Coming out of the East, the Black Death reached the shores of Italy in the spring of 1348 unleashing a rampage of death across Europe unprecedented in recorded history. By the time the epidemic played itself out three years later, anywhere between 1/3 and 1/2 of Europe's population had fallen victim to the pestilence.

The plague presented itself in three interrelated forms. The bubonic variant (the most common) derives its name from the swellings or buboes that appeared on a victim's neck, armpits or groin. These tumors could range in size from that of an egg to that of an apple. Although some survived the painful ordeal, the manifestation of these lesions usually signaled the victim had a life expectancy of up to a week. Infected fleas attached themselves to rats and then to humans spread this bubonic type of the plague.

A second variation - pneumonic plague - attacked the respiratory system and was spread by merely breathing the exhaled air of a victim.

It was much more virulent than its bubonic cousin - life expectancy was measured in one or two days. Finally, the septicemic version of the disease attacked the blood system.

In March 1309 the entire papal court settled at Avignon, which at the time was not part of France, but an imperial fief held by the king of Sicily. The removal of the Papacy to Avignon was justified at the time by French apologists as owing to the factious tumults at Rome, where the dissensions of the Roman aristocrats and their armed gangs reached an all time low and the Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano was destroyed in a fire.

It proved the precursor of the long Avignon Papacy which became almost an organ of the French Monarchy. The pope’s removal to Avignon was a grievous error since the universal character of the papacy was obscured in the minds of the Christian people.

It marks the point from which the decay of the strictly Catholic conception of the Pope as universal bishop is to be dated.

The Western or Papal Schism was a split within the Catholic Church in 1378. Lacking any real theological or doctrinal underpinnings, being rather driven by politics, it was resolved after 40 years by the Council of Constance.

The schism in the Western church resulted from the untimely return of the Papacy from Avignon to Rome by Pope Gregory XI in 1378, ending the Avignon Papacy.

After Gregory XI died, the Romans rioted to ensure an Italian was elected; the cardinals, fearing the crowds, elected an Italian, Pope Urban VI in 1378. Urban had been a respected administrator in the papal chancery at Avignon; but once he was elected Pope, he became suspicious, overbearing, and subject to violent outbursts of temper. The cardinals who had elected him soon came to repent of their decision, and on September 20 the same year, the majority of them removed themselves to Fondi, and elected a rival Pope from there, who took the title of Pope Clement VII.

The two popes threw the Church into a turmoil; there had been antipopes, rival claimants to the papacy before, but most of them had been appointed by various rival factions. Here, the acknowledged and legitimate leaders of the Church themselves had created the two rival popes. European secular leaders had to choose which pope they would recognize; generally, France, Burgundy, Savoy, Naples, and Scotland chose to recognize the Avignon claimants, while England, Germany, northern Italy and central Europe of the Holy Roman Empire followed the Roman claimant. Even saints were caught up in the dispute; St Catherine of Siena defended Urban's papacy, while St Vincent Ferrar was in Clement's camp.

Later a council at Pisa was held in 1409 to try to solve the dispute, but it only resulted in the election of a third Pope, Pope Alexander V by the council, soon to be followed by Pope John XXIII.

Finally, the Council of Constance in 1417 deposed John XXIII and the Avignon Pope Benedict XIII, received the resignation of the Roman Pope Gregory XII, and elected Pope Martin V, thereby ending the schism. The alternate papal claimants have become known in history as antipopes

Thus the line of Roman popes was recognized as the legitimate line. Consistent with this outcome, from this time forward in the Catholic church it was decreed explicitly that no Council had power over the Popes, and there is no way to undo a Papal election by anyone but the pope.

Combined with the Avignon Captivity all Christendom had lived under the impression of a divided and increasingly despised Papacy – the prime condition of Christian unity, a single and powerful headship, had disappeared.

Believing that a classical training alone could form a perfect man, the Humanists so called themselves in opposition to the Scholastics, and adopted the term humaniora (the humanities) as signifying the scholarship of the ancients. Humanism (like every other historical phenomenon) was connected with the past. The use of Latin in the Liturgy of the Church had already prepared Europe for the humanistic movement.

The transcendental, centered on God, unworldly concept of life which had been dominant, now came into conflict with naturalistic view which centered on nature and man.

Christianity and its ethical system suffered a serious shock as moral relations, especially marriage was held up to ridicule. In their private lives many Humanists fell into unrestrained individualist and moral degradation.

A political expression of the humanistic spirit is "The Prince" by Niccolo Machiavelli (1469 – 1527) which was a "gospel" of brute force, of contempt for morality and of cynical selfishness.

Dimensions of Humanism were also favored by the popes. Nicholas V (1447-55), for example, sought to restore the glory of Rome and established the Vatican Library.

