pettegree (1992), Dickens (1993) and Duke (2000) strives to elucidate on the details and significance of the Reformation’s spread throughout Europe; through these authors, we conclude that the Protestant Reformation was a hugely international topic for discussion, that it facilitated a dramatic change in Dutch identity and religion, and that the Reformation itself was caused by a desire to return to the New Testament-level Christianity from the alleged insertion of mysticism and superstition into Catholic dogma.
The Early Reformation in Europe
In Andrew Pettegree’s The Early Reformation in Europe, the author’s thesis is that the Protestant Reformation saw itself as an international affair, and that the Reformation took place in many different parts of Europe as opposed to being centrally located to Martin Luther: “Evangelicals (a misleading term in the North American context) in one part of Europe retained their concern for the wider picture”. While Martin Luther’s writings were important in their immediate vicinity (Germany), the perspective that he provided ignited international attention and commentary from all around Europe. By examining writings and reports from the era, Pettegree supports his assertions that the entirety of Europe was fascinated by the ‘Luther affair’ that was being experienced in Germany. Luther’s written works were spread throughout the whole of Europe by word from intellectuals and physical copies sent down through the Channel to England. Intellectual interest in Luther’s works was high, and publication of the writings spread all the way to Spain, France and beyond. Duke claims that this quick, ubiquitous spread of information and discussion was an indicator of the singular need and purpose for the Reformation – while Luther’s work tore Germany in half over the question of Catholicism over Protestantism, the rest of Europe enthusiastically ate up whatever information they could unearth on the issue. Unfortunately, however, with the exception of outer territories where pre-Reformation momentum had been able to successfully build, very little ground was made on the actual establishment of Protestant and Lutheran churches around that time. Places like Scandinavia were able to create a Lutheran base, but other nations like the Netherlands and France still faced pressure to maintain the status quo.
Pettegree offers that the Protestant Reformation subsequently had an extremely slow start elsewhere in Europe, as there was a great deal of evangelical pessimism resulting from the lack of progress achieved despite those enthusiastic early years of Reformation. Because early evangelicals were unable to capitalize on the momentum into creating a steady base for the Protestant Movement, few other nations went through the kind of revolutionary outbursts that Luther’s homeland of Germany did. In the beginning, Luther’s theses and the condemnation of them by the Catholic Church sparked a controversy that the Reformation movement attempted to capitalize on, Luther himself becoming quite a celebrity in the meantime (despite merely stating objections that many other church leaders had voiced before). This is what caused a great deal of the momentum, along with Erasmus’ slow distancing from Martin Luther in order to guard himself from the more extreme views Luther held. This created a bit of a rift, and further confusion by Reformation sympathizers who were puzzled as to which leader to follow, and what causes to champion – humanism or Lutheranism.
One of the biggest events in the Protestant Reformation occurred when the Pope condemned Luther’s theses: “the papal condemnation marks the first real break in the movement, for no longer was it possible to present Luther’s teaching as part of a theological debate within the normal parameters of scholarly discourse”. This same condemnation spread the discussion internationally, as the commitment of several nations’ worth of scholars made the issue hard to drop despite papal command. This led to an international cabal of Reformation-minded scholars who got to work spreading the ideas of Martin Luther and applying them piecemeal to the specific problems they had in their own countries. To that end, the Reformation would grow internationally in a slow-but-steady manner throughout the 16th century, heavily informing European religious life.
Because of his new perception of him as a heretic whose writings were condemned, Luther’s perception in other countries throughout Europe changed dramatically. While evangelicals continued to gather, it also provided more ammunition for conservatives who could easily dismiss his words through papal sanction and suppression. This made it harder for intellectuals to make changes in Catholic society, as they had to avoid association with Luther to maintain legitimacy. This created a number of divergent groups, particularly in Germany; Luther’s excommunication caused substantial growth of rebellious Protestant groups.
The international nature of the Reformation movement is proven by Pettegree through a variety of documents and accounts from the period, citing letters from reformers and statements of the English during the reign of King Edward, among others. While all of these individual movements made their own progress in their respective countries, the Reformation movement did not become overtly doctrinal. Each nation provided a unique perspective to the Reformation, with local intellectuals (such as Italy’s Peter Martyr, or Germany’s Martin Bucer) leading the charge to make the changes necessary in their own country to facilitate the change that was needed to alter the Church’s stature in Europe irrevocably.
