Saturday, February 6, 2021

The St. Louis and U.S. Policy Failures

German Jews Denied Entrance to America in 1939

Aug 21, 2009

Allowing 937 Jews to leave Germany in May 1939 served Nazi propaganda goals, particularly when the the United States rejected asylum after Cuba refused their entry visas.

In May 1939, the S.S. St. Louis sailed out of Hamburg, Germany bound for Havana with 937 Jewish men, women, and children. It was only seven months since Kristallnacht had wrecked a bloody havoc on the Jews in the German Reich and only five months from the outbreak of World War II. The plight of these Jews would become intimately entangled with insensitive American immigration quotas, President Franklin Roosevelt’s political expediency, and deeply rooted Anti-Semitism in the United States.

Nazi Propaganda and the St. Louis

The passengers on the St. Louis were a varied group. They represented young and old, professional and worker. Some had been in concentration camps. Both Dachau and Buchenwald camps were in full operation, a fact known to most foreign governments including the United States. Dr. Joseph Goebbels, Nazi Minister of Propaganda, used the sailing of the St. Louis to strengthen the ideological posture of Germany toward the Jews to appeal to world public opinion.

On the one hand, Germany was demonstrating compassion by allowing these Jews to leave, albeit at a steep price. Those with property forfeited everything to the Reich. This aspect of the Nazi procedures was not for public opinion. Although issued exit visa, the passenger’s entry documents into Cuba would not be honored. The passengers did not know this.

Dr. Goebbels, Reichsmarschal Goering, and Hitler knew that, inevitably, the St. Louis would be turned away, proving to the world that nobody wanted the Jews. Most European nations had already stopped the flow of refugees crossing their borders. Britain not only curtailed Jews from entering Britain, but severely limited the number of Jews migrating to Palestine, a viable and logical destination coming out of late 19th-Century Zionist efforts.

The St Louis and United States’ Reaction

When the ship entered Havana it was not permitted to dock. As the hours went by, panic began to fill the passengers. Once the official decision was announced that the St. Louis would have to return to Germany, pandemonium ensued. Some passengers jumped overboard; some committed suicide. Captain Gustav Schroeder, not a member of the Nazi Party, deeply empathized with his passengers.

Schroeder sailed for Miami as Jewish organizations in America and Europe drafted frantic appeals to various governments. According to survivor accounts, passengers could see the lights of Miami. But the St. Louis was met by the U.S. Coast Guard, warning it away from the American coast. Reluctantly, Schroeder returned to Europe.

Researcher Lyric W. Wink, in a December 7, 2003 Parade cover story, details the arduous search for the 937 passengers. The research demonstrates that a number of the passengers eventually made it to the United States during and after the war years.

President Roosevelt was keenly mindful that the majority of Americans opposed any changes in the immigration quota system, particularly since unemployment was still high. This applied even more to European Jews. Anti-Semitism, fed by such luminaries as the radio-priest, Father Charles Coughlin, was rampant. Even German-American enclaves, like New York’s “Yorkville” along East 86th Street, identified with Nazism and had no sympathy for Jews.

Return to Europe of the St. Louis

Captain Schroeder threatened to scuttle his ship off the coast of England, forcing, under international law, Britain to take in the refugees. Negotiations hastily led to Britain, France, the Netherlands, and Belgium agreeing to take a portion of the refugees. This represented a short reprieve to many of the Jews that would be caught up in the Nazi web after the 1940 Blitzkrieg occupation of much of Western Europe.

The United Stares must take significant blame for the tragedy of the St. Louis. Artifacts from the ship’s voyage can be seen at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC, along with other exhibits such as the Evian Conference of 1938. The St. Louis affair should provide a template for the future.

