Reactions to the Magisterial Reformation

Reactions to the Magisterial Reformation

As Catholic Europe has been asked to change the way of life it has always known, the heartbeat of a continent is asked to beat to the sound of a different drummer. Luther, Calvin and others were backed by what have come to be known as magistrates, the proverbial sponsors of that time period. These Magistrates were important because they were the political power to which “no name” theologians could attach their name to in order to have a more social acceptance. Anything that was being preached without the sponsorship of the Magistrates was known as radical, in turn commencing the era of the Radical reformation in opposition of what was being approved and supported by the state.

The reactions to the Initial Reformation were far and wide. From people loving the church too much to leave to those who grew so angry and felt so belittled by the way they had been fooled that they left the church completely. The people involved an/or affected by what has been known today as the radical reformation range anywhere from Thomas Müntzer to my own religion of Seventh Day Adventism. This is not to say that all these religions believe in what the Radicals did, but they opened a new door to thought.

Luther looked at the corruption of the Catholic Church with hope of what it could be once again. He used this hope to motivate him not to back down from all the people trying to persecute him and his thoughts. Luther never said anything about going away from the Catholic Church let alone creating other religions in its place. Thomas Müntzer and company had a very different idea when they looked at all the corruption in the church. They saw a bad church, along with bad leaders and decided that it al needed to be changed. Typical church was abandoned in reaction to the way that the Catholic Church put their clergy above everyone else. The Radicals found that they could not find biblically the idea of an institutionalized authority of the...