Download Protestant Reformation - Miami Beach Senior High School

David Spiegel
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4/30/13
Protestant Reformation:
Dictionary Definition: A religious movement of the 16th century that
began as an attempt to reform the Catholic Church and resulted in the
creation of Protestant churches.
The Roman Catholic Church was very powerful during the Middle
Ages, not only religiously, as it was by far the most common religion in
Europe, but also politically, as rulers believed that their power increased if
the church blessed their reign. It was by far the most powerful institution in
Western Europe and the one institution the people of Western Europe had in
common. Most people in Europe believed that the only way to heaven was
through the Catholic Church. This made the pope the most powerful man in
Western Europe. During the Renaissance the Church was needed to finance
it’s many large scale building projects and had to pay it’s many artists. The
solution: The sale of indulgences. This was a piece of paper that the
“faithful” could purchase to reduce the amount of time they would spend in
purgatory. It was not only means of generating income but also to maintain
power, as it required them to go only through the Church. This upset many,
not only the land-owning nobles, but also the peasants. It made many realize
how corrupt the Catholic Church was. A German monk by the name of
Martin Luther in 1517 decided to nail a list of 95 theses, or complaints, on
a church door. This list was widely distributed with the help of the printing
press. This list outlined his issues with the Catholic Church’s practices such
as the sale of indulgences, which he saw as salvation for Church profit. He
also complained about how the Bible should be written in the vernacular, or
the local language, and not Latin, which most Germans did not understand.
He decided to then translate the Bible from Latin into German. He also
questioned the Pope’s religious role. Now let’s rewind a bit to the time
before he posted these complaints… Before turning against the Catholic
Church, Martin Luther was a Catholic monk from Germany. He visited the
Vatican in Rome, which is the home of the Catholic Church, and saw the
Renaissance construction that was taking place and that it was clearly being
built with the churchgoers’ money. This outraged him and he decided to
proceed as he did. Pope Leo X was furious, and ordered Martin Luther to
recant, or formally retract his theses. His ideas were spreading through
Northern Europe like a wildfire with the help of the printing press, and when
Martin Luther refused to recant, he was excommunicated from the Catholic
Church. Martin Luther’s followers began to refer to themselves as
“Lutherans”, and began to separate form the Church. People also began to
assert their own biblical interpretations. Some matched Luther’s and some
were very distinct. Another leader of the Protestant Reformation would be
John Calvin. John Calvin was from France and led a powerful Protestant
group by preaching an ideology of predestination. He believed that God had
predetermined an ultimate destiny for all people, most of whom God had
already damned. Only a few would be saved, and those people were known
as the “Elect”. In the 1530’s the city of Geneva, Switzerland invited Calvin
to construct a Protestant theocracy in the city. His teaching became known
as “Calvinism”. From there, John Calvin’s teachings spread, and much like
Martin Luther’s teachings, were very influential to the successful Protestant
Reformation. Over time, the Protestant Reformation spread to England, and
this spread was motivated both by political and religious reasons. King
Henry VIII did not have a son to be the heir to his throne and sought to
divorce his wife, Catherine of Aragon, however the pope denied an
annulment of their marriage. Henry VIII was outraged and decided to
renounce Rome and make himself the head of religious affairs in England.
Many who were already Protestants were pleased to hear this, however there
were still Catholics in England. This Church of England became known as
the Anglican Church, which still exists today. Because of the Protestant
Reformation, the Catholic Church began the Catholic Reformation, also
known as the counter-reformation, which occurred in the 16th century.
During this reformation, the Catholic Church reformed and gained back
some of the people who left the Church for different Protestant
denominations. The Protestant Reformation is still very influential today.
Both Calvinism and the Lutheran doctrine exist today, however they gave
birth to thousands of different Protestant denominations. Today there are
many Protestants around the world, but the Roman Catholic Church is still
by far the largest church in the world, though it does not have the same
power it once did. We also see that the Bible has been translated into almost
every language and there are people with different interpretations of the
Bible. The Protestant Reformation made the Catholic Church lose this power
that it once had, and the influence they once had over Western Europe.