It is now nearly two weeks late to make a Halloween/Reformation Day post, but we made one last year, and this year this author wanted to clarify something he learned in the meantime.
There is a common misconception about the Protestant Reformation that we will briefly address here. The popular idea is that the Protestants were Christians who were ‘protesting’ Roman Catholic doctrine and practice, such as the selling of indulgences, the corruption of the Roman church, or the false gospel of justification by faith and works (this is a simplistic way of putting it, but the focus here is not Catholic Soteriology).
It is a somewhat romantic image, to imagine Luther and his zealous army of the Christian faithful protesting against the power in defence of the faith. Unfortunately, that’s about as fanciful as the idea of the French winning a war.
So, let’s briefly dig into history and get it straight. There was an important meeting of the Electors (in modern terms this would be like Ambassadors, Prime Ministers, political representatives) of the Roman Empire that met in a town called Speyer in Germany in the year 1526. At this meeting were the rulers of the land. Some were Lutheran, some Catholic. Since the majority were Lutheran, a vaguely-worded conclusion was reached that seemed to rescind the Edict of Worms (an edict from a council that met in the city of Worms) which outlawed Martin Luther and all his writings, at pain of death.
Whether or not the outcome of this decision was the intention of the Emperor Charles V, whose brother Ferdinand represented him at Speyer, the outcome was that the cities where Lutherans were in charge ended up being cities with some religious liberty, where these Christians could worship according to their faith.
However, only three years later, Emperor Charles V announced the Diet of Speyer (II), which met in 1529. One of the express intentions of this council meeting was to annul the outcomes of Speyer I, and in no uncertain terms make it that all the lands of the Roman Empire must worship according to the Catholic faith.
The Lutherans were troubled by this ruling not only because it meant that they couldn’t worship as Lutherans, but also because they were being bound by a secular authority in matters of faith. The legal structure and framework of these Diets (councils) meant that those electors who were unhappy with the majority decision of the Diet could formally protest the action and decision of the Diet. This is what happened at Speyer II. To switch to modern terminology briefly, the Lutheran politicians at the council who were in the minority submitted a document as a means of protesting the decision of the majority of the politicians, who were once again restricting their religious freedom.
This is where the term Protestant comes from. It is a political term referring to the politicians (electors) who opposed the decision of the council (Diet) at Speyer in 1529. It has nothing to do with indulgences, the sacrifice of Mass, transubstantiation, justification by faith, or any of that.
Distilled Orthopraxy 