Religious unrest and dissent from the doctrines and discipline of the estabÂlished Church were far from unusual in medieval Europe.
The criticisms of Church practices and beliefs made by the early sixteenth-century reformers were not particularly novel. What was unprecedented was the success these critics achieved in securing a hearing, the breadth of support their criticisms attracted, and the Roman Church’s inability to silence this set of adversaries as it had others.
Sixteenth-century reformers were by no means united among themselves. They disagreed about objectives, adopted different priorities, and failed to present anything like a common front to the authorities they attacked. The Reformation was not a single movement, but rather a concatenation of proÂtests by reformers with diverse agendas, both theological and practical. Not all of Rome’s critics in this period ended up in the Protestant camp. Some of the most vociferous foes of ecclesiastical abuses, such as Erasmus, remained within the Roman obedience and sought to reform the establishment from inside.1'On the Reformation and Counter-Reformation, see generally G. R. Elton, ReformaÂtion Europe (New York: Harper & Row, 1963); Owen Chadwick, The Reformation, PelÂican History of the Church, vol. 3 (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1964); H. G. Koenigs- berger and George L. Mosse, Europe in the Sixteenth Century (London: Longmans, Green and Co.; New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1968); Harold J. Grimm, The ReÂformation Era, 1500-1560, 2d ed. (New York: Macmillan, 1973); Pierre Janelle, The Catholic Reformation (Milwaukee: Bruce Publishing Co., 1949); A. G. Dickens, The Counter Reformation (New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1969); Hubert Jcdin, Ka- tholische Reformation oder Gegenreformation? Ein Versuch zur Kliirung der Begriffe nebst einem Jubilaumsbetractung ilber das Trienter Konzil (Lucerne: J. Stocker, 1946); Henry O. Evennett, The Spirit of the Counter-Reformation, ed. John Bossy (CamÂbridge: At the University Press, 1968).
On Luther sec particularly E. G. Rupp, Luthers Progress to the Diet of Worms (New York: Harper & Row, 1964); Roland H. Bainton, Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther (New York: Abingdon-Cokesbury Press, 1950); Edgar M. Carlson, The Reinterpretation of Luther (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1948); and Erik H. Erikson, Toung Man Luther: A Study in Psychoanalysis and History (NewYork: W. W. Norton & Co., 1958). The best general treatment of Calvin is still FranÂcois Wendel, Calvin: The Origins and Development of His Religious Thought, trans.Major Protestant reformers, notably Luther, Calvin, and Zwingli, attacked three facets of traditional Roman Catholicism: its ecclesiology, its theology, and its morality. The ecclesiological strictures of the reformers centered on papal power and the relationship of the pope to bishops and to Church councils. The reformers also rejected Catholicisms distinction between clergy and laity and the roles of those groups in the governance of the Western Church. Theological issues that the reformers raised included the problems of grace and free will, the relationship between faith and good works in the Christian scheme of salvaÂtion, the nature and number of the sacraments, the concept of indulgences, confession, penance for sins, and related matters.
Sexual behavior was prominent among the moral and disciplinary issues that concerned reformers. They rejected the belief that marriage was a sacrament, repudiated the mandatory practice of celibacy, argued that the clergy should be free to marry, criticized the Church’s marriage law particularly for its tolerance of clandestine marriage and lay concubinage, and discarded much of the mediÂeval Church’s teaching about the role of sex in marriage. Most reformers were prepared under some circumstances to tolerate divorce followed by remarriage.
At a more fundamental level, Protestant writers placed a different value on erotic love than did their Catholic counterparts. While they were keenly aware that sexual love could disrupt human relations, engender violence, and distract people from spiritual issues, reformed theologians characteristically adopted a more positive attitude toward sex than was traditional in Catholic thought. The reformers insisted that sex must be used responsibly, but they also looked upon it as a source of joy and strength, a force for good in married life, a blessing bestowed by the Creator, not a flaw in human nature engendered by sin.[2050] [2051]