Go beyond the surface of the historical story and discuss the deep causes of the event from a macroscopic social perspective
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When it comes to the important historical events that have taken place in modern Europe, we have to talk about the Reformation. At the height of the Middle Ages, the Church used its political and ideological prerogatives to greatly expand its economic power. The Church levied a large amount of taxes within its fiefdoms, such as the famous tithe (a tax that required commoners to give 1/10 of their income to the Church in fact, far more than 1/10 of the amount at the time of collection). Many church people entered the king's court to hold important positions and used these powers to plunder large amounts of wealth.
Corruption within the church is also very common, and many donations from believers are swallowed up by some high-ranking clergy, who use this money to enjoy a life of extravagance and lavishness, as told in the famous book "Decameron". In addition, the Church claims that the purchase of expensive indulgences by believers can wash away their original sins and, after death, they can ascend to heaven, thus defrauding them of a large amount of money for the clergy to continue to enjoy their lives.
The corruption of the clerical class not only aroused the resentment of the lower classes, but also made the secular rulers hate them to the teeth. However, this situation will eventually be reversed, and from the 15th century onwards, the social structure of Europe changed dramatically. There were two important trends that posed important challenges to the authority of the Church: the first was the strengthening of the monarchy' power, the monarch established a more complete bureaucratic mechanism and army system than in the Middle Ages, the revenue was no longer dependent on vassals, and the idea of absolute monarchy began to emerge. The second trend was the rise of the burgher class in the late Middle Ages, when cities increased in size and economic status, and a once low-power class, the burgher class, began to flourish in the political arena, dissatisfied with the economic control of the church.
There were also many reform-leaning people within the church. The Reformers were dissatisfied with the extravagance and extravagance within the Church, and what drove them to reform was often a good feeling, and they sympathized with the lower classes and the lower clergy, believing that the Church should not monopolize the right to interpret the Bible, and that everyone should read the Bible and communicate directly with God. Whether believers can be saved depends on whether they truly believe in God, a thinking known as justification by faith. They also criticized the disciplined church system and advocated simplifying the process of religious ceremonies.
The most famous reformer was Martin Luther. In 1517, Luther wrote the Ninety-Five Theses, criticizing the church's practice of peddling the right to atone for sins, infuriating the entire Catholic Church. To this end, Luther often had to oppose the Church and the Holy Roman Empire that supported it. Fortunately, many secular monarchs like the Elector of Saxony, as well as the civic class, supported Luther, allowing Luther's ideas to spread widely and establish a Protestant sect known as Lutheranism.
In this article, Yu would like to introduce you to a religious reformer with the same name as Luther, Calvin, and the Calvinist Sect he founded.
Calvin was born into a middle-class French family in 1509. At the time when Calvin was forming values, the Reformation was in full swing. Calvin studied at the Universities of Paris and Orléans, where he was deeply influenced by humanism, and later came into contact with Lutheran Lutheran Protestantism. In order to escape the persecution of Protestants by the French government, Calvin fled to Switzerland in 1534 and devoted himself to the study of religious theory. In 1536, Calvin published Principles of Christianity, which explained his theory of religion.
Calvin's theory has two main points. One is the importance of the Bible, which Calvin believed was written according to God's will, so its authority was supreme, and the church and the nation should be subordinate to the Bible. The second point is the famous predestination theory, according to Calvin that Since the beginning of Genesis, God has divided man into a chosen person and an outcast, and the elector is destined to be saved. And who is elected and who is an outcast is born, and fate cannot be changed.
Predestination, which rejects the idea that acquired effort can change destiny, seems too harsh. But in fact, Calvinism also revised this theory. Calvin believed that everyone could not directly know whether he was a voter or an outcast, but from what people had achieved in reality, it was possible to indirectly see whether a person was a voter or an outcast. If a person has achieved a lot of success, it means that he has been called by God, and he should be a voter. Therefore, predestination seems to focus on people's talents and does not focus on acquired efforts. But in fact, predestination has encouraged the bourgeoisie to continue to make progress in reality, because if a person succeeds, he means that he is a voter, he will be more optimistic about the world, more active in competition.
One thing that Calvin was luckier than Luther was that he had the opportunity to put his theological theories into practice on his own. In 1541, when the Reformers of Geneva came to power, Calvin came to Geneva to preside over the Reformation and became the supreme authority in Geneva. Calvin codified the Church Act and the Catechism As the norm for civic thought and action. Calvin laid down the organizational form of the church, stipulating that the church should consist of four kinds of positions: elders, pastors, teachers, and deacons, each with its own work content. The supreme body of the Church is the Inquisition, composed of elected representatives of elders and priests, who administer religious life. The highest organs of government are the Large Council and the Small Council, elected by the citizens. In fact, government and church personnel and accusations often intersected, so Geneva was effectively a theocratic republic.
However, although both the Church and the Government are elected and the form of government is a republic, we cannot assume that there is sufficient democratic elements in Geneva. Calvin believed that the church should not only govern religious affairs, but also supervise society and the family. Thus, in the Geneva statutes there are a large number of laws that exercise strict control over the lives of the masses, such as the law that all persons should attend sermons on Sundays and be fined if they are late in the sermons; Calvinism promoted the values of frugality, and this set of laws was passed down.