Page 81 - History of Christianity - Student Textbook

Lutheranism well established in Germany, c. 1550-59

In 1546, as Luther lay on his deathbed, both he and his allies were primarily concerned
with Roman Catholic opposition.

After Luther’s death the movement he began came increasingly under attack from external
threats and internal division that nearly spelled the end of it completely. It would take
almost 30 years for it to recapture its vitality and cohesion. Meanwhile the followers of
Calvin grew into an international Protestant movement, overshadowing Luther’s. Why?

When Luther was laid to rest in the Castle Church of Wittenberg in the winter of 1546, there was no clear
successor to step into his place. He was, as the men who eulogized him noted, a colossus, a modern-day Elijah,
the successor to Old Testament prophets, and the fulfillment of a fateful prophecy given by Jan Hus at his
martyrdom that someone would rise up a century later to vanquish papal idolatry. Not an easy act to follow.

Philip Melanchthon was Luther’s most gifted theological ally and a skilled teacher whose students were often
devoted to him, but not the kind of man to lead movements. Almost 20 years before Luther’s death, when called
upon to quickly write what has come to be called the Augsburg Confession, he had been equal to the task.

When Emperor Charles V attacked pro-Lutheran principalities in the Holy Roman Empire in the late 1540s,
Melanchthon attempted to steer Luther’s movement through the violent storm. As the emperor pledged to wipe
Luther and his followers from the map and from history, Melanchthon defended the Lutheran cause again.

That final peace between the Holy Roman Emperor and his Protestant princes was approved in 1555, at another
diet held in Augsburg. The so-called Peace of Augsburg established that whoever ruled a particular imperial
jurisdiction (or state) would determine its religious disposition. If you lived in Saxony and your lord was Lutheran,
you were a Lutheran and Lutheranism was the official religion of the entire duchy. If you lived in a Roman
Catholic region like Bavaria, you were Roman Catholic. The official designation of this was cuius regio, eius
religio—”whose reign, his religion.”
(https://christianhistoryinstitute.org/magazine/article/from-luther-to-the-lutherans)

So those who lived in Germany all became Lutherans because the lord was a Lutheran.

Elizabethan Settlement, 1559

The Elizabethan Religious Settlement, which was made during the reign
of Elizabeth I, was a response to the religious divisions in England during the
reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI, Lady Jane Grey, and Mary I. This response,
described as "The Revolution of 1559", was set out in two acts of parliament.
The two acts re-established the Church of England’s independence from Rome
with Elizabeth given the title, “Supreme Governor of the Church of England.”
Anglicanism, as a result, became the official Church of England.

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