Module Number  EUO7

Date: 1 February 2005

Title: PROTESTANT REFORMATION

Introduction:

The Reformation of the sixteenth century was, in many ways, a watershed in the religious and political history of Europe. The medieval concept of “Christendom” which saw all European peoples united in one faith and symbolically under the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, gave way to a variously divided Europe that no longer aspired to be in unity. The Reformation, which had its beginning in Martin Luther’s protest against thought and practice of the Roman Catholic Church, was a religious and theological reform movement that eventually led to divorce from the Catholic Church and formally established Protestant churches (Lutheran, Calvinist, Anglican) throughout Europe.

This formal success of the Reformation movement had as its driving dynamic a new vision of the Christian religion, but was aided by a variety of other factors, such as the heterogeneity of the Holy Roman Empire, the independence of the Imperial Free Cities, etc.

The dynamic progress of the Reformation as well as the convergence of extraneous factors is well illustrated by the following maps.

In Section 1 we examine the structure of the Holy Roman Empire. The Empire was characterized by a unique governmental structure, where central authority (the emperor) was fairly weak and real power was exercised by the territorial rulers who in turn ruled either secular or ecclesiastical territories.

In Section 2 we consider the expansion of Protestantism. The Protestant Reformation in the sixteenth century was both a theological controversy and the governmental decision to retain the Catholic Church as the official religion or introduce the new Protestant faith. In the Holy Roman Empire, which was largely contiguous with what is generally known as Germany, this determination was made by a large number of individual rulers, in contrast to places like France or England, where the determination of the king settled matters for the entire country.

In Section 3, we focus is on the rise and expansion of universities during the 15^th and 16^th centuries. After the initial wave of university foundations in the Middle Ages, there was a wave of new universities in the fifteenth century, all of them established with papal liscence - since theology and philosophy were the most important subjects taught, and the guiding the principles of law and medicine, the remaining two important areas of study, were oriented by Christian principles. The several maps show intriguing geographic dimension of the proliferation of these institutions of higher learning, particularly in central and northern Europe. The maps show for the sixteenth century establishment of Protestant universities (without papal license) and the additional foundation of Catholic universities during that century. In sequence, these maps demonstrate the significant expansion of higher learning in Europe from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century.

In Section 4 we turn to the role of the Jesuits (the “Society of Jesus”) in what is called the Catholic Counter-reformation. The Society of Jesus, founded in 1540, quickly proved to be the most dynamic force in the Catholic Church for education and combating the Protestant heresy. This Protestant threat was taken seriously and the involvement of Jesuits throughout Europe may be taken as an indicator of the regained vitality of the Catholic Church in the sixteenth century. The sequence of maps shows the spread of residences and colleges (schools) operated by Jesuits from its establishment as an order to 1615. 

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Legend/key/instructions to artist. Steve, the maps in this sections should be use the tab/ button arrangements as they are not chronological

Section Title: eu07_1: The Structure of the Holy Roman (German) Empire

Frame No EU07_1a

Caption: The Larger Territories of the Empire

Trace red lines with black, fill in with red. All the red lines would then need to be turned into black. Do the same for 1a, fill in interior all in red. We may need another color to distinguish between the ecclesiastical and

Use Map inventory number(s) Use EU07_1b. Same as map 1a.jpg

Text:
The Empire was also comprised of territories ruled by secular rulers – dukes, landgraves, etc. These territories differed in size and, therefore, political importance and power. This map depicts the larger of these secular territories.

Frame No EU07_1b:

black borders, green fill

Caption: The Ecclesiastical Territories of the Empire

Use Map inventory number(s): EU07_1a.jpg. Delete the unbroken black lines. Green lines denote boundary of Holy Roman Empire; brown black lines are rivers. How do you want to color the other areas within the Empire that were not ecclesiasctial?

Unique to the situation in the Holy Roman Empire was that the Empire included a number of larger and smaller territories ruled by a dignitary of the church (archbishop, bishop, abbot, etc.)

