The Reformation

1.2. Compare and contrast the interpretations of the Reformation of Cameron and Elton (“The Reformation,” D2L). To what extent do they complement or contradict each other? Support your views with illustrations and examples from the selections from the works of Martin Luther (”The Reformation,” D2L).

 The Reformation was an event in world history, which marked the beginning of the modern history. The incident involved the Roman Catholic Church, which remained together in the entire Middle Ages and encountered conflicts and heretic movements. The Protestant Reformation spit it into parts in the sixteenth century. Martin Luther challenged the official church doctrine and power when initiating reformation in 1517. The event was widely spread in Germany. 

According to historians, Reformation involved the overall religious change in Europe in the sixteenth century. Euan Cameron argues that the significance of the Reformation was a collaboration between laymen’s political drives and religious reformers’ complaints (Cameron, pp. 4). G. R. Elton of Cambridge identifies that the religious explanation of the Reformation has been confronted by the political historians (Elton, pp. 18). Elton holds that despite the relevance of spiritual and other factors, the core significance for describing the reason for the Reformation taking hold rests or not was based on the political history (Elton, pp. 479). Cameron interprets the Reformation as the movement, which led to the division of European Christianity into Protestant and Catholic traditions. Cameron identifies the even to have been unique since no more movement of reform or religious protest ever lasted or was widespread in its impact since antiquity. He argues that the Reformation was deep and characterized by high criticism of the acquired wisdom, ruined what was eradicated and fertile based on its creation. On the other hand, Elton argues that the urge for spiritual sustenance was major in different European parts (Elton, pp. 480). Besides, he argues that the movement of thought provided some intelligent content to what appeared in different means to be an inchoate pursuit for God possesses their self-respect. Elton identifies that none of the movements of thought appeared first to describe the reason for the occurrence of the Reformation. He realizes that the multifaceted of antipapal ‘heresies’ caused the permanent separation in the Church existing in Rome where worldly ambitions and politics were conducted.

Cameron argues that the European Reformation was not a real revolution, an intelligible organization, an explained set of goals or a protest movement led by one leader (Cameron, pp. 9). He adds that it was not a contradictory ambition or a fragmented or floppy mess of revolutionary. According to Cameron, the Reformation was a set of similar movements, in each of which several groups of people with different perspectives for a critical era in the past joined forces to achieve objectives which they reasonably understood. Elton, on the other hand, argues that the Reformation remained in places where the pay authority, held by magistrates and prince, favored it, but would not be retained in areas where powers chose to subdue it (Elton, pp. 480). First, the Reformation according to Elton was demonstrated in England, Geneva, by the German principalities, and Scandinavia. The second regions were; France, the Habsburg lands from the Eastern side, Italy, and Spain. As identified by Elton, the common phrase following the settlement of 1555, that is, ”cuius regui ems religio” was a real-world area long before it was expressed in writing (Elton, pp. 32). The particular era was uniform and always and at every place held that a single political unit would not grasp the two forms of worship of belief in it.

Elton argues that the principle revitalized on a simple fact that provided the membership of a secular polity entailed the group of a religious organization, religious opposition stood similar with political dissatisfaction and also disloyalty (Elton, pp. 480). Therefore, governments required consistency and the church of the political leader was that in his nation. In England, there was the provision of new illustration of the policy in action with its fast official changes from Henrician Catholicism devoid of the pope over Edwardian Protestantism of the Swiss model and Marian papalism, to Elizabethan Protestantism ofn extremely explicitly English make. However, other nations fared the same. Because of the need of the cause distress or the annoyed disbelief, the governments and Princes fail to act on the basis of the collaborated aims and were governed to disregard the spiritual factor in the transformation of several princes since it is a lie to recognize other things beyond purity in the interests of the society. Elton also argues that the Reformation was active over the first dreams, likely the same with the movements based on the time taken and the acquired favor from the worldly arm. Elton interprets that the yearning for Church lands, confrontation to magnificent and papal entitlements, independent states and determination to form a self-contained government, all contributed to the movement, although there was a genuine connection to the reformers’ instructions.

