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The Amish community of Pennsylvania
are quiet and peaceable folk.

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And yet, five centuries ago,

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their ancestors were seen as some of
the most dangerous people in Europe.

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They were radicals - Protestants.

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One of dozens of groups
in the 16th century that tore apart
the Catholic Church.

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In the fourth part of this
History Of Christianity,

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I'll point out the trigger
for religious revolution.

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I'll try to make sense of
the terrible wars and suffering

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it ignited in Europe,

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and show why it also brought
great joy and liberation.

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I want to see how the old
Western Church fought back,

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renewing Catholicism.

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Of all the mad churches
I've seen in Mexico,

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this is definitely the maddest.
Well, I think it's paradise.

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Above all, I want to understand
how a faith based on obedience
to the authority of the clergy

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gave birth to one where
the individual is accountable
to God alone.

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In 1500, the only Christianity
most western Europeans knew

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was the church
which called itself Catholic,

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the church of the Pope in Rome.

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CHANTING

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Its priests were an elite,

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with power to link
ordinary people to God.

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They showed miraculous ability
in the Mass

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to turn bread and wine
into the actual body and blood
of Jesus Christ.

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Yet millions of Europeans
were on the verge of

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rejecting this Catholic Church
for a very different Christianity.

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Only one thing could
force such dramatic change.

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That was the power of an idea,

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an idea about something
which concerns us all...

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..death.

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The Bible's New Testament
offers a stark picture.

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When we die,
we go to heaven or hell.

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But, for us complex mortals,
neither very good, nor very bad,

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the Western Church said there might
be a midway stage called Purgatory.

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You wait there
to be made ready for heaven.

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Now Purgatory is like hell in
that it's not a nice place to be,

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but there's a time limit on it

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and so you can do things
to shorten the time.

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You can give a coin to a beggar
and he will pray for your soul.

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People would even leave money
in their wills to pay
the villagers' taxes

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so that villagers
would pray for them.

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It's a wonderfully
"you scratch my back,
I'll scratch your back" system.

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By the 16th century, all through
Europe the Church was selling
certificates called indulgences

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to show how much time in Purgatory
you had avoided.

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The cash paid for new churches
and hospitals.

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When the Pope wanted to
finish the rebuilding of
St Peter's Basilica in Rome,

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he launched an indulgence campaign.

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Some might think this a worthy cause
but it raised big questions

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in the mind of a German monk,
whose views on the afterlife
would change the Western church.

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His name was Martin Luther.

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Luther lived most of his life
in the small town of Wittenberg
in eastern Germany.

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Each year on the 31st October
they celebrate Reformation Day.

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It was on this date in 1517
that Luther announced

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a university debate on indulgences,

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which would discuss no fewer
than 95 propositions or theses.

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And it's said
that he announced the debate

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by nailing a notice to the door
of this church here.

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And this, in legend, has become
the start of the Reformation.

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So what was so revolutionary
about Luther's ideas?

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Ironically his inspiration, and so
the whole Protestant Reformation,

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came from
the most important theologian
of Catholic Christianity...

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..the fourth-century African bishop,
Augustine of Hippo.

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Augustine said the Bible revealed
an all-powerful God

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who alone decides our fate
after death.

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Luther, like Augustine before him,
read the Apostle Paul as saying

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that we are saved from hell,
"justified",

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not by any good deeds of our own,
but by faith in God.

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Now, if that is so,
then the Church has no claim

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to change or even influence
the fate of a single human being.

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Selling indulgences was wicked
and useless.

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Luther was reminding people that
the key to salvation didn't lie

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in the hands of the church,
but in the word of God.

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And that could be found
in the Bible.

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The trouble was that many ordinary
people couldn't read or write.

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How could they hear the message
in a book?

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But Luther found effective ways
round the problem.

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HYMN SINGING

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Up until his time, most church music
had been sung in Latin
by clergy and choirs.

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Luther wrote superb German hymns
for everyone to sing.

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They helped convey
the Bible's message.

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I asked this church's director of
music why they were so successful.

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We've heard this great tune,
A Mighty Fortress, Eine Feste Burg,

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which does stick in the head
somehow, doesn't it?

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Yes, the tune is by Luther
and it brings in elements

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of the popular music of the time.

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The folk songs,
a little bit of a dance, like...

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But big congregations
couldn't do that surely,

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they're not that sophisticated?

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They did have a hard time,
and the pastors complained,

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"We keep trying to sing these hymns
but the people aren't singing
loud enough"

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or "They're not working with it."

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But what they did is they tried to
get the school kids to learn them.

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They were even sent
into the congregation

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to sit among the people
and they're supposed to sing loudly

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in worship, and hopefully the others
will come along with them.

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Luther had no thoughts
of quitting the Church.

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All he was doing was giving God back
the power which was God's.

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Then he found the Church quit HIM.

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The Pope felt Luther threatened the
God-given authority of the Church.

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So a solemn papal pronouncement
condemned him.

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Luther replied by burning it.

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Over the next decade, this
open defiance of ancient authority
was christened Protestantism.

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But, in proclaiming
his view of salvation,
Luther risked death at the stake.

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He was defying not only the Pope,

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but Europe's most powerful monarch,
the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V.

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MAN PREACHES IN GERMAN

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There's a pious legend that
has Luther saying to the Emperor,

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"Here I stand, I can do no other."

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If he didn't say that,
he ought to have done,

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because it captures the essence
of his defiance.

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It's a cry which I find
the most compelling thing
about Protestantism.

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We stand alone with our consciences,
we can do no other.

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Luther's message appeals
to modern individualism.

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A refusal
blindly to accept authority.

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But it took huge bravery
to defy Pope and Emperor.

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And the odd thing is that Luther
also talked a lot about

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obedience to the powers
that God had placed in the world.

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That meant a lot to him.

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So was Luther's message
about revolt,

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or about creating a settled,
obedient society?

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Well, Luther never
really answered that one,

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and that unanswered question remains
a central problem for Protestantism.

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And worse was to come.

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Luther found that other reformers
refused to follow his own line.

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Here he stood - they were
going to do something else.

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While Luther
was a university lecturer...

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..another great Reformer, Ulrich
Zwingli, was a busy parish priest.

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He played out his own reformation

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in one of Europe's greatest
city states, Zurich.

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Zwingli always claimed that,
independently of Luther,

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he discovered
the central Protestant idea

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that only God's gift of faith
can save us from hell.

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I find that hard to believe.

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It would certainly be
one of the biggest historical
coincidences of all time!

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And it must be said that
Luther and Zwingli did not get on.

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We'll see why.

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In 1522, Zwingli was invited
to a dinner party,

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where the guests ate a sausage.

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That night,
the sausage became the rallying cry
for a Swiss reformation.

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It was Lent,
when the Church told people

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to show penitence for their sins
by giving things up,

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especially tasty sausages.

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The inappropriate sausage eating
caused quite a stir in Zurich.

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Zwingli didn't actually
eat the sausage himself,

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but he argued that there was nothing
morally wrong with the sausage.

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He pointed out that the Bible has
no commandment about keeping Lent,

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and he warned Zurich that the Church
was sidelining God's real laws

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by making such a fuss
about things like that.

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Zwingli was saying
that the Bible, not the Pope,
carried God's authority.

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So far, so much like Luther.

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But Zwingli's Reformation
went much further.

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Now, here, there's no getting away
from technical jargon

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to make things clear.

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All Protestants at the time
were reformers,

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but it was only this non-Lutheran
version of Protestantism

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that came to be known as Reformed,
with a capital R.

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So what was happening here in Zurich

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was the creation of a whole
new sort of Protestantism.

