The Reformation Read online

  BY WILL DURANT

  The Story of Philosophy

  Transition

  The Pleasure of Philosophy

  Adventures in Genius

  BY WILL AND ARIEL DURANT

  THE STORY OF CIVILIZATION

  1. Our Oriental Heritage

  2. The Life of Greece

  3. Caesar and Christ

  4. The Age of Faith

  5. The Renaissance

  6. The Reformation

  7. The Age of Reason Begins

  8. The Age of Louis XIV

  9. The Age of Voltaire

  10. Rousseau and Revolution

  11. The Age of Napoleon

  The Lessons of History

  Interpretation of Life

  A Dual Autobiography

  COPYRIGHT © 1957 BY WILL DURANT

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

  INCLUDING THE RIGHT OF REPRODUCTION

  IN WHOLE OR IN PART IN ANY FORM

  PUBLISHED BY SIMON AND SCHUSTER

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  ISBN 0-671-61050-3

  eISBN-13: 978-1-45164-763-1

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  MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

  TO LOUIS, MOLLIE, AND ERIC

  To the Reader

  THE prospective reader deserves a friendly notice that The Reformation is not quite an honest title for this book. An accurate title would be: “A History of European Civilization Outside of Italy from 1300 to 1564, or Thereabouts, Including the History of Religion in Italy and an Incidental View of Islamic and Judaic Civilization in Europe, Africa, and Western Asia.” Why so meandering a thematic frontier? Because Volume IV (The Age of Faith) in this “Story of Civilization” brought European history only to 1300, and Volume V (The Renaissance) confined itself to Italy, 1304-1576, deferring the Italian echoes of the Reformation. So this Volume VI must begin at 1300; and the reader will be amused to find that Luther arrives on the scene only after a third of the tale has been told. But let us privately agree that the Reformation really began with John Wyclif and Louis of Bavaria in the fourteenth century, progressed with John Huss in the fifteenth, and culminated explosively in the sixteenth with the reckless monk of Wittenberg. Those whose present interest is only in the religious revolution may omit Chapters III-VI and IX-X without irreparable loss.

  The Reformation, then, is the central, but not the only, subject of this book. We begin by considering religion in general, its functions in the soul and the group, and the conditions and problems of the Roman Catholic Church in the two centuries before Luther. We shall watch England in 1376-82, Germany in 1320-47, and Bohemia in 1402-85, rehearsing the ideas and conflicts of the Lutheran Reformation; and as we proceed we shall note how social revolution, with communistic aspirations, marched hand in hand with the religious revolt. We shall weakly echo Gibbon’s chapter on the fall of Constantinople, and shall perceive how the advance of the Turks to the gates of Vienna made it possible for one man to defy at once an emperor and a pope. We shall consider sympathetically the efforts of Erasmus for the peaceful self-reform of the Church. We shall study Germany on the eve of Luther, and may thereby come to understand how inevitable he was when he came. In Book II the Reformation proper will hold the stage, with Luther and Melanchthon in Germany, Zwingli and Calvin in Switzerland, Henry VIII in England, Knox in Scotland, and Gustavus Vasa in Sweden, with a side glance at the long duel between Francis I and Charles V; and other aspects of European life in that turbulent half-century (1517-64) will be postponed in order to let the religious drama unfold itself without confusing delays. Book III will look at ‘the strangers in the gate”: Russia and the Ivans and the Orthodox Church; Islam and its challenging creed, culture, and power; and the struggle of the Jews to find Christians in Christendom. Book IV will go “behind the scenes” to study the law and economy, morals and manners, art and music, literature and science and philosophy of Europe in the age of Luther. In Book V we shall make an experiment in empathy—shall attempt to view the Reformation from the standpoint of the imperiled Church; and we shall be forced to admire the calm audacity with which she weathered the encompassing storm. In a brief epilogue we shall try to see the Renaissance and the Reformation, Catholicism and the Enlightenment, in the large perspective of modern history and thought.