The English Reformation
Unlike other Reformation scholars, A.G. Dickens believes that the Protestant Reformation was chiefly theological in nature: "In England as elsewhere, the Protestant Reformation sought first and foremost to establish gospel-Christianity, to maintain the authority of the New Testament over mere church traditions and human inventions". The author’s thesis in The English Reformation is that the Protestant Reformation was a positive event for European society and Christianity in general, as it provided a freer, more accurate interpretation of the New Testament as opposed to man-made church doctrine. Dickens, in his work, argues that the English Reformation happened primarily because of a fundamental theological corruption in the Catholicism of the late Medieval era; this had normally been expressed through the popularity of anticlericalism and Lollardism. When the Protestant Reformation came, people were already being persuaded by these other movements to think like Protestants, and so the transition came fairly easily – only a small minority keep a connection to Catholicism.
At the same time, Dickens argues that the English Reformation was merely a part of a larger societal revolution that focused on more than just the current problems facing the Church: “Without question the English Reformation belonged to that far larger breakaway which detached half Europe from the Papacy”. Other important figures, such as Thomas Cromwell, contributed to the Reformation by fighting against clerical hypocrisy through passing out copies of the English Bible and linking English policy with the German Lutheran princes. Furthermore, these other movements provided an easy breeding ground for Lutheranism to take over once it finally spread to these far areas. This includes John Wycliffe and the Lollards, the initial rebellious movement that provided a prelude to the Protestant Reformation. Dickens provides evidence for this anticipatory strain of Lutheraism by pointing out the existence of many different, fragmented rebellious groups, such as the Bohemian Hussites and the Anabaptists (who were already making changes to nonconformist ideas of English Tudorism. Furthermore, the presence of Calvinism provided an influential platform by which the Reformation was able to thrive.
One particular issue Dickens discusses is the placing of the Reformation in a wider context; by comparing the Reformation to early Roman persecution of Christians, and their surprising tolerance for non-Christians as compared to Christian intolerance of heresy, Dickens notes the hypocrisy by which many Christians treated the Reformation. When teaching religious doctrine, the proliferation of books that taught popular theology (Catholicism) would allow preaching friars to teach what were effectively junk folk versions of Christianity, based on superstition and mysticism and hardly representative of the real tenets of the Bible. The first generation of English Reformers worked hard to exercise tolerance of other sects (including the Anabaptists), Dickens noting that the New Testament itself was the real hero of this Reformation instead of other people – the Scriptures themselves were arguably asserting themselves through the work of these others. Dickens notes many Elizabethan writers and speakers who talked both about simplifying religious doctrine and tolerating other sects of Christianity – including Edwin Sandys, Albrico Gentilis and more. Capital punishment for ‘heresy’ was a relatively rare thing for a long time during the Reformation, until more subversive Catholic political groups required the Queen to take action.
Apart from these simple steps, Dickens mostly draws together these various groups to prove that the English Reformation was part of a greater European cultural revolution. The impetus for the Reformation was a return of the Church to the tenets of the New Testament, which many felt the Church had swayed from – the Renaissance Papacy was seen as corrupt and misunderstanding of the Gospel, and superstition was said to have infected church doctrine. The result was a Catholic Church that did not reflect the real teachings of Christ, which then motivated the Reformation itself. Most important to this work, however, was the aforementioned Wycliffe and his Lollards; Dickens cites the survival and accomplishments of Lollardy as a significant contributor to the success of the Protestant Reformation; Bishop Cuthbert was said to treat the seriously as heretics, and Lollard writings were said to be included in significant portions of Reformation propaganda.
Dickens concludes his work by confirming the religious prominence of the Protestant Reformation as a cause for its changes; the outright enemy was religious orthodoxy, and there were a wide variety of offshoot religious sects (like the Anabaptists, Lollards, and more) that laid the groundwork throughout Europe for Protestantism to take hold. These groups, and the Reformation itself, permitted European society to escape the shackles of an inaccurate, superstition-heavy traditional religion, which is what Catholicism had turned into. The success of the Reformation announced a return to “true” Christianity as told by the New Testament, instead of the papal superstitions that dominated Catholicism during the Elizabethan Era.
Reformation and Revolt in the Low Countries
In Alastair Duke’s Reformation and Revolt in the Low Countries, the author attempts to determine how the Protestant Reformation was received in Holland, Belgium and the other Low Countries in northwestern Europe. The author’s thesis is that, in addition to the commonly-acknowledged Dutch Revolt, the Protestant Reformation provided a great deal of transformative religious and secular conflict to the Low Countries, and created a series of dissident identities within each nation and community. The Reformation brought about a great deal of religious dissent in this region, due to the fact that political authority became decentralized. At the same time, however, heresy charges were prosecuted for many years after the start of the Reformation, preventing public Protestant churches from being formed until 1572 and later. The proliferation of diversity among the sacred and secular cultures of the Low Countries is Duke’s primary concern in this work.
