Page 352 - Western Civilization A Brief History, Volume I To 1715 9th - Jackson J. Spielvogel

CHRONOLOGY New Reform Movements
The Zwinglian Reformation
Zwingli made cathedral priest at Zu€rich 1518 Reform adopted in Zu€rich 1523 Marburg Colloquy 1529 Death of Zwingli on the battlefield 1531
The Reformation in England
Henry VIII
Act of Supremacy
Edward VI Mary
1509–1547 1534 1547–1553 1553–1558
Calvin and Calvinism
Institutes of the Christian Religion 1536 Calvin begins ministry in Geneva 1536
John Calvin. After a conversion experience, John Calvin abandoned his life as a humanist and became a reformer. In 1536, Calvin began working to reform the city of Geneva, where he remained until his death in 1564. This sixteenth- century portrait of Calvin pictures him in his study in Geneva.
court to oversee the moral life and doctrinal purity of Genevans. The Consistory had the right to punish peo- ple who deviated from the church’s teachings and moral principles.
Calvin’s success in Geneva enabled the city to become a vibrant center of Protestantism. John Knox, the Calvinist reformer of Scotland, called Geneva “the most perfect school of Christ on earth.” Following Cal- vin’s lead, missionaries trained in Geneva were sent to all parts of Europe. Calvinism became established in France, the Netherlands, Scotland, and central and eastern Europe. By the mid-sixteenth century, Calvin- ism had replaced Lutheranism as the militant interna- tional form of Protestantism, and Calvin’s Geneva stood as the fortress of the Reformation.
The Social Impact of the Protestant Reformation
Q FOCUS QUESTION: What impact did the Protestant Reformation have on society in the sixteenth century?
Because Christianity was such an integral part of Euro- pean life, it was inevitable that the Reformation would have an impact on the family and popular religious practices.
The Family
For centuries, Catholicism had praised the family and sanctified its existence by making marriage a sacra- ment. But the Catholic Church’s high regard for absti- nence from sex as the surest way to holiness made the celibate state of the clergy preferable to marriage. Nevertheless, because not all men could remain chaste, marriage offered the best means to control sexual intercourse and give it a purpose, the procreation of children. To some extent, this attitude persisted among the Protestant reformers; Luther, for example, argued that sex in marriage allowed one to “make use of this sex in order to avoid sin,” and Calvin advised that ev- ery man should “abstain from marriage only so long as he is fit to observe celibacy.” If “his power to tame lust fails him,” then he must marry.
But the Reformation did bring some change to the conception of the family. Both Catholic and Protestant
314 Chapter 13 Reformation and Religious Warfare in the Sixteenth Century
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Soci􏰁et􏰁e de l’Histoire du Protestantisme francais, Paris//Giraudon/The Bridgeman Art Library