HIST 317 Final Exam

Peter McLeod

Part I: Identifications

Identify the following:

Transubstantiation
Transubstantiation is the process which is believed to take place during the consecration of the
Eucharist. It refers to the physical transformation of the bread and wine offered during the sacrament
into the Body and Blood of Christ, though the appearances of bread and wine (including taste and
touch, all the way down to the molecular level) remains identical. The nature of transubstantiation in
the Eucharist became a matter of some debate amongst renaissance christendom. Catholics maintained
that transubstantiation occurred when the Priest spoke the words “Hoc est Corpus Meum” and “Hic est
Sanguine Meus” respectively, whilst the Lutherans believed that the sacrament was only valid upon the
subject receiving the host, and then only if the subject has true faith. Zwingli and John Calvin
maintained that no such event actually occurred and that the whole process was merely a symbol
representing the transubstantiation the that occurred at the last supper. Anabaptists didn’t even have an
opinion on the subject, as they did not really celebrate the Eucharist in any form. After the reign of
Queen Elizabeth the First in England, the Anglicans changed their belief in the nature of the Eucharist
from the Catholic perspective to their own unique version: they believed that rather than being literally
physically transformed into the Body and Blood of Christ, the bread and wine is instead filled with the
Spirit of God.

Catholic Counter Reformation

The Catholic Counter-Reformation was a movement that emerged in response to the Protestant
Reformation. It’s purpose was twofold: to correct the corruption that had spared the reformation in the
first place and more importantly to define Catholic beliefs in opposition to the beliefs espoused by the
various factions of the reformation. This second aspect was important as the Church felt that it’s lack of
strict definitions in these regards had given the reformation doctrinal room for interpretation, and thus
room to fall into heresy without correction. One noteworthy aspect of the counter-reformation was how
it handled indulgences. Rather than throw the indulgences out outright as the protestants had done, the
Church opted to further define them, in order to prevent abuses and also to make sure that there was no
doubt among the faithful as to their efficacy. Indulgences could no longer completely eliminate sins;
that power was reserved from the sacrament of reconciliation. Instead, indulgence could alleviate only
the temporal punishment due to sin (AKA a get-out-of-purgatory-free card rather than a get-out-of-hell-
free-card). This meant indulgences were less of a big deal, but it also meant that they could be given
out more freely without seeming frivolous or reducing the importance of the Sacrament of
Reconcilliation. In other cases the Church simply did things to be contrary; if the Zwinglis and
Calvinists didn’t like art or music in their worship services, then the mass was to be full to the brim
with both. The Anabaptists don’t believe in the priesthood’s importance? Well, now the priests are
thrice as important to the functioning of Catholic life. In this way, the Church distanced herself from
the protestant sects, and thus made it more difficult for them to reconcile with her as a whole; however,
it also made it easier for the church to keep those members who were currently still part of the church
in it, as making the sects look as different as possible would make the process of conversion feel
downright unreal.

Maleficium
Maleficium is evil magic. It is typically associated with the practice of Diabolism, in which the
practioner subjugates himself to demons in return for power or wealth; however, it can refer to any
magical practice which brings harm to another living creature (such as curses supposedly put on crops
or people by witches) or those practices which seek to wield the powers of darkness rather than the
other way around, such as Goetia. However, by-in-large when Maleficium is referred to by the people
of the late middle ages and early-to-mid Renaissance, it refers specifically to (supposedly primarilly
female) members of the Diabolism tradition (which may or may not have actually existed), and in
particular to older eccentric women in impoverished regions who were believed by the elite to practice
it in secret.

Part II: Essays

Answer the following essay:

Compare and contrast the religious reform movements of the early modern Period.
How did Humanism influence these reforms? What did the Catholic reform movement
have in common with the Protestant reformers? How did they differ? Discuss the
similarities and differences between the three major Protestant movements of the period:
Lutheranism, Calvinism, Zwinglinism.

The protestants during the Protestant Reformation consisted mostly of three factions: the
Lutherans, the Zwinglis, and the Calvinists. Lutherans were the first faction to form, created by Luther
himself. Lutherans were essentially Catholics with Luther’s solas (sola fide, sola gratia, and sola
scriptura) tacked on. They had essentially the same liturgy, but their beliefs on how said liturgy
functioned differed subtly yet significantly from orthodox teachings. The Zwinglis took Luther’s ideas
and took them several steps further than he approved of: music was completely eliminated as well as
icons, and the Eucharist was reduced to a mere symbol rather than an efficacious sacrament. Zwingli’s
litturgy still held traces of the old Orthodox teachings, but was reduced to what Zwingli considered the
bare necessities. John Calvin, on the other hand, opted to transform the faith entirely. Calvin’s
teachings were more self-consistent than Luther’s and more scripturally justifiable than Zwingli’s,
resulting in a far more complete system of beliefs than the others’, and also a far more unique system.
Calvin essentially defined what would become the modern concept of Protestantism, though without
the worship music which so often accompanies American protestant services today. He also believed
that the government should actively work with the faithful to enforce the faith, as opposed to the
previous Catholic strategy of attempting to wrest control over matters of the faith FROM the
government. Each of these movements sought to remove the cause of a series of abuses or perceived
abuses in the Church; Lutherans sought to eliminate the use of indulgences, to increase the emphasis on
scripture, and to focus more on a personal rather than communal spirituality; Zwinglis sought to
remove the communal focus altogether and to focus on scripture to an even higher degree, and thus on
personal understanding; Calvinists dropped the standard two-part liturgy formula entirely, indicating
that scripture was of vastly increased importance to them, as was personal experience of god. However,
Calvinists did have a communal aspect, insomuch as they would often use the community to enforce
the rules of the faith. By contrast, the Catholic Counter-reformation sought not to remove those
practices which the protestants perceived to be the cause of corruption, but rather to further refine them
so they would be more difficult to abuse; indeed in many cases they simply emphasized what the
Protestants rejected, in particular the role of the priest and the nature of the Eucharist. All three
movements, however, drew on humanism to a greater of lesser extent: the Protestants would often used
etymology (with much more success on the part of Calvin than the others) to justify their beliefs and
thus condemn the beliefs of the other sects, particularly Catholicism (and the Anabaptists); Zwingli in
particular argued that the Eucharist was a symbol rather than a Sacrament on the (rather shaky) basis on
a difference in the translation of a word, while Calvin used the Bible and the writings of some church
fathers to justify his belief on predestination. The Church in turn turned to humanism to discredit these
interpretations, drawing upon records to show that pre-medieval Christians had indeed believed in the
efficacy of the Eucharist and Transubstantiation.