  It is a fascinating but difficult subject, for almost every word that one may write about it can be disputed or give offense. I have tried to be impartial, though I know that a man’s past always colors his views, and that nothing is so irritating as impartiality. The reader should be warned that I was brought up as a fervent Catholic, and that I retain grateful memories of the devoted secular priests, and learned Jesuits, and kindly nuns who bore so patiently with my brash youth; but he should note, too, that I derived much of my education from lecturing for thirteen years in a Presbyterian church under the tolerant auspices of sterling Protestants like Jonathan C. Day, William Adams Brown, Henry Sloane Coffin, and Edmund Chaffee; and that many of my most faithful auditors in that Presbyterian church were Jews whose thirst for education and understanding gave me a new insight into their people. Less than any man have I excuse for prejudice; and I feel for all creeds the warm sympathy of one who has come to learn that even the trust in reason is a precarious faith, and that we are all fragments of darkness groping for the sun. I know no more about the ultimates than the simplest urchin in the streets.

  I thank Dr. Arthur Upham Pope, founder of the Asia Institute, for correcting some of the errors in the chapters on Islam; Dr. Gerson Cohen, of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, for checking the pages on the Jews; my friend Harry Kaufman of Los Angeles for reviewing the section on music; and, pleno cum corde, my wife for her unremitting aid and illuminating comments at every stage in our co-operative labor on this book.

  If the Reaper will stay his hand, there will be a concluding Volume VII, The Age of Reason, which should appear some five years hence, and should carry the story of civilization to Napoleon. There we shall make our bow and retire, deeply grateful to all who have borne the weight of these tomes on their hands, and have forgiven numberless errors in our attempt to unravel the present into its constituent past. For the present is the past rolled up for action, and the past is the present unrolled for our understanding.

  WILL DURANT

  Los Angeles, May 12,1957

  NOTES ON THE USE OF THIS BOOK

  1. Dates of birth and death are usually omitted from the text, but will be found in the Index.

  2. The religious standpoint of authors quoted or referred to in the text is indicated in the Bibliography by the letters C, J, P, or R, for Catholic, Jewish, Protestant, or rationalist.

  3. Passages intended for resolute students rather than for the general reader are indicated by reduced type.

  4. To make this volume an independent unit some passages from The Renaissanee, on the history of the Church before the Reformation, have been summarized in the opening chapter.

  5. The location of works of art, when not indicated in the text, will usually be found in the Index under the artist’s name. The name of a city will, in such allocations, be used to indicate its leading gallery, as follows:

  Amsterdam—Rijksmuseum

  Augsburg—Gemäldegalerie

  Barcelona—Museum of Catalan Art

  Basel—Offentliche Kunstsammlung

  Bergamo—Accademia Carrara

  Berlin—Kaiser-Friedrich Museum


  Bremen—Kunsthalle

  Brussels—Museum

  Budapest—Museum of Fine Arts

  Chicago—Art Institute

  Cincinnati—Art Museum

  Cleveland—Museum of Art

  Colmar—Museum Unterlinden

  Cologne—Wallraf Richarts Museum

  Copenhagen—Statens Museum for Kunst

  Detroit—Institute of Art

  Frankfurt—Städelsches Kunstinstitut

  Geneva—Musée d’Art et d’Histoire

  The Hague—Mauritshuis

  Leningrad—Hermitage

  Lisbon—National Museum

  London—National Gallery

  Madrid—Prado

  Milan—Brera

  Minneapolis—Institute of Arts

  Munich—Haus der Kunst

  Naples—Museo Nazionale

  New York—Metropolitan Museum of Art

  Nuremberg—Germanisches National Museum

  Philadelphia—Johnson Collection

  Prague—State Gallery

  San Diego—Fine Arts Gallery

  Stockholm—National Museum

  Toledo—Museum of Art

  Vienna—Kunsthistorisches Museum

  Washington—National Gallery

  Worcester—Art Museum

  The galleries of Florence will be distinguished by their names, Uffizi or Pitti, as will the Borghese and Galleria Nazionale in Rome.

