The writer of the Letter to the Hebrews reminds Christians that they are surrounded by a great “cloud of witnesses.” (NRSV) That “cloud” has continued to grow in size since then. In this monthly column we will be thinking about some of the people and events, over the past 2000 years, that have helped make up this “cloud.” People and events that have helped build the community of the Christian church as it exists today.
We often project later experiences back into history, consciously or unconsciously assuming an inevitability to what finally occurred. However, history is complex and, what now seems inevitable, did not always look that way in the past. The distribution of forms of Christian faith in Europe is a striking example.
Protestant and Catholic Europe – mapping faith
Today, when we consider the geographical impact of the 16th-century Protestant Reformation, we tend to envisage it as primarily a northern European phenomenon. In this, central and northern Germany, the Scandinavian states, the UK (as it now is) and the Netherlands appear as a geographically coherent group. In contrast, Portugal, Spain, Italy, France, southern Germany, Austria, and most of Eastern Europe are predominantly Catholic. Further to the east and south-east is characterised by faith in Eastern Orthodoxy.
This geography can seem almost inevitable: the Reformation changed life largely to the north of the Alps, while (simply put) south of this and east of the River Elbe, Roman Catholicism dominates the religious map before giving way to Orthodoxy. There are, of course, complexities. Ireland remained largely Catholic. In the Baltic States, Lithuania is predominantly Roman Catholic, Latvia is historically Lutheran (though now closely followed by other Christian groups), and Estonia is largely non-religiously defined, with Eastern Orthodoxy and Lutheranism forming the largest traditional denominations in the country. Despite this, the overall picture seems clear. Moving away from the centre of the continent, Eastern Europe is Roman Catholic, then Orthodox.
However, 16th-century Europe looked very different because Protestant ideas travelled surprisingly far to the east, and – for several key decades – very large parts of Eastern Europe appeared to be going Protestant. In this time both Lutheranism and Calvinism made substantial advances in (what was then) the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Hungary, Transylvania, Bohemia and Moravia. Protestant nobles, merchants, townspeople and intellectuals were found across lands that are now generally associated with either Roman Catholicism or Eastern Orthodoxy. In some of these areas Protestantism became the religion of most of the local population, or at least of a politically powerful section of the contemporary society. Eastern Europe looked like it was becoming Protestant.
This reminds us that the modern religious map of Europe was not created by the first success of the Reformation in the century after it started c. 1517. The modern distribution was also created by the subsequent success of the Catholic response. And that is a key factor in understanding it.
When Eastern Europe appeared to be going Protestant
Martin Luther's challenge to the Catholic Church began in the German lands in 1517. However, the rapid circulation of his ideas meant that it was not confined to there. In the age of the newly-invented printing press – as in our modern internet age – ideas spread fast! In this process books and pamphlets, along with students, merchants and clergy carried Reformation ideas across political boundaries. This accelerated because Eastern and Central Europe were already closely connected to the German-speaking world through generations of trade, universities and dynastic links. Lutheranism catching attention in Poland, Hungary or Bohemia was not as strange as it now seems. From Switzerland, Calvinism then spread eastward as well as to the north and west.
In Hungary, Lutheran ideas at first appealed to German-speaking communities and urban populations but soon spread much more widely. By the later 16th century, Lutheranism had many supporters among German-speaking Hungarians; Calvinism had a powerful following among Magyar-speaking communities. Several factors assisted this, including political fragmentation caused by the Ottoman Turk conquests in the east after the Battle of Mohács (in the Kingdom of Hungary), in 1526. As a result, Catholic authority was weakened and competing forms of Christianity could flourish in the vacuum.
Another key area was Transylvania. Here rulers found themselves positioned between Catholic Habsburg rule and the Islamic Ottoman Empire and gained a measure of political independence as a result. Consequently, Lutherans, Calvinists, Catholics and anti-Trinitarians all gained substantial footholds in a mosaic of confessions. In Transylvania religious pluralism achieved (for a while) a degree of legal recognition that was exceptional in Europe.
Then there was the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. This looked like it might become a Protestant success story. Lutheranism quickly moved through German-speaking towns, while Calvinism attracted considerable support among sections of the nobility. By 1569, around half of the Commonwealth’s Senate was non-Catholic. Most of these were Protestants and Calvinism was highly influential.
In this process, Protestantism became entangled with the political structure of the region. Here the nobility often saw the cause of religious reform as buttressing resistance to Catholic ecclesiastical privilege and royal authority. Reformation ideas also appealed to towns seeking greater autonomy from Church and aristocratic control.
As a result, the lands east of the German territories were an important part of the European Reformation. But it did not last …
Why Protestantism did not thrive in the East
The crucial question is: why did so much of the early Protestant advance subsequently disappear?
One reason is that the Reformation was never a single unified movement: Lutherans, Calvinists, groups such as the Bohemian Brethren, and more radical Protestant Anabaptist groups competed with one another (often violently). In Poland-Lithuania, for example, this made any coordinated political action difficult.
Catholicism, in contrast, experienced a powerful process of internal renewal that unified it. The ‘Counter-Reformation’ certainly involved repression, censorship and persecution. However, the Catholic Church also became more disciplined, more educated and (crucially) more effective at communicating its message. The Council of Trent (between 1545 and 1563) provided a framework for Catholic reform. At the same time, new religious orders supplied effective teachers, preachers and missionaries. Catholicism recognised Protestantism as a major threat and responded energetically.
In this, the Jesuits were particularly important in Central and Eastern Europe and Jesuit schools became centres of education and intellectual life. Children – who might otherwise have encountered Protestant ideas – were orientated towards Catholicism. This Catholic renewal drew in bishops, other religious orders, the monarchies, aristocrats and local communities as well. It was not just due to the Jesuits.