Sources:

Robert H. Abzug, America Views the Holocaust 1933-1945: A Brief Documentary History (Bedford/St. Martin’s, 1999)
Gordon Thomas and Max Morgan Witts, Voyage of the Damned (Stein and Day, 1974)
Lyric Wallwork Winik, “The Hunt For Survivors of a Doomed Ship,” Parade, December 7, 2003

The copyright of the article The St. Louis and U.S. Policy Failures in Modern US History is owned by Michael Streich. Permission to republish The St. Louis and U.S. Policy Failures in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

St. Louis in Havana

The Nullification Crisis of 1832

Idealogical Differences over Constitutional Interpretation

Aug 30, 2009

The Nullification Crisis resulted from federal passage of two protective tariffs, prompting men like John C. Calhoun to assert state sovereignty over federal law.

The concept of nullification is most keenly demonstrated by the tariff controversy in South Carolina during the presidency of Andrew Jackson. Nullification, however, had surfaced earlier in 1798 when Thomas Jefferson attacked the Federalist Alien and Sedition Acts with the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions. The nature of the nullification debate rested on the interpretation of the Constitution and its relationship to the states. The 1832 crisis was based on two unpopular protective tariffs. Under the ideological leadership of John C. Calhoun, South Carolina nullified the federal acts and threatened to secede if coerced in any way by the central government.

The Coming of the Nullification Crisis

Prior to the crisis emanating out of South Carolina, Georgia had struggled with the federal government as well over Indian policy. Despite pro-Indian rulings by John Marshall, Georgia ignored the government and evicted the Cherokee. It should be noted that President Jackson, unlike his stance over nullification, supported Georgia and sent troops to enforce the relocation of the Native Americans to Oklahoma.

Some scholars point out that Georgia’s success in opposing the federal government might have emboldened South Carolina’s resolve in passing the November 1832 Ordinance of Nullification. It is also true, however, that Southern states did not benefit from protective tariffs. The 1820s had brought a period of economic decline as well as population growth to the region.

As larger plantations flourished with the over-production of cotton in states like Georgia, Mississippi, and Alabama, the price of cotton fell. Thus, the 1828 “Tariff of Abominations” and the July 1832 tariff were seen as a direct threat to Southern prosperity. Finally, although Calhoun had supported Henry Clay’s “American System,” the South received scant benefit from federal expenditures.

The Ideological Foundation of Nullification

During the January 1830 Webster-Hayne debate, Massachusetts Senator Daniel Webster refuted South Carolina Senator Hayne’s argument that the central government was a mere collection of sovereign states that had been responsible for the creation of the Constitution. Webster argued that the Constitution derived not from the states but from the people. It was the supreme law of the land.

As Chief Justice John Marshall had pointed out in numerous cases involving national supremacy, sovereignty was not concurrent, neither was the Constitution a mere “compact” among the various states. The Founding Fathers had established a working government that recognized limited states’ rights but not at the expense of national supremacy.

Andrew Jackson Responds to Nullification

In his December 10th Proclamation to the People of South Carolina, Jackson made it clear that force would be employed to stop the actions of the South Carolina nullifiers. According to Jackson, disunity was tantamount to treason. The proclamation was followed by a January 1833 request from Congress giving him the authority to end the crisis.

Congress responded with the Force Bill, authorizing a military response, yet also began the process of rewriting the tariff so that protectionism would gradually be eliminated. As historian Page Smith wrote, it was a carrot and stick approach and it worked.

South Carolina was isolated. No other Southern state offered more than token, verbal support and then only from a minority of nullifiers. South Carolina felt compelled to reverse its stance while Andrew Jackson recounted his response in a letter to a friend who was serving as US Minister to Imperial Russia. That man was James Buchanan who, in 1860, would face a similar crisis.