Theological Humanism puts the focus on man rather than on God, is an emphasis on the natural at the expense of the supernatural. It led to the principal of the Reformation that man choose his religion for himself instead of accepting religion revealed and dictated by God. "Men should be changed by religion, not religion by men" (Giles of Viterbo, Luther’s superior general)

The Renaissance was an influential cultural movement which brought about a period of scientific revolution and artistic transformation, at the dawn of modern European history. It marks the transitional period between the end of the Middle Ages and the start of the Modern Age. The Renaissance is usually considered to have begun in the 14th century in Italy and the 16th century in northern Europe. Francesco Petrarca 1304 –1374), Italian scholar, poet, and early humanist and Dante (1265 –1321) are considered the fathers of the Renaissance.

Clerical morality invited reform (if not revolt). An example is Archbishop Hermann von Wied of Cologne who offered mass but three times in is life or George of Bavaria, an imperial prince-bishop who owned as benefices sees, abbeys, etc at the age of thirteen.

Church wealth in the German Empire was estimated at third of the total, although this included corporate possessions held in trust for social and charitable works.

In its wider sense this term is used to describe the part of the world which is inhabited by Christians. But there is a narrower sense in which Christendom stands for a polity (form of government) as well as a religion, for a nation as well as for a people. Christendom in this sense was an ideal which inspired and dignified many centuries of history and which has not yet altogether lost its power over the minds of men.

In essence, the vision of Christendom is a vision of a Christian theocracy, a government devoted to the enforcement of Christian values, and whose institutions are suffused with Christian piety. In this vision, members of the Christian clergy wield plenty of political clout. Secular rulers are their subordinates and agents; and national or political divisions are subsumed under the unitary government of a unique and universal church institution.

In the course of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries arose the modern concept of the state. During the preceding period many matters of a secular or mixed nature had been regulated by the Church. During the Western Schism opposing popes sought support of the civil powers. The popes of the fifteenth century made various concessions to the civil authorities which they in turn came to regard as affairs within their domain. Gradually the church changed from super ordinate to subordinate to civil power.

Nationalism is an ideology which holds that the nation, ethnicity or national identity is a fundamental unit of human social life, and makes certain political claims based on that belief, above all the claim that the nation is the only legitimate basis for the state and that each nation is entitled to its own state. In this form nationalism is a universal ideology, but the term also refers to the specific ideology of nationalist movements, which make political claims on behalf of a specific nation.

Dynastic nationalism was the dominating trait of the political scene. This was the nationalism of royal families striving to make each state its own ultimate norm of life. This type of nationalism had been developing during the Renaissance. By the time of Luther the process was virtually complete in England, France and Spain.

Anticlerical nationalism arose from the spirit of antagonism toward supranational institutions. No organization was more international than the Catholic Church. Understandably various rulers would regard a new religion which would submit to themselves as an ally after the mind of Machiavelli.

Royal absolutism, the theory of one man acting as the personification of the state was the application of the ideas of Machiavelli. As absolute monarch he interpreted the divine will for his subjects and considered himself free to use any means that would serve his enlightened self-interest. These ideas were opposed by the Catholic Church. Gladly would they welcome Luther’s assertion that a "prince may be a Christian, but he should govern, not as a Christian, but as a prince."

The theology of St. Thomas Aquinas was founded up the philosophy of Aristotle and was called Scholasticism. The Scholastics were supposed to guard the defenses of the Catholic Faith. Many Scholastics deserted the essentials for minutiae and obscured the proper relationship of Faith and Reason.

Nominalism is the position in metaphysics that there exist no universals outside of the mind. Nominalism is best understood in contrast to realism. Philosophical realism holds that when we use descriptive terms such as "green" or "tree," the forms of those concepts really exist, independently of world in an abstract realm. Such thought is associated with Plato. Nominalism, by contrast, holds that ideas represented by words have no real existence beyond our imaginations.

In epistemology realism represents the theory that particular things exist independently of our perception. This position is in direct contrast to the theory of idealism, which holds that reality exists only in the mind. Most contemporary British and American philosophy tends toward realism.

Scholasticism comes from the Latin word scholasticus which means "that [which] belongs to the school", and is the school of philosophy taught by the academics (or schoolmen) of medieval universities circa 1100 - 1500. Scholasticism attempted to reconcile the philosophy of the ancient classical philosophers with medieval Christian theology.

The primary purpose of scholasticism was to find the answer to a question or resolve a contradiction. It is most well known in its application in medieval theology but was applied to classical philosophy and other fields of study. It is not a philosophy or theology on its own, but a tool and method for learning which puts emphasis on dialectical reasoning.

Scholasticism had been despised by the newer Humanistic thinkers as completely outmoded. Nominalism took its place and prevailed in universities which became increasingly secular. Nominalists changed the emphasis from faith to reason and in so doing hinted that reason might sometimes conflict with Faith. They minimized the effects of original sin and the necessity of grace and suggested that rationalist theories of Christian mysteries, although against Faith, were more plausible.

All this led to a split between faith and reason. Some mystical thinkers exalted Faith at the expense of Reason in response to the reverse emphasis.

Martin Luther was born to Hans and Margaretha Luther, on November 10, 1483 in Eisleben, Germany and was baptized on the feast day of St. Martin of Tours, after whom he was named. His father owned a copper mine in nearby Mansfeld. Having risen from the peasantry, his father was determined to see his son ascend to civil service and bring further honor to the family. To that end, Hans sent young Martin to schools in Mansfeld, Magdeburg and Eisenach.