In 1573, the Warsaw Confederation saw Catholics, Protestants and Orthodox Christians drawn into a political settlement designed to prevent religious disagreements turning into violent conflict. Protestants were not the only ones to benefit from this. Over the later 16th and, then, 17th centuries, the Catholic Church engaged with the opportunities this provided and its bishops and the monarchy supported religious renewal, which increased Catholic intellectual and cultural influence. Under King Sigismund III Vasa, the balance shifted away from Protestantism and its political and social momentum was greatly reduced.
This reminds us that Protestantism did not always have to be violently persecuted to decline. In some areas it lost ground because Catholicism became more attractive, better organised and more embedded in local institutions. Gaining support from elites helped Catholicism too, as these possessed enormous influence over churches and local communities.
The Habsburg lands and the decisive role of politics and war
The Habsburg territories provide an even clearer example of the interaction between religious and political power. In parts of Austria and Hungary, Protestantism became extremely strong during the 16th century. In the region of Styria (in Austria), for example, Protestantism made major advances, but then the Catholic Habsburgs launched a sustained campaign to reverse it. This combined political power with revised Catholic institutions and education. By the early 17th century the Protestant advance had been decisively reversed.
Bohemia represents a particularly dramatic case. The Czech lands had a long tradition of religious dissent in conflict with Catholic authority. This stretched back to the influence of Jan Hus (1369–1415) and the Hussite movement in the 15th century. This greatly assisted the spread of Lutheran, Reformed and other Protestant ideas. Protestantism became well established among many of the nobility and urban population.
This was reversed after the Bohemian Revolt and the Battle of White Mountain in 1620, when the defeat of the Protestant-led rebels allowed the Habsburg monarchy to impose a Catholic settlement on the region. Combined legislation and political pressure reshaped the religious character of Bohemia. By 1627, the ruler, Ferdinand II, was explicitly demanding Catholic conformity from the nobility. Most fell into line.
Bohemia reminds us that religious change could be decisively reversed when a powerful dynasty deployed both military superiority and a focused confessional programme. In this way, the Habsburg monarchy reshaped the Bohemian lands.
During the Thirty Years War (1618–1648) a division of Europe reminiscent of today was forged in a conflict of terrible violence and geographical scope. By 1648, Protestantism had survived and had become firmly established in northern Germany, Scandinavia, the Netherlands, Britain and parts of Central Europe. However, much of the Habsburg lands had been brought back into the Catholic sphere. The same was true of the Polish lands. The geographical distribution which emerged resembled the one we would recognise today. But it had not been the original pattern.
Islamic Ottoman rulers had little interest in the theological disputes that divided Catholics and Protestants. They were more concerned with political control, taxation and stability. As a result, Protestantism could sometimes survive in some regions ruled by the Ottomans, while it faced determined Catholic opposition elsewhere.
Interesting examples were Hungary and Transylvania. Islamic victory in 1526 created three political zones in a once-united kingdom. These were Habsburg-controlled ‘Royal Hungary,’ Ottoman-controlled central Hungary, and a more autonomous principality of Transylvania. In the last two areas Protestantism survived because it was out of reach of the Catholic Habsburg rulers.
Due to this, the religious distribution map of the 17th century was shaped by the political map of empires as much as by religious disputes. In regions where the Habsburgs could impose Catholic uniformity, Protestantism was often eliminated. In contrast, where Ottoman rule prevented the Habsburgs from doing this, Protestant churches had a better chance of survival.
As a result, modern Protestant communities survive in Hungary and Transylvania as reminders of the – often forgotten – Eastern Reformation.
Interestingly, in eastern and south-eastern Europe some Protestant ideas entered the Eastern Orthodox intellectual world; and some Orthodox thinkers found elements of Calvinism attractive. However, both the institutional and theological structure of Eastern Orthodoxy proved resistant to Protestantism. Orthodox Christianity possessed its own ancient traditions, sacramental theology, episcopal structure and understanding of authority and was not faced with a choice between Catholicism and Protestantism.
A Europe that might have looked very different
Early Protestantism advanced far beyond the regions with which we now associate it. In Hungary, Transylvania, Bohemia, Moravia, Poland-Lithuania and parts of the Baltic world Protestant activity was influential. In some of these places Protestantism achieved a majority status. In others it was adopted by politically powerful elites.
Its retreat from these areas was due to a combination of the energetic renewal of Catholic institutions, Jesuit educational initiatives, dynastic power politics and patronage, and Catholic religious uniformity contrasted with a divided Protestant community. The Habsburg victories revealed how a determined royal (and military) response could drive it back; while the Polish-Lithuanian experience demonstrated that Catholic recovery could occur even when there was considerable religious toleration. The Thirty Years War then further eroded Protestant gains and established spheres of influence that have survived into the 21st century. In Orthodox areas the advance of Protestantism was minimal.
The modern distribution map of types of European Christianity is, therefore, less a product of 16th-century change and more a result of 17th-century political and institutional victories and stand-offs. It often reveals where Protestant churches managed to survive the enormous counter-offensive mounted by Catholic rulers and institutions. As a result, a ‘Protestant East’ proved to be a transitory phenomenon. It is a reminder of the complexity of history.
Martyn Whittock is an historian and a Licensed Lay Minister in the Church of England. The author, or co-author, of fifty-eight books, his work covers a wide range of historical and theological themes. In addition, as a commentator and columnist, he has written for several print and online news platforms and been interviewed on TV and radio news and discussion programmes exploring the interaction of faith and politics. His books include: The Reformation (1992) and When God was King: Rebels & Radicals of the Civil War & Mayflower Generation (2018) which explores the impact of the radicals of the Reformation.
