The reformation The Renaissance brought to Europe a spirit and a way of thinking quite different fr

The reformation The Renaissance brought to Europe a spirit and a way of thinking quite different fr
The reformation The Renaissance brought to Europe a spirit and a way of thinking quite different fr

The reformation The Renaissance brought to Europe a spirit and a way of thinking quite different fr
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文艺复兴把欧洲带入了一个思维开放的年代

The reformation
The Renaissance brought to Europe a spirit and a way of thinking quite different from that in the Middle Ages. Another kind of break with medieval times came as reformers challenge...

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The reformation
The Renaissance brought to Europe a spirit and a way of thinking quite different from that in the Middle Ages. Another kind of break with medieval times came as reformers challenged the authority of the Church, whose political influence had weakened in the late Middle Ages. By the 14th century, reforms within the Church were being demanded in many countries of Europe.
Dissatisfaction with the Church was particularly strong in the German states of the Holy Roman Empire. Devout Germans denounced the practice of letting bishops buy their positions. Many Germans resented the worldliness, lack of piety, and greed of some members of the clergy.
The man who became the leader of the protest against the Church was a German monk, Martin Luther (1483-15460). Luther taught Biblical studies at the University of Wittenberg. He led a strict and pious life but was troubled by a feeling of sin and feared that he would never enter heaven. After an intense emotional struggle, Luther came to believe that men and women could be saved only by the grace of God, which would grant them faith in Christ. He believed that, while a true Christian would perform good works, these did not bring salvation. Christians, Luther thought, gained salvation through grace and faith.
Luther's beliefs brought him into direct conflict with the Church over the question of how people could be pardoned for sins. The Church taught that most sins would be forgiven if a person confessed to a priest, regretted the action and asked for forgiveness, and did penance such as fasting or prayer. Still another way of being pardoned for sins, however, was to be given an indulgence. An indulgence, it was believed, reduced the time that one's soul would have to spend in suffering or punishment before the soul reached heaven. By Luther's time, indulgences could be obtained in return for a money contribution to the Church. Some clergy sold indulgences primarily as a way of raising funds for the Church or the bishops.
The sale of indulgences was widely criticized, and on October 31, 1517, Luther challenged this practice publicly. On a church door in Wittenberg he nailed 95 these, or arguments, attacking the sale of indulgences and inviting a debate. New of Luther's challenge spread quickly. Although Church officials opposed Luther, many people agreed with his ideas, and he began to question other Church teaching. Like earlier reformers, Luther said that the Bible provided all the guidance a person needed to live a Christian life. Luther believed that people should read the Bible to find the path to faith. He did not think they had to rely on the interpretations given by the Pope or the clergy. He urged changes in church services and said that members of the clergy should be allowed to marry.
Three themes formed the basis for much of Luther's doctrine. The first was a concept of Christian freedom that defined the Christian life as a free response to God' self-giving love. The second theme concerned the nature of persons. Luther taught that the Christian individual is at the same time both justified and a sinner. The third theme was a concern for God as Creator and a subsequent line between creation and redemption. In short, one's vocation is to follow Christ in this world. Luther saw the structures of the world and society—family, government, market—as ways through which Christians can serve their neighbors. Any legitimate calling in the world is therefore a proper means for expressing the Christian life.
Neither Church officials nor the Holy Roman Emperor could keep the reform movement form spreading among those who were dissatisfied with Church practices. Many Germans agreed with those reformers who called for a return to the piety of the early Christians. Many also were attracted by Luther's belief that each person could communicate directly with God.
Luther's teachings were not the only reason why many Germans became Lutherans, as his followers were called. Many townspeople resented the fact that their money flowed from Germany to Rome to pay Church taxes and buy Church offices. They thought the money should remain in Germany and be used to expand German trade and industry. Other Germans were annoyed that Italians controlled the most important offices in the Church. Some German princes backed Luther because they saw a chance to acquire property owned by the Church. The Princes' support for Luther was a way of demonstrating their independence from the Holy Roman Emperor.
The emperor tired to suppress the growing strength of the Lutheran movement. In 1529 several Lutheran princes met and issued a formal protest against these efforts. Because of this, they became know as Protestants. The support of the German Lutheran princes made possible the survival of the reform movement, which spilt the Western Church into Roman Catholics, who accepted the Pope's authority, and Protestants, who did not. The movement itself came to be called the Reformation. In 1530 many of them signed the Augsburg Confession, a written statement of their beliefs.
The Reformation spread to other lands where opposition to the Church had been mounting for years. In 1536 a French scholar and theologian, John Calvin, joined the reformers in Geneva and developed the form of Protestant belief called Calvinism. Calvin, like Luther, regarded the Bible as the supreme authority in matters of faith, attacked abuses by the clergy, and emphasized the importance of faith in salvation. A central idea of Calvin's philosophy, however, was predestination, the belief that certain people were chosen by God for salvation. According to Calvin, those who had not been chosen could never enter heaven, no matter how good a life they lived on earth. Calvinists considered it likely that strict obedience to God's laws a sign that a person had been predestined for salvation. Calvin explained his teaching in a book called Institutes of the Christian Religion. Calvinist teachings were carried to other countries by dedicated missionaries. Although the French rulers remained Catholic, Calvinism appealed to many French people and the French Calvinists became known as Huguenots. A Scottish Protestant, John Knox, carried many Calvinist ideas to Scotland in the 1550's, laying the foundations for the Presbyterian Church.
The Church of England, as distinct from the Roman Catholic Church, dates to the 16th century. Between 1529 and 1536, Henry VIII, in order to annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, took steps to sever the Church of England from the Roman papal authority. The break with Rome was completed in 1534 when Parliament passed the Act of Supremacy establishing the Church of England and declaring the king of England to be its supreme head.
Two factors should be noted about the breach between London and Rome. First, Henry VIII's annulment was the occasion but not the cause of the move toward independence from the papacy. Prior to Henry's particular dilemma, many protests and complaints had been registered against Rome by the English Church. Second, although separated from Rome, the Church of England retained the ancient Catholic sacraments, creeds and orders.
The Reformation had a profound influence on later history. The religious unity that had characterized Western and Central Europe in the Middle Ages vanished as Christians were divided into Catholics and Protestants. Protestants themselves were divided into a number of different groups.

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