History of the Catholic Church from the Renaissance to the French

R >> Rev. James MacCaffrey >> History of the Catholic Church from the Renaissance to the French

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With regard to the Sacraments Luther and Zwingli agreed that they were
only signs of grace, though in the explanation of this view Zwingli
was much more extreme, because much more logical, than Luther.
Believing as he did that justification depended upon faith alone, he
contended that the Sacraments were mere ceremonies by which a man
became or showed himself to be a follower of Christ. They were devoid
of any objective virtue, and were efficacious only in so far as they
guaranteed that the individual receiving them possessed the faith
necessary for justification. But it was principally in regard to the
Eucharist that the two reformers found themselves in hopeless
disagreement. Had Luther wished to be consistent he should have thrown
over the Real Presence as well as Transubstantiation, but the force of
tradition, the fear that any such teaching would arouse the opposition
of the people, and the plain meaning of the texts of Scripture forced
him to adopt a compromise. "Had Doctor Carlstadt," he wrote, "or any
one else been able to persuade me five years ago that the sacrament of
the altar is but bread and wine he would, indeed, have done me a great
service, and rendered me very material aid in my efforts to make a
breach in the Papacy. But it is all in vain. The meaning of the texts
is so evident that every artifice of language will be powerless to
explain it away." He contended that the words "This is My body and
This is My blood" could bear only one meaning, namely, that Christ was
really present, but while agreeing with Catholics about the Real
Presence of Christ in the Eucharist, he rejected the doctrine of
Transubstantiation, maintaining in its place Consubstantiation or
Impanation.

Though Luther insisted so strongly on the Real Presence, it is not
clear that in the beginning he had any very fixed views on the
subject, or that he would have been unwilling to change any views he
had formed, were it not that one of his lieutenants, Carlstadt, began
to exercise his privilege of judgment by rejecting the Real Presence.
Such an act of insubordination aroused the implacable ire of Luther,
who denounced his former colleague as a heretic, and pursued him from
Wittenberg and Jena, where he had fled for refuge. In the end
Carlstadt was obliged to retire to Switzerland, where his doctrine
found favour with the Swiss reformers.

From the beginning of his campaign Zwingli realised that the Real
Presence was not in harmony with his theory of justification, and
hence he was inclined to hold that the Eucharist was a mere sign
instituted as a reminder of Christ's death. But in view of the clear
testimony of the Holy Scripture he was at a loss how to justify his
position. At last by pondering on other passages that he considered
similar to the text "This is My body," where the word "is" should be
interpreted "signifies," he contended that the true meaning of
Christ's words at the Last Supper is, "This signifies My body."
Oecolampadius agreed with this interpretation, though for a different
reason, comparing the Blessed Eucharist to a ring that a husband going
away on a long journey might give to his wife as a pledge and reminder
of his affection.[4]

Luther resented bitterly such a theory as an attack upon his
authority, especially as Zwingli refused to allow himself to be brow-
beaten into retracting his doctrine. Instead of submitting to the new
religious dictator, Zwingli sought to justify himself by the very
principle by which Luther justified his own revolt against the
Catholic Church. He contended that Luther's theory of justification
involved logically the rejection of the Eucharist as well as of the
other Sacraments, that the Scriptural texts could be interpreted as he
had interpreted them, and that he was not bound to take any cognisance
of the Christian tradition or of the authority of the councils. He
complained that Luther treated himself and his followers as heretics
with whom it was not right to hold communion, that he proscribed their
writings and denounced them to the magistrates, and that he did
precisely towards them what he blamed the Pope for doing to himself.
Luther found it difficult to meet this line of argument. Much against
his will he was obliged to support his opinions by appealing to the
tradition of the Church and the writings of the Fathers, which latter
he had denounced as "fetid pools whence Christians have been drinking
unwholesome draughts instead of slaking their thirst from the pure
fountain of Holy Scripture."[5] "This article (The Eucharist)," he
wrote, "is neither unscriptural nor a dogma of human invention. It is
based upon the clear and irrefragable words of Holy Writ. It has been
uniformly held and believed throughout the whole Christian world from
the foundation of the Church to the present time. That such has been
the fact is attested by the writings of the Holy Fathers, both Greek
and Latin, by daily usage and by the uninterrupted practice of the
Church. . . . To doubt it, therefore, is to disbelieve the Christian
Church and to brand her as heretical, and with her the prophets,
apostles, and Christ Himself, who, in establishing the Church said:
'Behold I am with you all days even to the consummation of the
world.'"[6]

