Free Daily Life During The Reformation by James M. Anderson Page B

rapid strides in the imperial lands of the Holy Roman Empire,
where the territorial secular rulers were often inclined toward the new
religious point of view as were some members of the Catholic clergy. Reformist
leaders used all means available to condemn and ridicule the Catholic Church
and inform a mostly illiterate society of their beliefs. Besides the printing
presses, woodcuts, engravings, songs, satire, drama, and the pulpit were all
means to instruct the masses.
     

    Interior view of a workshop with
men and boys engaged in various activities in etching, engraving, and printing.
     
     
    GERMANY
     
    How the religious lives and practices of the people were
disrupted by the anxiety, passion, and upheavals of the time is well
illustrated in the case of Germany.
    Local congregations, anxious to hear the new orthodoxy,
pressured their village and town councilors to hire a preacher sympathetic to
the Reformation. Unsympathetic city officials found themselves confronted by an
angry populace.
    When no church was available to itinerant evangelists, as was
often the case, they preached in the market place, the churchyard, or wherever
there was a willing audience. Church services were now changing; in some cases,
the preacher allowed questions from the congregation during the sermon.
Elsewhere, clerical garb was not worn. In one case the preacher wore a long red
coat, fashionable shoes, and a Scottish red beret.
    In some instances, congregations became unruly; in
Regensburg, a Catholic preacher was heckled during the sermon. In 1524, in Ulm,
a priest who began his sermon with a prayer to the Virgin Mary, was driven out
of the church with vociferous abuse.
    Where reforms were accepted by the populace, a once-passive
congregation sometimes turned into an unrestrained shouting match. Disputes
with priests reached the point where town councils forbade public contradiction
of preachers, and city officials everywhere reimposed discipline by prohibiting
anyone from speaking during the Mass.
    Even in private homes, evangelical sermons were given, and
peoples’ lives were filled with debating religious issues—the most popular
place being at inns but also at spinning bees, Church ales, on the job site, as
well as in the village square where pamphlets were distributed and read out
loud to any gathering. The dinner table, too, always provided a setting for
conversation on religious topics.
    Songs and poems scornful of the orthodox clergy were widely
circulated. Some towns prohibited such activity that could lead to public disorder.
There were cases where crowds of Lutherans would invade a Catholic church and
by singing loudly, attempt to drown out the church music.
    Tempers flared in Magdeburg in 1524 when a weaver who sang
Lutheran hymns was imprisoned. Two hundred citizens marched on city hall to
demand his release. A number of German cities passed censorship laws
threatening authors and publishers with fines and imprisonment, forcing their
activities underground.
    Hans Haberlin, a lay preacher from the village of
Wiggensbach, was detained in 1526 for unauthorized preaching. At the time of
his arrest he was speaking to a crowd of about eight hundred peasants gathered
in a field. In spite of setbacks and opposition, the Reformation spread
throughout the Holy Roman Empire finding fertile ground in many regions.
     
     
    THE PROTESTANT MOVEMENT IN SWITZERLAND
     
    The religious movement in Switzerland started under Ulrich
Zwingli, a priest. The Swiss confederation of the time was made up of 13 nearly
autonomous states (or cantons) along with some affiliated states. In Germany
and Switzerland, there was at first agreement on reformist issues, but the
relative independence of the cantons brought on conflicts during the
Reformation when the various regions supported different aspects of doctrine.
Some followers of Zwingli, for example, believing the Reformation too
conservative, moved independently toward more radical ideas.
    The movement