The Protestant Reformation
The Renaissance
Anton von Werner, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
In 1517, a German priest named Martin Luther posted a list on the door of the local church in Wittenburg. It contained ninety-five statements for academic discussion, or "theses," intended for public debate. However, what was intended as an academic debate spiraled out of control into the second great Christian schism, known as the Protestant Reformation.
Luther's ninety-five theses criticized corruption in the Church and spoke out against the abuse of various practices. He also questioned the Church's teachings about salvation, the role of faith and works ("sola fide"), and the role of the Bible ("sola scriptura.") Many princes of the various German states supported Luther, some because they genuinely agreed with him, and some because separating from the Roman Catholic Church would allow them to assert more independence from the Holy Roman Empire. Luther's adherents became known as Lutherans.
Similar movements soon followed. John Calvin and Ulrich Zwingli began teaching a systematic theology of their own, rejecting more Catholic doctrines. Their teachings gave rise to the Hugenots in France and Switzerland, and Presbyterians in Scotland. A "radical Reformation," which felt the Lutherans and Calvinists had not gone far enough, rose up, known as Anabaptists. Within a few decades, hundreds of different denominations had developed, today numbering in the thousands.
Gustav Spangenberg, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
The Protestant Reformers sought a simpler, more accessible form of Christianity, and this is reflected in the music they favored. Protestants composed hymns and chorales for communal singing by the whole congregation, rather than an elite choir of trained and well-rehearsed musicians. As such, Protestant music tended to feature lyrics in the vernacular rather than Latin, syllabic rather than melismatic lyrics, and a return to monophonic texture rather than the complex polyphony of the preceding generation. Eventually, a certain degree of complexity returned to these chorales, with communal 4-part singing (SATB - soprano, alto, tenor, bass) and the placement of the melodic line in the highest voice. Emphasis remained on clarity of the lyrics, and so all the words remained sung on the same beats by all parts, creating a homophonic rather than polyphonic texture. Luther himself was a great and prolific hymn-writer and contributed many melodies to this new style.
Not one to miss out on a party, King Henry VIII in England (the son of Henry Tudor) soon became involved in a scuffle with Pope Clement VII. Henry had divorced his first wife, the Spanish princess Catherine of Aragon, and asked the pope for a formal annulment so that he could marry his lover, Anne Boleyn. Unwilling to upset Catherine's parents (the king and queen of Spain), her nephew (the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V), or God (cf. Mark 19:4-9), the pope refused. Henry responded by declaring himself "Supreme Governor of the Church in England" in 1531. He viciously persecuted anyone remaining loyal to the Church (most notably Sir Thomas More) and set off decades of violence between Catholics and, as they became known, Anglicans.
Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
The Catholic Church reacted against the Protestant Reformation with its own set of internal reforms, codified at the 1563 Council of Trent, which clarified various doctrines and addressed many of the abuses against which Luther had spoken out. Culturally, however, the ornately polyphonic and melismatic liturgical music of the early Renaissance was celebrated and intensified. Composers like the Franco-Flemish Orlando di Lassus continued to build on and develop the style of Guillaume du Fay and Josquin des Prez, while others like the Italian priest Gregorio Allegri expanded the use of polyphony in liturgical music.
According to legend, when Pope Urban VIII heard Allegri's "Miserere Mei, Deus" ("Have mercy on me, God"), he found the piece so hauntingly beautiful that he decreed it could only be performed once a year, on Good Friday (the commemoration of Christ's crucifixion), and only in the Sistine Chapel in Rome. To prevent the piece from being overplayed, he forbade any copies to be made, on pain of excommunication.