In the 16th century, the only unifying force in Europe was Christianity. Except for the Ottoman lands, all European lands were Christian. The last Muslims living in Spain disappeared at the beginning of the 16th century. Jews lived on the borders of Poland and Russia.
The clearest division in the Christian world was between the Catholic and Orthodox churches. This division sharpened after 1453. After the fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans, the Balkans became a border point where the two sects met.
In the Catholic West, the church was the only valid institution on the continent. Each country had its own laws as well as a religious law. All universities were run by the church. In the conditions of the period, there were no conditions that would prevent the church. People were adapting to live in harmony with religious norms. But a major crisis in the early 16th century would shake the foundations of Europe and set the stage for a series of irreversible transformations. This new reform was so massive that it led to the creation of many churches and cultures around the world, starting with the reading of the Bible. Clergy who wanted to marry reappeared in Europe. All existing religious institutions were disregarded. The people who emerged overthrew many of the religious impositions and breathed new life into the spread of religion. They paved the way for tolerance of different religious views. But the whole of Europe saw all this as a new religious debate.
Challenges to the official structure of the papacy had a long history. Making demands for church reforms or criticizing the clergy and the clergy was nothing new. In the general conditions of the period, there were many problems such as the clergy threatening peasants with excommunication, the extravagant spending of the papal palace in Rome, the bishops' lack of concern for their parishes, the more frequent collection of the excise tax and the ignorance of the clergy. Although there was a group that criticized all these, the general atmosphere of the period continued within these debates.
But in 1517, the action of Luther, a German monk, unwittingly shattered all religious foundations and gave rise to a new national consciousness in Germany. Luther spent most of his life in the city of Wittenberg, near the Elbe River. While teaching at the university founded there, he gradually began to think that the Gospel should be preached in a new way. He believed that it should tell people that God is a forgiver, not a punisher.
Luther went to Rome and did not like what he saw there. The leadership of the clergy in the Church was in a bad state. He also thought the sale of indulgences was wrong. After listening to what he was told by the peasants, Luther became enraged and compiled his complaints in Latin into ninety-five theses, which he hung on the door of the Wittenberg castle church on All Saints' Day 1517.
He sent a copy to the Church of Mainz, the most important religious authority in Germany. The archbishop forwarded the theses to Rome and at the same time banned Luther from preaching. But the theses had already been translated into German and distributed widely. This created a great debate all over Germany. At the same time, some German monarchs became interested in this religious debate and began to voice their own discontent. Luther was no longer an advocate of reform, but an opinion leader who questioned religious authority.
In 1520, Luther burned the papal bull excommunicating him and continued to preach. He did not give up his views at the Imperial Diet. Germany was now divided into supporters and opponents of Luther. In 1521 Emperor Karl V declared him an outlaw.
Luther's religious view was opposed to confession, absolution and the inability of clergy to marry. His view was embraced by all those who were uncomfortable with the clergy. It was also supported by the Princes who were in trouble with the Empire. The term "Protestant" was used for the first time in the wars that broke out.
Forty years after Luther posted his theses on the door of the church in Wittenberg, the imperial council in Augsburg in 1555 recognized the division of Germany into Catholic and Protestant (Peace of Augsburg). What began as a complaint by a monk ended with Europe's acceptance of religious pluralism.
REFERENCES
J. M. Roberts, Avrupa Tarihi, İnkılap Yayınları, İstanbul, 2015.
Hakan Olgun, Katolik Kilisesi’nin Endülüjans Uygulaması ve Protestan Reformuna Etkisi, On Dokuz Mayıs Üniversitesi İlahiyat Fakültesi Dergisi, Cilt 18, Sayı 18-19.
James Atkinson, The Trail of Luther, London 1971.
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