Daily Life During The Reformation (43 page)

The Reformation in Sweden was launched for political
reasons by Gustavus Vasa. The Catholic faith proved difficult to overcome, but
Gustavus appointed to high positions Lutherans who won over many adherents,
including the archdeacon, Lorenz Anderson, whom the king made his chancellor.
In his dealings with legates of Pope Adrian VI, the king pretended fidelity to
the Church while giving support to heretics. He confiscated ecclesiastical
property, compelled clergymen to accept the new doctrine, and a popular
rebellion gave him an excuse to execute two Catholic bishops in 1527 for high
treason.

The king assumed the right to decide Church appointments
and removals while nobles found it beneficial to support the king when they
were granted the right to take back all donations to the Church made by their
ancestors since 1453. Clerical celibacy was abolished, and the vernacular
introduced into divine service. Like Henry VIII of England, the king made
himself supreme authority in religious matters, severing ties with the Vatican.

POLAND AND HUNGARY

Elsewhere, as in Poland, heresy was not deeply rooted.
Protestantism had filtered in from neighboring countries, but the Catholic
faith was supported by the people and Jesuit colleges. The king and many
nobles, although tolerant, could not be drawn into changing their religious
views. The different reformed sects fought bitterly among one another: but
nevertheless, in 1573, they secured the religious Peace of Warsaw, gaining
rights for Protestants equal to those of the Catholics. The Reformation
achieved no further progress in Poland.

In Hungary, the reform movement made more rapid progress
than in Poland and ironically was aided by the Turks who wiped out the
Hungarian army at the battle of Mohacs along with the king, Louis II Jagellon,
and a half-dozen bishops, leaving reformers pretty much a free hand in the war
devastated country.

For many Catholics the fundamental doctrine of
justification by faith alone produced a deplorable shallowness in religious
life. Ardor and devotion for good works vanished, asceticism that the Church
had practiced from its earliest days became despised, charitable and
supernatural interests ceased, and devotion to the merely mundane became widespread.
Denial of the divinely instituted Church, both in religious doctrine and
organization, encouraged perpetual divisions into sects and disputes
characteristic of Protestantism. Freedom of belief was a fraud; only tyranny in
matters of faith was displayed by the reformers. The various Protestant
churches were entirely discordant with the Christian universalism of the
Catholic Church and depended for their faith on the will of the secular ruler.
Wherever the Reformation found fertile ground, it enslaved the people.

ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND

England, where the observance of the faith was deeply
entrenched, once seemed the least likely of any Catholic country to embrace
Protestantism. The king, Henry VIII, was emphatically on the side of the Church
until the appearance at court of Anne Boleyn. Then it was found that the
absolute power of the sovereign, at least in England, overrode the spiritual
power of the pope.

Catholic theologians past and present find in Henry VIII’s
daughter, Mary Tudor, a sterling example of a Catholic monarch who tried to
restore the “true faith” to that island. That Catholicism was the preference of
the people was clear to Rome since when Mary gained the throne, she had little
difficulty restoring the old religious order; and the Marian establishment,
from the Church’s perspective, proved itself more stable in light of
Elizabeth’s subsequent persecutions. At the close of the period, the Puritans
were renewing Elizabeth’s cruelties, and priests’ blood was still flowing.

Though the oppression never ceased, and some 60 people were
martyred during the reign of Elizabeth, the Counter-Reformation made great
progress, and there were moments when it seemed about to triumph. Oliver
Cromwell, Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland, and his
anti-Catholic views, blotted out all the good that had been accomplished,
however.

In Scotland, bloody and continuous feuds sadly demoralized
monastic life, where barons placed their illegitimate children into the
abbacies and episcopal sees, making Church government difficult. Yet the Scots
resisted the Protestant Reformation for a generation although Henry VIII and
his son Edward strove to impose it upon the people. Catholic Mary, Queen of
Scots, relied upon French arms for royal and religious authority, but the
nobility considered this an insult to those on whom the government of Scotland
should naturally fall. Further, the Calvinists in France had won over many
young Scottish soldiers and students.

The revolution took place with little doubt as to the
issue. Elizabeth I actively supported the rebels with money, men, and ships.
The ninth clause of the Treaty of Edinburgh (July 6, 1560) stipulated that “the
matter of religion be passed over in silence,” which in effect left to the
Scottish Protestants, the power to do as they pleased. The Treaty was drawn up
by the parliament of Scotland in an attempt to end the old alliance with
France, although it was not ratified by Mary, Queen of Scots, it led to the
withdrawal of French troops from Scotland and the eventual fall of the Catholic
Church there. Church estates were seized, and (except in the inaccessible
north) every vestige of Catholic observance was forcibly thrown off in this
last national revolt against the Church.

OTHER EUROPEAN COUNTRIES

By the energetic introduction of true ecclesiastical reform
in the sentiment of the Council of Trent through the activity of many saintly
people with the vigilance of the bishops and the diligence of the Inquisition,
the Reformation did not take hold in Italy, Spain, Portugal, or much of France.

Events in Spain and Portugal (the latter under the Spanish
crown) were similar to those in Italy. Despite attempts to disseminate
anti-Church books and pamphlets in Spain, the Reformation gained little
success, thanks to the zeal of the Spanish Inquisition, public authorities, and
the absolutism of the crown that prevented the spread of the heretical
movement. The few Spaniards who accepted the new doctrines were unable to mount
any significant reforming movement. Similarly, in France, in spite of much
unrest and civil wars, the monarchy, in large measure along with true,
dedicated Catholics, assured the continuance of the Catholic faith.

BATTLE FOR CONVERTS

The battle for converts worldwide is far from over. The reader
will note that in once solidly Catholic Central and South America, although the
majority of the population remains Roman Catholic, in the last few decades
evangelists have made a rapid and deep incision into the Catholic numbers. The
battle for hearts, minds, and especially souls continues today.

APPENDICES

APPENDIX 1

The Holy Sacraments of the Catholic Church

The seven sacraments of the Catholic
Church are ceremonies indicating what is sacred and significant and purport to
be occasions for experiencing God’s saving presence.

1.
      
Baptism to remove the stain of
original sin

2.
      
Holy Eucharist. The body and
blood of Christ in the wafer and wine of the Mass

3.
      
Penance of confession

4.
      
Confirmation the act admitting
a baptized person to full church privileges.

5.
      
Matrimony. No marriage was
valid performed outside the Church

6.
      
Holy Orders or ordination, the
process that set priests apart form ordinary Christians.

7.
      
Extreme Unction, the last
blessing performed on the death bed

Only an ordained clergyman of
the Church could perform the above functions.

APPENDIX 2

Rulers of the Countries Most Affected
during the Time of Reformation and Counter-Reformation