What is the Reformation?

The concept of the Reformation
The concept of reformation, from the Latin reformatio for improvement, had at the beginning of the century a more general sense and was employed not only in the ecclesiastical sphere, but also in the legal and political spheres as well. The term indicated the need to return to the ideal past. What refers to the Reformation and the churches of the Reformation today or as the reformation in a particular city or region, was not the usual meaning at the time. Luther did not have in view the existence of an autonomous church alongside of the existing church. He desired the renewal of the church. He sought for good pastoral care, formulated the necessity for a better theology and expressed a desire for biblical piety. He rarely used the term reformation. When he used the term, it was in the sense of a comprehensive renewal of the church. In 1529, his followers were called Protestants and from 1530 onward as followers of the Augsburg Confession. It was only in 1580 that the Lutheran churches and traditions described themselves as going in a separate Protestant direction, that the followers of Luther came to the specific use of the term reformation in the sense that we know it today.
The Reformation was not a coherent movement under the leadership of one head with a uniform program. However, it had many reformational protests that were common landmarks. The Bible was recognized as the basis of faith and the authority of the pope was rejected. This was also true of many of the traditional beliefs and practices of the medieval faith, such as the saints, monasticism, pilgrimages, indulgences, clerical celibacy, the distinction between priests and laity, the number of seven sacraments, and the doctrine of transubstantiation. With the dismantling of the late medieval religious life, the reform-minded attempted to renew the church according to the biblical standard, following the example of the early church. One employed the right as a Christian to evaluate their worship through one’s own study of the Bible.

Humanism and Reformation
A major stimulus in the process of reformation was humanism. Among the educated elite, Erasmus was admired. His plea for a return to the Christian sources (ad fontes) spoke to many of the reformation-minded.
When his Treatise On Free Will was published in 1525 and Luther answered with his On the Bondage of the Will, it was publicly clear that their efforts for renewal of the church were fundamentally different. Luther and Melanchthon, Zwingli, Bucer, Bullinger and Calvin all stood on the shoulders of the Church fathers, but their interest in the patristic material was defined by their reformational understanding of the Bible. Unlike Erasmus, they evaluated the Fathers by the biblical teachings on grace.

Persecution
While the Reformation, via oral transmission and the printing press, called for a personal faith and the acquisition of an independent knowledge of the Bible, ecclesiastical and secular authorities attempted to stem the signs of reformational criticism. On July 1, 1523 Henry Voes and John Esch were burned alive at Grote Markt (Fr. Grand Place) in Brussels. They were the first martyrs of the Reformation in the Netherlands and in Europe. In total, due to the persecutions, by 1600 there were around 2000 victims in the Netherlands. The vast majority of these were Anabaptist, belonging to the so-called radical Reformation. These Anabaptist groups originated from Ostfriesland, especially in Zeeland, Holland, Friesland, and Flanders. In comparison with Switzerland and Germany, the Anabaptists played a major role in shaping Dutch social, ecclesiastical, and theological thought.

Confessionalization
In the course of the sixteenth century, the reformation process became confessional. First, Lutherans distinguished themselves from Roman Catholics, and then the Lutherans distinguished themselves from the Reformed. In France, the Netherlands, England, and Germany the term Reformed was applied to calvinistic Protestants. From the 1540s Calvinist communities arose in Switzerland, then also in France and in the Netherlands. These communities called themselves Reformed churches and followers of teh Reformed religion, a self-characterization that was derived from the Latin reformare. The Dutch refugee communities outside of the Netherlands played an important role in the development of Reformed Protestantism in the Netherlands, particularly in England and in the Holy Roman Empire. The influence of Calvin came to the Netherlands not so much directly from Geneve, nor by way of France or the southern Netherlands, but more indirectly, through primarily the refugee communities. This was particularly true of the communities in Londen and Emden. In 1500, Calvinism played no role in the Netherlands. By approximately 1560, underground communities had arisen in Flanders and Brabant, after 1565 there were such communities in the northern Netherlands. They asked the government for permission to practice the Reformed religion. They asked to be allowed to live according to the reformation of the Gospel (vouloir unire selon la Reformation de l’ Evangile / ’ te willen leven nah die Reformatie dess Evangeliums’). From the Roman Catholic perspective, both ecclesiastically as well as officially, they denied the Reformed claim to live according to the Gospel. One spoke of the “pretended reformed religion.”

Impact of the Reformation
The Reformation had great political, cultural, and social implications. It radically changed society. Ancient religious values in the society were set aside and it broke through the barriers of class and education. It strove for broad support among the population and, while excluding groups that were among the radical Reformation, deliberately sought the patronage of the government in order to implement and institutionalize the desired changes in church and society. Supporters of the Reformation realized very well the necessity of gaining government approval. There were public meetings organized for this purpose which functioned as a lobbying group to put pressure on local, regional, and central authorities. From the beginning, reformational preachers did not operate in isolation from the political sphere of power. There were official religious colloquies organized, writings were disputed, compromises were made, and there were tactical responses to expand opportunities for Reformed guilds, as well as civil and political bodies. Depending on the perspective, the Reformation can also be called a reformation of the preacher, the people, and the magistrate.

Dr. Frank van der Pol from Christelijke Encyclopedie, (Kampen, 2005). Headings above the paragraphs were added by Refo500.

• Search