At the age of seventeen in 1501, he entered the University of Erfurt. The young student received a Bachelor's degree in 1502 and a Master's degree in 1505. According to his father's wishes, Martin enrolled in the law school of that university.

All that changed during a thunderstorm in the summer of 1505. A lightning bolt struck near to him as he was returning to school. Terrified, he cried out, "Help, Saint Anne! I'll become a monk!" His life spared, Luther left his law school and entered the monastery there.

Young Brother Martin fully dedicated himself to monastic life, the effort to do good works to please God and to serve others through prayer for their souls. Yet peace with God escaped him. He devoted himself to fasts, flagellations, long hours in prayer and pilgrimage, and constant confession. The more he tried to do for God, it seemed, the more aware he became of his sinfulness.

Johann von Staupitz, Luther's superior, concluded the young man needed more work to distract him from excessive rumination. He ordered the monk to pursue an academic career. In 1507 Luther was ordained to the priesthood. In 1508 he began teaching theology at the University of Wittenberg. Luther earned his Bachelor's degree in Biblical Studies on March 9, 1508.

In addition to his duties as a professor, Martin Luther served as a preacher and confessor at the Castle Church, a foundation of Frederick the Wise, Elector of Saxony. This church was named "All Saints" because it was the repository of his collection of holy relics. This parish served both the Augustinian monastery and the university. It was in the performance of these duties that the young priest was confronted with the effects of obtaining indulgences on the lives of everyday people.

An indulgence is a certificate that released a person from temporal penance required by the church after obtaining absolution from sins they committed. A buyer could purchase one, either for himself or for one of his deceased relatives in purgatory. The Dominican friar Johann Tetzel was enlisted to travel throughout Archbishop Albert of Mainz's episcopal territories promoting and selling indulgences for the renovation of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. Tetzel was very successful at it. He urged: "as soon as the coin in the coffer rings, the soul from purgatory springs".

As a priest concerned about the spiritual welfare of his parishioners, Luther saw this traffic in indulgences as an abuse that could mislead them into relying simply on the indulgences themselves to the neglect of the confession, true repentance, and satisfactions. Luther preached three sermons against indulgences in 1516 and 1517.

On October 31, 1517, according to traditional accounts, Luther's 95 Theses were nailed to the door of the Castle Church as an open invitation to debate them.

The Theses condemned greed and worldliness in the Church as an abuse and asked for a theological disputation on what indulgences could grant. Luther did not challenge the authority of the pope to grant indulgences in these theses.

The 95 Theses were quickly translated into German, widely copied and printed. Within two weeks they had spread throughout Germany, and within two months throughout Europe. This was one of the first events in history that was profoundly affected by the printing press, which made the distribution of documents easier and more wide-spread.

The great applause which Luther received on his first appearance, both in humanistic circles and among some theologians and some of the earnest-minded laity, was due to the dissatisfaction with the existing abuses.

His own erroneous views and the influence of a portion of his followers very soon drove Luther into rebellion against ecclesiastical authority as such, and eventually led him into open apostasy and schism.

Before the end of 1519 Luther had gone through a revolution within his own mind. He had become a violent opponent of the whole Church system. He allied himself with every form of discontent. He was the hero.

In 1520 came the Bull of Excommunication with a delay of sixty days for submission. He did not submit. It is from this date that the Reformation began in earnest. From this point on the attack gathers and the Catholic defense begins slowly to rouse itself.

The basic objection was the clergy and clerical power with the Pope as the head and symbol of a clergy. Everything that happens in the Lutheran movement turns upon this reaction against clerical power.

The laity was equal to the clergy – it was to be the priesthood of the laity.

His chief original supporters were among the Humanists, the immoral clergy, and the lower grades of the landed nobility imbued with revolutionary tendencies. It was soon evident that he meant to subvert all the fundamental institutions of the Church.

Beginning by proclaiming the false doctrine of "justification by faith alone", he later rejected all supernatural remedies (especially the sacraments and the Mass), denied that good works are meritorious (thus condemning monastic vows and Christian asceticism in general), and finally rejected the institution of a genuine hierarchical priesthood (especially the papacy) in the Church.

Since the official formulæ of faith claim no decisive authority for themselves, and on many points are far from harmonious, the utmost diversity of opinion prevails among Lutherans. Every shade of belief may be found among them, from the orthodox, who hold fast to the confessions (e.g. Confession of Augusburg in 1530), to the semi-infidel theologians, who deny the authority of the Scriptures.

The support of his sovereign, Frederick the Wise, Elector of Saxony, was of great importance. Very soon secular princes and municipal magistrates made the Reformation a pretext for arbitrary interference in purely ecclesiastical and religious affairs, for appropriating ecclesiastical property and disposing of it at pleasure, and for deciding what faith their subjects should accept.

Henceforth the secular power is ever more clearly the supreme judge in purely religious matters, and completely disregards any independent ecclesiastical authority.

