CAUSES OF REFORMATION.—We must now seek the causes which led one-half of the nations of Europe to secede, as it were, from the Roman Catholic Church. The causes were many. Among others may be mentioned the great mental awakening which marked the close of the mediæval and the opening of the modern age; for the intellectual revival, though often spoken of, in so far as it concerned the Northern nations, as an effect of the religious revival, was in reality at once cause and effect. It hastened the Reformation, and was itself hastened by it. And in connection with the Revival of Learning must be mentioned the invention of printing as a powerful agency in the promotion of the religious movement. The press scattered broadcast over Europe, not only the Bible, but the writings of the men who had begun to doubt the scriptural authority for many of the doctrines and ceremonies of the Church,—such as devotion to the Virgin Mary, the invoking of saints, the use of images, confession to a priest, and the nature of the elements in the Eucharist. These writings of course stirred up debate, and led to questioning and criticism.
A second cause was the existence of most serious scandals and abuses in the Church. During the fifteenth century, the morality of the Church was probably lower than at any other period in its history. The absolute necessity of its thorough reform in both "head and members" was recognized by all earnest and spiritual-minded men. The only difference of opinion among such was as to the manner in which the work of purification should be effected.
A third cause may be found in the claims of the Popes to the right to interfere in the internal, governmental affairs of a nation; for, although these claims had been rejected by the sovereigns of Europe, they were nevertheless still maintained by the Roman bishops, and this caused the temporal princes to regard with great jealousy the papal power.
But foremost among the proximate causes, and the actual occasion of the revolution, was the controversy which arose about indulgences. These, in the Catholic Church, are remissions, to penitents, of punishment due for sin, upon the performance of some work of mercy or piety, or the payment of a sum of money. It is, and always has been, the theory of the Catholic Church, that the indulgence remits merely temporal penalties,— that is, penalties imposed by ecclesiastical authority, and the pains of Purgatory,—and that it can take effect only upon certain conditions, among which is that of sincere repentance. Indulgences were frequently granted by various pontiffs, as a means of raising funds for pious enterprises. A considerable portion of the money for building the Cathedral of St. Peter at Rome was raised in this manner.
TETZEL AND THE PREACHING OF INDULGENCES.—Leo X., upon his election to the papal dignity, in 1513, found the coffers of the Church almost empty; and, being in pressing need of money to carry on his various undertakings, among which was work upon St. Peter's, he had recourse to the then common expedient of a grant of indulgences. He delegated the power of dispensing these in Germany to the archbishop of Magdeburg, who employed a Dominican friar by the name of Tetzel as his deputy in Saxony.
The archbishop was unfortunate in the selection of his agent. Tetzel carried out his commission in such a way as to give rise to great scandal. The language that he, or at least his subordinates, used, in exhorting the people to comply with the conditions of gaining the indulgences, one of which was a donation of money, was unseemly and exaggerated. The result was that erroneous views as to the effect of indulgences began to spread among the ignorant and credulous, some being so far misled as to think that if they only contributed this money to the building of St. Peter's at Rome they would be exempt from all penalty for sins, paying little heed to the other conditions, such as sorrow for sin, and purpose of amendment. Hence, many were led to declaim against the procedure of the zealous friar. These protests were the near mutterings of a storm that had long been gathering, and that was soon to shake all Europe from the Baltic to the Mediterranean.
[Illustration: MARTIN LUTHER]
MARTIN LUTHER.—Foremost among those who opposed and denounced Tetzel was Martin Luther (1483-1546), an Augustine monk, and a teacher of theology in the university of Wittenberg. He was of humble parentage, his father being a poor miner. The boy possessed a good voice, and frequently, while a student, earned his bread by singing from door to door. The natural bent of his mind, and, if we may believe a somewhat doubtful legend, the death of a friend struck down at his side by lightning, led him to resolve to enter a monastery and devote himself to the service of the Church. Before Tetzel appeared in Germany, Luther had already earned a wide reputation for learning and piety.
THE NINETY-FIVE THESES.—The form which Church penances had taken in the hands of Tetzel and his associates, together with other circumstances, awakened in Luther's mind doubts and questionings as to many of the doctrines of the Church. Especially was there gradually maturing within him a conviction that the entire system of ecclesiastical penances and indulgences was unscriptural and wrong. His last lingering doubt respecting this matter appears to have been removed while, during an official visit to Rome in 1510, he was penitentially ascending on his knees the sacred stairs (scala santa) of the Lateran, when he seemed to hear an inner voice declaring, "The just shall live by faith."
At length Luther drew up ninety-five theses, or articles, wherein he fearlessly stated his views respecting indulgences. These theses, written in Latin, he nailed to the door of the church at Wittenberg, and invited all scholars to examine and criticise them, and to point out if in any respect they were opposed to the teachings of the Word of God, or of the early Fathers of the Church (1517). By means of the press the theses were scattered with incredible rapidity throughout every country in Europe.