  6. This volume will reckon the crown, the livre, the florin, and the ducat of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries at $25.00 in the money of the United States in 1954; the franc and the shilling at $5.00; the écu at $15.00; the mark at $66.67; the pound sterling at $100.00. These equivalents are loose guesswork, and repeated debasements of the currencies make them still more hazardous. We note that in 1390 a student could be boarded at Oxford for two shillings a week;1 about 1424 Joan of Arc’s horse cost sixteen francs;2 about 1460 a maid in the service of Leonardo da Vinci’s father received eight florins a year.3

  Table of Contents

  BOOK I: FROM WYCLIF TO LUTHER: 1300–1517

  Chapter I. THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH: 1300–1517

  I. The Services of Christianity

  II. The Church at Nadir

  III. The Triumphant Papacy

  IV. The Changing Environment

  V. The Case against the Church

  Chapter II. ENGLAND: WYCLIF, CHAUCER, AND THE GREAT REVOLT: 1308–1400

  I. The Government

  II. John Wyclif

  III. The Great Revolt

  IV. The New Literature

  V. Geoffrey Chaucer

  VI. Richard II

  Chapter III. FRANCE BESIEGED: 1300–1461

  I. The French Scene

  II. The Road to Crécy

  III. Black Death and Other

  IV. Revolution and Renewal

  V. The Mad King

  VI. Life among the Ruins

  VII. Letters

  VIII. Art

  IX. Joan of Arc

  X. France Survives

  Chapter IV. GALLIA PHOENIX: 1453–1515

  I. Louis XI

  II. Italian Adventure

  III. The Rise of the Châteaux

  IV. François Villon

  Chapter V. ENGLAND IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY: 1399–1509

  I. Kings

  II. The Growth of Wealth

  III. Morals and Manners

  IV. The Lollards

  V. English Art

  VI. Caxton and Malory

  VII. The English Humanists

  Chapter VI. EPISODE IN BURGUNDY: 1363–1515

  I. The Royal Dukes

  II. The Religious Spirit

  III. Sparkling Burgundy

  IV. Charles the Bold

  V. Art in the Lowlands

  Chapter VII. MIDDLE EUROPE: 1300–1460

  I. Land and Labor

  II. The Organization of Order

  III. Germany Challenges the Church

  IV. The Mystics

  V. The Arts

  VI. Gutenberg

  Chapter VIII. THE WESTERN SLAVS: 1300–1517

  I. Bohemia

  II. John Huss

  III. The Bohemian Revolution

  IV. Poland

  Chapter IX. THE OTTOMAN TIDE: 1300–1516

  I. Second Blooming in Byzantium

  II. The Balkans Meet the Turks

  III. The Last Years of Constantinople

  IV. Hunyadi János

  V. The Tide at Full

  VI. The Hungarian Renaissance

  Chapter X. PORTUGAL INAUGURATES THE COMMERCIAL REVOLUTION: 1300–1517

  Chapter XI. SPAIN: 1300–1517

  I. The Spanish Scene

  II. Granada

  III. Ferdinand and Isabella

  IV. The Methods of the Inquisition

  V. Progress of the Inquisition

  VI. In Exitu Israel

  VII. Spanish Art

  VIII. Spanish Literature

  IX. Sovereign Death

  Chapter XII. THE GROWTH OF KNOWLEDGE: 1300–1517

  I. The Magicians

  II. The Teachers

  III. The Scientists

  IV. The Healers

  V. The Philosophers

  VI. The Reformers

  Chapter XIII. THE CONQUEST OF THE SEA: 1492–1517

  I. Columbus

  II. America

  III. The Waters of Bitterness

  IV. The New Perspective

  Chapter XIV. ERASMUS THE FORERUNNER: 1469–1517

  I. The Education of a Humanist

  II. The Peripatetic

  III. The Satirist

  IV. The Scholar

  V. The Philosopher

  VI. The Man

  Chapter XV. GERMANY ON THE EVE OF LUTHER: 1453–1517

  I. The Age of the Fuggers

  II. The State

  III. The Germans

  IV. The Maturing of German Art

  V. Albrecht Dürer

  VI. The German Humanists

  VII. Ulrich von Hutten

  VIII. The German Church

  BOOK II: THE RELIGIOUS REVOLUTION: 1517–64

  Chapter XVI. LUTHER: THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY: 1517–24

