AP European History

## Learning Outcomes

- Explain why some Protestants, especially Calvinists, were linked to disciplined work and modest prosperity
- Understand the difference between **predestination** and the idea that wealth could be a sign of God’s favor
- Compare Luther’s and Calvin’s attitudes to work, profit, and usury
- Identify why **Geneva** matters as evidence for Calvinist moral discipline
- Evaluate the later idea of the **Protestant ethic** and its link to capitalism
- Use this topic in AP European History causation, comparison, and continuity/change arguments

## AP European History Syllabus

For the AP European History, you are expected to understand how some Protestants approached work, wealth, and daily economic life during the Reformation, with a focus on the following syllabus points:

- Know that **John Calvin** taught **predestination**, not salvation through wealth or good works
- Identify the idea of a **calling (vocation)** as the belief that ordinary work could serve God
- Explain how some Calvinists connected hard work, thrift, sobriety, and discipline to godly living
- Understand the difference between Luther’s more suspicious view of profit-seeking and Calvin’s greater acceptance of commerce and limited interest-taking
- Know that **Geneva** became a leading center of Calvinism and moral regulation
- Distinguish between sixteenth-century Calvinist doctrine and the later historical interpretation called the **Protestant ethic**
- Evaluate the claim that Protestantism helped encourage capitalist attitudes without claiming it created capitalism by itself

## Test Your Knowledge

_Attempt these questions before reading this article. If you find some difficult or cannot remember the answers, look more closely at that area during your revision._

1. Why is Calvinism more strongly associated with wealth than Lutheranism?
2. What is the difference between **predestination** and the idea that prosperity might be a sign of divine favor?
3. How did the idea of a **calling** change the religious status of ordinary work?
4. Why is **Geneva** useful evidence for this topic?
5. What did Max Weber later argue about Protestantism and capitalism?

## Introduction

The claim that some Protestants “sanctified wealth” is easy to misunderstand. AP European History does not want the crude version: “Calvin taught people to get rich.” That is not accurate. What matters is the more careful argument that some Protestants, especially **Calvinists** in the sixteenth century, gave ordinary labor religious dignity and encouraged disciplined, sober, thrifty living. In some places, this made economic success look morally respectable in a new way.

This subtopic sits in **Unit 2: Age of Reformation**, in the period from the early 1500s to the mid-1600s. It connects religion to daily life, social discipline, and changing economic attitudes. It also works well in AP essays because it allows you to show causation, comparison, and continuity and change over time.

> **Key Term: predestination**
> The Calvinist doctrine that God had already chosen who would be saved and who would be condemned, and that human action could not change that outcome.

### Why this idea emerged within the Reformation

The starting point is Luther’s challenge to the Catholic Church in **1517** with the **95 Theses**. Luther attacked indulgences and, more broadly, the idea that the Church controlled salvation through sacraments, penance, and priestly authority. His teaching pushed Christians to ask a new question: if salvation does not come through works supervised by the Church, how should believers live in the world?

That question became sharper as the Reformation spread beyond Luther. In Catholic teaching, salvation involved **faith as well as works**, and the Church remained the mediator of grace. Protestants shifted the focus. The textbook’s “big picture” point matters here: for Protestants, **faith had priority over works**. But that did not mean behavior no longer mattered. Instead, behavior became evidence of belief, discipline, and obedience.

Luther already moved in this direction by honoring ordinary labor. He rejected the idea that monks and nuns alone had spiritually valuable lives. Marriage, parenting, farming, trade, and household work could all be forms of Christian duty. This was a major change in social thinking. It reduced the spiritual gap between clergy and laypeople. Work was no longer merely necessary; it could be part of serving God.

> **Key Term: calling (vocation)**
> The belief that ordinary occupations and social duties can serve God, not just religious offices.