Some followers of Luther went to even greater extremes. The Anabaptists and the "Iconoclasts" revealed the extremist possibilities of the principles advocated by Luther, while in the Peasants' War the most oppressed elements of German society put into practice the doctrine of the reformer. Ecclesiastical affairs were now reorganized on the basis of the new teachings.

Many new institutions introduced by the Reformers flattered the multitude -- e.g. the reception of the chalice by the whole people, the use of the vernacular at Divine service, the popular religious hymns used during services, the reading of the Bible, the denial of the essential difference between clergy and laity.

In this category may be included doctrines which had an attraction for many -- e.g. justification by faith alone without reference to good works, the denial of freedom of will, which furnished an excuse for moral lapses, personal certainty of salvation in faith (i.e. subjective confidence in the merits of Christ), the universal priesthood, which seemed to give all a direct share in sacerdotal functions and ecclesiastical administration.

Ulrich Zwingli (1484-1541) & Zwinglism

Ulrich Zwingli was the leader of the Swiss Reformation and founder of the Swiss Reformed Churches. Independent from Luther, who was doctor biblicus, Zwingli arrived at similar conclusions by studying the scriptures from the point of view of a humanist scholar.

Zwingli was born in Wildhaus, St. Gall, Switzerland to a prominent family of the middle classes. He was ordained a Catholic priest and became parish pastor from 1506 to 1516 in Glarus, in the Canton of Zürich, Switzerland. He became politically active.

He was not true to his celibate vows. From the spring of 1522 Zwingli and Anna Reinhard were living together in what was called a "clerical marriage." Such concubinages were not uncommon at the time, as it was assumed that without an extraordinary supply of divine grace it was not possible for a priest to live in absolute purity, and in fact, very few did. Zwingli eventually married Anna, on April 2, 1524. Between 1526 and 1530 the couple had four children.

Zwingli's Reformation was supported by the magistrate and population of Zürich and led to significant changes in civil life and state matters in Zürich. The reformation was spread from Zürich to five other cantons of Switzerland, while the remaining five sternly held onto the Roman Catholic faith.

Zwingli's radical followers removed the images and pictures out of the churches, made changes in the liturgical language of the religious services, and stripped the mass of all its accumulations, as far as possible bringing it back to basics. By the end of 1524 the convents for both men and women had been abolished, and music had been silenced in the churches. The mass stood more or less unaltered, since Zwingli hesitated in changing something so wrapped up with the life of the people, before the people were fully prepared to accept a substitute.

At last it was decreed that on Thursday of Holy Week, April 13, 1525, in the Great Minster that the "Lord's Supper" would be for the first time observed according to the liturgy Zwingli had composed. On that eventful day men and women sat on opposite sides of the table which extended down the middle aisle, and were served with bread on wooden platters and wine out of wooden beakers. The contrast to the former custom was shocking to many, yet the new way was accepted. With this radical break with the past the Reformation in Zürich was completed. In the same year, Zwingli was called by the honorary title Antistes (leader).

A second centre of the Reformation was established by Zwingli at Zürich. Though he differed in many particulars from Luther, and was much more radical than the latter in his transformation of the ceremonial of the Mass, the aims of his followers were identical with those of the Lutherans.

Political considerations played a great role in the development of Zwinglianism, and the magistracy of Zürich, after a majority of its members had declared for Zwingli, became a zealous promoter of the Reformation. Arbitrary decrees were issued by the magistrates concerning ecclesiastical organization; the councilors who remained true to the Catholic Faith were expelled from the council, and Catholic services were forbidden in the city. The city and the canton of Zürich were reformed by the civil authorities according to the ideas of Zwingli.

Philipp Melancthon (1479-1560) & Phillipism

Collaborator and friend of Luther,was born at Bretten, in Baden. His father, Georg Schwarzerd, was armorer to Count Palatine Philip.

In 1507 he was sent to the Latin school at Pforzheim, where he was introduced him to the study of the Latin and Greek poets and of the philosophy of Aristotle. But he was chiefly influenced by his great-uncle, Johann Reuchlin, the great representative of humanism.

Not yet thirteen years old, he entered in 1509 the University of Heidelberg where he studied philosophy, rhetoric, and astronomy/astrology, and was known as a good Greek scholar. Being refused the degree of master in 1512 on account of his youth, he went to Tübingen, where he pursued humanistic and philosophical studies, but devoted himself also to the study of jurisprudence, mathematics, astronomy/astrology, and even of medicine.

When, having completed his philosophical course, he had taken the degree of master in 1516, he began to study theology. Under the influence of men like Reuchlin and Erasmus he became convinced that true Christianity was something quite different from scholastic theology as it was taught at the university.

But at that time he had not yet formed fixed opinions on theology, since later he often called Luther his spiritual father.

In the beginning of 1521 he defended Luther by proving that Luther rejected only papal and ecclesiastical practices which were at variance with Scripture, but not with true philosophy and true Christianity.

Luther was a strong believer in making humanism serve the cause of the "Gospel", and it was not long before the still plastic Melancthon fell under the sway of Luther's powerful personality.

