#7 The Reformation and Protestant Churches

It was the printing press and literacy that allowed the Protestant Reformation to take place, and also the Protestant Reformation that promoted literacy.  In England the Reformation occurred in 1534.  In Germany it started in 1517 when Martin Luther (1483-1546) nailed his opinions about the sale of Indulgences to the door of All Saints Church in Wittenberg on the 31^st October.  Luther’s views are known as the Ninety-five Theses.  Several printers quickly printed the Ninety-five Theses in Latin and other printers had them translated into German and printed them.  Theology students soon thronged to Wittenberg to hear Martin Luther speak.  Luther had 300 000 tracts printed and distributed as publicity. 

Martin Luther gave up being an Augustinian friar, married a nun and got into a protracted conflict with the Pope.  The Pope sent him a letter and a Papal Bull saying that he would be excommunicated.  Luther burned the letter and the bull in public.  The excommunication went ahead in 1521 and was never lifted.

It was the sale of Indulgences – the idea that you could secure a place in heaven by paying money to the Catholic Church that blew the top off the old religious regime.  The people flocked to the Protestant movement not only because of the scandals, but also because it was a return to the core values of Christianity written in the New Testament that formed the basis to the movement.  Protestantism was spread by the printing of Bibles.

Dissolution of the monasteries

The Reformation came to England at the time of King Henry VIII.  The Dissolution of the Monasteries started immediately in 1536.  The process entailed liquidating Catholic church assets and transferring the titles to the Crown.  Some of the profit and buildings were used to create educational institutions, and some invested money paid for the pensions of former monks and nuns.  Monks and nuns were given pensions if they agreed to the changes without resistance. 

Catholic priests and monks were encouraged to become clergy in the new Anglican Church, and they were encouraged to marry.  Pensions and salaries were paid to those who acquiesced.

Popular religion had become superstitious, pagan, and based on miracle-story mythologies with the cult of saints.  There was little difference between this religion and the pagan religion that had been in place prior to the coming of Christianity.  The Reformation swept away the cult of saints with its statues, wells, ritual prayers and mythologies.  Protestants proclaimed that God can be approached directly, without saints acting as intermediaries.

The leadership of the Catholic Church in England were deemed to be foreign or serving a foreign power which was Rome.

Wars of Religion

After the Protestant Reformation and the Catholic Counter-Reformation in 1545 many religious conflicts broke out.  There was persecution and grievances on all sides with people burnt at the stake (women), and hung, drawn and quartered (men).

In England Catholic priests went into hiding when Protestant monarchs ascended to the throne.  Catholic families paid heavy fines and had their properties demolished if found hiding a Catholic priest in a priest hole and hosting mass in Latin.

Nicholas Garlick, Robert Ludlam and Richard Simpson Catholic priests were hung, drawn and quartered on St Mary’s Bridge, Derby in 1588 during the reign of Elizabeth I.  They are remembered as the Padley Martyrs.  Catholics persecuted at this time were charged with treason, not heresy.

Previous to this, a Protestant girl called Joan Waste had been taken to Windmill Pit in Derby and burnt alive.  It was 1556 and the Catholic monarch Mary I, the sister of Elizabeth I was trying to bring back Catholicism to England.  Joan’s crime was that she had the Bible read to her in English (she was blind and could not read it herself) and she taught the Bible to children.

The Protestant Joan Waste is now commemorated with the Catholic Padley Martyrs by the Anglicans and Catholics in Derby in the Bridge Chapel of St Mary’s Bridge.

Policies were put in place to stop the return of Catholicism to England, and a war was fought with Scotland.

Scotland

The Battle of Pinkie during the War of the Rough Wooing took place in 1547.  There was eight years war between English Protestants and Scottish Catholics.  England attacked Scotland to break up the Auld Alliance between Scotland and France which could have led to England being invaded by French Catholics via Scotland to overthrow Protestant royalty and re-establish Catholicism in Britain.  It was a pre-emptive war.

In 1559 John Knox returned to Scotland from Geneva bringing Calvinism to Scotland.  In 1560 the Presbyterian Church of Scotland was formed.  The Kirk as it is known became the national pride of Scotland.

Ireland

Dissolution of the monasteries in Ireland took place at the same time as in England, but it was part of the Tudor conquest of Ireland.

