Would the Reformation have happened without Luther?

A sad reminder of the schism or a celebration of liberation? Catholics tend not to celebrate anything on 31 October - Protestant Christians do. Exactly 507 years ago, Martin Luther is said to have nailed his 95 theses to the Wittenberg Castle Church. The starting point for the Reformation, triggered by a German monk and theologian. While Luther's posting of the theses is now considered more of a legend, katholisch.de is dedicated to a much more exciting question: would the Reformation have happened without Luther?

The late Middle Ages were characterised by internal and external reform efforts within the church. One reason for this was the emerging intellectual movement of humanism. After the conquest of Constantinople in 1453, fleeing scholars brought a large canon of Greek writings to Italy. The inclusion of this literature led to the development of humanism - which turned sharply away from the "Middle Ages" and towards antiquity. Modern researchers disagree as to whether this was really a radical break or a continuous development of medieval thought.

Humanism and Erasmus of Rotterdam

"For me, there are many indications that there was a mood of reform in the church around 1500 - also fuelled by humanism," explains Matthias Pohlig, Professor of Early Modern European History at Humboldt University in Berlin. One of his specialisms is counterfactual historiography, i.e. the question of "what if?".

The mood for reform in the church was particularly characterised by the most important representative of humanism at the time of Luther: Erasmus of Rotterdam. "For many reform-minded people, including Luther supporters, Erasmus of Rotterdam was already a religious figurehead," emphasises Matthias Pohlig. The Dutch polymath was indispensable for the development of the Reformation. He attempted to place the Bible more centre stage and also stood for a very practical form of piety. He often took a particular position in controversial disputes, which Pohlig summarises as follows: "Nobody understands all these special theological problems anyway. What matters is discipleship, not a theological dispute about the question of free will."

Erasmus also argued with Luther about this very question. In their regular correspondence, he had already asked Luther for moderation and wanted to convince him of an internal reform of the church. In his writing "De libero arbitrio" (On Free Will), he not only defended the Church's position on free will, but also clearly distanced himself from the Reformation and clearly rejected a renunciation of the papacy. Luther saw this as a betrayal. De libero arbitrio" is characterised by understanding for the Reformation's criticism of corruption in the priesthood, hypocrisy in the church and the sale of indulgences.

The theological mood

With the "figurehead" Erasmus, who was in close contact with his former teacher, the reigning Pope Hadrian VI, humanism as an ecclesiastical reform movement had influential representatives within the church hierarchy.

Does this mean that through them or other theologians, an internal Catholic reform would have been possible instead of the Reformation - without Luther or another reformer? "Not as a matter of course," explains Pohlig. Catholicism before the Council of Trent was "extremely diverse" and by no means only characterised by humanism. "There were theological groups with very hierarchical tendencies centred on the Pope and at the same time a strong laical participation and lay piety."

The ecclesiastical political mood at the time of Luther was charged with the desire for change - but by no means an agreement on what this change should look like. How was a minor German theologian able to assert himself and become a key figure?

The political framing

It was not only the mood within the church, but also the situation in society as a whole - much less distinguishable at the time than it is today - that was striving for change. In 1531, Henry VIII broke away from papal influence by founding the Church of England for reasons of power politics. However, the Holy Roman Empire provided the ideal conditions for an actual reformation.

Emperor Charles V was also a former pupil of the reigning pope, Hadrian VI, and was strongly influenced by him in his piety. After Luther's excommunication in 1521, the imposition of the so-called "imperial ban", which deprived the person concerned of all rights and declared him outlawed, was only a formality. However, this dragged on because the Roman-German emperor was busy at war with France and the Ottoman Empire and was absent from his imperial territory for long periods of time.

And this empire was not a unified kingdom as in the neighbouring countries, but consisted of seven electorates, each with its own territorial rights. It was therefore essential for Luther's success to find one of his most important supporters in the Elector of Saxony, later known as Frederick the Wise. Even though Charles V "finally" took action against Luther after the Diet of Worms in line with the Pope and imposed the imperial ban, the reformer was able to be protected by his supporters.

The media public

And yet another change, a technological one, made the Reformation possible in the first place: Matthias Pohlig sees a key point in Luther's success in the invention of letterpress printing with movable type. This became the driving force behind humanism and later the Reformation.

Pohlig sees Luther's skilful use of this as a personal achievement that should not be underestimated. His talent for speaking - whether as an author of theological writings or as the "voice of the people" - made him stand out from the crowd of theologians of his time. So while Luther's ideas were not unique, as a person he was not necessarily easy to replace.

Matthias Pohlig summarises it as follows: "There is definitely the idea that 99 percent of the things Luther said had already been said a hundred times before. Despite his own achievements, Luther's personality also needed this media publicity, this political framing and this theological atmosphere so that the Reformation could take place in this way."

And history shows that Luther was not the only successful reformer of his time and Germany was not the only nation with a need for change: "There were a whole series of other people outside Germany who were very much in favour of religious renewal at this time - in a wide variety of ways. Basically, Ignatius of Loyola was one of them," explains Pohlig.

It is unlikely that there would have been no form of Reformation at all without Luther, as others also read the ideas of Erasmus: in 1522, Huldrych Zwingli published his first reformatory treatise against the fasting of the Roman Church in Zurich, and a year later a full six hundred spiritual and secular representatives gathered for the first Zurich Disputation. The topic: "Is Zwingli a heretic?" Matthias Pohlig assumes that "without Luther, Zwingli would still have carried out a kind of church-political reformation in Zurich. However, it is difficult to say how this would have gone."

What is certain, however, is that the abuses of the church criticised by Luther when he allegedly posted his theses 507 years ago had already been criticised by close confidants of the Pope, such as Erasmus. There was also a consensus among the various currents of reform movements within the church that it was time for change.

But Luther brought more than just a change to the church. The fact that his initial criticisms had already been discussed within the church and were not as radically new as it may often seem is demonstrated above all by the Council of Trent. Many Reformation ideas were incorporated into the Council documents after the schism.

"This is not only an attempt to counter the Reformation, but also to take up certain points of criticism of the Reformation that were recognised as legitimate and make them productive for the Roman Church," explains Matthias Pohlig. He surmises: "They would probably have been taken up even more strongly if the aim had not been to create a sharp distinction from the Reformation at the same time."