Cameron argues that initially, the Reformation was an objection by scholars and churchmen, advantaged programs in the primitive society in contrast to their managers. The particular superiors, the Roman papacy, and its negotiators had confronted the instructions of a few genuine, esteemed academic churchmen, which appeared as they would threaten the respect and honored of papacy and priesthood (Cameron, pp. 17). Martin Luther was among the first ones to disapprove clerics and condemned ‘the Popes crown and the monks’ bellies,’ and they focused on revenging with the intention of protecting their status. Similarly, with Elton, Cameron identifies that the disputing churchmen or the changers replied to the Roman counter-attack not through cautious disapproval or silence, but through openly condemning their confronters in print (Elton, pp. 480). Besides that, the protesters generated their lessons to make their objection more comprehensible and explain their defiance.

In the context of the primitive lay people’s the occurrence of the typical reaction to the religious opposition was the most fantastic aspect. The laymen who ended up being politically active and who were not known political rulers, but only involved in their regular household activities, supported the protesting activities by the reformers and pressed them towards the councils. The laymen’s political motives and a coalition of reformers’ protests blended, therefore marking the importance of the Reformation (Cameron, pp. 23). Consequently, the reformers’ movement became a new nature of religious dissension, although it was not a division through which a part of the Catholic Church came up to the political uprising against power without changing practices or beliefs. Several people departed from formal worship or faith, although without authority, power or respect. Nonetheless, the movement promoted a new outline of belief and religion, socially communicated and identified, which also molded the origin of new religious organizations for the entire population in the concerned nation, region, or community.

Martin Luther was the initial leader of the Reformation (1483-1546) (Williams, pp. 7). Having been brought up in Germany and with the intention of stimulating the modest changes in the Catholic Church, Luther acquired espousing doctrines, which were different from the ones empowered by the Church and engaging in activities that finally led to his eviction from the Church. Luther recognized his spiritual evolution to specific vital experiences including his initial formulation of ”Justification by Faith,“ which contained his beliefs in relation to Protestantism (Williams, pp. 9).

In his doctrine, Luther said that he was willing to know Paul’s Epistle to the Romans and accomplished his desires through ”the justice of God.“ Luther understood that God was just and all He did was fair to condemn the unjust people. Luther also identified God as loving towards the just people, but angry against the sinners, and that is why Hid justice is based on mercy and grace, and through faith, people tend to enjoy the righteousness. Luther’s participation in the Reformation was based on his belief that God reveals those things intended to occur in future and which are beyond man’s understanding. The radical Church leaders led the religious revolt, established through Luther’s rebelliousness of the church (Williams, pp. 23). Luther did not believe in social revolution but believes that the peasant’s power would lead to their defeat. Martin Luther thought that the Catholic Church leaders were wrong concerning their protesting practices. Luther held that the Church was only supposed to rely on the Bible or God’s word. Luther identified that the pope and other Church leaders were wrong on the issue of salvation, as he believed that only through faith that people can get saved, but not by works. However, in 1999, he agreed with the Catholic Church in the beliefs about salvation

Work Cited

Cameron, Euan. The European Reformation. Oxford University Press, 2012.

Elton, Geoffrey Rudolph, and Arthur Geoffrey Dickens. Reform and Reformation: England 1509-1558. No. 146. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1977.

Elton, Geoffrey. ”The European Reformation. By Cameron Euan. Pp. xv+ 564 incl. 2 figs and 6 maps. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991.£ 45 (cloth),£ 12.95 (Paper) 0 19 873094 2; 0 19 873093 4.“ The Journal of Ecclesiastical History

43.3 (1992): 479-480.

Williams, George Huntston, and George Huntston Williams. The radical reformation. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1962.