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The Zurich authorities felt
that they had a sacred trust
from God to govern.

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Zwingli told them that
this was what God wanted.

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That nerved the City council
to take the whole church of Zurich

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out of the hands of the
local Catholic bishop.

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And Zwingli was more than ready
to tell them how to run it.

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Zwingli and his colleagues
re-read the Ten Commandments.

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The commandments forbid
graven images,

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so they tore down
the images of the saints.

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They even banned music
for half a century and more

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because beauty distracts
from worshipping God.

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And since the Bible
nowhere tells clergy to be celibate,

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the Zurich clergy broke with
half a millennium

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of Western Christian tradition
and got married.

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But Zwingli had one more
controversial proposal that became

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a distinguishing characteristic
of Reformed Protestants.

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At Zurich's wealthy collegiate
church, the Great Minster
or Gross Munster,

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Zwingli's view on the Mass,
or Eucharist, transformed
the heart of Christian worship.

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At the Last Supper,
before Christ was crucified,

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he broke bread and took wine,
calling them his body and blood.

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The old Church taught
that, in the Mass,

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God had given the priest the power
to transform bread and wine

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00:15:29,380 --> 00:15:32,380
into Christ's body and blood.

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He actually brought God
physically to the people.

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That gave priests astonishing power.

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00:15:39,980 --> 00:15:43,460
For centuries,
they were the main gateway to God.

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And the High Altar,
at which they presided at Mass,

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was the most sacred place
in church.

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This Gross Munster
had been built for Catholic worship

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centuries before the Reformation,

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and so the whole thing is intended
"to look behind me,"

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right up to that East End.

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There you'd have the High Altar

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00:16:04,660 --> 00:16:07,500
where the Mass was celebrated
day in, day out.

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00:16:07,500 --> 00:16:09,660
But you see, it's gone,

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00:16:09,660 --> 00:16:13,500
and instead
everything's been pulled forwards

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00:16:13,500 --> 00:16:18,420
to where I'm standing -
this extraordinary piece
of Reformation furniture.

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00:16:18,420 --> 00:16:20,740
Well, it's a font for baptism,

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00:16:20,740 --> 00:16:24,940
but it actually doubles as
a Communion table on the top.

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00:16:24,940 --> 00:16:27,460
And they're in the middle
of the people,

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00:16:27,460 --> 00:16:30,380
thanks to Zwingli
and the Zurich Reformation.

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00:16:32,100 --> 00:16:36,020
HYMN SINGING

200
00:16:43,380 --> 00:16:49,020
Zwingli argued that the bread
and wine are NOT miraculously
transformed in the Mass.

201
00:16:49,020 --> 00:16:51,540
He justified this
revolutionary thought

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00:16:51,540 --> 00:16:53,340
by his reading of the Gospels.

203
00:16:53,340 --> 00:16:56,620
The Bible tells us
that Christ ascended into heaven

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00:16:56,620 --> 00:16:59,500
and will not return
until the Last Day.

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00:16:59,500 --> 00:17:02,140
He's sitting
at the right hand of the Father,

206
00:17:02,140 --> 00:17:03,940
not here on a table in Zurich.

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00:17:03,940 --> 00:17:08,180
Zwingli said that breaking bread,
drinking wine, are symbols.

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00:17:08,180 --> 00:17:11,340
The believer remembers
that Christ died on the Cross.

209
00:17:11,340 --> 00:17:13,300
Luther's come-back to that?

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00:17:13,300 --> 00:17:15,220
Zwingli's wicked and crazy.

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00:17:19,540 --> 00:17:23,620
Today, the presiding minister of
the Gross Munster is Kathi La Roche.

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00:17:25,100 --> 00:17:27,260
In the true spirit
of the Reformation,

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00:17:27,260 --> 00:17:29,900
she has her own ideas
about the bread and wine.

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00:17:29,900 --> 00:17:32,900
So you're the successor
of Zwingli in this church,

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00:17:32,900 --> 00:17:36,260
but I just get the sense that
you might not feel quite the same

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00:17:36,260 --> 00:17:37,980
about the Eucharist as them?

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00:17:37,980 --> 00:17:42,100
No, I'm a little bit
more close to Luther.

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00:17:42,100 --> 00:17:45,980
Aha! Yeah. Luther.
The great enemy of Zwingli,

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00:17:45,980 --> 00:17:51,780
you're closer to Luther.
Zwingli was a very
rationalistic man.

220
00:17:51,780 --> 00:17:53,980
He thought with the head.

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00:17:53,980 --> 00:17:57,940
Head's everything. Yeah.
And I think

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00:17:57,940 --> 00:18:00,820
Luther was more close to the people,

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00:18:00,820 --> 00:18:04,460
and I can feel when I give the bread
to somebody

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00:18:04,460 --> 00:18:10,660
and I say this is the body of Christ,
or this is the bread of life,

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00:18:10,660 --> 00:18:16,780
something happens between this
person and me and receiving,

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00:18:16,780 --> 00:18:20,460
and I think this is a moment
where people can feel,

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00:18:20,460 --> 00:18:24,140
"Yes, he is here with me!"

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00:18:24,140 --> 00:18:28,540
I see. So you're saying that Zwingli
has this great idea of community,

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00:18:28,540 --> 00:18:31,820
but there is something
which he might be missing here,

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00:18:31,820 --> 00:18:34,980
that there's an event
between God and an individual.

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00:18:34,980 --> 00:18:38,340
I think so. And that's
the insight that Luther had,

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00:18:38,340 --> 00:18:41,340
which Zwingli seems
to have missed perhaps. Yeah.

233
00:18:41,340 --> 00:18:44,780
No wonder they hated each other
so much!

234
00:18:51,740 --> 00:18:56,620
Both reformers championed
individual conscience over
obedience to priestly authority,

235
00:18:56,620 --> 00:19:00,700
it's just Zwingli favoured cool,
logical thinking

236
00:19:00,700 --> 00:19:06,100
above Luther's insights into
the more passionate depths of faith.

237
00:19:08,260 --> 00:19:11,820
But the split showed up
the big problem for the Reformation,

238
00:19:11,820 --> 00:19:15,740
one that is still
a hallmark of Protestantism -

239
00:19:15,740 --> 00:19:19,220
a tendency to sectarianism.

240
00:19:19,220 --> 00:19:21,820
If you let anyone read the Bible,

241
00:19:21,820 --> 00:19:26,100
then ANY idea can suddenly
seem the most important.

242
00:19:26,100 --> 00:19:29,060
This can be a weakness.

243
00:19:29,060 --> 00:19:32,980
It can also be a strength,
a trigger for expansion.

244
00:19:34,780 --> 00:19:38,380
To Zwingli's dismay,
some of those he'd inspired

245
00:19:38,380 --> 00:19:42,660
now pointed out that the Bible made
no mention of baptism for infants.

246
00:19:44,940 --> 00:19:48,140
So they began
baptising adults afresh,

247
00:19:48,140 --> 00:19:53,180
earning themselves the nickname
Anabaptists or rebaptisers.

248
00:19:54,700 --> 00:19:57,700
Now they were not so much
defying the Pope,

249
00:19:57,700 --> 00:19:59,580
but the city state of Zurich.

250
00:20:00,780 --> 00:20:05,620
In fact, they argued
that nowhere did the New Testament
link church and state.

251
00:20:07,220 --> 00:20:08,900
In January 1525,

252
00:20:08,900 --> 00:20:13,140
a group of radical enthusiasts
baptised themselves in public.

253
00:20:13,140 --> 00:20:16,220
They followed it up
by breaking bread and drinking wine,

254
00:20:16,220 --> 00:20:18,740
and all without
a single clergyman involved.