Sources:

Alfred H. Kelly and Winfred A. Harbison, The American Constitution: Its Origins and Development 5th Ed., (New York: W.W.Norton & Company, 1976)
Stephen B. Oates, The Approaching Fury: Voices of the Storm, 1820-1861 (Harper/Collins, 1997)
Page Smith, The Nation Comes of Age: A People’s History of the Ante-Bellum Years Vol. 4 (McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1981)

The copyright of the article The Nullification Crisis of 1832 in American History is owned by Michael Streich. Permission to republish The Nullification Crisis of 1832 in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

John C. Calhoun in 1822

Tuesday, February 2, 2021

Witches in Ancient History

Circe and the Witch of Endor are Colorful Examples of Witchcraft

Jun 22, 2009

Women empowered with supernatural abilities can be found in all ancient cultures, often serving a positive and a negative purpose in everyday life and the quest to know.

Witchcraft and the many variations denoted by that general term can be traced back to the Ancient Egyptians and Mesopotamians, especially the Babylonians. Those who practiced magic (the term “witch” is an Old English derivation), divination, and the performance of supernatural acts served both a positive and a negative purpose. Within the Judeo-Christian framework, however, there is no such dichotomy: witchcraft ran counter to religion and later became identified with the works of the devil or Satan. In the ancient world, two women stand out as the iconic witches the western tradition has come to accept as examples of the dark side.

The Witch of Endor

In Exodus 22:18 Hebrew law declares, “thou shalt not suffer a witch to live,” (or “sorceress”) while Deuteronomy 18:10 states “There shall not be found among you anyone…who uses divination, one who practices witchcraft…or a sorcerer…” Such passages were used in the late 15th Century Malleus Maleficarum to justify the witch hunts of the late Middle Ages. Yet in I Samuel 28 King Saul visited the most famous necromancer (from the Hebrew terminology) of the Old Testament: the witch of Endor.

The witch practiced divination and could call the dead back. One modern translation refers to her as a “medium.” From the account in I Samuel several facts can immediately be determined. King Saul came at night, in disguise. The work of a witch was best concluded in the dark. The woman thought that a trap had been set: mediums and “spiritists” had been persecuted for practicing their arts.

Saul asked the medium to bring up the prophet Samuel. When Samuel appeared, however, he declared that Saul would lose his kingdom because God was now his adversary. The fact that Saul used divination to request help in preserving his kingdom demonstrated the strong antipathy toward such arts since he felt he could no longer call upon God and was going against his own edicts to eradicate such practices.

Circe and Odysseus

Although Greek mythology and lore contains the accounts of many witches, Circe, in Homer’s Odyssey, may be the most colorful and remembered. Odysseus landed on her island during his long trek home following the Trojan War. It is here that he encountered the beguiling woman who had transformed several of his crew into pigs.

The passages are full of magic and aspects of witchcraft. Circe used potions and a magic wand. She cast spells. Her magical ointments (sometimes referred to as magical rejuvenation) retransformed the pigs back to men. Circe can make herself invisible. Odysseus overcame her power with a magical root, given to him by the god Hermes. Although the passages do not say exactly how the root was used, it rendered Circe’s potion useless.

This magical root, called molu, may have been garlic, according to some interpretations. Garlic is one of the oldest spices in the ancient world, often equated with warding off evil, perhaps because of its curative powers. Little wonder garlic came to be identified as a defense against vampires in later centuries.

The outcome in the Odyssey was positive. Circe, after swearing an oath not to attempt any more magical arts against Odysseus, slept with him and fed his entire crew. She shared the secrets of necromancy, which would help Odysseus in subsequent adventures.

Abundance of Witchcraft in the Ancient World

Scholars have determined that the terms used in the ancient world to denote “witch” and “witchcraft” were both feminine and masculine. During the formation of the early Christian Church, Simon Magus was considered a witch or “wizard.” Yet, as in the time of the 16th and 17th Century Witch Craze, witchcraft was more often associated with females. Circe and the Witch of Endor are but two colorful examples of the phenomenon.