Frame No EU07_1c

Caption: The Imperial Free Cities

Use Map inventory (EU07_1c) number(s): Delete the (weaker) unbroken lines, retain the (strong) black line (border of the empire). The circles can be solidly colored.

Text:
The Empire also included a number of towns and cities that had the designation “imperial free cities” because they were subject not to the territorial rulers in whose territory they were located but to the emperor. Again, these cities differed in importance and power. Some, such as Nuremberg, were in fact city-states with jurisdiction also in the neighboring countryside.

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Section Title: EU07_2: The expansion of Protestantism in the holy roman (german) empire

Frame No EU07_2a:

Caption: Formal Introduction of Protestantism to 1530 (excluding free cities)

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Text:
The several maps show the expansion of the governmental introduction of the Reformation. While this governmental action must not be equated with majority popular support for religious change, some rough conclusions about the impact of Reformation ideas can nonetheless be drawn.

Frame No EU07_2b:

Caption: Formal Introduction of Protestantism to 1555

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Text:
The year 1555 marked an incisive fissure in the formal adoption of Protestant rites in that the so-called Peace of Augsburg, promulgated that year by the Diet meeting in that city stipulated the official recognition of Lutheranism.

Frame No EU07_2c:

Caption: Formal Introduction of Protestantism to 1570

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Text:

The legal freedom to introduce Protestantism led to a new (and final) wave of formal acceptance of Protestantism.

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Section Title: EU07_3: The Rise of Universities

Frame No EU07_3a:

Caption: Universities established between 1200 and 1400

Use Map inventory number(s):EU07_3a.jpg In this map, the national boundaries are denoted in lighter lines; they should be deleted. The stronger unbroken lines denote rivers and should be retained.

Text: Learning and education during the Middle Ages were located in the novel institution of the university which from its beginings in Italy spread throughout Europe. The map shows the location of universities established by 1400.

Frame EU07_3b:

Caption: Universities established between 1400 and 1500

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Text:
The fifteenth century brought a stunning increase in university foundations. Their geographic distribution suggests judgments about the centers of learning and education in late medieval Europe, since universities were now more evenly distributed over Europe.

Frame No EU07_3c

Caption: Universities established by Protestants in the sixteenth century

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Text:

The Protestant Reformation may be said to have been a university movement in that most of the Protestant reformers were university faculty. The course of the Reformation movement brought the establishment of many new Protestant universities, mainly to assure the proper supply of clergy. Their geographic distribution also allows judgments about the spread of Protestantism in Europe.

Frame No EU07_3d:

Caption: Universities established by Catholics in the sixteenth century

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Text:

Catholicism responded to the challenge of the Protestant Reformation by establishing new universities, much for the same reason, as did the Protestants. Geographically, these new Catholic universities were concentrated in Southern Europe.

Section Title: the expansion of the society of jesus (jesuits)

Frame No 1:

Caption: Jesuit stations to 1540 -1556

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Text:

The concentration of Jesuit houses in Southern Europe (Italy, Spain, Portugal) is significant; it demonstrates nicely the sources of Catholic renewal.

Frame No 2:

Caption: Jesuit stations to 1557 - 1580

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Text:

The first generation of Jesuit activity brought a dramatic expansion of schools and residences throughout Catholic Europe.

Frame No 3:

Caption: Jesuit stations to 1615

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Text:

By the early seventeenth century, Jesuit stations had increased significantly throughout Europe, expressing the vitality of the Catholic Church in dealing with the challenge of the Protestant Reformation.

Summary:

In many ways, the Reformation of the sixteenth century marked dramatic changes in European Christianity. It became a divided house between Catholics, on the one side, and Protestants, on the other. These religious changes occurred in the context of the institutional and educational characteristics of early modern
Europe. In Germany this religious division entailed the rise of German particularism,even as it anticipated the important support of science and learning in Protestant states.