While Luther described the pope as Antichrist and other theologians subscribed to this declaration, Melancthon wrote: "My idea of the pope is this, that if he would give due recognition to the Gospel, his supremacy over the bishops, which he enjoys by human consent (not by Divine ordinance) should also be acknowledged by us for the sake of peace and of the unity of those Christians who are now, and in the future may be, subject to him."

He joined hands with Luther in opposing a union with Zwingli. The latter's views on the Eucharist seemed to him an "impious doctrine".

His desire was to remain a humanist, and to the end of his life he continued his work on the classics, along with his exegetical studies.

He became the father of evangelical theology. He composed the first evangelical treatise in 1521. It deals principally with practical religious questions, sin and grace, law and gospel, justification and regeneration. This work ran through more than 100 editions before his death. He was a friend and supporter of Luther the Reformer.

Philippists was the designation usually applied in the latter half of the sixteenth century to the followers of Philipp Melanchthon

It was applied at first to the theologians of the universities of Wittenberg and Leipzig, who were all adherents of Melanchthon's distinctive views, especially those in which he approximated to Roman Catholic doctrine on the subject of free will and the value of good works, and to the Swiss Reformers' on the Lord's Supper.

Melanchthon's and others, sought to work for a union of all the Protestant forces, Lutherans and Calvinists. Melanchthon had won a large number of disciples by his eminent abilities as a teacher and his clear, scholastic formulation of doctrine.

John Calvin (1509-1564) & Calvinism

John Calvin. He was born Jean Chauvin in Noyon, Picardie, France, and French was his mother tongue; Calvin derives from the Latin version of his name, Calvinus. Martin Luther posted his 95 Theses in 1517, when Calvin was 8 years old.

Calvin's father, an attorney, sent him to the University of Paris to study humanities and law. By 1532, he was a Doctor of Law at Orléans. In 1536, he settled in Geneva, halted in the path of an intended journey to Basel by the personal persuasion of the reformer William Farel. He pastored in Strasbourg from 1538 until 1541, before returning to Geneva. He would live there until his death in 1564.

John Calvin sought marriage to affirm his approval of marriage over celibacy. He asked friends to help him find a woman who was "modest, obliging, not haughty, not extravagant, patient, and solicitous for my health." In 1539, he married Idelette de Bure, a widow.

By 1527, when no more than eighteen, Calvin's education was complete in its main lines. He had learned to be a humanist and a reformer.

The "sudden conversion" to a spiritual life in 1529, of which he speaks, must not be taken quite literally. He had never been an ardent Catholic; but the stories told at one time of his ill-regulated conduct have no foundation; and by a very natural process he went over to the side on which his family members were taking their stand.

Calvin published his Institutes of the Christian Religion, a seminal work in Christian theology that is still read today, in Latin in 1536 (at the age of 26).

There is no free will outside the Supreme. Zwingli argued that, since God was infinite being, He alone existed -- there could be no other being, and secondary or created causes were but instruments moved entirely by Divine power. Calvin did not go to this length. But he denies freedom to creatures, fallen or unfallen, in other words, God does not compel man to act by brute force, yet he determines irresistibly all we do, whether good or evil.

The Supreme is indeed self-conscious; it is by decree of the sovereign Lawgiver that events come to pass. But for such decrees no reason can be rendered. There is not any cause of the Divine will save Itself. If we ask why has the Almighty acted thus and thus, we are told, "Quia ipse voluit" -- it is His good pleasure. Beyond this, an explanation would be impossible, and to demand one is impiety. From the human angle of sight, therefore God works as though without a reason. And here we come upon the primal mystery to which in his argument Calvin recurs again and again.

Calvinism is distinguished from Lutheranism and Zwinglianism by a more rigid and consistent form of doctrine and by the sickness of its moral precepts which regulate the whole domestic and public life of the citizen. Calvin’s word was the highest authority and he tolerated no contradiction of his views and regulations. Calvinism was introduced into Geneva and the surrounding country by violence. Catholic priests were banished and the people were oppressed and compelled to attend Calvinistic sermons.

So the so-called Five Points were not chosen by the Calvinists as a summary of their teaching. They emerged as a response to the Arminians who chose these five points to oppose.

The *Arminians suggested five anti-Calvinist corrections, which are summarized below:

T-Total depravity

U-Unconditional election

L-Limited atonement

I-Irresistible grace

P-Perseverance of the saint

Luther had written that man's will is enslaved either to God or to Satan, but it is never free. Melanchthon declaimed against the "impious dogma of Free Will," adding that since all things happen by necessity according to Divine predestination, no room was left for it.

This was truly the article by which the Reformation should stand or fall. God is sole agent. Therefore creation, redemption, election, reprobation are in such sense His acts that man becomes merely their vehicle and himself does nothing.

Luther declares that "God by an unchangeable, eternal, infallible will, foresees purposes and effects all things. By this thunderbolt Free Will is utterly destroyed." Calvin shared Luther's doctrine of necessity to the full; but he embroiled the language by admitting in unfallen Adam a liberty of choice.

