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The long Reformation - Lutheran

Q: What enabled the introduction of the Reformation? What invention helped to bring it out?

The imperial estates - princes, free cities and nobles who stood between the emperor and the ordinary nobles, townsfolk and peasants - enjoyed a partial autonomy which enabled them to introduce the Reformation, although Emperor Charles V (1519-58) had condemned Luther's ideas at Worms (1521). From 1518 the printing press, a mid-fifteenth-century German invention already used for religious books, classical literature and the spread of popular culture, provided pamphlets and broadsheets for disseminating Lutheran teachings.

Q: What belief was popular in the countryside?

In the countryside popular belief in sacramentals , magic and recourse to cunning men and wise women remained stronger than religious doctrine.

7 important questions on The long Reformation - Lutheran

What challenges did the Church face (in Germany)?

In many respects the Church faced the same challenges in Germany as elsewhere:

widespread dissatisfaction with the materialism which made it unable to fulfil the spiritual longings of the faithful;
incipient nationalism directed against foreigners;
and the threat to accepted ideas from Christian humanism, notably through the writings of Desiderius Erasmus.

What enabled the introduction of the Reformation? What invention helped to bring it out?

The imperial estates - princes, free cities and nobles who stood between the emperor and the ordinary nobles, townsfolk and peasants - enjoyed a partial autonomy which enabled them to introduce the Reformation, although Emperor Charles V (1519-58) had condemned Luther's ideas at Worms (1521).
From 1518 the printing press, a mid-fifteenth-century German invention already used for religious books, classical literature and the spread of popular culture, provided pamphlets and broadsheets for disseminating Lutheran teachings.

What did peasants admire about Luther?

While peasants admired the heroic figure of Luther standing up to Pope and Emperor, and some may have grasped his evangelical teachings, the majority were initially attracted by the social messages read into Luther's writings by Thomas Müntzer and other local religious leaders who mistook Luther's intentions.
Slogans like 'the Word of God', 'the Liberty of a Christian' and 'brotherly love' were used as ideological justification for throwing off serfdom and securing relief from longstanding economic and social burdens.

Why didn't princely rulers adopt the Reformation? What happened at the Protestation of Speyer (1529)?

They did not adopt the Reformation principally to seize church lands or to oppose the emperor. Most were reluctant to cross the emperor unless for strong political reasons, and many delayed in joining the evangelical minority for fear of being outlawed.
At the Protestation of Speyer (1529), which gave the movement its name, only six princes and 14 cities signed a declaration rejecting enforcement of the Edict of Worms against Luther's works.

What was the Peace of Augsburg (1555) about?

The Peace of Augsburg (1555) was a political solution to the religious problem. The Catholics were the underdogs after Charles V's military defeat in 1552 by the revived Protestants, who frittered away their advantage to benefit selfish territorial interests.
It was an archbishop who proposed the main principle of the peace: that each ruler determine the religion of his lands.

What did inspections from Protestant rulers show?

Inspections made in the countryside by Protestant rulers confirmed that the clergy's competence had not risen much above the pre-Reformation level, attendance at church was poor and knowledge by the laity of the catechism was rote learning without understanding and quickly forgotten after childhood.