The opposition of Luther did not put an end to the controversy. The
Zwinglian theories spread rapidly in Switzerland, whence they were
carried into Germany, much to the annoyance of Luther and of the
Protestant princes for whom religious unity was necessary at almost
any cost. Luther would listen to no schemes of compromise. He
denounced the Zwinglians in the most violent terms, as servants of the
devil, liars, and heretics for whose salvation no man should pray.
Having rejected Transubstantiation in order to rid himself of the
sacrificial idea and of the doctrine of a Christian priesthood, he
fought strongly for the Real Presence on the ground that God's body,
being united to the divinity, enjoyed the divine attribute of
ubiquity. To this Zwingli made the very effective rejoinder that if
the words of Scripture "This is My body and this is My blood" are to
be interpreted literally they could bear only the sense put upon them
by the Catholics, because Christ did not say "My body is in or under
this bread," but rather "This (the bread) is My body." Furthermore, he
pointed out that Luther's explanation concerning the ubiquity of
Christ's body led clearly to a confusion of the divine and human
nature of Christ, and was in consequence only a renewal of the
Monophysite heresy, condemned by the whole Christian Church.

This unseemly dispute between the two leaders of the new movement did
not please the Protestant princes of Germany, for whom division of
their forces might mean political extinction. The Elector of Saxony
supported Luther warmly, while Philip of Hesse was more or less
inclined to side with Zwingli. A conference was arranged between the
two parties at Marburg (1529), at which Luther and Oecolampadius were
present to defend their views. On a few secondary matters an agreement
was arrived at, but on the main question, the Real Presence, Luther
would yield nothing, and so the Reformers were divided into two
parties, German Lutherans and Swiss Reformed.
----------

[1] /Precis Historique de l'Abbaye et du Pelerinage de Notre-Dame-des-
Ermites/, 1870.

[2] /Realencycl. fur Protestantische Theol./, xxi., p. 778.

[3] Schwane, op. cit., p. 141.

[4] Schwane, op. cit., p. 349.

[5] Dollinger, /Die Reformation/, i., pp. 430-51.

[6] Alzog, iii., 256-7.

(c) Northern Europe.

See bibliography, chap. ii. (a). Karup, /Geschichte der
Katholischen Kirche in Danemark/, 1863. Munter, /Kirchengeschichte
von Danemark und Norwegen/, 1823. Theiner-Cohen, /La Suede et la
Saint-Siege sous les rois Jean III., Sigismond III., et Charles
IX./, 1842. Butler, /The Reformation in Sweden/, 1884. De Flaux,
/La Suede au XVIme siecle/, 1861. Englestoft, /Reformantes et
Catholici tempore, quo sacra emendata sunt, in Dania
concertantes/, 1836. Schmitt, /Die Verteidigung der Kathol. Kirche
in Danemark gegen die Religionsneuerung im 16en Jahr/, 1899.
/Confutatio Lutheranismi Danici/, etc. (written 1530, ed. 1902).

At the beginning of the sixteenth century political power in Denmark
was vested to a great extent in the hands of the bishops and nobles.
It was by these two parties that the king was elected, and so great
was their influence that, as a rule, the candidate chosen by their
votes was obliged to accept any conditions they cared to impose. The
bishops, as in most countries at the time, held enormous estates,
granted to their predecessors by the crown or bequeathed by generous
benefactors for the maintenance of religion. Unfortunately, with some
exceptions, they were not men zealous for religious interests, or
capable of understanding that a serious crisis was at hand. In every
direction the need of reform was only too apparent, and, as such as
work had not been undertaken by those who should have undertaken it, a
splendid opportunity was afforded to the men who desired not the
welfare of religion but rather the overthrow of the Church.

