Phillip Campbell - Heroes & Heretics of the Reformation

R eformation. As soon as the word is uttered, we immedi-ately realize we are dealing with a loaded term. It implies two agents, an active and a passiveone initiating reform, the other the object of reform. What was being reformed? Was it truly in need of reform? What constituted the reform? Who was behind the reform, and what were their motives? These are big questions, the answers to which are inextricably linked to other questions, which are difficult to answer without an appeal to principles beyond history.

When historians refer to the Reformation, they are referring to both a series of events as well as a general epochor perhaps a general epoch characterized by a certain series of events. The events of the Reformation era brought the Catholic Church into conflict with various sectarian movements that were united essentially by their rejection of the Catholic Churchs claims, as well as its prominent role in medieval civilization, but divided on many other critical points. How long this conflict continued depends upon whom you ask. The year 1648 is a common cut-off date for the Reformation, as that year marks the Peace of Westphalia that ended the Thirty Years War, the last of Europes religious wars. Others might draw the era out until 1689, the so-called Glorious Revolution in England that saw the overthrow of James II, the last Catholic king of England, by Protestant parliamentarians.

For the sake of this book, I take the Reformation up to about the year 1598, the year King Henry IV of France promulgated the Edict of Nantes ending Frances wars of religion. This is not to say nothing of import passed between Catholics and Protestants after this date, but by 1598 the basic contours of post-Reformation Europe have definitively been sketched out. Protestantism was firmly entrenched in those kingdoms where it had taken root, the Catholic Church had reoriented, dare we say reformed, itself in light of the decrees of the Council of Trent, and the theological positions of Catholics and the differing Protestant groups had been worked out.

Though this book makes every attempt at historical objectivity, it is certainly written from a Catholic viewpoint; that is, it presumes that the claims of the Catholic Church to be the Mystical Body of Christ are true, that the Bishop of Rome is the successor of St. Peter and Vicar of Christ. This does not mean the book universally bashes Protestants while vindicating Catholics. Every era has its heroes and its villains, and Catholics are certainly numbered on both sides. Rather, I have attempted with this book to understand the theological, social, and political causes of the Reformation through the experiences of some of the most important people of the age.

What lessons can we, both Catholics and others, learn from the history of the Reformation era? In this year, the five hundredth anniversary of the posting of Martin Luthers 95 Theses, should the events of 1517 and beyond be celebrated or condemned? What practical benefit can we derive from studying this tumultuous period?

It is my hope that the answers to these and other questions will become clear as we journey through the sixteenth century. We will learn about not only the events of the era but the people who shaped those events. We will see how there is nothing more revolutionary or earth-shattering than an idea. We will see how new ideas concerning the nature of faith and the role of the Church in the world caused massive societal upheaval that effectively brought medieval civilization to a close and ushered in modernity. And we will do this through examining the lives of some of the major figures who lived through and influenced that tumultuous era, that age of storms.