MacCulloch, Reformation, 179-212: Chapter 4, Wooing the Magistrate, 1524-40 (second half)

The chapter continues to weave together the spread of Protestantism and political authority (the magistrate). We see this in different types of commonwealths: cities (Strassburg, Geneva, Münster) and kingdoms (Poland, France, England). Within the larger context of the story of the relationship between faith and political power, we encounter the three marks of the true (Protestant) Church: the proper administration of the sacraments, true preaching, and discipline (181). The idea for the first two originates with Luther, who, as MacCulloch tells us more than once, was not very interested in structures. Bucer and Calvin, among others, valued the third characteristic. By discipline they meant "church polity," the way in which the church should be organized. This included the question of the relationship between the church and the political community (commonwealth). Does this relationship have an important bearing on the question of the success or failure of the Reformation? The Ecclesiastical Ordinances (1541) constituted Calvin's great contribution to discipline. We also learn of another source of doctrinal controversy: the nature of Christ. MacCulloch's reference to "the Catholic Church in Geneva" (197) echoes his interest in the question of who and what is a Catholic (xix). The concepts of carnival (206) and radicalism (210) resurface in this part of the chapter. What MacCulloch calls the Atlantic Isles (198) we commonly call the British Isles.

I found the final sentences of the chapter intriguing. MacCulloch has us think about the situation in Europe after 1540. He assures us that the battle "for the hearts and minds of rulers between Catholic and Protestant" continued, but he also alerts us to the possibility of overcoming religious conflict when he writes that period after 1540 "saw a variety of efforts to see how the Catholic Church of the Latin West could be rebuilt after twenty years of chaos" (212). Do you get the sense that MacCulloch is not satisfied with elaborating on the division created by the Reformation, but that he is keenly interested in any part of the Reformation story relevant to solving or coping with religious differences? Does that in part explain the title of the first part of the book: "A Common Culture"? Note the titles of the next two chapters: "Reunion Deferred," "Reunion Scorned."

Identify: Nicaea, Chalcedon, docetism, Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, Affair of the Placards, Thomas Cranmer, Thomas Cromwell, William Tyndale, Family of Love.

1. Who was Martin Bucer? How does MacCulloch's thinking about Bucer compare (or contrast) with other Protestant leaders, such as Luther, Zwingli, and Bullinger?

2. Why was Calvin important?

3. How did political circumstances and political authority affect religion in the various commonwealths MacCulloch reviews? Read the Act of Supremacy (1534). What is its relevance to MacCulloch's purpose in Chapter 4?

4. What did the leaders of the Kingdom of Münster hope to accomplish? What happened as a result of the "shock of Münster" (211)?