He meant by liberty the absence of constraint; and the Divine wisdom which he invoked could never be made intelligible to our understanding. What he rejected was the Catholic notion of the self-determining second cause. Neither would he allow the doctrine that God permits evil deeds, but is not their author. The condemnation struck expressly at Melanchthon, who asserted that the betrayal by Judas was not less properly God's act than the vocation of St. Paul.

Calvinism’s Institutes affirm that "man by the righteous impulsion of God does that which is unlawful ," and that "man falls, the Providence of God so ordaining. Yet elsewhere Calvin denied this impulse as not in accordance with the known will of the Almighty.

Both he and Luther found a way of escape from the moral dilemma inflicted on them by distinguishing two wills in the Divine Nature, one public or apparent, which commanded good and forbade evil as the Scripture teaches, the other just, but secret and unsearchable, predetermining that Adam and all the reprobate should fall into sin and perish.

At no time did Calvin grant that Adam's transgression was due to his own free will. He justifies the means -- sin and its consequences -- by the holy purpose of the Creator who, if there were no one to punish, would be incapable of showing that he is a righteously vindictive God. As, however, man's intent was evil, he becomes a sinner while his Creator remains holy.

The Reformed confessions will not allow that God is the author of sin -- and Calvin shows deep indignation when charged with "this disgraceful falsehood." He distinguishes the various intentions concurring to the same act on the part of different agents. In his view, the First Cause alone is a real agent, and the rest mere instruments. It was objected to him that he gave no convincing reasons for the position thus taken up, and that his followers were swayed by their master's authority rather than by the force of his logic. Even an admirer, J. A. Froude, tells us:

His doctrine of the Bible as the sole rule of faith, with rejection of all ecclesiastical authority, established subjectivism in matters of faith. By this revolutionary assault Luther forfeited the support of many serious persons indisposed to break with the Church but on the other hand won over all the anti-ecclesiastical elements, including numerous monks and nuns who left the monasteries to break their vows, and many priests who espoused his cause with the intention of marrying.

In the choice of means for extending the Reformation its founders and supporters were not fastidious, availing themselves of any factor which could further their movement.

Denunciation of real and supposed abuses in religious and ecclesiastical life was, especially at the beginning, one of the chief methods employed by the reformers to promote their designs. By this means they won over many who were dissatisfied with existing conditions, and were ready to support any movement that promised a change. But it was especially the widespread hatred of Rome and of the members of the hierarchy, fostered by the incessantly repeated and only too often justifiable complaints about abuses, that most efficiently favored the reformers, who very soon violently attacked the papal authority, recognizing in it the supreme guardian of the Catholic Faith.

Hence were the multitude of lampoons, often most vulgar, against the pope, the bishops, and in general against all representatives of ecclesiastical authority. These pamphlets were circulated everywhere among the people, and thereby respect for authority was still more violently shaken. Painters prepared shameless and degrading caricatures of the pope, the clergy, and the monks, to illustrate the text of hostile pamphlets.

Waged with every possible weapon (even the most reprehensible), this warfare against the representatives of the Church, as the supposed originators of all ecclesiastical abuses, prepared the way for the reception of the Reformation. A distinction was no longer drawn between temporary and corrigible abuses and fundamental supernatural Christian truths; together with the abuses, important ecclesiastical institutions, resting on Divine foundation were simultaneously abolished.

Advantage was also taken of the divisions existing in many places between the ecclesiastical and civil authorities. The development of the State, in its modern form, among the Christian peoples of the West gave rise to many disputes between the clergy and laity, between bishops and the cities, between monasteries and the territorial lords. When the reformers withdrew from the clergy all authority, especially all influence in civil affairs, they enabled the princes and municipal authorities to end these long-pending strives to their own advantage by arbitrarily arrogating to themselves all disputed rights, banishing the hierarchy whose rights they usurped, and then establishing by their own authority a completely new ecclesiastical organization.

The Reformed clergy thus possessed from the beginning only such rights as the civil authorities were pleased to assign them. Consequently the Reformed national Churches were completely subject to the civil authorities, and the Reformers, who had entrusted to the civil power the actual execution of their principles, had now no means of ridding themselves of this servitude.

In the course of centuries an immense number of foundations had been made for religious, charitable, and educational objects, and had been provided with rich material resources. Churches, monasteries, hospitals, and schools had often great incomes and extensive possessions, which aroused the envy of secular rulers.

The Reformation enabled the latter to secularize this vast ecclesiastical wealth, since the leaders of the Reformation constantly inveighed against the centralization of such riches in the hands of the clergy. The princes and municipal authorities were thus invited to seize ecclesiastical property, and employ it for their own purposes.

Ecclesiastical principalities, which were entrusted to the incumbents only as ecclesiastical persons for administration and usufruct, were, in defiance of actual law, by exclusion of the incumbents, transformed into secular principalities. In this way the Reformers succeeded in depriving the Church of the temporal wealth provided for its many needs, and in diverting the same to their own advantage.