The Reformation therefore shifted Christian life away from monasteries and toward the household and workplace. In Protestant lands, as the source notes, the household became the center of Christian life. Fathers enforced moral standards, hard work gained religious weight, and everyday conduct became spiritually charged. That is the background for understanding why some Protestants came to treat disciplined labor and careful use of wealth as signs of a godly life.

> **Test Tip:** In an SAQ or LEQ, begin with doctrine, then move to social effects. First explain what Protestants believed about salvation. Then show how those beliefs shaped behavior in work, family life, and commerce.

### Luther and Calvin on work, wealth, and profit

Students often blur Luther and Calvin together. AP essays score better when you separate them clearly.

Martin Luther praised ordinary work as a vocation. A shoemaker, farmer, wife, prince, or servant could all fulfill God’s will through daily duty. That idea elevated lay labor. But Luther was still wary of greed, exploitative commerce, and usury. He did not turn profit-seeking into a spiritual badge. His outlook was theologically radical but socially conservative. The textbook makes this plain in other ways too: Luther supported princes, rejected the peasants’ social reading of reform, and did not try to remake society through aggressive economic change.

John Calvin, by contrast, fit urban commercial society more easily. Born in **1509** in France and later active in **Geneva**, Calvin taught that God had chosen the **elect** from the beginning of time. Since no one could earn salvation, believers looked for reassurance in their lives. Calvin never taught that wealth saved anyone. But disciplined conduct, sobriety, perseverance, and success in one’s calling could appear to some as possible signs that one belonged among the elect.

> **Key Term: the elect**
> In Calvinist belief, the limited number of people chosen by God for salvation.

This is the central distinction. Prosperity was not the **cause** of salvation. At most, for some Calvinists, it was interpreted as a possible **sign** of divine favor. That difference matters a lot. If you say “Calvin taught rich people go to heaven,” you will lose accuracy. If you say “some Calvinists viewed honest prosperity as a possible sign of God’s favor, though not proof of salvation,” you are in strong AP territory.

Calvin also showed more flexibility than Luther on commerce and lending. Medieval Christian teaching had often condemned usury broadly. Calvin did not simply bless all lending, but he was more willing to accept moderate interest in a commercial society, provided it was not exploitative and did not crush the poor. This made Calvinism more adaptable to the world of merchants, bankers, and urban trade.

A simple comparison helps:

- **Luther:** work is a vocation; greed is suspect; more hostile to usury and profit-seeking
- **Calvin:** work is also a vocation; discipline is central; more accepting of commerce and limited interest-taking
- **Common ground:** neither taught that wealth earns salvation

This is why the claim “some Protestants sanctified wealth” is strongest for **some Calvinists**, weaker for Lutherans, and false if turned into a blanket statement about all Protestants.

> **Key Term: usury**
> Charging interest on loans; long condemned in medieval Christianity, but treated more flexibly by Calvin in some commercial contexts.

### Calvinist discipline, Geneva, and the religious meaning of prosperity

The best case study here is **Geneva**. The textbook describes Calvin as a strict disciplinarian who aimed to make the city a “new Jerusalem.” Calvinists gained control of city government, and moral regulation became intense. Taverns were closed, prostitution restricted, carnivals ended, and even blasphemy could be punished severely. The point is not that Geneva celebrated luxury. It did the opposite.

This matters because “sanctifying wealth” in Calvinist settings did not mean celebrating consumption. It meant approving disciplined production more than lavish display. Calvinist culture valued sobriety, self-control, thrift, and reinvestment. A believer should work hard, avoid idleness, shun excess, and use resources carefully. That combination made prosperity gained through honest, restrained labor seem morally safer than in older traditions that looked more suspiciously at money-making.

> **Key Term: worldly asceticism**
> A later term for disciplined self-denial practiced within ordinary life and work rather than through withdrawal from the world.

Notice the chain of reasoning:

1. Calvin taught predestination.
2. Believers could not control salvation.
3. They therefore sought reassurance in disciplined conduct.
4. Ordinary work became a serious religious duty.
5. Idleness and luxury looked sinful.
6. Thrift and reinvestment became respectable.
7. In practice, modest prosperity could be read as a sign of a well-ordered, godly life.

