Patience Moses
On October 31st, 1517, Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses Against the Sale of Indulgences. Although the Protestant Reformation did not begin with Luther, it climaxed with him. Other reformers like John Wycliffe and Jan Hus had challenged the Catholic Church before him, but has been burned at the stake. Luther never intended to break away from the Church and create a new religion, but his ideas ended up being the foundation for Lutheranism. From there, other sects of Christianity developed. There were Calvinists, Anglicans, Anabaptists and many others. But the road to the growth and acceptance of these religions saw many conflicts, ranging from revolts to wars. While most of the actions of rulers and nation-states to resolve the conflicts between Protestants and Catholics were peaceful, some were intense and violent. But they almost always involved a compromise. To resolve the conflict between Protestants and Catholics, some rulers took a more peaceful approach, using treaties and edicts. The Peace of Augsburg, created in 1555, declared that “Whoever reigns, his religion.” This meant that each German prince had the freedom to declare whether his principality would be Lutheran or Catholic, and people were allowed safe passages to other cities of their religion. Although the Peace of Augsburg met some resistance and eventually fell apart, it was still a relatively peaceful effort. The Peace of Westphalia (1648) reinstated the Peace of Augsburg at the end of the Thirty Years War, and added Calvinism to the list of legally accepted religions. Unfortunately, some actions taken to resolve the religious conflicts were violent, and only resulted in bloodshed. The German Peasants Revolt (1524-1525) was an uprising based on misinterpreted ideas of Luther about equality in the eyes of God. Luther clarified that he spoke of a spiritual and heavenly equality, and not an earthly one. He then urged the German princes to put down the revolt and restore order and stability in Europe. Over 100,000 or more peasants were dead by the time the nobility had restored order. Another example is Queen Mary I of England, who declared all the Protestant reforms established by her predecessor null and void in an effort to restore Catholicism in England. Under her regime, Protestants were persecuted mercilessly, and about 300 of them were martyred. All these actions to resolve religious conflicts involved a compromise. They never allowed complete toleration of other religions. The Elizabethan Religious Settlement, created by Queen Elizabeth I of England, is a good example of compromise. The settlement undid the Catholicism of Queen Mary and restored the Anglican Church as the official church in England. Rather than being aggressive with her policies, she allowed the Catholics to keep on practicing their faith as long as they remained unobtrusive. This was a compromise that resolved the conflict in England without much resistance. To prevent the conflict in France, a country with a Catholic majority, King Henry IV of Navarre converted from Calvinism to Catholicism. Then he established the Edict of Nantes which declared Catholicism the official religion, but gave Protestants the freedom to worship in certain cities. It also reinstated the civil rights of Protestants and ended the religious conflicts in France. Even though some of the actions taken by rulers and nation-states were more peaceful than others, most of them did not have long-lasting effects. The most effective was the Peace of Westphalia. It ended the Thirty Years War, which ended up being the last major religious war in Europe. Sydney Shumaker Protestants and Catholics have been at odds from the very beginning, starting with Luther’s nailing of the ninety-five theses on the church doors in Germany. Throughout history this has meant conflict after conflict, and battle after battle. Many different rulers chose to find several different solutions to the growing problems around these two groups, between creating edicts and peace agreement to even going as far as exiling certain religions from the country, rulers were trying to do just about anything to solve the conflicts around them. Many ruler attempted to solve the problems in a more peaceful route, with the use of peace agreements and edicts. One key example of this is the Edict of Nantes, which was signed by King Henry IV, which allowed Protestants to exist in certain areas of the country. This edict helped put a pause to the religious battles by allowing the Protestants to have a place where they were not only allowed but also could practice their religion. The Edict of Nantes was not the only example of this, the Peace of Augsburg, signed by Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor, is also a good example of this. The Peace of Augsburg allows for whoever is reigning to pick the religion, this helped the religious arguments die down as generally the ruler would go by the code of Politique, putting politics over religion, and do what was best for the majority of the nation-state. However, creating an edict or peace agreement is not the only attempt rulers would make in order to get rid of religious tension. Many rulers decided to go a slightly more intense route with the exiling or attempting to get rid of different religious groups which were causing problems. One ruler who chose to use this method was Mary I. Mary I, also known as Bloody Mary, attempted to reconvert England to Catholicism through the murder of around three hundred Protestants. Mary attempted to have Protestants convert through fear, even going as far as attempting to have Thomas Cranmer, an important Protestant, renounce Protestantism right before being burned on the stake for being a Protestant. Many were outraged by this and refused to convert. Others, such as John Knox, even went as far as writing his distrust and dislike of Queen Mary I. Queen Mary wasn’t the only ruler who attempted to get rid of a religious group, Queen Elizabeth I also attempted to get rid of religious groups. Instead of the mass murder, however, Elizabeth exiled the Jesuits after be told by the Pope she was an unfit ruler. The Jesuits, she believed, were very close to Spain during a time where the King of Spain was attempting to overthrow Elizabeth. While at first this doesn’t seem very religious the fact that King Philip II, king of Spain, was very Catholic while Elizabeth chose to be more religiously tolerant. While the more aggressive attempts seem to be much different from that of the peace agreements and the Edicts, both types have several similarities. Both of the solution types did have several things in common, one of those being the fact that they all eventually failed, or didn’t work out the way they were hoped to. More often than not, a new ruler would take over and completely change how things were run. This would change whether or not that method would still be effective, but also if the method alone would be left to stand. While one could argue that after Elizabeth I died, England stayed rather religiously tolerant, that resulted more from the simple fact that she ruled for so long, rather than the fact that any of her methods were very effective. These solutions also gave certain religions more power than others. While one might say that the peace treaties and Edicts were fair and equal, that is not exactly true. In both scenarios, while in place, different religions would have more power over others. For the Peace of Augsburg, whichever religion the ruler was to pick would then have superiority and be able to be worshiped. For the Edict of Nantes, it wasnt full scale acceptance, and also wasn’t for everywhere. No matter what solutions the ruler would try and place, more often than not it would end in a similar way as the others. Considering the large time frame of the religious issues, many different solutions were thought of and eventually created as a hopes to stop what was going on around them. Sadly, however, many of these solutions ended up not being as different as they seemed leading to several of the same outcomes over and over again.
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