255
00:20:20,300 --> 00:20:22,620
It was an open challenge.

256
00:20:22,620 --> 00:20:24,860
It was too much.

257
00:20:24,860 --> 00:20:28,180
The City Council condemned
four of them to death,

258
00:20:28,180 --> 00:20:32,180
in a way suited to their crime
against the waters of baptism.

259
00:20:32,180 --> 00:20:35,100
They drowned them,
here in the River Limmat.

260
00:20:41,180 --> 00:20:44,820
But the Anabaptists were
not about to give up.

261
00:20:49,780 --> 00:20:53,460
In the hills above Zurich is
the secret meeting place used by

262
00:20:53,460 --> 00:20:56,620
those who fled the persecution.

263
00:20:58,860 --> 00:21:03,100
I climbed up there with
Peter Dettwiler, who's a minister
in the Reformed Church.

264
00:21:09,660 --> 00:21:13,380
You have to imagine people
coming up here with their children,

265
00:21:13,380 --> 00:21:18,820
families being persecuted
to gather here for services,

266
00:21:18,820 --> 00:21:22,140
and I think it was
a very special place for them.

267
00:21:29,740 --> 00:21:32,500
The Swiss Anabaptists were soon
just one

268
00:21:32,500 --> 00:21:36,740
among many groups claiming to be
the only authentic Christianity.

269
00:21:38,460 --> 00:21:41,380
They all survive to this day -

270
00:21:41,380 --> 00:21:45,900
Unitarians, Mennonites,
Amish, Quakers.

271
00:21:52,340 --> 00:21:54,820
TRAIN WHISTLE BLOWS

272
00:22:06,900 --> 00:22:10,260
30 years after Luther's revolution,

273
00:22:10,260 --> 00:22:13,100
it was not yet obvious
that Protestantism

274
00:22:13,100 --> 00:22:16,980
would spread across Europe,
never mind the rest of the world.

275
00:22:19,740 --> 00:22:24,460
It was at this moment that a young
French exile brought a new dynamism

276
00:22:24,460 --> 00:22:26,780
to the Reformation, Jean Calvin.

277
00:22:28,860 --> 00:22:33,220
Calvin never wanted to leave France,
Catholic persecution forced him out.

278
00:22:33,220 --> 00:22:37,380
It was a sheer fluke
that he fled to a city state
on the edge of Switzerland.

279
00:22:43,020 --> 00:22:44,860
He never much liked the place,

280
00:22:44,860 --> 00:22:48,580
but he felt that God had sent him
there, and you can't say no to God.

281
00:22:48,580 --> 00:22:53,260
Driven, single-minded, humourless
Calvin, he was such a success

282
00:22:53,260 --> 00:22:56,060
that his city became known
as "the Protestant Rome".

283
00:22:56,060 --> 00:22:57,900
It was Geneva.

284
00:23:00,540 --> 00:23:03,180
There is an arresting intensity

285
00:23:03,180 --> 00:23:05,100
in what Calvin said
about encountering God.

286
00:23:05,100 --> 00:23:09,620
He spoke of believers
experiencing union with Christ.

287
00:23:11,260 --> 00:23:15,180
He tends to be remembered
as a killjoy, and it's true

288
00:23:15,180 --> 00:23:18,980
that at one time he tried to stop
the whole city of Geneva dancing.

289
00:23:22,100 --> 00:23:24,380
But his real significance is that

290
00:23:24,380 --> 00:23:27,980
he turned the swirling confusion
of the Protestant Reformation

291
00:23:27,980 --> 00:23:30,980
into a practical
and accessible guidebook,

292
00:23:30,980 --> 00:23:33,820
his Institutes Of
The Christian Religion.

293
00:23:36,820 --> 00:23:42,180
The former head of the Reformed
Church in Geneva is now director
of the city's Reformation Museum.

294
00:23:43,780 --> 00:23:49,260
She looked me out a special copy
of Calvin's Institutes
from their collections.

295
00:23:49,260 --> 00:23:51,580
Can I pick it up? Of course.

296
00:23:51,580 --> 00:23:53,220
It's a first edition, isn't it?

297
00:23:53,220 --> 00:23:57,980
That's right, 1536.
So...it's extraordinary,

298
00:23:57,980 --> 00:24:01,140
he's a university lecturer,
late 20s? Yes, that's right.

299
00:24:01,140 --> 00:24:06,820
And he's trying to rewrite
Christianity or encapsulate it
in a little book, isn't he? Yes.

300
00:24:06,820 --> 00:24:10,660
I think that I like to understand
this attempt of Calvin

301
00:24:10,660 --> 00:24:14,860
as giving to people new keys
for understanding Christianity,

302
00:24:14,860 --> 00:24:18,700
to interpret the Christian doctrine,

303
00:24:18,700 --> 00:24:22,460
and I like to think
of Reformation first

304
00:24:22,460 --> 00:24:26,900
as an interpretation
of the old ideas.

305
00:24:26,900 --> 00:24:30,180
You use the word "new", but
I think Calvin would say really old,

306
00:24:30,180 --> 00:24:33,580
before medieval Catholicism,
before that corruption.

307
00:24:33,580 --> 00:24:37,380
Yes, but at least
we have to recognise

308
00:24:37,380 --> 00:24:40,540
that he brought these new ways,

309
00:24:40,540 --> 00:24:45,340
this new spreading of old ideas,
so to speak.

310
00:24:45,340 --> 00:24:47,980
Isabelle, it's a special delight
to me to meet you

311
00:24:47,980 --> 00:24:51,220
because you were the first
woman successor of Calvin.

312
00:24:51,220 --> 00:24:54,500
That's right. And less than
500 years after his birth?

313
00:24:54,500 --> 00:24:57,140
Well, that's nothing, is it!

314
00:24:57,140 --> 00:24:59,940
But what do you think Calvin
would have thought of that?

315
00:24:59,940 --> 00:25:03,740
Of course it was not acceptable
for Calvin because he had

316
00:25:03,740 --> 00:25:07,860
the ideas of his time - that
women should keep in their place.

317
00:25:07,860 --> 00:25:10,540
So, I don't think
he would have approved,

318
00:25:10,540 --> 00:25:15,740
neither did he approve women pastors
or women who wanted to preach.

319
00:25:15,740 --> 00:25:18,380
So how did you approach
becoming Moderator?

320
00:25:18,380 --> 00:25:24,340
I went to Calvin's grave
and I put down a rose

321
00:25:24,340 --> 00:25:30,540
in memory of this life,
this so important life,

322
00:25:30,540 --> 00:25:35,860
but then I turned to the grave
and then I said, "Now it's my turn."

323
00:25:43,020 --> 00:25:46,900
Calvin's guide spread Protestantism
far beyond Geneva,

324
00:25:46,900 --> 00:25:49,660
thanks to a particular technology.

325
00:25:51,260 --> 00:25:57,340
Printing made it possible for
anyone educated to read Calvin's
Institutes, which they did.

326
00:25:59,700 --> 00:26:04,260
His followers also used print
to create a special Geneva Bible,

327
00:26:04,260 --> 00:26:08,380
carefully edited and annotated
to guide their reading
and interpretation.

328
00:26:10,860 --> 00:26:14,060
This is actually my own copy
of the Geneva Bible,

329
00:26:14,060 --> 00:26:17,740
but this is from 1606, by which time
it's a real best seller in England.

330
00:26:17,740 --> 00:26:20,220
And it's more than just a book.

331
00:26:20,220 --> 00:26:21,940
It's a way of life.

