THE [RE]FORMATION ...

[Michael Grove]

   and... THE SPiRALogic of [RE]FORMATION [≡] Freespace 4D • in4D™

   [Courageous WOMEN] – the Reformation challenges MALE 'dominance'

   It was a big risk. Nevertheless, 500 years ago it was not just men who

   advocated the reformation of the Church, but confident women too.

   They created a female side to the religious movement, as Luther expert

   Sonja Domröse reports.

   ANYONE following the discussion of the anniversary of the Reformation

   in 2017 could easily form the impression at first glance, that the events

   which took place 500 years ago were only shaped by men. At best, 

   Katharina von Bora, Luther’s wife, receives public coverage.

   “There were however many more courageous women in the early

    modern period who adhered to their faith privately and publicly ”

    says the Luther expert Sonja Domröse, pastor in Stade. 

      

    THE REFORMATION: ENGLAND AND THE “MIDDLE WAY”  

      In England, the Reformation began with Henry VIII’s quest for a male

    heir. When Pope Clement VII refused to annul Henry’s marriage to

    Catherine of Aragon so he could remarry, the English king declared in

    1534 that he alone should be the final authority in matters relating to

    the English church. Henry dissolved England’s monasteries to confiscate

    their wealth and worked to place the Bible in the hands of the people.

    Beginning in 1536, every parish was required to have a copy. After

    Henry’s death, England tilted toward Calvinist-infused Protestantism

    during Edward VI’s six-year reign and then endured five years of

    reactionary Catholicism under Mary I. In 1559 Elizabeth I took the

    throne and, during her 44-year reign, cast the Church of England as

    a “middle way” between Calvinism and Catholicism, with vernacular

    worship and a revised Book of Common Prayer.

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