Witter Theological College

Vankhosung: Wokha, Nagaland

Book Review

History of Reformation Period

Name: Shanchothung Z Patton

Subject: Pioneer of Christian witness in India (PCWI)

John Wyclif

John Wyclif is the famously called as the “precursor of the reformation” or " Morning Star of
Reformation" John Wyclif was the first one to put fourth defining theories in lines with the
positions of the sixteenth century protestants reforms. His ideas were suppressed in his own life
time but it was kept alive by his follows Lollards and later by John Huss. He was a good pioneer;
he laid the theological foundations which were later developed and refined by the reforms. The
churches of the sixteenth century did not bring in a church into being from nowhere but it built
upon existing foundations laid down centuries ago by John Wyclif. He went to Oxford for his
higher studies where he spent most of his Career. He entered the royal service but there's no clear
evidence that he was directly serving the crown. According to him God alone is the Lord and no
man can be Lord in the ultimate sense of the word but only Steward. He argued that "The
Scripture was the eternal truth, will and testament of God the father, contains all that was
necessary. He wanted to produce a vernacular translation of the Bible. He felt many Doctrines
taught by the church were full of errors and superstitions. According to him, the visible church is
the institutional church, which contains both saints and sinners but the invisible church is known
to God, it is made up of those who were predestined to be saved before the foundations of the
universe were laid. He believed that salvation is fixed for some person only. John Wyclif died
without seeing his ideas taking root or his vision of the reformed church fulfilled but he is counted
among the first of the forerunners of the reformation

John Huss

John Huss was born in 1373 in Husinec, Bohemia. His reformation movement was the most
successful “failure” of any reforms before the sixteenth century protestant reforms in Germany
and Switzerland. John Huss was a follower of John Wyclif but he went beyond Wyclif and
thought that the prerogative and the program of reform should come from the common people. He
laid great stress upon the preaching of the word of God in the mother tongue of the people.
According to him, after the consecration of the bread and wine, it remained bread and wine and
not the real body and blood of Christ, he tried to explain both the doctrine of transubstantiation

1
and the presence of bread and wine he failed to convince his antagonist (Opposition). He was
suspended from preaching and his books were Confiscated (Taken away). He became a symbol of
Czech nationalism as well as church reform. John Huss was a key contributor to Protestantism;
whose teachings had a strong influence on the state of Europe and on Martin Luther himself. John
Huss death moved that hearts of his countryman more powerful than even his living voice had
been able to do. The nations from the highest to the lowest, were stirred by his life.

Factors contributing to reformation

The period of the Middle Age and Renaissance included major political, religious, social and
changes and cultural changes shifts. The influence of the Catholic Church weakened during this
period. In eleventh and twelfth centuries there was greater emphasis on education, particularly for
those in the church but also among the laity. They developed a literature written not in Latin but
in the vernacular. In the fourth and fifth Centuries, development of humanism, the belief that the
ancient Greeks and Romans had a moral wisdom compatible with and helpful to Christianity
profoundly changed peoples’ value allowing them to concentrate on this world as well as the next.
Protestant Reformation and Catholic revival of the sixteen centuries, had political, social, and
economic implications as well as religious ones. A part of the process different European nations
were ‘discovering’ exploring and subjugation ‘New World’ territories. Spain’s enormous empire
in central and South America and Portugal’s immense territories in African led to the development
of the slave trade, which spread to other European Nations The invention of the printing press and
moveable type in the middle of the 15 th century meant the reformation could be distributed at a
much faster rate, people read aloud to each other, and literary rates increase dramatically. In the
16th and 17th centuries, these changes in turn led to political unrest and revolutions.