In the first few essays of the book, Duke delves into the creation and importance of new identities and communities in the 16th century Netherlands. Duke links modern and contemporary Dutch concerns (like the threat of large scale immigration, as well as globalization and tolerance) to those during the Reformation, indicating that both concerns were prevalent as an expression of nationalism and cultural hegemony. All of this stems back to the horrors and dramatic changes that came about as a result of the Dutch Revolt, the successful rebellion against King Philip II to establish the Protestant Seven Provinces of the Low Countries. With the success of this rebellion, a political culture was created that provided the Low Countries with the ability to establish their own identities, strengthening the concept of the Netherlands by allowing more independence. That being said, there was still a great deal of religious conflict happening during this time; because of the persecution that occurred as a result of the Catholics during the Reformation, it took a long time to gather exclusively Protestant Churches and bring enough public converts over to Protestantism in the first place. “The experience of having belonged to churches ‘under the cross’ left an enduring mark on the membership of the Reformed Churches in the Dutch Republic”.
Duke argues that the Dutch Revolt was important because it effectively and unintentionally created a new state; revolts and rebellious movements throughout the Low Countries gained ground and momentum because of the widespread unpopularity of the King’s repressive policies regarding religion. While there was still a degree of disorganization, the Beggars still managed to attract a fair amount of attention to the oncoming persecution of the King and organize a national identity they could rally behind. Duke focuses on the establishment of this Dutch Protestant identity, and how the varying dissident groups communicated with each other and developed both together and apart.
The navigation of these dissident identities comes about in many different ways in Duke’s book; first, Duke explores the paranoia the Dutch felt about the Spanish “Inquisition,” in which they feared possible reprisals from the Spanish for their revolution. Furthermore, Duke’s exploration of the dissident political culture offers further proof that a diverse and complex religious society took hold in the Low Countries following the revolt. Cheap publication and printing of literature meant the spreading of pamphlets and posters, as well as satirical works that mocked and criticized the King’s religious oppression. The spread of propaganda through these means allowed the rebels to communicate throughout the Low Countries and abroad, increasing support for their aims leading up to and following the Revolt. There was a great wealth of diverse written and visual material to work from, conveying incredibly complex and differing messages to their audiences.
Duke collects a fair amount of evidence to support his argument of the establishment of a diverse and plentiful culture in the Netherlands as a result of the Protestant Reformation – one fascinating type of source is the egodocumenten, which were the personal accounts of Dutch citizens ranging from diaries to memoirs and journals. These provide a great deal of insight into the attitudes and behaviors of Dutch citizens during the time, providing ample proof of the constant changing and questioning of religious and political norms in the Reformation.
Duke concludes with the claim that the Protestant Reformation allowed the Low Countries to radically question and change the way they were told things were, and permitted them to establish a diverse yet signature identity. The success of the Dutch Revolt and the changes that took place during that time permitted a great deal of personal and group identities to form, independent of the oppression of the Church. While the Dutch were skittish about joining the Protestant Church due to the fear of reprisals from the King, the use of written and published art and literature was integral in helping to establish their own religious identities. In this respect, the Protestant Reformation was shown to facilitate a sea change in the hearts and minds of the Dutch during the 16th century, accelerating their personal and political development light-years as a result.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the works of Pettegree, Dickens and Duke reveal fascinating arguments about the Protestant Reformation in compelling and evidence-based ways. In the case of Pettegree, issues of Luther’s celebrity and its effect on the momentum of the Protestant Reformation are established; because of the quick gathering of enthusiasm and its equally-fast dissipation, it was difficult for Lutheranism to gather a significant base quickly beyond some outlying countries. Dickens also notes that the Reformation itself was based around the desire to return to a more honest form of Christianity from a populist religion that had inserted too many old wives’ tales into its doctrine to be the true reflection of Christ. Furthermore, Duke claims that the effect of the Protestant Reformation on the Netherlands and Low Countries was great; the political and religious movement permitted the Dutch to reexamine who they were as a people and a nation, as well as their religious and philosophical affiliations. These three works provide a significant amount of scholarship towards the topic of the Protestant Reformation’s impact throughout Europe, and solidify it as a dramatic and complex issue that led to many changes in the region during the 16th century.
Works Cited
Dickens, A.G. The English Reformation (Pennsylvania State University Press, 1993). 2nd edition.
Duke, Alastair. Reformation and Revolt in the Low Countries (Hambledon and London, 2003).
Pettegree, Andrew. The Early Reformation in Europe. (Cambridge University Press, 1992).
