The Reformation [antikvár]

Foreword 1517: A point of departure On 31 October every year, from Geneva to Wittenberg, from Edinburgh to Los Angeles, from Amsterdam to Stockholm and Pretoria, the anniversary of the Reformation is celebrated. The Protestant world commemorates Martin Luther on this day traditionally associated with martyrs of the faith, for on All Saints' Eve in 1517 he nailed up his ninety-five Theses against Indulgences on the gates of the castle church at Wittenberg. They remain there to this day, the Latin words and Gothic letters cast in bronze on the huge imperial commemorative monument of 1883- In that year the four-hundredth anniversary of Luther's birth was celebrated in an atmosphere of unquestioned Protestant virtues, a little embittered by the Kulturkampf, that 'struggle for civilization' which disguised an outburst of anti-Catholic bigotry in Bismarck's Reich. Richard Stauffer, who would surely have wielded his pen with even more authority and talent today, if God had not decreed otherwise, notes humorously that, 'Even though in the three centuries since the first annual festival of the Reformation audacious critics have rudely questioned the very existence of Jesus, no German theologian would have dreamed of questioning that the ninety-five theses had really been affixed'. Not even good Pere Denifle, the pugnacious sub-archivist of the Vatican — who at the beginning of this century aroused the indignation of scholars of Luther and the anger of Lutherans, wounded by those insinuations of his which healthy criticism has since overturned - would have done so. If the mutual respect born of a true and healthy ecumenism did not restrain them, Roman Catholics could poke fun at all these commemorations, which almost overshadow the unique commemoration of the death and the glorious resurrection of Christ. (At one time the inhabitants of Geneva even questioned the propriety of celebrating Christmas, Easter, Ascension and Pentecost.) Indeed, since each Sunday recapitulates the whole gift of God, why have regular celebrations of a rather minor event which perhaps did not even take place? There is no doubt about the existence of the ninety-five theses, but it is in fact unlikely that they were nailed up on All Saints' Eve, 1517. But posted or not on 31 October, this year we will once again sing Ein' Feste Burg, as we have always done on Reformation Day. In 1502 Frederick the Wise, Elector of Saxony, founded the University of Wittenberg. This little town on the Elbe became famous fifteen years later when Martin Luther nailed up his 95 theses (as tradition has it) on the door of the castle church. View of Wittenberg, engraving on copper by Braun-Hogenberg, c. 1558. 1536: A point of arrival If 31 October 1517 is customarily hallowed, the major event of 1536 is not. Nevertheless, the unanimous decision of the city council of Geneva on 21 May 1536 to adopt the Reformed discipline coincides with a whole complex of convergent events: the little city's pledge to live according to the Gospel for reasons that were complex because they were human (concern for the glory of God not being the only one); Farel's invitation and Calvin's first stay in that lakeside city at war with its bishop (he was devoting himself to the glory of a twenty-five year exile in France); the publication at the end of March by Thomas Platter in Basle of Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion (that theological handbook which was destined for such a vast success and the instruction of a much larger circle than that of the clergy). In choosing to highlight 1536 we are choosing the Reformed tradition, which constitutes one of the two major axes of the Reformation. Protestantism, with the great Catholic tradition and eastern Orthodoxy, is an integral part of Christ's Church, which no institution can contain and which the Holy Spirit gathers together from age to age. So too the Reformed tradition stands out as one of the richest dwellings in the great house of Protestantism.