Human emotions, to which the Reformers appealed in the most various ways, were another means of spreading the Reformation. The very ideas which these innovators defended - Christian freedom, license of thought, the right and capacity of each individual to found his own faith on the Bible, and other similar principles - were very seductive for many. The abolition of religious institutions which acted as a curb on sinful human nature (confession, penance, fasting, abstinence, vows) attracted the lascivious and frivolous.

The warfare against the religious orders, against virginity and celibacy, against the practices of a higher Christian life, won for the Reformation a great number of those who, without a serious vocation, had embraced the religious life from purely human and worldly motives, and who wished to be rid of obligations towards God which had grown burdensome, and to be free to gratify their sensual cravings.

This they could do the more easily, as the confiscation of the property of the Churches and monasteries rendered it possible to provide for the material advancement of ex-monks and ex-nuns, and of priests who apostatized. In the innumerable writings and pamphlets intended for the people the Reformers made it their frequent endeavor to excite the basest human instincts.

Against the pope, the Roman Curia, and the bishops, priests, monks, and nuns who had remained true to their Catholic convictions, the most incredible lampoons and libels were disseminated. In language of the utmost coarseness Catholic doctrines and institutions were distorted and ridiculed. Among the lower, mostly uneducated, and abandoned elements of the population, the baser passions and instincts were stimulated and pressed into the service of the Reformation.

At first many bishops displayed great apathy towards the Reformers, attaching to the new movement no importance; its chiefs were thus given a longer time to spread their doctrines. Even later, many worldly-inclined bishops, though remaining true to the Church, were very lax in combating heresy and in employing the proper means to prevent its further advance.

The same might be said of the parochial clergy, who were to a great extent ignorant and indifferent, and looked on idly at the defection of the people. The Reformers, on the other hand, displayed the greatest zeal for their cause. Leaving no means unused by word and pen, by constant intercourse with similarly minded persons, by popular eloquence, which the leaders of the Reformation were especially skilled in employing, by sermons and popular writings appealing to the weaknesses of the popular character, by inciting the fanaticism of the masses, in short by clever and zealous utilization of every opportunity and opening that presented itself, they proved their ardor for the spread of their doctrines.

Meanwhile they proceeded with great astuteness, purported to adhere strictly to the essential truths of the Catholic Faith, retained at first many of the external ceremonies of Catholic worship, and declared their intention of abolishing only things resting on human invention, seeking thus to deceive the people concerning the real objects of their activity. They found indeed many pious and zealous opponents in the ranks of the regular and secular clergy, but the great need, especially at the beginning, was a universally organized and systematically conducted resistance to this false reformation.

Many new institutions introduced by the Reformers flattered the multitude - e.g. the reception of the chalice by the whole people, the use of the vernacular at Divine service, the popular religious hymns used during services, the reading of the Bible, the denial of the essential difference between clergy and laity. In this category may be included doctrines which had an attraction for many - e.g. justification by faith alone without reference to good works, the denial of freedom of will, which furnished an excuse for moral lapses, personal certainty of salvation in faith (i.e. subjective confidence in the merits of Christ), the universal priesthood, which seemed to give all a direct share in sacerdotal functions and ecclesiastical administration.

Use of violence

Finally, one of the chief means employed in promoting the spread of the Reformation was the use of violence by the princes and the municipal authorities. Priests who remained Catholic were expelled and replaced by adherents of the new doctrine, and the people were compelled to attend the new services. The faithful adherents of the Church were variously persecuted, and the civil authorities saw to it that the faith of the descendants of those who had strongly opposed the Reformation was gradually sapped. In many places the people were severed from the Church by brutal violence; elsewhere to deceive the people the ruse was employed of retaining the Catholic rite outwardly for a long time, and prescribing for the reformed clergy the ecclesiastical vestments of the Catholic worship.

The history of the Reformation shows incontestably that the civil power was the chief factor in spreading it in all lands, and that in the last analysis it was not religious, but dynastic, political, and social interests which proved decisive. Add to this that the princes and municipal magistrates who had joined the Reformers tyrannized grossly over the consciences of their subjects and burghers. All must accept the religion prescribed by the civil ruler. The principle "Cuius regio, illius et religio" (Religion goes with the land) is an outgrowth of the Reformation, and was by it and its adherents, wherever they possessed the necessary power, put into practice.

At the suggestion of Charles, King Ferdinand convened the Diet of Augsburg in 1555, at which, after long negotiations, the compact known as the Religious Peace of Augsburg was concluded. This pact contained the following provisions in its twenty-two paragraphs:

By this peace the religious schism in the German Empire was definitively established; henceforth the Catholic and Protestant estates are opposing camps.

Thirty Years War (1618 – 1448)

The Thirty Years War was, as a whole, a struggle of German Protestant princes and some foreign powers (France, Sweden, Denmark, England…) against a weakened Holy Roman Empire, represented by the Hapsburgs.