332
00:26:21,940 --> 00:26:24,060
It's a way of Christian life.

333
00:26:24,060 --> 00:26:28,100
You open it up and you see
every chapter divided into verses,

334
00:26:28,100 --> 00:26:32,140
so you can remember
just a little bit and quote it.

335
00:26:32,140 --> 00:26:34,620
But much more than that,
it tells you how to read it.

336
00:26:34,620 --> 00:26:38,540
All round the text,
there's huge quantities of notes,

337
00:26:38,540 --> 00:26:43,260
so you're told how to think
as a reformed Christian.

338
00:26:43,260 --> 00:26:46,620
And bound up at the back,
there's something else.

339
00:26:46,620 --> 00:26:53,540
The 150 Psalms turned
into metrical psalms, poetry.

340
00:26:53,540 --> 00:26:57,980
And some of these psalms still
survive in hymnals in churches,

341
00:26:57,980 --> 00:27:01,940
and the famous one is Psalm 100,
the Old Hundredth, so called.

342
00:27:14,100 --> 00:27:17,380
Geneva had become the beacon
for a Protestant movement

343
00:27:17,380 --> 00:27:19,460
stretching right across Europe.

344
00:27:20,820 --> 00:27:23,380
Zurich and Geneva saw their Church

345
00:27:23,380 --> 00:27:26,740
as the true, properly Reformed,
Catholicism.

346
00:27:26,740 --> 00:27:30,300
Roman Catholics would disagree,
of course.

347
00:27:31,900 --> 00:27:35,020
Calvin's style of Protestantism
defined itself

348
00:27:35,020 --> 00:27:37,580
by what it was against,
not just the Pope,

349
00:27:37,580 --> 00:27:43,460
but to his mind,
pathetically half-reformed
Lutherans and mad Anabaptists.

350
00:27:44,700 --> 00:27:47,700
Reformed Protestantism
was also extraordinary

351
00:27:47,700 --> 00:27:51,700
in its ability to leap over the
frontiers of language and culture.

352
00:27:53,420 --> 00:27:56,460
Built into Geneva's old city walls

353
00:27:56,460 --> 00:28:00,780
is a memorial to key figures of the
Reformation from all over Europe.

354
00:28:02,380 --> 00:28:06,180
Standing among them is a Scotsman,
John Knox.

355
00:28:13,260 --> 00:28:17,620
In the Genevan church, Knox found
a model to take back to Scotland.

356
00:28:18,620 --> 00:28:22,460
Preaching God's word was central to
worship, and this was reflected in

357
00:28:22,460 --> 00:28:28,100
the size and grandeur of the city's
new pulpits, and copied far beyond.

358
00:28:28,100 --> 00:28:33,260
The Genevan-style Church of Scotland
out-Calvined Calvin.

359
00:28:33,260 --> 00:28:36,180
Scottish congregations
might be moved to shout

360
00:28:36,180 --> 00:28:39,900
cries of praise or amen in the way
that we're still familiar with

361
00:28:39,900 --> 00:28:42,420
in American evangelical
Protestantism.

362
00:28:42,420 --> 00:28:47,740
Children would be expected to
repeat at home what the minister
had said that morning in church.

363
00:28:47,740 --> 00:28:52,300
As a result, the Scots came to value
a good education for all,

364
00:28:52,300 --> 00:28:56,540
in a fashion which has never quite
seized their English neighbours.

365
00:28:56,540 --> 00:29:00,580
CHURCH BELLS RING

366
00:29:13,380 --> 00:29:15,620
Protestantism did come
to England too,

367
00:29:15,620 --> 00:29:19,540
but not in a form that
John Knox would have approved.

368
00:29:20,940 --> 00:29:24,180
It took on a flavour
unique in Europe.

369
00:29:29,660 --> 00:29:31,220
CHOIRBOYS SING

370
00:29:31,220 --> 00:29:36,100
In 1534, Henry VIII made himself
head of the Church of England

371
00:29:36,100 --> 00:29:39,980
after the Pope refused to annul
his marriage to Catherine of Aragon.

372
00:29:48,620 --> 00:29:53,500
Reformed Europe in places like
Zurich and Geneva turned its back

373
00:29:53,500 --> 00:29:57,740
on formal, sung services
in grand cathedral settings.

374
00:29:59,620 --> 00:30:05,260
But King Henry's daughter,
Elizabeth I, controversially
decided to keep both.

375
00:30:06,500 --> 00:30:10,220
Responsibility for maintaining
the sung tradition

376
00:30:10,220 --> 00:30:14,980
here at Winchester Cathedral
is down to choirmaster
Andrew Lumsden.

377
00:30:14,980 --> 00:30:19,100
Andrew, the choir's performed
Teach Me O Lord, by William Byrd,

378
00:30:19,100 --> 00:30:22,260
which is one of my favourite
pieces of Anglican music,

379
00:30:22,260 --> 00:30:25,820
but it also says a lot about the
English Reformation, doesn't it?

380
00:30:25,820 --> 00:30:30,180
Yes, one of the themes in the piece
is a piece of Gregorian chant,

381
00:30:30,180 --> 00:30:33,660
which had been around for hundreds
of years before William Byrd.

382
00:30:33,660 --> 00:30:35,660
It's called Tonus Perigrinus,

383
00:30:35,660 --> 00:30:39,540
and you'll find it in the top of the
chant with the full choir sections.

384
00:30:50,420 --> 00:30:55,220
Up until then everything had
been sung in Latin, was totally
unapproachable by the people,

385
00:30:55,220 --> 00:30:59,380
and one of the things was
to make it sung in English
so that it was approachable,

386
00:30:59,380 --> 00:31:04,340
but Byrd was very cleverly
just sneaking this in to remind
people of the former regime.

387
00:31:04,340 --> 00:31:07,860
That's because
he's a Roman Catholic, writing
for a Protestant Queen, Elizabeth.

388
00:31:07,860 --> 00:31:12,100
How's she allowing this to go on?
Well, that's a very good question.

389
00:31:12,100 --> 00:31:16,100
I mean, she obviously had a great
love of music of this nature

390
00:31:16,100 --> 00:31:18,980
and I think probably
just turned a blind eye.

391
00:31:49,620 --> 00:31:53,980
But not everyone in England approved
of half measures of reform.

392
00:31:56,020 --> 00:32:02,260
Puritans were austere
Protestants who hated anything
which suggested Catholicism.

393
00:32:03,940 --> 00:32:07,740
Under Elizabeth's successor
but one, Charles I,

394
00:32:07,740 --> 00:32:10,540
their anger swelled into civil war.

395
00:32:12,660 --> 00:32:17,860
Puritan soldiers fighting for
the Westminster Parliament
against Charles

396
00:32:17,860 --> 00:32:22,940
smashed stained glass windows
and any symbol of English
Catholic monarchy.

397
00:32:25,380 --> 00:32:28,260
These caskets contain
the bones of Anglo-Saxon kings.

398
00:32:28,260 --> 00:32:30,460
Except all the bones are
in the wrong place

399
00:32:30,460 --> 00:32:33,140
because Parliamentarian soldiers
tore open the cases

400
00:32:33,140 --> 00:32:36,980
and scattered the bones around
to express their contempt for kings.

401
00:32:36,980 --> 00:32:40,660
It was all part of their campaign
against ancient superstition

402
00:32:40,660 --> 00:32:43,740
and their longing to bring
the New Jerusalem to England.

403
00:32:43,740 --> 00:32:49,380
In the end, the Puritan commander
Oliver Cromwell defeated Charles,

404
00:32:49,380 --> 00:32:53,500
even executed him,
and set up a Protestant Republic.

