Reformation Day: A Celebration of Culture and Spirit

 

In independent Slovenia, we began celebrating Reformation Day as a national holiday in 1992. Although the Reformation generally refers to the religious renewal in the 16th century that led to the emergence of Protestantism, it has exceptional cultural and educational significance for Slovenians.

The Reformation brought with it the first Slovenian printed books, which ranks it among the key milestones in the development of Slovenian literacy. It laid the foundation for the education of the wider masses, encouraged the establishment of schools, and emphasized the use of the mother tongue. Many theologians and historians also attribute the Reformation to the promotion of democratic principles of equality.

Slovenian reformers and their contribution

The ideas of the Reformation also gained a strong foothold in Slovenian territory. The following key men contributed the most to the consolidation of Slovenian culture and language:

• Primož Trubar (1508–1586): Father of the Slovenian Reformation and Slovenian written words. Already in 1550, he published the first Slovenian books – the Alphabet and the Catechism. 
• Jurij Dalmatin (c. 1547–1589): He translated the entire Bible into the Slovene language (1584), which was of great importance for the standardization of the language.
• Adam Bohorič (c. 1520–1601/1602): He published the first systematic grammar of the Slovene language, known as Arcticae horulae (Winter Hours) (1584), with which he laid the foundations of the Slovene grammatical norm.
• Sebastijan Krelj (1538–1567): He is important as a linguistic and orthographic reformer who supplemented Trubar's work.

Martin Luther and the origin of the holiday

Today's date of celebration, October 31, is related to the actions of the German monk and theologian Martin Luther (1483–1546). According to tradition, on this day in 1517, he nailed his Ninety-Five Theses to the door of All Saints' Church in Wittenberg, criticizing certain practices of the Catholic Church, especially the sale of indulgences. According to another source, he sent the Theses to Archbishop Albert of Brandenburg.

Luther's Theses sparked a movement that labeled the Church as heretical and an enemy of the Pope. Despite threats of arrest and excommunication, Luther published several important writings in 1520 on the renewal of the Church and the theological concept of "Christian freedom." He was officially excommunicated from the Church in 1521, but he continued to spread his ideas, supported by influential secular rulers.

Luther's emphasis on individual conscience and independent reading of the Bible had wider social consequences, indirectly influencing the peasant unrest known as the German Peasants' Wars (1524–1525). Luther did call for respect for authority, which caused disappointment among some rebellious peasants. He also confirmed the Reformation direction in 1525 when he married, thereby abandoning the mandatory celibacy for priests.

Expansion of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation

In 1526, Luther began to actively shape a new church order on which the Lutheran Church was based. His theological work was rounded off by the Small and Large Catechisms (1529). 

After his death in 1546, his work was continued and systematized by other theologians, in particular:

• Philipp Melanchthon (1497–1560): Luther's closest collaborator, who systematized Lutheran theology and is the author of the Augsburg Confession (1530).
• Jean Calvin (1509–1564): An influential reformer who developed his own direction of Protestantism – Calvinism.
•  Ulrich Zwingli (1484–1531): Leading reformer in Switzerland.

In the 16th and 17th centuries, Reformation ideas were already severely affected by the Counter-Reformation, which aimed to re-establish the position of the Roman Catholic Church. This conflict led to the outbreak of the Thirty Years' War in 1618, which ended with the Peace of Westphalia in 1648.

On Slovenian soil, the Counter-Reformation had serious consequences: the expulsion of Protestant priests, the closure of schools, the burning of books, and the expulsion of Protestant families. As a result, Protestantism in Slovenia was preserved only to a limited extent, especially in Prekmurje.