MacCulloch, Reformation, 137-79.
Notice two more references to Protestantism as a revolution: (1) "Zwingli's path to revolution" (138), (2) "With no rules in a new situation, some of these explorations turned in strange directions, and they had a traumatic effect on those in the centre-ground of the Protestant revolution" (167).
In today's assigned reading, you will hear an echo from the reading for last class when MacCulloch associates Luther's De servo arbitrio (1525) with "the darkest side of Augustine" (151). You will read about two key developments in early Reformation history: (1) the splintering of Protestantism and (2) political confrontations and alliances. Notice how Chapter 3 flows into Chapter 4. MacCulloch ends Chapter 3 by observing that "not a single prince had declared positively for the reform by 1525" (156). In other words, the Reformation lacked major political support. Chapter 4 is about "wooing the magistrate," that is, obtaining support from the commonwealth. Nevertheless, in MacCulloch's opinion, the Reformation cannot be reduced to a "political alliance." He refers to "a real popular adherence to a mainstream evangelical faith" and to the "free decision" taken by "many thoughtful townspeople" in favour of "the religion of the book" and against "the religion of the Pope" (171). He asserts: "the Reformation did not recruit the religiously indifferent" (171-72). The third section of Chapter 4 is about the "Birth of Protestantisms." This is in line with MacCulloch's belief that "there were very many different Reformations" (xix). Keep this in mind when reading the article by Scott Hendrix, "Rerooting the Faith: The Reformation as Re-Christianization," Church History 69 (2000): 558-77.
1. Who was Zwingli? (You will find more information in Chapter 4).
2. Note the many references to radicalism. What constituted radicalism in the early years of the Reformation? Who was radical? Who was not?
3. MacCulloch quotes Owen Chadwick: "At the beginning of the sixteenth century everyone that mattered in the Western Church was crying out for reformation" (153). MacCulloch agrees with this. Did Chadwick's assertion ring true when you read Chapters 1 and 2?
4. The last section of Chapter 3 is entitled "The Years of Carnival, 1521-4." Students who took Hist. 223 at SFU or who have read Edward Muir, Ritual in Early Modern Europe should be experts at describing the meaning of carnival. One way of describing it is as the "world turned upside down" (155). In what way was the Reformation carnivalesque in the earliest phase of its development?
1. What is the connection between the Reformation and the German Peasants' War?
2. Who were the first princes to support the Reformation?
3. How and why did Anabaptism deny "the concept of Christendom"? (169)? Read Article 4 of the Schleitheim Confession. How does this contribute to your knowledge of Anabaptism?
4. MacCulloch mentions "a process of definition and separation, capped by three momentous failures" (172). Why were the Marburg Colloquy, the Diet of Augsburg, and the events of 1531 in Switzerland failures? Should we keep this in mind as we consider whether the Reformation was a success or failure at the end of the course?