Martin Luther

Martin Luther was famously known as the father of the reformation he was born at Eisleben in
Saxony on November .10, 1483 He became a copper miner, then a owner of several small mines
and later a small scale entrepreneur. He joined St. Augustine Monastery at Erfurt. His decision of
becoming a Monk was not acceptable by his parents and which created a strained relationship with
his father for many years and only when he got married it was resolved. He was ordained as a
priest in 1507, he received his doctorate on October 19, 1512. In 1520, Luther produced an
enormous number of publications, but three treatises that put forward in a more systematic way all
his insight about the errors in doctrine, ritual, and church governance that he saw in Catholic
Church. He neither planned nor expected the reformation movement and inaugurated an Era of
reformation in Germany and he spread over many countries. He is a figure of titanic greatness in
the history of religion, a writer and preacher of vast output and great depth. Luther was one of the
few who walks out on to the historical stage to briefly dominate the drama and then leaves the
audience forever inspired and troubled by the echo of his words. Martin Luther was only an
instrument in the hand of God whose presence permeated and sovereignty directed the course of
his history. He was called from a sickbed in 1546 to settle the disputes of two German Noblemen
and on his return trip he died on Feb. 18, 1546.

2
Reformation in German Speaking Switzerland

The Reformation in German was led by Martin Luther, the reformation in Switzerland is more
important than the German reformation. Ulrich Zwingli was the leader of the protestant
reformation in Switzerland and he was strongly influenced by humanistic principles. He expressed
his views in Sermons, private conservation, and public debates and before the city council.
Zwingli turned academic disputations into occasions of the public decision which become
formidable weapons for reformation. The disputation proved throughout the period 1523-36
converting most of the part of the Switzerland. He promoted national self defence; a stance that
cost him his life at the second battle of kappel in 1531. Zwingli’s patriotism is graphically
represented by the status in Zwingli, which portrays him with a bible in one hand and a sword in
the other. He successfully started a political, ecclesiastical, and theological movement in the Swiss
town in the Zurich.

John Calvin

John Calvin was born on July 10,1509 in Noyon. He is known as and the most influential of the
religious leader of the protestant reformation in the sixteenth century Europe. Calvin settled the
issues concerning the identity of the church and its place in public life. In April 1532 he published
his first book a commentary on Declementia (The Clemency). In March 1536 Calvin published the
first edition of his Magnum opus (The institutes of Christian religion) which established his
reputation among the Reformers. He directed the reformation in Geneva, hoping to fully establish
Protestantism as part of a total moral reform and to eliminate the lack of discipline associated with
Catholicism. There were two phases given by Calvin, first phase the reformation focused on the
issue relating to personal salvation and the need for reform in relating the life of the church.
Second phase talk about the issues concerning the identity of the church and its place in the public
life. His most significant works was “The institutes of the Christian Religion”. Calvin developed
his knowledge against the city of Geneva, and Geneva became the new centre for the evangelical
movement. This reformation was called as the protestant Rome in the sixteenth century. In 1558
he had suffered an attack of pleurisy (disease of lungs) and on May 27, 1564 he died of pulmonary
tuberculosis.

The English reformation

The reformation in England was unique and was different from the reformation of many Europe
countries like Germany or Switzerland. Reformation in England was intricately bound up with the
power struggle between the pope and the emperor. Most of the countries in the European continent
adopted the reforms before breaking or corruption with the Roman Catholic Church, but in the
case of England, it first broke up with Rome and then made the changes in religious practices an
establish of the church of the England. In England almost all the churches had uniformity of
worship till the sixteenth century, the kings and emperors were subject to pope even in temporal
matters and derived their right to rule from God through him. The pope was viewed as a ruler in
spiritual matters and whose decision and judgment were unquestionable and beyond appeal. The
reformation in England began with Henry VIII, but Henry VIII did not wish to make any major
changes in the doctrine and theology of the church. It was Edward who introduced the Book of
Common Prayer that bring uniformity in the Church of England. But after him Queen Mary
3
undone all the protestant reforms and established Catholicism for a brief period, against after her
Queen Elizabeth re-established Protestantism in England.