Sources:

T. Witton Davies, “Witchcraft,” International Standard Bible Encyclopedia Volume V (William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. 1939)
Daniel Ogden, Magic, Witchcraft, and Ghosts in the Greek and Roman Worlds (Oxford University Press, 2002)
New American Standard Bible, 1973

The copyright of the article Witches in Ancient History in Ancient History is owned by Michael Streich. Permission to republish Witches in Ancient History in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

Circe: Painting by J.W. Waterhouse 1891

Mt. Sinai in Ancient Near East History

Environmental Features Enhanced the Notion of the Home of Deity

Jun 24, 2009 Michael Streich

Throughout Ancient History, certain mountain tops came to be associated with the gods whether in Greece or Japan. For Some Near Eastern people, Sinai was such a place.

Throughout the ancient world, mountains played important roles in the religious experiences of peoples and their culture. Sacred mountains were the homes of gods, such as Mt. Olympus in Greece, or the repository of knowledge as in the case of Mt. Parnassus, also in Greece. In the ancient Near East, few sacred mountain tops rivaled Mt. Sinai, referred to as the mountain of fire and associated with the Old Testament law-giver Moses.

Prominence of Mount Sinai

Although not the tallest peak in the region, Mt. Sinai, at 7,370 feet, is considerably higher than the surrounding mountains, most of which rise to 4,000 feet. Mt. Sinai, also referred to as Mt. Horeb (although some scholars claim the two names denote different locations), features, in part, red granite rock which, when hit by the sun, looks like fire. The name “Sinai” is derived from the term “to shine.”

At certain times of the year, the mountain is alive with thunderstorms that, in ancient times, caused awe among the peoples below. Little wonder Sinai was considered the home of God. In Exodus 24:18, the writer states that, “Moses entered the midst of the cloud as he went up to the mountain…” This was the same mountain where, years earlier, Moses had experienced the “burning bush” in which Yahweh recruited him to go back to Egypt and bring out Israel to the “promised land.”

Scholars note that the rugged and stormy conditions associated with Mt. Sinai complemented the Hebrew view of God. Professor of Near East Studies Donald Redford comments that the Hebrew God “displays atmospheric and chthonic traits, being intimately associated with the wind, earthquake, fire and thunder.” (379)

Mt. Sinai is difficult to climb; the sides of the mountain feature sharp precipices. Not only did this discourage interested parties from attempting a climb to the summit, but it denoted special recognition to those who did - like Moses. Undoubtedly, these men were true conduits through which deity spoke.

Israel at Mount Sinai

According to Old Testament tradition, uncorroborated by substantive historical evidence, the Exodus Hebrews spent nearly a year encamped in the valley below the mountain. Four streams in the immediate vicinity would have provided the necessary water for such a mass of people.

Twice Moses ascended the mountain, staying at the top for forty days and nights each time. After the first sojourn, he returned with the Ten Commandments only to find that the people were in revolt. In anger, he smashed the tablets upon which the law had been written, “by the finger of God,” according to Old Testament writers. Following another forty-day period, Moses returned and presented the base of Hebrew law. In addition, he enunciated a “covenant,” so much a part of Old Testament tradition, made between God and his chosen people.

In essence, the Mosaic Law, which would fill many chapters of the Pentateuch, was in many cases nothing radically different from other Near East law codes.

The Symbol of Mt.Sinai for the Early Church

In the 4th and 5th centuries, as men and women became disillusioned with the lukewarm nature of official Christendom, many took to the deserts, especially in the Sinai, to pursue the ascetic lives of hermits. The imposing Mt. Sinai again reached out to these spiritually hungry Christians.

In AD 537, the Byzantine Emperor Justinian built a monastery at the base of the mountain which still stands today. As long as deity is associated with nature, particularly the “high places” of the world, Mt. Sinai will play a prominent role in religious experience.