405
00:32:53,500 --> 00:32:56,780
But the Puritans' New Jerusalem
wasn't popular.

406
00:32:56,780 --> 00:33:02,580
The last straw was their effort
to abolish Christmas Day
for not being in the Bible.

407
00:33:02,580 --> 00:33:07,540
The Church of England was restored,
cathedrals and all.

408
00:33:07,540 --> 00:33:11,540
For all the later complications
of English religion,

409
00:33:11,540 --> 00:33:16,220
Anglicanism became an integral
part of the national identity.

410
00:33:16,220 --> 00:33:19,900
Since the Reformation,
the Anglican Communion has swung

411
00:33:19,900 --> 00:33:23,300
between the poles of Catholicism
and Protestantism

412
00:33:23,300 --> 00:33:26,780
producing a subtle, reflective form
of Christianity.

413
00:33:26,780 --> 00:33:31,180
It's the part of the Christian
Church which I know best,

414
00:33:31,180 --> 00:33:35,580
and I must admit that I still
love it, despite all its faults.

415
00:33:39,700 --> 00:33:44,220
So, now we have met
a gallery of Protestantisms -

416
00:33:44,220 --> 00:33:48,380
Lutherans, Reformed,
Radicals, Anglicans.

417
00:33:50,140 --> 00:33:55,380
The Reformation story is one
of splits and persecution.

418
00:33:55,380 --> 00:33:59,300
That's what people find most
difficult to understand about it.

419
00:33:59,300 --> 00:34:04,100
How can you burn someone
at the stake for saying that
a piece of bread is not God?

420
00:34:04,100 --> 00:34:08,780
Our instinct is to feel the pain
of the individual burning.

421
00:34:10,740 --> 00:34:14,180
Yet this was a world
with different priorities.

422
00:34:14,180 --> 00:34:18,340
They felt the pain of the whole
of society if one individual
denied God's truth.

423
00:34:18,340 --> 00:34:20,220
So society needed to be healed,

424
00:34:20,220 --> 00:34:23,820
even if that meant causing
hideous pain to one individual.

425
00:34:23,820 --> 00:34:26,660
People cared passionately
about these matters,

426
00:34:26,660 --> 00:34:29,940
and the passion was by no means
all on the side Protestants.

427
00:34:35,460 --> 00:34:38,780
Protestantism had already
won over the North,

428
00:34:38,780 --> 00:34:41,780
and it had done well
in Central Europe too.

429
00:34:41,780 --> 00:34:45,220
Now, Catholics were hardly
going to stand idly by

430
00:34:45,220 --> 00:34:47,860
while it gobbled up
the rest of the map.

431
00:35:03,500 --> 00:35:05,700
If you've heard of
a Counter Reformation,

432
00:35:05,700 --> 00:35:11,540
you may think it was just that -
the Catholic Church's reaction
to Protestantism.

433
00:35:11,540 --> 00:35:15,820
In fact it began in response
to a much older threat...

434
00:35:17,260 --> 00:35:20,980
..Islam's conquest of Spain
in the 7th century.

435
00:35:23,500 --> 00:35:28,340
Catholic Christians hung on
in northern Spain.

436
00:35:28,340 --> 00:35:31,860
For 500 years,
they dreamt of reconquest.

437
00:35:34,140 --> 00:35:36,860
By the 13th century,
they had fought their way back

438
00:35:36,860 --> 00:35:42,060
to Andalucia in the South, and one
of its greatest cities, Cordoba.

439
00:35:44,700 --> 00:35:47,220
Cordoba was a major step
in the reconquest of Spain

440
00:35:47,220 --> 00:35:50,540
and behind me is the biggest symbol
you could have of that triumph.

441
00:35:58,780 --> 00:36:02,140
Cordoba's Cathedral
is a weird building.

442
00:36:02,140 --> 00:36:07,380
The great choir and high altar
are like a cuckoo in a nest.

443
00:36:08,860 --> 00:36:12,500
They are stuck right into the heart
of what was once...

444
00:36:14,340 --> 00:36:15,780
..a mosque.

445
00:36:24,060 --> 00:36:29,740
This building was the greatest
mosque of Arab, Muslim, Cordoba.

446
00:36:32,860 --> 00:36:36,780
But, when the Catholics reconquered
the city,

447
00:36:36,780 --> 00:36:39,900
they seized this sacred Islamic site

448
00:36:39,900 --> 00:36:42,340
and reconsecrated it
for Christian worship.

449
00:36:43,580 --> 00:36:46,940
It shrieks Catholic triumph at you.

450
00:36:58,260 --> 00:37:01,460
Catholic Spain was obsessive
about suppressing Islam.

451
00:37:01,460 --> 00:37:05,660
It was equally worried
about Judaism.

452
00:37:08,140 --> 00:37:11,620
Its rulers, Ferdinand and Isabella,
became the first monarchs

453
00:37:11,620 --> 00:37:16,700
to run an inquisition
to root out non-Catholics.

454
00:37:16,700 --> 00:37:22,180
The Inquisition operated from
Cordoba's old Moorish Palace,
the Alcazar.

455
00:37:24,700 --> 00:37:29,740
The Spanish Inquisition has had
a bad press over the years
for its cruelty and oppression,

456
00:37:29,740 --> 00:37:34,980
but it's worth remembering that
every 16th-century system of justice
was cruel and oppressive,

457
00:37:34,980 --> 00:37:40,620
and in fact overall the inquisition
executed a lower proportion of
suspects than most secular courts.

458
00:37:43,140 --> 00:37:49,300
What the Inquisition did do
was enforce a system of
racial and cultural superiority.

459
00:37:50,860 --> 00:37:55,340
It added up to a militant,
self-confident Catholicism,

460
00:37:55,340 --> 00:37:58,780
emerging quite independently
of Protestant reform.

461
00:38:02,300 --> 00:38:07,060
But eventually Rome realised it had
to react to the Reformation as well.

462
00:38:10,300 --> 00:38:17,020
In 1545, a Council opened at Trent
in Italy to restate Catholic truths,

463
00:38:17,020 --> 00:38:19,780
and to reassert Papal authority.

464
00:38:28,380 --> 00:38:32,620
This is another Church in Cordoba,
and it embodies the spirit

465
00:38:32,620 --> 00:38:35,180
of the Council of Trent.

466
00:38:35,180 --> 00:38:38,300
It was built
for a brand new organisation

467
00:38:38,300 --> 00:38:44,020
ready to do the Council's bidding -
the Society of Jesus, the Jesuits.

468
00:38:44,020 --> 00:38:46,500
This is a very grand building,

469
00:38:46,500 --> 00:38:48,660
but it's also very plain.

470
00:38:48,660 --> 00:38:52,260
The early Jesuits liked plainness.

471
00:38:52,260 --> 00:38:56,220
And of course it's also very open,
there's no screen here.

472
00:38:56,220 --> 00:39:01,180
There, of course, is a pulpit
because Catholics can preach
as well as Protestants,

473
00:39:01,180 --> 00:39:04,780
but the Catholic Church could offer
much more from its tradition.

474
00:39:04,780 --> 00:39:06,980
Sitting on that High Altar
behind me

475
00:39:06,980 --> 00:39:10,460
is the tabernacle, in which
you keep the consecrated bread,

476
00:39:10,460 --> 00:39:13,580
the body of Christ,
for the faithful to worship

477
00:39:13,580 --> 00:39:15,780
whenever they walk into church.

478
00:39:15,780 --> 00:39:19,500
But more than that,
his mother, Mary.

479
00:39:19,500 --> 00:39:23,900
she is always present,
a human mother who has born God.