  I. Tetzel

  II. The Genesis of Luther

  III. The Revolution Takes Form

  IV. Bulls and Blasts

  V. The Diet of Worms

  VI. The Radicals

  VII. The Foundations of Faith

  VIII. Luther’s Theology

  IX. The Revolutionist

  Chapter XVII. THE SOCIAL REVOLUTION: 1522–36

  I. The Mounting Revolt

  II. The Peasants’ War

  III. The Anabaptists Try Communism

  Chapter XVIII. ZWINGLI: THE REFORMATION IN SWITZERLAND: 1477–1531

  I. Multum in Parvo

  II. Zwingli

  III. The Zwinglian Reformation

  IV. Onward, Christian Soldiers

  Chapter XIX. LUTHER AND ERASMUS: 1517–36

  I. Luther

  II. The Intolerant Heretics

  III. The Humanists and the Reformation

  IV. Erasmus Appendix

  Chapter XX. THE FAITHS AT WAR: 1525–60

  I. The Protestant Advance

  II. The Diets Disagree

  III. The Lion of Wittenberg

  IV. The Triumph of Protestantism

  Chapter XXI. JOHN CALVIN: 1509–64

  I. Youth

  II. The Theologian

  III. Geneva and Strasbourg

  IV. The City of God

  V. The Conflicts of Calvin

  VI. Michael Servetus

  VII. An Appeal for Toleration

  VIII. Calvin to the End

  Chapter XXII. FRANCIS I AND THE REFORMATION IN FRANCE 1515–59

  I. Le Roi Grand Nez

  II. France in 1515

  III. Marguerite of Navarre

  IV. The French Protestants

  V. Hapsburg and Valois

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bsp; VI. War and Peace

  VII. Diane de Poitiers

  Chapter XXIII. HENRY VIII AND CARDINAL WOLSEY: 1509–29

  I. A Promising King

  II. Wolsey

  III. Wolsey and the Church

  IV. The King’s “Divorce”

  Chapter XXIV. HENRY VIII AND THOMAS MORE: 1529–35

  I. The Reformation Parliament

  II. The Utopian

  III. The Martyr

  IV. A Tale of Three Queens

  Chapter XXV. HENRY VIII AND THE MONASTERIES: 1535–47

  I. The Technique of Dissolution

  II. The Obstinate Irish

  III. Every Ounce a King

  IV. The Dragon Retires

  Chapter XXVI. EDWARD VI AND MARY TUDOR: 1547–58

  I. The Somerset Protectorate

  II. The Warwick Protectorate

  III. The Gentle Queen

  IV. “Bloody Mary”

  Chapter XXVII. FROM ROBERT BRUCE TO JOHN KNOX: 1300–1561

  I. The Indomitable Scots

  II. Royal Chronicle

  III. John Knox

  IV. The Congregation of Jesus Christ

  Chapter XXVIII. THE MIGRATIONS OF REFORM: 1517–60

  I. The Scandinavian Scene

  II. The Swedish Reformation

  III. The Danish Reformation

  IV. Protestantism in Eastern Europe

  V. Charles V and the Netherlands

  VI. Spain:

  1. The Revolt of the Comuneros

  2. The Spanish Protestanis

  3. The Emperor Passes

  BOOK III: THE STRANGERS IN THE GATE: 1300–1566

  Chapter XXIX. THE UNIFICATION OF RUSSIA: 1300–1584

  I. The People

  II. The Princes of Moscow

  III. Ivan the Terrible

  Chapter XXX. THE GENIUS OF ISLAM: 1258–1520

  I. The II-Khans of Persia

  II. Hafiz

  III. Timur

  IV. The Mamluks

  V. The Ottomans

  VI. Islamic Literature

  VII. Art in Asiatic Islam

  VIII. Islamic Thought

  Chapter XXXI. SULEIMAN THE MAGNIFICENT: 1520–66

  I. African Islam

  II. Safavid Persia

  III. Suleiman and the West

  IV. Ottoman Civilization

  1. Government

  2. Morals

  3. Letters and Arts

  V. Suleiman Himself

  Chapter XXXII. THE JEWS: 1300–1564

  I. The Wanderers

  II. On the Rack

  III. The Second Dispersion

  IV. The Technique of Survival