Sources:

Colonel Claude R. Conder, LL.D., “Sinai,” The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1939)
Michael Grant, The History of Ancient Israel (History Book Club/Orion Publishing Group, 2002)
Donald B. Redford, Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times (Princeton University Press, 1992)

Saturday, January 30, 2021

Celibacy in the Early Middle Ages

Aug 22, 2011
Michael Streich e

Traced to the Fourth Century, celibacy became a requirement for members of the clergy in the Early Middle Ages.

Clerical celibacy in the Roman Catholic Church is usually traced to the 4th Century CE and was subsequently strengthened and reaffirmed by the papacy. By 1123, at the First Lateran Council presided over by Pope Callistus II, Canon 7 (29) expressly forbade “priests, deacons, or sub deacons to live with concubines and wives…” Several reasons are given for the rise and enforcement of clerical celibacy, including the ascetic tradition in the Church following the Great Persecution as well as the marginalization of women. Celibacy was the “more perfect way,” supported, ostensibly, by Holy Scripture.

Marriage in the Early Church and the Passage in Matthew

Matthew 19: 10-12 is one of the most frequently used passages in Church writings of the Early Middle Ages to support Jesus’ advocacy of celibacy and it is still used today to defend celibacy. Yet nowhere in the passage does Jesus promote celibacy as the mandatory state for his disciples. Peter, the “rock” upon whom the Church was built, was himself married. Additionally, the passage is part of a larger dialogue concerning marriage and divorce.

In I Timothy 3:12 Paul states that “deacons” or “bishops” (depending upon the translation) should be “husbands of only one wife, and good managers of their children and their own households.” Early Church History recounts the lives of numerous married bishops. In some cases, according to W. H. C. Frend, Professor of Ecclesiastical History, children accompanied their fathers to places of execution, fathers that were bishops or in other overseer positions.

Factors Contributing to the Rise of Enforced Celibacy

Numerous views seek to explain why clerical celibacy became the norm in the medieval Church and continues so into the current century. Initially, during the early 4th Century, celibacy was strongly identified with the ascetic traditions associated with hermit monasticism. The ideal of the virgin was nothing new: it had been part of pagan beliefs for centuries. Early ascetics merely followed a path that was already characteristic of mysticism and an individual encounter with the sublime. The Essenes, for example, included members that advocated celibacy.

At the same time, the Church was developing a system of morality that placed celibacy above marriage and demeaned sexual activity. Tierney and Painter recount the suggestion of 9th Century Bishop Jonas of Orleans as to when married couples “should abstain from sexual relations.” These times included, “forty days before Christmas, forty days before Easter, eight days after Pentecost, every Sunday, Wednesday, and Friday, the eve of all great feasts, and five days before taking communion.”

Celibacy also set the clergy apart from other people. This process began in the 4th Century. Eventually, this enabled the Church to maintain greater authority in Western Europe through its agents. Church Historian Williston Walker, referring to Pope Gregory VII’s Church reforms, states that clerical celibacy became, “…not only the theoretical but the practical rule of the Roman Church.”

Yale Professor John Boswell cites the role of rural ethical codes, applicable in the Early Middle Ages in Western Europe. According to Boswell, “The exemption of the celibate from all reproductive pressure in rural value systems is a salient and innovative characteristic of Catholicism as a religion, imposed on it, at least in the view of Catholics, by Jesus.” Additionally, the relationships formed by a system of feudal obligations had to be addressed lest the clergy found itself between secular and Church allegiances.

The Marginalization of Women

Celibacy was defended by early Church writers who viewed women as weaker than men. Identified with Eve, they were seen as prone to temptation and sin. At the same time, celibacy assisted in further marginalizing women. The Church hierarchy was only open to men who believed that celibacy was the best way to serve God. Jerome, the producer of the Latin Vulgate, castrated himself. St Benedict cut his flesh when overcome by thoughts of lust. St Kevin of Ireland inadvertently caused the death of a local peasant girl who pursued him. Throughout the Middle Ages, one of the few avenues open to women was as a nun in a cloister or convent.