480
00:39:23,900 --> 00:39:30,100
And she adds a femininity to worship
which Protestantism rather lacks.

481
00:39:30,100 --> 00:39:34,660
And you also have the confessional,
a brand new invention
of the Counter-Reformation

482
00:39:34,660 --> 00:39:37,940
so that you can unburden yourself
of sin to a priest.

483
00:39:37,940 --> 00:39:40,820
So what the Counter-Reformation
offered you

484
00:39:40,820 --> 00:39:43,020
was a sense of companionship,

485
00:39:43,020 --> 00:39:45,940
companionship with
Holy Mother Church.

486
00:39:45,940 --> 00:39:49,860
This was the Counter-Reformation's
answer to Martin Luther,

487
00:39:49,860 --> 00:39:52,420
Ulrich Zwingli, Jean Calvin.

488
00:39:58,100 --> 00:40:01,020
Far from being destroyed
by the Protestants,

489
00:40:01,020 --> 00:40:04,580
the Catholic Church did
what Christianity always does,

490
00:40:04,580 --> 00:40:06,460
it adapted itself in a crisis.

491
00:40:08,100 --> 00:40:13,740
It eventually emerged renewed
and poised to win new converts.

492
00:40:15,020 --> 00:40:21,020
This is Granada, the last Muslim
stronghold to fall to the armies
of Ferdinand and Isabella.

493
00:40:22,540 --> 00:40:24,740
As Muslim power faded here,

494
00:40:24,740 --> 00:40:29,940
Catholic Spain and Portugal
began building empires overseas.

495
00:40:29,940 --> 00:40:34,580
The man you see above me
is Christopher Columbus
at the feet of Queen Isabella.

496
00:40:34,580 --> 00:40:38,460
In 1492, in the same year
that Muslim Granada fell,

497
00:40:38,460 --> 00:40:41,420
Columbus reached what
we now call the West Indies.

498
00:40:41,420 --> 00:40:45,380
The Church travelled out
on the same ships as his soldiers.

499
00:40:45,380 --> 00:40:50,580
Counter-Reformation Catholicism
was about to become the first
world-wide religion.

500
00:41:03,100 --> 00:41:07,460
The first missionaries to the
New World were Franciscan friars,

501
00:41:07,460 --> 00:41:10,580
desperate to spread the word

502
00:41:10,580 --> 00:41:14,140
because they believed
the end of the world was coming.

503
00:41:14,140 --> 00:41:18,380
Half a century later,
the Jesuits followed them.

504
00:41:20,860 --> 00:41:24,300
In countries such as Mexico,
these envoys of militant Catholicism

505
00:41:24,300 --> 00:41:29,420
met civilisations which, to begin
with, were able to fight back.

506
00:41:31,020 --> 00:41:35,820
But suddenly, the native peoples
began dying in thousands.

507
00:41:35,820 --> 00:41:41,740
In the words of one despairing
ruler, "in heaps, like bedbugs".

508
00:41:41,740 --> 00:41:46,420
It wasn't the soldiers but invisible
armies of European diseases

509
00:41:46,420 --> 00:41:48,300
that did most of the damage.

510
00:41:49,500 --> 00:41:56,180
Traumatised local peoples
were often only too ready
to turn to Catholicism.

511
00:41:56,180 --> 00:41:58,700
Up there is the Church
of Our Lady of Help.

512
00:41:58,700 --> 00:42:01,260
You might think it was
built on a hill but in fact

513
00:42:01,260 --> 00:42:04,860
it's built on top of the largest
man-made pyramid in the world.

514
00:42:06,780 --> 00:42:09,420
When Catholic missionaries
came to Mexico,

515
00:42:09,420 --> 00:42:12,860
they deliberately put churches
on top of temples.

516
00:42:12,860 --> 00:42:14,780
They placed their place of sacrifice

517
00:42:14,780 --> 00:42:17,300
slap bang on top of
the old place of sacrifice.

518
00:42:17,300 --> 00:42:21,380
You might say,
"Catholicism Rules, OK!"

519
00:42:23,860 --> 00:42:27,700
We can learn a great deal about the
mindset of the Spanish conquerors

520
00:42:27,700 --> 00:42:31,780
by taking a closer look at
one of their monuments to victory.

521
00:42:34,620 --> 00:42:37,420
This is the Capilla Real de Indios,

522
00:42:37,420 --> 00:42:41,580
the Chapel Royal of the Indians
in Cholula.

523
00:42:41,580 --> 00:42:46,860
I paid it a visit with leading
Mexican historian, Clara Garcia.

524
00:42:50,220 --> 00:42:54,700
I was intrigued because it took me
far away, to Spain and Jerusalem.

525
00:43:05,820 --> 00:43:10,780
It's like nothing in the Christian
world, but it's like lots of great
mosques in Syria and Egypt,

526
00:43:10,780 --> 00:43:15,820
and of course one in Spain -
the Grand Mosque of Cordoba.
Do you think that's coincidence?

527
00:43:15,820 --> 00:43:20,060
No, you're quite right it's fashioned
after the Great Mosque in Cordoba.

528
00:43:20,060 --> 00:43:21,380
It's got 49 domes

529
00:43:21,380 --> 00:43:25,300
and seven aisles,
and it's a huge open space also.

530
00:43:25,300 --> 00:43:29,500
Actually what it reminds me of
is an Islamic building in Jerusalem.

531
00:43:29,500 --> 00:43:31,900
It's the courtyard
of the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

532
00:43:31,900 --> 00:43:34,940
Now let me just
run this idea past you.

533
00:43:34,940 --> 00:43:37,100
This is built by Franciscans,
right? Yes.

534
00:43:37,100 --> 00:43:43,300
And Franciscans at the time think
the Al-Aqsa mosque is "the Temple",
Solomon's temple in Jerusalem,

535
00:43:43,300 --> 00:43:48,500
so do you think they're trying
to recreate the New Jerusalem
of the Last Days here?

536
00:43:48,500 --> 00:43:54,620
Oh, definitely, they're trying
to recreate the New Jerusalem
with new Christians, new Catholics,

537
00:43:54,620 --> 00:43:59,260
at the same time that the Protestant
Reformation is going on in Europe.

538
00:43:59,260 --> 00:44:02,580
Catholicism is losing souls
to the Protestants,

539
00:44:02,580 --> 00:44:06,660
and here they are gaining
thousands... Oh, I like that.
..of new souls,

540
00:44:06,660 --> 00:44:10,460
so it's the perfect New Jerusalem
with the perfect Christians.

541
00:44:10,460 --> 00:44:14,260
They win some, you lose some! Yes,
in a manner of speaking, yes.

542
00:44:17,020 --> 00:44:21,420
The inside of this church seems
to mirror the Mosque in Cordoba,

543
00:44:21,420 --> 00:44:23,740
the courtyard,
the Mosque in Jerusalem.

544
00:44:23,740 --> 00:44:26,900
So what is this building
trying to say?

545
00:44:28,860 --> 00:44:30,540
Maybe this?

546
00:44:30,540 --> 00:44:34,020
Back home in Spain, Catholic
Christians had crushed Islam.

547
00:44:34,020 --> 00:44:36,660
They'd turned their mosques
into churches.

548
00:44:36,660 --> 00:44:42,740
Now, here in New Spain, Mexico,
they'd crushed other false gods
and conquered their princes.

549
00:44:42,740 --> 00:44:47,260
Now what better way to commemorate
that victory than in the same way,

550
00:44:47,260 --> 00:44:51,300
build the princes a church
which looked like a mosque?

551
00:44:51,300 --> 00:44:52,900
Just an idea.