Christian II. (1513-23) wished to put an end to the supremacy of the
bishops and nobles and to assert for himself and his successors
absolute control. He was a man of great ability and determination,
well acquainted with the tendencies of the age, and not particularly
scrupulous about the means by which the success of his policy might be
assured. To such a man Luther's attack on the bishops of Germany
seemed to be almost providential. He realised that by embracing the
new religious system, which enabled him to seize the wealth of the
Church and to concentrate in his own hands full ecclesiastical power,
he could rid himself of one of the greatest obstacles to absolutism,
and secure for himself and his successors undisputed sway in Denmark.
Though his own life was scandalously immoral he determined to become
the champion of a religious reformation, and against the wishes of the
nobles, clergy, and people he invited a disciple of Luther's to
Copenhagen, and placed at his disposal one of the city's churches.
This step aroused the strongest opposition, but Christian, confident
that boldness meant success, adopted stern measures to overcome his
opponents. He proclaimed himself the patron of those priests who were
willing to disregard their vows of celibacy, issued regulations
against the unmarried clergy, and appealed to the people against the
bishops and the nobles. As the Archbishop-elect of Lund was unwilling
to show himself to be coerced into betraying the interests confided to
his charge, the king commanded that he should be put to death.

By these violent methods he had hoped to frighten his subjects into
compliance with his wishes, but he was doomed to speedy and complete
disappointment. The bishops and barons, though divided on many
questions, were at one in their resistance to such despotism, and they
had behind them the great body of the people, who had little if any
desire for a religious revolution. Christian II. was deposed, and in
his place his uncle, Frederick I. (1523-33), became king of Denmark.
At his coronation the new monarch pledged himself to defend the
Catholic religion and to suppress heresy. Soon, however, motives
similar to those that had influenced his predecessor induced him also
to lean towards Lutheranism. At first his efforts for the spread of
the new teaching were carried out secretly, but once he felt himself
secure on the throne, he proclaimed himself publicly a Lutheran (1526)
and invited Lutheran preachers to the capital. A Diet was called in
1527 at Odensee to consider the religious controversy that had arisen.
In this assembly the king, basing his defence on the ground that
though he had pledged himself to protect the Catholic Church he was
under no obligation to tolerate abuses, contended that the suppression
of abuses and the purifying of religion were the only objects he had
at heart in the measures that he had taken. Owing mainly to his own
stubbornness and the cowardly and wavering attitude of the bishops, it
was agreed by the Diet that till a General Council could be convoked
full toleration should be given to the Lutheran preachers, that in the
meantime no civil disabilities should be inflicted on supporters of
the new religion, that those of the clergy who wished to marry should
be allowed to do so, that the archbishop should apply no longer to
Rome for his pallium, and finally that the confirmation of the
appointment of bishops should be transferred from the Pope to the
king.

By these measures, to which the bishops offered only a faint
opposition, Denmark was separated practically from the Holy See, and
the first step was taken on the road that was to lead to national
apostasy. The next important measure was the disputation arranged by
the king to take place at Copenhagen in 1529. The very fact that at
this meeting no Danish ecclesiastic capable of defending the Catholic
faith was to be found, and that it was necessary to have recourse to
Germany for champions of orthodoxy, is in itself a sufficient
indication of the character of the bishops who then ruled in Denmark,
and of the state of learning amongst the Danish clergy of the period.
Eck and Cochlaeus were invited to come to Copenhagen, but as they had
sufficient work to engage their attention at home, the duty of
upholding Catholic doctrine devolved upon Stagefyr, a theologian of
Cologne.[1] He could not speak Danish, nor would the Lutheran party
consent to carry on the conference in Latin. Furthermore, he claimed
that the authority of the Fathers and the decrees of previous General
Councils should be recognised, but the Lutherans insisted that the
Bible was the only source from which Christians should receive their
doctrines. In these circumstances, since a disputation was impossible,
both parties agreed to submit a full statement of their views in
writing to the king and council, who, as might have been anticipated,
decided in favour of Lutheranism.

During the remainder of his reign, Frederick I. spared no pains to
secure the victory for the new teaching in his dominions. The nobles
were won over to the king's views by promises of a share in the
partition of ecclesiastical property, and those who wished to stand
well with the sovereign were not slow in having recourse to violence
as affording proof that their zeal for Lutheranism was sincere.
Consequently the Lutheran party found themselves in a majority in the
Diet of 1530, and were powerful enough to do as they pleased. In
accordance with the example set in Germany and Switzerland attacks
were begun on churches, pictures, and statues, but in many places the
people were not prepared for such changes, and bitter conflicts took
place between the rival parties. In the confusion that resulted the
supporters of the deposed king rose in arms against his successful
rival, and the country was subjected to the horrors of civil war.
Frederick I. found it necessary to abandon the violent propagation of
Lutheranism and to offer toleration to the Catholics.

