How The Reformation Happened Paperback – October 3, 1992

To explain how the Reformation happened in 200 pages or less sounds like a sucker's bet. You would think it couldn't be done properly, but Belloc takes on the task and succeeds brilliantly. He has a wonderful sense of narrative sweep, essential for a story that spans such a large swath of time, geography, people, and events. A lesser mind could have lost its way.English-speaking peoples - even Catholics - have been steeped in the tradition that the Reformation was a popular doctrinal uprising against Church teaching. Most of the evidence for that view works backwards from the present to the posting of the 96 Theses in 1517; it doesn't account for the fact that doctrinal positions have grown and become ingrained over the centuries and have formed perspectives that make the popular (read: "anti-Catholic") understanding of the great breakup of Christendom almost self-evident.The great service that Belloc performs is to shatter current myth by winding the clock back to several centuries before the Reformation, and then working forward towards those events. In my admittedly subjective and biased view, I believe Belloc's account is an objective and accurate piece of history, and here's why: it tells the story of how misunderstandings, weakness, intrigue, political jockeying, greed and the outside pressure of a great menace all met at precisely the right time to change the world. If one knows anything about history and about human nature, it is that the above formula is almost always what drives world-changing events.Not surprisingly, the tinder that allowed the sparks to ignite such a large conflagration was, essentially, greed. Greed on the part of a few individuals to seize Church wealth, and greed on the part of the institutions and the clerics of the Church to misuse their offices for personal gain. That provided on the one side motive for nobles and princes to attack the church, and the other side just enough popular discontent with the machinery of the Church to make such an attack plausible.Lastly, Belloc points out two very important causes that are almost always overlooked by critical studies of the Reformation: the hatred of the Church (which can be traced all the way back to Calvary), and the false belief that the Catholic Church was a sort of stable monolith that stood without challenge for 1500 years before the events of the 16th century.The truth is that from the moment of its founding 2000 years ago to the present day, the Catholic Church has been despised. It's message and everything it stands for has been under assault, hammered at with lies, murder, and hate, and swarmed on its insides with filth and modernism in an effort to discredit it. What better way to attack it than to form rival Christianities? From its beginnings, the Church has been in battle, torn by heresy after heresy from within, and challenged by a great heresy from without (Islam.) Understanding both of these points is crucial to understanding the Reformation.I highly recommend this work and give it 5 stars because it succeeds within its stated framework.

In this wondrously readable text, Belloc provides a terrific expose' of the course of events and factors behind what he calls the shipwreck of European Civilization, the Protestant Reformation. Belloc herein aruges persuasively that it was Ann Boelyn, through her insistence on becoming Queen, rather than mistress to Henry VIII, who was the pivot of the English Reformation, without which Western Civilization would have remained predominately Catholic. He further illustrates the aristocratic nature of the Huguenot uprising in France and the insidious and powerful nature of Calvin's writings. Belloc further illuminates the influence of the wealthy merchants and money traders in the splitting of Protestant Holland and Catholic Belgium. Finally, Belloc elucidates how Richilieu's French nationalism got the best of his Catholicism in his action of arraying the great warrior King Gustav Adolphus of Sweden against the Hapsburg forces in support of what emerged as Protestant Northern Germany and, ultimately, Prussia. This is truly a magnificent work and critically important to the understanding of the saga of Western Civilization.

This is a brief but sweeping overview of the Reformation, concentrating mainly on the political and social forces at work during the whole period. Although Belloc was an ardent Catholic, he is surprisingly balanced in his analysis; for instance he pulls no punches when critiquing the shortcomings of the Church, and is quite mild in his assessment of Martin Luther. (Belloc is most venomous toward the British upper classes, who so shamelessly exploited the Church, Elizabeth, and the common people merely to increase their personal wealth and solidify their political position. His analysis is undoubtedly contrary to mainstream English history, but is compellingly supported by the facts.) Belloc's greatest strength is his ability to distill general principles and underlying causes from the tidal wave of political and social upheaval that was pouring across Europe. Thus the book is a fantastic starting point for a study of the Reformation. Although it is short on details (especially military details) it provides a very clear context.

Belloc's wildly pro-Catholic viewpoint overshadows every word, which is unfortunate, because he is a great writer. It is obvious that he has a "bone to pick" with both English history and aristocracy, which is undoubtedly a product of many years spent living and studying amongst the crusty and stuffy British elite. With that said, the book is a good read if you're staunchly pro-Protestant and have any illusions as to how the reformation took place. However, any half wit student of history should understand that the Reformation, and the ideas produced therein, would ultimately provide fodder for those European monarchs hoping to manipulate (to their advantage) the struggling movement. An excellent example is Henry VIII. Martin Luther himself, had no initial desire to break from the Catholic church, only to reform it. This is all basic Encyclopedia Britannica information compiled into a small book with a heavy Catholic slant. I would suggest to those truly interested in European and/or religious history to search out a less biased, finer detailed book on the Reformation, and leave this "gee whiz" work by Belloc to the novices.

Strong writing. Unfortunately we’ve forgotten how to think and write this way.