Elizabeth I was excommunicated by the Pope.  In 1570 Pope Pius V issued a papal bull declaring Queen Elizabeth I of England to be a heretic.  The bull released her subjects from any allegiance to her.  This led to a huge sentiment of rebellion of Irish Catholics against the Protestant royalty of England.  Those who wielded power in Westminster decided to clear out Catholic nobility from Ireland and replace them with Protestant families.

In 1607 the Flight of the Earls occurred.  Irish aristocracy under direct persecution and threats fled to Europe.  In 1609 Scottish Protestant Presbyterians were brought to Ulster on a large scale.  Protestant aristocrats were given land in Ireland to break up the Catholic grip on power there.

Irish Catholics rose up against Protestants in the Rebellion of 1641 and formed an Irish Catholic Confederation.

Thus, a policy of replacing Catholics in positions of power by Protestants from England or Scotland was adopted by the English Crown.  The French were lurking, waiting to take advantage of divisions in Celtic lands where grievances ran high.  Bitter conflicts were produced by this policy.

After the Irish Republic was formed and declared independence from England in 1919, Northern Ireland was established in 1921 to accommodate the Protestant population.

Scotland became in large part Calvinist Presbyterian, Wales became Methodist but Ireland remained Roman Catholic. 

The Anglican Church

Cathedrals and churches which had been Catholic became Anglican at the Reformation and part of the new Church of England.  Statues were removed, walls with frescos white-washed, a lot of stained glass was smashed, and shrines with relics removed, the bones not seen again.

Three main things were brought in: a new Anglican liturgy, choral music and the Bible in English.

Book of Common Prayer

The first Book of Common Prayer was produced in 1549 during the short reign of King Edward VI. 

Edward was the first king to be raised as a Protestant, he became king aged nine.  During the six years of his reign, England was governed by a Regency Council.  When he died young the crown went to Lady Jane Grey queen for nine days before it was swiped back by Mary, who was Edward’s sister and a Catholic. 

Edward was the son of Jane Seymour, Mary was the daughter of Catherine of Aragon and Elizabeth was the daughter of Anne Boleyn.  These were the three children of Henry VIII,  heirs to the throne, brought up together at the Royal Palace in Hatfield Park.

Mary became known as Bloody Mary as she used her reign to attempt to reverse the Reformation and return England to Catholicism with anyone opposing the reversal losing their head.  The Book of Common Prayer was banned during the reign of Mary I.  When Mary’s reign ended in 1558 her sister Elizabeth acceded to the throne.  Elizabeth I was the Protestant queen who completed the Reformation set in motion by their father King Henry VIII.

The Book of Common Prayer version that appeared in 1662 became the preferred version.  It contains liturgy for the Communion Service, Matins and Evensong.  Much of it is based on the Psalms.  Some Anglican churches still use the Book of Common Prayer.  It uses the ancient ways of saying things with ‘thy, thou and thine’ no longer used in spoken language.

Choral Singing and Hymns

The singing of choirs became an Anglican thing under the reign of Queen Elizabeth I especially in cathedrals.

Liturgy was set to choral settings sung by the choir; the congregation joined in with hymns and an organ voluntary would bring services to a close.

In Tudor times choristers were men and boys, whereas today there are also women and girls.  In former Catholic monasteries and cathedrals singing had consisted of Gregorian Chant and polyphonic settings of the Latin mass.

Church singing only really became a thing for the common people with the Methodist missions of preacher John Wesley and his song-writer brother Charles Wesley after 1779.

Churches belonging to the Anglican Communion: the Scottish Episcopal Church, the Church in Wales and the Church of Ireland all became focussed on singing the praises of God as whole congregations.  Christmas became a special time during the 19^th century when the singing of Christmas carols started.

Bible in English

All Protestant churches based their new-found faith on reading the Bible in their own language.  Use of Latin as a religious language was outlawed.

Various different translations of the Bible appeared in English, but the most popular among Protestants became the King James Bible (KJV) commissioned by King James I of England (James VI of Scotland) published in 1611.  The Protestant king James I came to the throne in 1603 after the death of Queen Elizabeth I.  The language of the King James Bible had profound effects on the shaping of the English language, as it was read by all classes of people.  It also increased literacy levels and made the uneducated educated.

The Bible was translated into the languages used by people.  The Bible was translated into Welsh in 1588.  The affordability of printed Bibles meant that over time every family came to possess a Bible.  My family possessed Boden’s Bible in the 18^th century.  Christians started to read the Bible for themselves and think for themselves about their beliefs.