552
00:45:04,940 --> 00:45:10,220
But after the horrors of conquest,
the missionaries realised that
in order to win hearts and minds

553
00:45:10,220 --> 00:45:15,100
they would have to help
the new converts to find joy
and celebration in Catholicism.

554
00:45:15,100 --> 00:45:18,380
It had to assimilate
native cultures.

555
00:45:19,940 --> 00:45:23,580
Nowhere have I seen a clearer
demonstration of how this was done

556
00:45:23,580 --> 00:45:27,180
than in the nearby town of
Santa Maria Tonantzintla.

557
00:45:33,220 --> 00:45:38,740
Of all the mad churches I've seen
in Mexico, this is definitely
the maddest. Tell me about it.

558
00:45:38,740 --> 00:45:40,860
Well, I think it's paradise.

559
00:45:40,860 --> 00:45:42,340
Well, OK. It's a mad paradise.

560
00:45:42,340 --> 00:45:45,100
This is what I would
imagine heaven to be like.

561
00:45:45,100 --> 00:45:50,340
Full of people, gay,
angels everywhere, pretty, beautiful.

562
00:45:50,340 --> 00:45:53,620
What happens is that when
the Franciscans came to Santa Maria,

563
00:45:53,620 --> 00:45:57,260
it was a small village that they
couldn't afford to leave a friar,

564
00:45:57,260 --> 00:46:00,340
so they would teach maybe
some elders, some children,

565
00:46:00,340 --> 00:46:04,620
educate them in the Spanish language
and the rudiments of Christianity,

566
00:46:04,620 --> 00:46:09,020
then leave,
come back a few years later
and see how Christianity was doing.

567
00:46:09,020 --> 00:46:13,380
The actual villagers, the dwellers
of the area, took Christianity

568
00:46:13,380 --> 00:46:17,300
and fashioned it
in their own image and likeness.

569
00:46:17,300 --> 00:46:22,740
So it becomes an indigenous religion
then because it's taught by people

570
00:46:22,740 --> 00:46:28,180
to people in the village. Totally,
and if you look at the faces
of the angels,

571
00:46:28,180 --> 00:46:30,820
they're all local faces of the time.

572
00:46:47,260 --> 00:46:53,180
When the missionaries went overseas,
the Catholic Church was more than
happy to mingle two cultures.

573
00:46:53,180 --> 00:46:55,380
But it was a curious
sort of flexibility,

574
00:46:55,380 --> 00:46:59,060
because it was flexible only
about everyday religious practice.

575
00:46:59,060 --> 00:47:01,500
Now some missionaries,
especially the Jesuits,

576
00:47:01,500 --> 00:47:04,860
wanted to talk about the Christian
faith itself in new ways,

577
00:47:04,860 --> 00:47:07,260
which would make sense
in other cultures.

578
00:47:07,260 --> 00:47:11,300
But after much argument, the
Church hierarchy rigidly insisted

579
00:47:11,300 --> 00:47:14,340
that whatever Rome had said
about Christian doctrine

580
00:47:14,340 --> 00:47:16,620
must be right
and could never be altered.

581
00:47:22,620 --> 00:47:25,380
A perfect example
of that curious flexibility

582
00:47:25,380 --> 00:47:30,220
is the Basilica of Our Lady
of Guadalupe in Mexico City.

583
00:47:33,900 --> 00:47:38,820
The appearance of the Virgin Mary
to a native near here
was more than a miracle.

584
00:47:40,380 --> 00:47:43,740
She looks like the people of Mexico,

585
00:47:43,740 --> 00:47:48,260
which means that she,
and the Catholic Church,
can speak directly to them.

586
00:47:48,260 --> 00:47:53,820
But doctrinally she is still
the Virgin Mother of God.

587
00:47:53,820 --> 00:47:56,420
HYMN SINGING

588
00:48:01,500 --> 00:48:05,660
It's a Tuesday and there are
8,000 people gathered.

589
00:48:09,260 --> 00:48:15,900
It's estimated that, by 1550, as
many as 10 million had been baptised
as Catholics in the Americas.

590
00:48:21,420 --> 00:48:25,020
It was a huge morale booster
for the Popes in Rome,

591
00:48:25,020 --> 00:48:28,700
still smarting from
the Protestant Reformation.

592
00:48:30,540 --> 00:48:33,500
Catholics were ready to fight back.

593
00:48:38,420 --> 00:48:41,660
100 years after Martin Luther
first pinned his rallying cry

594
00:48:41,660 --> 00:48:46,780
to a church door, northern Europe
had become solidly Protestant.

595
00:48:48,340 --> 00:48:52,860
But southern Europe had fallen
behind the Catholic Church.

596
00:48:52,860 --> 00:48:56,220
And there was a great swathe
of central Europe

597
00:48:56,220 --> 00:49:01,460
where the options were still open.
It was a recipe for war.

598
00:49:13,700 --> 00:49:16,580
The first battlefield was Prague,

599
00:49:16,580 --> 00:49:20,340
capital of the modern-day
Czech Republic.

600
00:49:20,340 --> 00:49:22,740
At the start of the 17th century,

601
00:49:22,740 --> 00:49:28,180
Protestantism had not only
taken over much of
northern and western Europe,

602
00:49:28,180 --> 00:49:32,820
it even reached here,
to the capital of Bohemia,

603
00:49:32,820 --> 00:49:36,500
a kingdom which was a vital part
of the Holy Roman Empire.

604
00:49:36,500 --> 00:49:41,220
By now, the vast majority
of Bohemians were Protestants

605
00:49:41,220 --> 00:49:43,660
and their Catholic rulers,
the Habsburgs,

606
00:49:43,660 --> 00:49:47,780
had been forced to concede them
their religious liberty.

607
00:49:47,780 --> 00:49:51,300
But in 1617, everything changed.

608
00:49:55,860 --> 00:50:01,020
The Catholic Habsburg Holy Roman
Emperor chose one of his own family
to be the next king of Bohemia.

609
00:50:01,020 --> 00:50:04,260
Archduke Ferdinand
despised Protestants.

610
00:50:08,540 --> 00:50:13,380
In a pre-emptive strike, Bohemian
Protestants seized the Royal Palace.

611
00:50:19,980 --> 00:50:25,740
On the 23rd May 1618, they threw
two of Ferdinand's officials
out of this window.

612
00:50:28,460 --> 00:50:33,740
A heap of straw just below saved
their lives, but not Hapsburg pride!

613
00:50:34,820 --> 00:50:39,620
This incident has been
splendidly christened
the "defenestration of Prague".

614
00:50:44,740 --> 00:50:47,940
The Protestants invited
a neighbouring Calvinist ruler,

615
00:50:47,940 --> 00:50:51,660
the Elector Palatine Friedrich,
to become their new king.

616
00:50:54,900 --> 00:50:58,100
Friedrich lasted barely a year.

617
00:50:59,460 --> 00:51:04,780
Unfortunately for Bohemia, Archduke
Ferdinand became Holy Roman Emperor.

618
00:51:04,780 --> 00:51:07,180
His revenge was swift.

619
00:51:12,180 --> 00:51:17,780
In November 1620, the Bohemians,
and Protestantism, were crushed

620
00:51:17,780 --> 00:51:20,540
at the Battle of White Mountain.

621
00:51:34,100 --> 00:51:37,660
Today the site is at the end
of a tram line,

622
00:51:37,660 --> 00:51:39,660
which seems appropriate really.

623
00:51:39,660 --> 00:51:43,180
The only indication of its
importance in European history

624
00:51:43,180 --> 00:51:46,540
is the nearby Catholic Church
of our Lady of Victory.