On his death in 1533 the bishops of Denmark protested against the
succession of his son Christian III. (1533-51) who was a personal
friend of Luther, and who had already introduced Protestantism into
his own state of Holstein; but as the nobles, won over by promises of
a share in the spoliation of the Church, refused to make common cause
with the bishops, their protest was unheeded. Confident that he could
rely on the support of the nobles, the king gave secret instructions
to his officials that on a certain day named by him all the bishops of
Denmark should be arrested and lodged in prison. His orders were
carried out to the letter (1536), and so rejoiced was Luther by this
step that he hastened to send the king his warmest congratulations.
The bishops were offered release on condition that they should resign
their Sees and pledge themselves to offer no further opposition to the
religious change. To their shame be it said that only one of their
number, Ronnow, Bishop of Roskilde, refused to accept liberty on such
disgraceful terms, preferring to remain a prisoner until he was
released by death (1544). The priests who refused to accept the new
religion were driven from their parishes, and several monasteries and
convents were suppressed.

To complete the work of reform and to give the Church in Denmark a new
constitution Bugenhagen, a disciple of Luther, was invited to the
capital (1539). He began by crowning the king according to Lutheran
ritual, and by drawing up a form of ecclesiastical government that
placed full spiritual power in the hands of the civil ruler. As in
Germany, superintendents were appointed in room of the bishops who had
resigned. When the work of drawing up the new ecclesiastical
organisation had been finished it was submitted to and approved of by
the Diet held at Odensee in 1539. In another Diet held in 1546 the
Catholic Church in Denmark was completely overthrown, her possessions
were confiscated, her clergy were forbidden to remain in the country
under penalty of death, and all lay Catholics were declared incapable
of holding any office in the state or of transmitting their property
to their Catholic heirs. By those measures Catholicism was suppressed,
and victory was secured for the Lutheran party.

Norway, which was united with Denmark at this period, was forced into
submission to the new creed by the violence of the Danish kings, aided
as they were by the greedy nobles anxious to share in the plunder of
the Church. Similarly Iceland, which was subject to Denmark, was
separated from Rome, though at first the people offered the strongest
resistance to the reformers. The execution, however, of their bishop,
John Aresen, the example of Denmark and Norway, and the want of
capable religious leaders produced their effects, and in the end
Iceland was induced to accept the new religion (1551). For a
considerable time Catholicism retained its hold on a large percentage
of the people both in Norway and Iceland, but the severe measures
taken by the government to ensure the complete extirpation of the
Catholic hierarchy and priesthood led almost of necessity to the
triumph of Lutheranism.

By the Union of Kalmar (1397) Sweden, Norway, and Denmark were united
under the rule of the King of Denmark. The Union did not, however,
bring about peace. The people of Sweden disliked the rule of a
foreigner, and more than once they rose in rebellion against Denmark.
In the absence of a strong central authority the clergy and nobles
became the dominant factors in the state, especially as they took the
lead in the national agitations against King Erik and his successors.
As in most other countries at the time, the Church was exceedingly
wealthy, the bishoprics and abbacies being endowed very generously,
but unfortunately, as elsewhere, the progress of religion was not in
proportion to the worldly possessions of its ministers. Endowment had
destroyed the liberty of election so essential for good
administration, with the result that the bishops and other
ecclesiastical dignitaries were selected without much regard for their
qualifications as spiritual guides. Yet it must be said that in
general the administrators of the ecclesiastical property were not
hard task-masters when compared with their lay contemporaries, nor was
there anything like a strong popular feeling against the Church. Still
the immense wealth of the religious institutions, the prevalence of
abuses, and the failure of the clergy to instruct the people in the
real doctrines of their faith were a constant source of menace to the
Church in Sweden, and left it open to a crushing attack by a leader
who knew how to win the masses to his side by proclaiming himself the
champion of national independence and of religious reform.