Catholic reformation or Counter reformation

The revival of the Roman Catholic Church in the sixteenth century has been called as the
reformation or catholic reformation. The Counter Reformation which led by conservative forces
whose aim was both to reform the church and to secure its traditions against the innovations of
protestant theology and against the more liberalizing effects of the renaissance. The catholic
reformation consisted of two closely related developments. Firstly, a revival of Christian piety
among secular and regular clergy and to some extent the laity, secondly a series of institutional
reforms like administration changes, doctrinal definitions and cohesive measures to Counter
protestant heresy and schism. The result of the Catholic Reformation was that Church of Rome,
which had lost a large part of Europe, not only ceased to lose, but actually regained nearly half of
what she had lost. There were two main centres of early Catholic revival namely Spain and Italy.
In 1559-1560, in few island where Lutheran ideas had spread were completely wiped out by the
Spanish Inquisition as a result in the seventeenth century there were many Monasteries in Spain.
The counter or catholic reformation did two things for Roman Catholic Church. First, it generated
the Roman Church and secondly it helped in regaining nearly half of what she had lost to
Protestantism. It also raised the moral and educational standards of he Clergy. The council
eliminated existing uncertainties and produced clarity and security on the Catholic side. The
Roman Church also published the INDEX thus fixing the border line between Catholic and
protestant.

Women and reformation

The protestant reformation was a paradigm shift in the history of Christianity. It touched every
aspect of the Christian life, but how far it affected the condition of women. One on sides it
believed that it was a significant turning point for women but on other side nothing to do with
women. Women prior to reformation had an important place in the Church as Nuns and mystics.
And how did the reformation affect the women who are formed almost half of the church, again in
some ways affected the status and role of women in the church and society. The reformation did
not directly affect the role of the women in the church but it brought a fundamental change in the
way the church looked at women and marriage which greatly influenced society both in a short
and the long run perspective. In the first part of the sixteenth century women were seen as spiritual
authorities because of their visionary and prophetic experiences. It can be said that changing in
society was not the original intent of the protestant like Luther and Calvin but the changes they
advocated had great significant for women. During the reformation, it was the women from royal
families and the wives of the reformers who had some role to play but otherwise the idea of
inferiority of women remained. Women were equal to men in the present of God according to the
bible, but inferior to men on earth.

4
The Anabaptists

The major group to emerge from the protestant reformation was the Anabaptists. The Anabaptists
departed radically from the three major protestant group {Lutherans, Calvinists, and Anglicans}
over issues such as the relationship between church and states, the use to coercion in religious
matters, the taking oaths, adults’ baptism, and the legitimacy of warfare. They embraced the "Free
church" or "believers Church" rejecting the " Constantinian Christianity" that legally bound the
faith of Christians and the force of state together. The term Anabaptist means " Baptizing again,
the Anabaptist preferred to call themselves as “evangelicals,” “Christian,” “believers,” and
particularly “brethren”. One of the most heartrending aspects of the reformation was the brutal
persecution of the religious radicals. The first Anabaptist movement took place not among city
dwellers but among the peasants and rural artisans. Infant Baptism was frequently questioned in
the early years of Reformation. On 20 January 1536, Menno laid down his priestly office and
joined the Anabaptists cause, he made the break with Rome at the moment when the Anabaptist
were hated the most by the authorities. He was not only an Anabaptist but also a re-ordinationist.
In 1541, the counsellors of Leeuwarden made plans to seize Menno as they believed that was the
only way to eradicate the Anabaptists. Later he had to face his ordained Adam pastor regarding the
nature of Christ. Menno felt that the threat to the faith and wrote a small book to counteract
Pastor's influence. Menno's own view of the incarnation of Christ was not accepted by the
Anabaptists. The amount of suffering they were subjected to was incalculable. The persecution
was caused by their attitudes towards society, government. The idea of a voluntary Church,
Separate as far as possible from the state; the idea of a religion of spirit, unhampered by form,
creed, or ritual, and the idea of application of rational thought to religious issues without these, we
should be poorer indeed.