That is how some Protestants, especially Calvinists, came close to sanctifying wealth. The sanctification was really of disciplined labor and restrained prosperity, not of greed.

Geneva is also useful because it shows the social side of the Reformation. Protestantism was not only about ideas in books. It changed city government, family life, leisure, and attitudes toward work. In AP terms, this connects religion to the themes of **individual and society** and **poverty and prosperity**.

The idea spread beyond Geneva. Calvinism became the established church in **Scotland**, influenced a minority of **Huguenots** in France, and shaped English **Puritans**. In these places, the combination of moral seriousness, literacy, discipline, and industriousness often appealed to urban and middling groups.

> **Test Tip:** If a multiple-choice question asks about Calvinism and economic life, eliminate answers that say wealth earned salvation. Look for answers stressing discipline, thrift, calling, or prosperity as a possible sign rather than a guarantee.

### The Protestant ethic: later interpretation, not sixteenth-century doctrine

A final distinction is historiographical. The phrase **Protestant ethic** is not a sixteenth-century doctrine label. It comes from the sociologist **Max Weber**, who in **1904–05** argued in _The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism_ that ascetic Protestant values helped encourage capitalist attitudes.

Weber’s argument was not that Protestants invented capitalism from nothing. Banking, trade, and profit existed long before Calvin. Italian city-states, including Catholic ones, had major commercial networks centuries earlier. The textbook even notes the weakness of overly simple theories that connect Protestantism alone to later economic development, since much scientific and commercial energy also came from places like Catholic Italy.

What Weber argued was narrower and more cultural. Calvinist habits of hard work, self-discipline, frugality, and reinvestment helped encourage the **spirit** of capitalism. People who avoided luxury and kept putting profits back into productive work could unintentionally support long-term accumulation.

This is useful, but it must be handled carefully. A strong AP judgment sounds like this:

- Protestantism, especially Calvinism, may have encouraged attitudes useful to capitalism
- but capitalism predated the Reformation
- and religion was one factor among many, not the sole cause

That is a classic AP evaluation: explain, then qualify.

This also links well to continuity and change over time. There was **continuity** because trade, credit, and wealth accumulation already existed before Calvinism. There was **change** because some Reformed communities treated commerce, lending, and disciplined profit more positively than earlier religious traditions had done.

If you write an LEQ on this, your best argument will compare before and after, or Luther and Calvin, and then qualify Weber’s thesis instead of repeating it as fact.

## Key Point Checklist

_This article has covered the following key knowledge points:_

- Luther’s challenge to the Church in **1517** opened wider debates about salvation, work, and Christian life
- Protestants generally stressed faith over works, but that did not make behavior unimportant
- The idea of a **calling** gave ordinary labor religious dignity
- Luther valued vocation but remained more suspicious of greed, profit-seeking, and usury
- Calvin taught **predestination**, meaning salvation was chosen by God and could not be earned
- Some Calvinists treated disciplined conduct and modest prosperity as possible signs of divine favor, not proofs of salvation
- **Geneva** is important evidence because Calvinism there enforced strict moral discipline and sober living
- Calvin was more accepting than Luther of commerce and limited interest-taking in a commercial society
- Calvinism emphasized thrift, sobriety, self-control, and hard work rather than luxury
- The phrase **Protestant ethic** comes from **Max Weber** in **1904–05**, not from sixteenth-century doctrine
- A strong AP judgment is that Protestantism may have encouraged capitalist attitudes, but did not create capitalism by itself
- The claim that some Protestants sanctified wealth is strongest for some Calvinists and should be stated with careful qualification

## Key Terms and Concepts

- predestination
- calling (vocation)
- the elect
- usury
- worldly asceticism


Luther and the Protestant Reformation - Some Protestants sanctified wealth