In 1515 Sten Sture, the administrator of Sweden, supported by the
Bishop of Linkoping as leader of the popular party, made a gallant
attempt to rally his countrymen to shake off the Danish yoke.
Unfortunately for the success of his undertaking he soon found a
dangerous opponent in the person of Gustaf Trolle, Archbishop of
Upsala, the nominee and supporter of the King of Denmark. The
archbishop threw the whole weight of his influence into the scales of
Denmark, and partly owing to his opposition, partly owing to the want
of sufficient preparation the national uprising was crushed early in
1520. Christian II. was crowned King of Sweden by the Archbishop of
Upsala. He signified his elevation to the throne by a general massacre
of his opponents which lasted for two days, and during which many of
the best blood of Sweden were put to death (Nov. 1520). The archbishop
was rewarded for his services to Denmark by receiving an appointment
as region or administrator of Sweden. He and his party made loud boast
of their political victory, but had they been gifted with a little
prudence and zeal they would have found good reason to regret a
triumph that had been secured by committing the Church to the support
of a Danish tyrant against the wishes of the majority who favoured
national independence. Religion and patriotism were brought into
serious conflict, and, given only a capable leader who would know how
to conduct his campaign with skill, it was not difficult to foresee
the results of such a conflict.

As it happened, such a leader was at hand in the person of Gustaf
Eriksson, better known as Gustavus Vasa. His father had been put to
death in the massacre of Stockholm, and he himself when a youth had
been given as a hostage to the King of Denmark. He made his escape and
fled to Lubeck, where he was kindly received, and remained until an
opportunity arose for his return to Sweden. He placed himself
immediately at the head of the party willing to fight against Denmark,
called upon his countrymen to rally to his standard, and in a short
time succeeded in driving the Danish forces from Sweden. He was
proclaimed administrator of his country in 1521, and two years later a
national Diet assembled at Strengnas offered him the crown.

Such an offer was in exact accordance with his own wishes. But he had
no intention of becoming king of Sweden merely to remain a tool in the
hands of the spiritual and lay lords as the kings of Denmark had
remained. Determined in his own mind to make himself absolute ruler of
Sweden by crushing the bishops and barons, he recognised that Luther's
teaching, with which he was familiar owing to his stay at Lubeck, held
out good hopes for the success of such a project. The warm attachment
of the Bishop of Upsala for the Danish faction had weakened the
devotion of the people to the Church, and had prepared the way for the
change which Gustavus contemplated. Some of the Swedish ecclesiastics,
notably the brothers Olaf and Laurence Peterson, both students of
Wittenberg, the former a well-known preacher at Stockholm, the latter
a professor at Upsala, were strongly Lutheran in their tendencies, and
were ready to assist the king. Though in his letters to Rome and in
his public pronouncements Gustavus professed himself to be a sincere
son of the Church, anxious only to prevent at all costs the spread of
Lutheranism in his dominions, he was taking steps secretly to
encourage his Lutheran supporters and to rid himself of the bishops
and members of the religious orders from whom he feared serious
opposition. As was done elsewhere, he arranged for a public
disputation at which Olaf Peterson undertook to defend the main
principles advocated by Luther, but the results of the controversy
were not so satisfactory for his party as he had anticipated.

Gustavus now threw off the mask of hypocrisy, and came forward boldly
as the champion of the new religion. He removed those bishops who were
most outspoken in their opposition, banished the Dominicans who stood
loyal to Rome, and tried to force the clergy to accept the change.
Anxious to enrich his treasury by confiscating the wealth of the
Church he scattered broadcast Luther's pamphlet on the confiscation of
ecclesiastical property, and engaged the professors of the University
of Upsala to use their efforts to defend and popularise the views it
contained. A commission was appointed to make an inventory of the
goods of the bishops and religious institutions and to induce the
monasteries to make a voluntary surrender of their property. By means
of threats and promises the commissioners secured compliance with the
wishes of the king in some districts, though in others, as for example
in Upsala, the arrival of the commission led to scenes of the greatest
violence and commotion. More severe measures were necessary to overawe
the people, and Gustavus was not a man to hesitate at anything likely
to promote the success of his plans. Bishop Jakobson and some of the
clergy were arrested, and after having been treated with every species
of indignity were put to death (1527).

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