Defenders of celibacy point to men like St Augustine. Augustine sent way his concubine, but, according to historian Peter Brown, “…it was not moral scruples…It was ambition.” Brown also notes that Augustine defended marriage, although eventually electing a celibate life when he entered the priesthood.

Upholding Celibacy throughout the Middle Ages

Celibacy became a mandatory practice for members of the clergy during the Early Middle Ages. Numerous popes addressed celibacy as part of Church reform efforts to combat concubinage among members of the clergy. Pope Leo IX, at the Easter synod of 1049, renewed the Church position and sought to actively enforce it.

The Reformation ultimately challenged this view, allowing priests and ministers to marry and raise families. Within the Catholic Church, however, celibacy remains a requirement for all members of the clergy.

References:

John Boswell, Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality (University of Chicago Press, 1980)
Peter Brown, Augustine of Hippo (Dorsett Press, 1967)
First Lateran Council, Papal Encyclicals Online
W.H.C. Frend, The Rise of Christianity (Fortress Press, 1984)
New American Standard Bible (Moody Press, 1973)
Brian Tierney and Sidney Painter, Western Europe In The Middle Ages 300-1475, 5th Edition (McGraw-Hill, Inc., 1992)
Williston Walker, A History Of The Christian Church, 3rd Edition (Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1970)
Ordericus Vitalis, “An Attempt to Enforce Clerical Celibacy,” (CE 1119) Medieval Reader, James B. Ross and Mary M. McLaughlin, editors (The Viking Press, 1969)

Michael Streich -

Retired History Adjunct Instructor

Why the Protestant Reformation Succeeded

Aug 9, 2011
Michael Streich

Geopolitical changes, relief from ecclesiastical taxes, growing literacy, and a popular message all contributed to the success of the Reformation.

The “success” of the Protestant Reformation in the 16th Century may be a relative concept. The Reformation is generally associated with Martin Luther and the publication of his 95 theses in 1517. Yet, although the Reformation became very political, Luther’s focus remained on the Gospel and the epistles of the New Testament as pointing the way toward salvation through faith. He never set out to create a movement or form a new church. His “success,” however, owes much to the political climate of the day, notably the support of his patron Frederick the Wise as well as the relationship between Emperor Charles V, the Germanic princes, and the papacy.

The Sense of the German People and Their Grievances

Luther, had he been so inclined, could have agitated for a German “national” church much as England’s King Henry VIII had done. The idea of such an enterprise, however, was not part of Luther’s ministry even though contemporaries, both poor and rich, frequently viewed his message apart from the theological implications of his writings and preaching. Luther, for example, condemned the 1525 Peasant War.

Luther’s 95 theses were published before Charles V was confirmed Holy Roman Emperor by seven electors, one of who was Frederick the Wise of Saxony. According to scholars, there is no historical evidence that Charles or his agents influenced in any way Frederick’s vote, which was cast without any foreknowledge. The relationship between Frederick and Charles impacted how the new emperor would deal with Luther.

Charles was also keenly aware that many of the German princes sought taxation relief tied to Rome and the insatiable greed of the Church hierarchy. At issue was the so-called “Crusade” tax, also referred to as the “Turkish penny.” Luther historian Heiko Oberman writes that Luther’s patron, Frederick, was, “…at the forefront when it came to throwing off the yoke of ecclesiastical power.”

Frederick supported Luther’s criticism of the recently promulgated plenary indulgence, banning the Dominican Johann Tetzel from Saxony. Frederick’s decision, it should be noted, was to safeguard revenue obtained from his own relics collection; Tetzel was competition. Additionally, Luther was an important member of his faculty at the University of Wittenberg.

Changing World Patterns and Religious Policy

Unlike earlier centuries in which heretic groups like the Albigensians were the objects of Church-sanctioned crusades leading to merciless slaughtering, most notably in Southern France, the Europe of Charles V imposed different priorities. Oberman refers to “shifting geopolitical patterns.”

