part0023

Alas, how can the poor souls live in Concord when you preachers sow amongst them in your sermons debate and discord? They look to you for light and you bring them darkness. Amend these crimes, I exhort you, and set forth God's word truly, both by true preaching and giving a good example, or else, I, whom God has appointed his vicar and high minister here, will see these divisions extinct, and these enormities corrected…

(King Henry VIII, Fox’s Book of Martyrs )

The more reverence for education and philosophy, the more variance people discovered in their personal belief systems. Religious doctrine came under ideological scrutiny by the aristocracy whose loyalty the Catholic Church had relied upon for centuries. By the time the European powers were dividing up North and South America, the home front was already splintered into sections of Catholic strongholds and Protestant realms.

The aptly named Protestant religion is usually noted by historians to have begun in 1517 with the publishing of Martin Luther’s pamphlet, the Ninety-Five Theses , also known as the Disputation on the Power of Indulgences . [126] Luther, a citizen of German lands within the Holy Roman Empire, hoped to inspire a reorganization of the Catholic Church. Luther’s main issue with Catholicism was the ability of wealthy individuals to buy what the church called “indulgences,” which were payments in lieu of good deeds that were meant to counter one’s sins. [127] Believing that this was a misuse of power, Luther wrote in favor of removing what he saw as a profitable business from religious life. Church officials refuted Luther’s work vehemently, and the man found himself ostracized and excommunicated by the church in 1521. [128]

Despite these challenges, Martin Luther had indeed inspired change within many important people in Europe, particularly in parts of the Holy Roman Empire. The overwhelming desire of German states of the empire to become officially Protestant was potentially devastating to the Holy Roman Empire, ruled at the time by Charles V. [129] Grandson to the Catholic Monarchs themselves, Isabella and Ferdinand of Spain, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V was personally very dedicated to the cause of Catholicism for which his family had fought so hard. After the Duke of Prussia, the Duke of Hesse, and the Duke of Saxony (local rulers throughout the northern Holy Roman Empire) all converted to Protestantism, Charles V was called upon by Pope Clement VII to put a stop to the spread of anti-Catholicism in his realm. [130] , [131]

In 1530, Charles V arrived in Augsburg to meet with the dukes and other reigning princes of the Holy Roman Empire to discuss important business, including the perceived threat to Catholicism. [132] A formal diet, or assembly, was convened that June at which the rulers of states within the Holy Roman Empire were made to explain their Lutheran reforms and practices to the emperor. [133] The Augsburg Confession set forth a formal foundation for the beliefs of Lutherans in the “21 Chief Articles of Faith.” This was followed with seven “abuses corrected,” a series of statements where the Lutheran faith was believed by its followers to have improved upon traditional Catholic doctrine.

As Martin Luther had suggested in the Disputation on the Power of Indulgences , the Lutheran articles of faith stated that a Christian could only be redeemed from sin by good deeds and not by payments to the church. The articles also allowed for Lutheran priests to marry, as well as for its followers to forego religious fasts and holidays. [134] In response, Charles V and Vatican advisors wrote a text refuting most of the Lutheran document, prompting another response from the Lutheran leaders in the form of the Apology of the Augsburg Confession . The Apology was a misnomer in that its authors intended no such thing. The Apology was first published in 1531, less than a year after the Diet of Augsburg. A second draft was soon penned, with input from Luther himself, and this was formally signed by the members of the newly formed Schmalkaldic League. [135] The League, comprised of Lutheran princes of the Holy Roman Empire, promised to band together in the event that any of them were attacked by Charles V.

In England, Protestantism was at the forefront of King Henry VIII’s mind for one main reason: Divorce. His reasoning probably had very little to do with a change of faith; Tudor was raised Catholic, as was the norm in his realm, and by all accounts, he was a true believer in his religious teachings. The real reason he looked beyond the rules of the Catholic Church had everything to do with the fact that he wanted a separation from his wife, Catherine of Aragon, due to the fact that she was past child-bearing age. Henry Tudor was the ultimate patriarch in search of a legitimate son to rule England after he died. And he would settle for nothing less.

Protestants (a general term used to define Lutheranism and other similar reformed faiths) were allowed to divorce without papal consent. Though Martin Luther himself was not in favor of the English king divorcing his wife, Henry did eventually find a way to use the Reformation in his own favor. He appointed an ally, Thomas Cranmer, in the vacant position of Archbishop of Canterbury and had him judge in favor of a lawful royal divorce. [136] To reinforce the decision, Henry pronounced himself head of the Church of England, ending the Pope’s authority there. The split from Catholic Europe was achieved, and that same year, King Henry wed his new bride, Anne Boleyn. Boleyn’s family was very supportive of the English Reformation, not in small part because Anne’s queenship depended on it.

Thus, it was almost entirely upon the whims of King Henry VIII that England changed from a stoic Catholic nation into a Protestant kingdom at the forefront of European religious reformation. The Church of England retained many likenesses to Roman Catholicism and ultimately answered to the oft-spontaneous decrees of King Henry VIII instead of the doctrines of Luther or any other Protestant philosopher of the day. When the Apology of the Augsburg Confession was translated into English in 1536 and Henry was offered membership in the Schmalkaldic League, the king did not join. [137] That same year, he had his Protestant queen beheaded for treason and married his next wife, Jane Seymour, his third wife out of six. [138]