Protestants, the pope was not the head of one church among others; he was the antichrist that had allowed Christendom to teeter on the brink of ruin. Reformers conceived of their agenda as saving Christendom or, if that was no longer possible, as rescuing a faithful remnant before the end. Against that background, spirituality could take on an urgent and polemical character that the modern usage of the word does not convey. Instead of connoting quiet meditation and ecumenical openness, the spiritual