625
00:51:49,300 --> 00:51:52,500
What we are looking at is
the place which triggered

626
00:51:52,500 --> 00:51:56,500
one of the most bitter, destructive
wars in European history.

627
00:51:56,500 --> 00:51:59,340
It lasted 30 years.

628
00:52:02,260 --> 00:52:04,940
In his victory,
Emperor Ferdinand declared

629
00:52:04,940 --> 00:52:08,820
an Empire-wide ban
on Reformed Protestantism.

630
00:52:10,380 --> 00:52:15,100
Lutherans and Calvinists realised
they had to come together

631
00:52:15,100 --> 00:52:18,380
to fight for the future
of Protestantism.

632
00:52:18,380 --> 00:52:22,820
War overtook countries, from
Sweden and Denmark in the north,

633
00:52:22,820 --> 00:52:25,220
to France and Spain in the south.

634
00:52:25,220 --> 00:52:29,100
Even Poland and Transylvania
were sucked in.

635
00:52:30,900 --> 00:52:38,060
In the fight, between a quarter and
a third of the population of central
Europe died before their time.

636
00:52:40,980 --> 00:52:45,220
It was 1648 before
peace finally broke out.

637
00:52:45,220 --> 00:52:50,140
Much of Europe was a wasteland
and much of Europe would never
be Protestant again.

638
00:52:50,140 --> 00:52:53,780
Wars of religion didn't seem
such a good idea after all.

639
00:52:55,820 --> 00:52:59,100
The Catholics managed to
push Protestantism back from

640
00:52:59,100 --> 00:53:03,620
parts of central and western Europe
and confine it mainly to the north.

641
00:53:06,860 --> 00:53:12,220
But the 30 Years War
had a much wider significance
for Christian futures.

642
00:53:20,500 --> 00:53:24,420
Persecuted Protestants took flight,
not just from Prague.

643
00:53:27,700 --> 00:53:32,380
Some, like the Swiss Anabaptists,
quit the Old World for good.

644
00:53:33,940 --> 00:53:37,340
Maybe Protestantism could
steal a march on Catholicism...

645
00:53:40,740 --> 00:53:42,660
..in the New World.

646
00:54:08,780 --> 00:54:12,060
In 1682, an influential
English Quaker, William Penn,

647
00:54:12,060 --> 00:54:15,900
secured a new colony
in North America.

648
00:54:17,380 --> 00:54:19,660
His goal was religious freedom,

649
00:54:19,660 --> 00:54:23,820
not only for Quakers,
but for all Christians.

650
00:54:25,500 --> 00:54:30,780
Religious exiles of all persuasions
flocked from across Europe.

651
00:54:33,220 --> 00:54:38,860
William Penn named this land
Penn's Paradise - Pennsylvania.

652
00:54:44,140 --> 00:54:48,460
If you want to spot Anabaptists,
then Lancaster County is
the place for you.

653
00:54:48,460 --> 00:54:50,860
This is home to 37 distinct
religious groups

654
00:54:50,860 --> 00:54:52,780
collectively known as plain people,

655
00:54:52,780 --> 00:54:55,460
all descended from the radicals
of the Reformation.

656
00:54:59,260 --> 00:55:04,300
They all belong to the Amish,
Mennonite or Brethren Churches.

657
00:55:04,300 --> 00:55:06,500
They keep up many old ways,

658
00:55:06,500 --> 00:55:11,820
especially a fine Protestant
disregard for outside authority.

659
00:55:13,420 --> 00:55:19,780
Some defy the modern world by living
without things we take for granted -
cars, electricity.

660
00:55:24,020 --> 00:55:27,300
I met Stephen Scott of
the Old Order River Brethren

661
00:55:27,300 --> 00:55:32,580
who reminded me of that name
all these folk have for themselves,
the "Plain People".

662
00:55:34,980 --> 00:55:38,860
Why have the Plain People
split so much?

663
00:55:38,860 --> 00:55:40,700
Well, our faith applies

664
00:55:40,700 --> 00:55:45,500
to not only intangible doctrines

665
00:55:45,500 --> 00:55:47,900
but to daily living,

666
00:55:47,900 --> 00:55:51,540
so unfortunately the more
there is to disagree about.

667
00:55:51,540 --> 00:55:56,500
And an important principle is
nonconformity to the world,

668
00:55:56,500 --> 00:56:00,180
so where do you draw the line
between the church and the world?

669
00:56:00,180 --> 00:56:03,060
You have Mennonites and Amish

670
00:56:03,060 --> 00:56:08,940
who drive horse-drawn vehicles,
but in my group we have cars.

671
00:56:08,940 --> 00:56:11,980
Well, this might seem
a mischievous question,

672
00:56:11,980 --> 00:56:14,460
but what's wrong with the world?

673
00:56:14,460 --> 00:56:17,860
I don't just mean the 21st-century
world, I mean the 16th-century world

674
00:56:17,860 --> 00:56:20,300
that the first Anabaptists
refused to conform to.

675
00:56:20,300 --> 00:56:22,420
What's wrong with the world?

676
00:56:22,420 --> 00:56:28,620
There would be some basic issues,
like the whole matter of pride.

677
00:56:28,620 --> 00:56:34,460
Dressing in a way that would
draw attention to your body
is very much discouraged.

678
00:56:34,460 --> 00:56:38,980
You would say, well, the plain
people do attract a lot of attention

679
00:56:38,980 --> 00:56:40,500
by the way they dress,

680
00:56:40,500 --> 00:56:43,860
but it's actually little
if any different

681
00:56:43,860 --> 00:56:47,100
than the principles
of monastic order.

682
00:56:50,580 --> 00:56:54,380
The plain people
are more than a curiosity.

683
00:56:54,380 --> 00:56:58,260
They tell us a great deal
about what would have happened

684
00:56:58,260 --> 00:57:02,980
if the small Jewish sect
from Galilee had not adapted.

685
00:57:02,980 --> 00:57:05,700
Yes, it may well have survived,

686
00:57:05,700 --> 00:57:09,260
just like the plain people,
into the 21st century.

687
00:57:09,260 --> 00:57:13,340
Clinging to tradition
can help in that way.

688
00:57:13,340 --> 00:57:15,740
But it would never have spread...

689
00:57:16,900 --> 00:57:19,060
..and become a world religion.

690
00:57:19,060 --> 00:57:22,860
The refusal of the plain people
to change their ways

691
00:57:22,860 --> 00:57:26,340
meant it wasn't they
who would turn America

692
00:57:26,340 --> 00:57:30,340
into a great powerhouse
of world Protestantism.

693
00:57:43,100 --> 00:57:48,420
In the next programme I'll be
looking at how a tiny, persecuted
group of Bohemian Christians...

694
00:57:50,020 --> 00:57:53,260
..transformed Protestant fortunes.

695
00:57:54,820 --> 00:57:58,420
They sparked religious revivals
that swept across Britain...

696
00:57:59,780 --> 00:58:01,060
..America...

697
00:58:01,060 --> 00:58:03,300
Africa...

698
00:58:03,300 --> 00:58:05,340
and Asia.

699
00:58:05,340 --> 00:58:10,980
Protestantism was about to outstrip
the missions of the Catholic Church.

700
00:58:14,260 --> 00:58:18,380
Why not take part in
the Open University's online survey,

701
00:58:18,380 --> 00:58:23,340
what does it mean
to be a Christian today? At...

702
00:58:25,220 --> 00:58:27,020
And follow the links.

703
00:58:39,060 --> 00:58:42,020
Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

704
00:58:42,020 --> 00:58:45,020
E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk