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Reformation: Protestant Reformation
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The Scottish Reformation was part of the movement throughout western Europe which led to national churches breaking their ties with Rome. Its leader in Scotland was John Knox who was greatly influenced by John Calvin, the Reformer of Geneva. The Leaders of the Reformation: At the forefront of the Reformation were the Lords of the Congregation, a group of powerful nobles who were in favour of the Reformed faith. John Knox (1505-72) was the most prominent Scottish churchman involved. He had been born near Edinburgh and had been ordained as a priest.He had studied at St Andrews University and entered the priesthood. Because there were too many priests in Scotland for the size of the population, he found work in East Lothian as a notary and during his time there became a follower of the protestant leader, George Wishart, who was burnt at the stake in 1546.
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The Protestant Reformation was a movement in Europe that began with Martin Luther's activities in 1517, with roots further back in time. It ended with the Peace of Westphalia in 1648.[1] The movement began as an attempt to reform the Roman Catholic Church. Many western Christians were troubled by what they saw as false doctrines and malpractices within the Roman Catholic Church, particularly involving the teaching and sale of indulgences. Another major contention was the practice of buying and selling church positions (simony) and the tremendous corruption found at the time within the Roman Catholic Church's hierarchy. This corruption was systemic at the time, even reaching the position of the Pope.[2]
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The Reformation in France was initiated early in the 16th century by a group of mystics and humanists who gathered at Meaux near Paris under the leadership of Lefèvre d'Étaples. Like Luther, Lefèvre d'Étaples studied the Epistles of St. Paul and derived from them a belief in justification by individual faith alone; he ... denied the doctrine of transubstantiation. In 1523 he translated the entire New Testament into French. At first his writings were well received by church and state officials, but as Luther's radical doctrines began to spread into France, Lefèvre d'Ètaples's work was seen to be similar, and he and his followers were persecuted. Many leading Protestants fled from France and settled in the republic of Geneva or Switzerland until strengthened in numbers and philosophy by the Calvinistic reformation in Geneva. More than 120 pastors trained in Geneva by Calvin returned to France before 1567 to proselytize for Protestantism.
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Recent studies of the Reformation more often emphasize its social dimension, going beyond the doctrinal issues that divided Europeans. Because religion helped shape every aspect of European life, the practices of the new churches caused major changes. Sacramental ceremonies from baptism to last rites had long marked key moments in the lives and families and communities. By abolishing or changing the sacraments, Protestantism challenged the social meaning of these rituals. The Protestant attack on clerical celibacy emptied monasteries and nunneries and led to a married clergy. This shattered older understandings about sexuality and personal holiness and led to intensified debate about the role of women in society.
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In England the origin of the Reformation was entirely different. Here the sensual and tyrannical Henry VIII, with the support of Thomas Cranmer, whom the king made the Archbishop of Canterbury, severed his country from ecclesiastical unity because the pope, as the true guardian of the Divine law, refused to recognize the invalid marriage of the king with Anne Boleyn during the lifetime of his lawful wife. Renouncing obedience to the pope, the despotic monarch constituted himself supreme judge even in ecclesiastical affairs; the opposition of such good men as Thomas More and John Fisher was overcome in blood. The king wished... to retain unchanged both the doctrines of the Church and the ecclesiastical hierarchy, and caused a series of doctrines and institutions rejected by Luther and his followers to be strictly prescribed by Act of Parliament (Six Articles) under the pain of death. In England also the civil power constituted itself supreme judge in matters of faith, and laid the foundation for further arbitrary religious innovations. Under the following sovereign, Edward VI (1547-53), the Protestant party gained the upped hand, and thenceforth began to promote the Reformation in England according to the principles of Luther, Zwingli, and Calvin.
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In Scotland as in other countries the Reformation originated among elements of the population already hostile to the Roman Catholic church. The Roman Catholic clergy was held in general disrepute by the people, and remnants of Lollardy, or the doctrines of John Wycliffe, were still prevalent. The merchants and the minor nobility were especially active in furthering the Scottish Reformation as a vehicle for national self-determination and independence from England and France as well as for religious reform. Consequently, Protestantism spread rapidly despite repressive measures by the pro-Roman Catholic Scottish government. The early religious reform movement, initiated by such leaders as the martyr Patrick Hamilton, was under Lutheran influence. The actual revolution, accomplished under the leadership of the religious reformer John Knox, an ardent disciple of Calvin, established Calvinism as the national religion of Scotland.
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Protestant Reformation