The general results of the war was a decrease in German population, devastation of German agriculture, ruin of German commerce, the breakup of the Holy Roman Empire and the decline of Hapsburg greatness. The incredible sufferings of the German peasantry were remembered for centuries. Over 300,000 were killed in battle. Millions of the civilian population of Europe died of malnutrition and disease. The population of the Empire dropped from 21 million to 13.5 million between 1618 and 1648. The Thirty Years War remains one of the most terrible in history. Northern Germany would be estranged from Austria for more than two centuries.

In 1635 the war lost is religious character and became purely political. Cardinal Richelieu (Consecrated as a bishop in 1607, he later entered politics, becoming a Secretary of State in 1616. Richelieu soon rose in both the Church and the state, becoming a cardinal in 1622, and King Louis XIII's chief minister in 1624. He remained in office until his death in 1642) determined to arrest the growth of Hapsburg power by interfering on the side of the Protestants.

The Thirty Years War persuaded everybody that neither the Protestants or the Catholics could be completely victorious and dreams of an empire united under the Catholic Church had to be abandoned.

The Peace of Westphalia (1648)

The majority of the treaty can be attributed to the work of Cardinal Mazarin who was the de facto leader of France at the time. France came out of the war in a far better position than any other Power and was able to dictate much of the treaty.

Another important result of the treaty was that it laid rest to the idea of the Holy Roman Empire having secular dominion over the entire Christian world.

The nation-state would be the highest level of government, subservient to no others.

It is often said that the Peace of Westphalia initiated the modern fashion of diplomacy as it marked the beginning of the modern system of nation-states Subsequent wars were not about issues of religion, but rather revolved around issues of state. This allowed Catholic and Protestant Powers to ally, leading to a number of major realignments.

St. Thomas Aquinas defines heresy: "A species of infidelity in men who, having professed the faith of Christ, corrupt its dogmas". "The right Christian faith consists in giving one's voluntary assent to Christ in all that truly belongs to His teaching.

There are, therefore, two ways of deviating from Christianity: the one by refusing to believe in Christ Himself, which is the way of infidelity, common to Pagans and Jews; the other by restricting belief to certain points of Christ's doctrine selected and fashioned at pleasure, which is the way of heretics.

The subject-matter of both faith and heresy is, therefore, the deposit of the faith, that is, the sum total of truths revealed in Scripture and Tradition as proposed to our belief by the Church. The believer accepts the whole deposit as proposed by the Church; the heretic accepts only such parts of it as commend themselves to their own approval.

Heresy is a sin because of its nature it is destructive of the virtue of Christian faith. Its malice is to be measured therefore by the excellence of the good gift of which it deprives the soul. Now faith is the most precious possession of man, the root of his supernatural life, the pledge of his eternal salvation. Privation of faith is therefore the greatest evil, and deliberate rejection of faith is the greatest sin.

Christ said: "Do not think that I came to send peace upon earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword" (Matt., 10:34). The history of heresy verifies this prediction and shows, moreover, that the greater number of the victims of the sword is on the side of the faithful adherents of the one Church founded by Christ.

The Reformation destroyed the unity of faith and ecclesiastical organization of the Christian peoples of Europe, cut many millions off from the true Catholic Church, and robbed them of the greatest portion of the salutary means for the cultivation and maintenance of the supernatural life. Incalculable harm was thereby wrought from the religious standpoint.

The false fundamental doctrine of justification by faith alone, taught by the Reformers, produced a lamentable shallowness in religious life. Zeal for good works disappeared, the asceticism which the Church had practiced from her foundation was despised, charitable and ecclesiastical objects were no longer properly cultivated, supernatural interests fell into the background, and naturalistic aspirations aiming at the purely mundane, became widespread.

The denial of the Divinely instituted authority of the Church, both as regards doctrine and ecclesiastical government, opened wide the door to every eccentricity, gave rise to the endless division into sects and the never-ending disputes characteristic of Protestantism, and could not but lead to the complete unbelief which necessarily arises from the Protestant principles. Of real freedom of belief among the Reformers of the sixteenth century there was not a trace; on the contrary, the greatest tyranny in matters of conscience was displayed by the representatives of the Reformation.

The most baneful *Caesaropapism was meanwhile fostered, since the Reformation recognized the secular authorities as supreme also in religious matters. Thus arose from the very beginning the various Protestant "national Churches", which are entirely discordant with the Christian universalism of the Catholic Church, and depend, alike for their faith and organization, on the will of the secular ruler. In this way the Reformation was a chief factor in the evolution of royal absolutism.

In every land in which it found ingress, the Reformation was the cause of indescribable suffering among the people; it occasioned civil wars which lasted decades with all their horrors and devastations; the people were oppressed and enslaved; countless treasures of art and priceless manuscripts were destroyed; between members of the same land and race the seed of discord was sown. Germany in particular, the original home of the Reformation, was reduced to a state of piteous distress by the Thirty Years' War, and the German Empire was thereby dislodged from the leading position which it had for centuries occupied in Europe. Only gradually, and owing to forces which did not essentially spring from the Reformation, but were conditioned by other historical factors, did the social wounds heal, but the religious corrosion still continues despite the earnest religious sentiments which have at all times characterized many individual followers of the Reformation.