The Protestant Reformation
There were attempts by the Church to reconcile the Christian community but when these reform movements from within failed, revolution from without took its place.
Some of the reformers believed that hope lay in reforming Christians as individuals.
Christian humanists believed that the church could be reformed through an enlightened fusion of the ethics of early Christianity with the humanism of classical culture.
When reform didn’t work, revolutionaries like Martin Luther (Secular Authority: To What Extent It Should be Obeyed) in Germany and John Calvin (Institutes of Christian Religion) in France took action by means of gathering support from socio-political powers.
After Luther’s death, the Religious Peace of Augsburg settled the problem of religious division in the German States by the principle of “cuius regio euis religio” – the ruler of the country determined the religion of its inhabitants.
Massacre of St. Bartholomew (Aug. 24, 1572) – thirty thousand Huguenots lost their lives; head of the faction was Admiral Caligny. His head was sent to the Pope. Deprived of its leaders, a mass of tracts were written by the Huguenots – the most famous of these was the Vindicae Contra Tyrannus or “A Defense of Liberty Against Tyrants” written by an author under the pseudonym Stephen Julius Brutus. The purpose of this document was not to give a general theory of state but to inquire into one of its pivotal issues: the problem of obedience.
“It is much better to follow the law than any one man’s opinion.”
“For if the welfare of the kingdom depends on the observation of the laws, and the laws are enthralled to the pleasure of one man, is it not most certain that there can be no permanent stability in that government?”
