Reformed Connection
Been a frustrating couple of days dealing with internet connection problems. In Canada, we don't have a lot of option for internet and now we have even less. Two of our biggest providers, Shaw and Rogers, have merged now into just Rogers. Rogers decided to discontinue my modem. About midday Wednesday my connection became intermittent. Given I work online teaching English this was not going to work. I spent hours on the phone and channeled my best Karen to get a technician out the next day and not a week from now. Success, I am now getting what I pay for.
It wasn't all bad. We also fit a couple hours of ice skating and took advantage of a night without net to a have family read along of the Wimpy Kid and Harry Potter. Most of our homeschooling, however, had to be done at the nearby Starbucks. We finished looking at the Reformation and will go on to the consequences of said Reformation.
From our studies ...
We continue on with our summary of the Protestant Reformation Crash Course European History at the Diet of Worms. John Green tells us that Martin Luther avoided imprisonment in the dungeons of the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles the 5th, by taking refuge with the Saxon prince, Frederick the Wise. After Frederick's death, Frederick's brother continued to offer safe harbour to Luther and his followers. In 1530, the Schmalkaldic League of Protestant Princes was formed.
Luther translated the Bible from Latin to the common vernacular of German and with the contemporaraneous invention of the printing press, 200 000 copies were printed in the 1520s and the early 1530s. The Reformation would find root beyond the territories of the German princes to become Europe-wide in the coming centuries. Many princes took up what was called the Lutheran Challenge to the papacy. The sought to defend German values from the corruption of Rome.
In 1525, everyday people in southern Germany began protesting against the elites, the Church and the princes. Castles and religious centres were sacked. The princes did not support the rioters and neither did Luther. He wrote the treatise Against the Rioting Peasants. Luther's reform was for religious change, but not social and economic change. Perhaps understandingly, Luther supported the princes who had supported him against Charles the 5th.
Against Church practices, Luther got married in 1525. Catholic clergy were supposed to be celibate. Luther argued that God had ordained that humans be fruitful and multiplied; therefore, celibacy was against the word of God. He also supported the idea on matrimonial community property, meaning he felt that both the husband and wife were owners of their property. It was feminism by today's standards but still a thought in the right direction.
In 1546 and 1547, Charles the 5th went to war against the Reformation and the Schmalkaldic League of Protestant Princes, Charles and his powerful armies nearly defeated the movement and captured several princes. The Catholic Church regained some ground. The League came roaring back in 1552, however, and defeated the imperial forces. The Peace of Augsburg (1555) declared it was the ruler of a territory, not the Pope or the Church, who determined the religion of the land. An uneasy peace was found in German lands, but as the Reformation gained momentum in other places, bloodshed and battles would mark spiritual and religious growing pains.
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