Charles was a Spanish Habsburg and Spain was rapidly developing a New World empire. At the same time, new Muslim incursions in the Levant and the eastern Mediterranean region threatened Venice while imposing upon Spain and Charles in particular a Christian sovereign’s duty to protect Christian Europe. The Luther-problem did not warrant similar concerns.

In not addressing the growing Protestant movement forcefully enough, Charles may have inadvertently strengthened Lutheranism and the various off-shoots that emerged later in the century such as Calvinism. Oberman, for example, argues that, “…it was the emperor’s religious policy that…enabled the powers Luther had unleashed to bring about radical change in theology, the church, and the balance of power in Europe.”

The Extravagance of the Roman Church

Indulgences were merely the proverbial “tip of the iceberg” when it came to Church abuse. Church extravagance had been an issue for centuries, prompting, for example, St. Francis of Assisi to embrace a poverty he and his initial followers identified with Jesus. Others, such as John Wycliffe in England, also a Franciscan, preached against the properties and luxuries of what was the wealthiest extension of Catholicism in Europe.

Luther himself had been appalled by the conditions he witnessed in Rome while on an official visit for the Augustinian order. Ironically, the visit was part of an on-going dispute between different factions within the order. Luther sided with the “Observant” faction that sought a simpler monastic life, rejecting the extravagance of other orders and the Church hierarchy.

Education and the Growth of Urban Centers

The success of Luther’s Reformation also has much to do with education and literacy. R. W. Scribner refers to the Reformation as the “first great age of mass propaganda” in his studies of 16th Century broadsheets and woodcuts. Filled with recognizable symbols, these images, often including rhymes easy to memorize by illiterate peasants, conveyed powerful if not always accurate messages.

Historian Miriam Chrisman, analyzing printing in Strasbourg, writes that the emerging pamphlets, songs, and other printed materials, “enable us to reconstruct the intellectual milieu of ordinary men and women.” It is significant that this took place first in the cities. Steven Ozment, writing about the Reformation in the cities, comments that, “Few movements have been assisted by a more able group of popular writers than the Protestant Reformation.”

The impact of literacy within imperial cities as contributory to the success of Luther’s Reformation is corroborated by Bernd Moeller’s study. According to Moeller, “…in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries the upper classes of the imperial cities formed the elite of the whole empire, and the intellectual life of Germany reached a truly European level for the first time.”

Moeller, however, concludes that towns tended to become more secular and that “…demands for Reformation with desires for social and economic reform…retarded…the victory of the Reformation.” The eventual triumph of the Reformation is attributed by Moeller to “much more profound sentiments.” The same general patterns were evident in French cities where Calvinism flourished.

Why the Protestant Reformation Succeeded

Luther’s success was tied to his focus: the message of salvation; the success of the ensuing movement had much to do with imperial politics, the personalities of men like Frederick and Charles V, mass facilitation of the printing press for the first time, growing literacy, and a spirit of urban autonomy tied to a better-educated community. At the same time, Catholicism rejected any real effort at reform, projecting the image of intractable extravagance.

Sources:

Miriam U. Chrisman, “Printing and the Evolution of Lay Culture in Strasbourg, 1480-1599,” The German People And The Reformation, Edited by R. Po-Chia Hsia (Cornell University Press, 1988)
Bernd Moeller, Imperial Cities and the Reformation (The Labyrinth Press, 1982)
Heiko A. Oberman, Luther: Man between God and the Devil (Yale University Press, 1989)
Steven Ozment, The Age of Reform 1250-1550 (Yale University Press, 1980)
Steven E. Ozment, The Reformation in the Cities (Yale University Press, 1975)
R.W. Scribner, Popular Culture and Popular Movements in Reformation Germany (The Hambledon Press, 1987)

Michael Streich -

Retired History Adjunct Instructor