When we talk about Luther or Calvin, we often say that they and the hundreds of millions of people who approved the reform of the Church in the 16th century are Protestants. But do you know where the word "Protestant" comes from? Discover this story in this bonus episode of "At the heart of history".
Listening to the story about Luther and the printing press, you may have wanted to know more about the origin of the word "Protestant". In this bonus episode of "At the heart of history", the history specialist Jean des Cars invites you to do a little etymology.
In the religious sense, the word "Protestant" appeared in 1529. At that time, in the German States which make up the Holy Empire, if Luther continued to be respected as a spiritual authority having denounced the abuses of the Catholic Church, the Reformation, of which he is the instigator, has become a political issue. It escapes him more and more.
The authorities, in particular the Lutheran princes of the Holy Empire, met in the city of Spiers, on the banks of the Rhine, whose magnificent Romanesque cathedral shelters the tombs of eight German emperors.
In the spring of 1529, at the Diet of the Empire, that is to say, the assembly of princes, they expressed their disagreement with the Emperor Charles V. Indeed, the latter, who is also king of very Catholic Spain, claims to prohibit the German Lutheran princes the right to settle religious questions themselves in their states. In response, they raised a vigorous "protest" against the Catholic majority.
The birth of a first German identity
The name "Protestants" remained to designate all those who, in Christianity, do not agree with the decisions of the representatives of the Church of Rome. Over time, the words Protestantism and Protestants will designate the main movements of the Reformation, stemming from the protests of Luther and then of Calvin.
It should be added that if Luther's protests were written and printed first in Latin, they were also printed in German. This common language allowed the birth of a first German identity. Geographically, if South Germany, especially Bavaria, remained firmly attached to Roman Catholicism, North Germany, like Prussia, adopted the Protestant thesis. This division weighed heavily during the creation of the German Empire in 1871. In 19th century Germany, this spiritual and temperamental divergence is still noticeable today.
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"At the heart of history" is a Europe 1 Studio podcast
Author and presentation: Jean des Cars
Project manager: Adèle Ponticelli
Realization: Guillaume Vasseau
Diffusion and edition: Clémence Olivier
Graphics: Europe 1 Studio