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LESSON 15 THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION
Religious Reform movement that divided the western Church into Catholic and Protestant
groups
• No longer is western Europe united under one faith
Problems with the Church
• Corruption in the Catholic Church
– Many of the popes were more concerned with the political interests of the Papal States
– Many Church officials used their offices to advance their careers, wealth, and families
• Simony = the buying and selling of Church offices
• Pluralism = having more than one office
• Many local priests seemed ignorant of their spiritual duties, especially on instructing people on
how to achieve salvation
– Salvation = acceptance into Heaven
• The Church preached gaining indulgences by venerating saints, obtaining holy relics, or buying
an indulgence certificate
– Indulgence = release from all or part of the punishment for sin
– In the 1500s Pope Leo X approved a new campaign of indulgences
– In the German area, the archbishop Albert of Mainz started selling indulgences to pay off
the large loan he took out to buy the archbishopric
• Most people found the Church unconcerned with their spiritual needs
Early Reformers
• John Wycliffe
– English reformer in the 1300s, his followers are called Lollards
– He believed that the Church should give up its earthly possessions
– He also encouraged his followers to read the Bible
• Jan Hus
– Reformer in Bohemia late 1300s, early 1400s
– Preached against the immorality and worldliness of the Church
– Meeting with Church officials and was promised safe passage – instead he was tried for
heresy and burned at the stake
Erasmus and Christian Humanism
• Christian humanists believed that humans had the ability to reason and improve themselves
– Major goal was to reform the Catholic Church
– People could become more pious by reading classics and studying works of Christianity
• Best known Christian humanist was Erasmus
– The “philosophy of Christ” – inward piety, not external observances of rituals
– Wanted to educate people about Christianity and criticized the monks
– Did not want to break away from the Church
• “Erasmus laid the egg that Luther hatched”
Martin Luther and the 95 Theses
• Martin Luther was a monk and a professor at the University of Wittenberg
• He was upset by the widespread selling of indulgences
– In 1517 Luther posted his 95 Theses on the door of the Church in Wittenberg
– It attacked abuses in the Church, specifically the selling of indulgences
• Luther rejected the Catholic teaching that both faith and good works were necessary for salvation
– He believed that salvation was through faith alone
– The idea of justification (being made right before God) by faith alone is the Protestant
Reformation’s chief teaching
• Luther also declared that the only head of the Christian Church was Jesus and not the pope, and
that individual Christians should be their own interpreters of scripture
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– For all Protestants, the Bible, not the Church, became the primary source of religious
truth
– Luther even translated the Bible into German
• 1520 Luther called for the German princes to overthrow the papacy and establish a reformed
German Church
– Wanted to keep only two sacraments – baptism and Communion – and allow the clergy
to marry
• In response Pope Leo X excommunicated Luther
• Luther was also summoned to appear before the imperial diet (legislative assembly) of the Holy
Roman Empire at the city of Worms
– At the Diet of Worms Luther was asked by the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and the
pope’s ambassador to recant (take back) his teachings and opinions
– Luther refused, saying he would only admit he was wrong if they could prove he was
wrong using the Bible
– The Edict of Worms made Luther an outlaw, but he was protected by his prince,
Frederick of Saxony
Rise of Lutheranism
• Martin Luther’s doctrines became known as Lutheranism, the first Protestant faith
– Over the next few years, Luther’s religious movement became a revolution
– By 1530 Lutheranism was a formally recognized branch of Christianity
• In 1529 Emperor Charles V moved to suppress Lutherans in Germany
– Lutheran princes issued a protest, which is how the term Protestant came into being
• Lutheranism gained the support from many German rulers, who took control of Catholic
Churches and formed state churches, supervised by the gov’t
• Luther’s movement was tied to politics and he believed the state was called by God to maintain
peace and order necessary to spread the gospel
• Martin Luther was a social conservative
– Peasants thought that Luther called for equality and they rebelled in the German Peasants
Revolt
– Luther, however, was horrified by the revolt and told nobles and princes to put down the
revolt
Politics in Germany
• Germany at this time was a land of several hundred territorial states ruled by “princes”
– All owed loyalty to the emperor, however most were able to free themselves from the
emperor’s authority
– The most powerful princes were the seven electors
• Holy Roman Emperor Charles V ruled an empire consisting of Spain, the Austrian lands,
Bohemia, Hungary, the Low Countries, Milan, Naples, and new territories in the Americas
– Charles wanted to keep all this Catholic and under the control of his family, the Hapsburg
dynasty
– Charles V’s chief rival was King Francis I of France
• Many individual rulers of the German states supported Luther and became Lutheran
– They rebelled against the emperor, wanting the right to be able to worship
– Charles was forced to make peace with the Lutheran princes in 1555 with the Peace of
Augsburg
• Terms of the Peace of Augsburg
– It accepted the division of Christianity within Germany
– German states could choose between Catholicism or Lutheranism
– No religious tolerance for individuals – princes chose their subjects’ religion
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The Spread and Division of Protestantism
• The ideal of Christian unity was lost forever with the Peace of Augsburg and Lutheranism was
the first of many Protestant religions
• Zwinglian Reformation was started by Ulrich Zwingli, a priest in Switzerland
– He banned relics and images
– The church he established was based on a theocracy
• Theocracy = gov’t in which church and state are joined and officials are
considered divinely inspired
– Zwingli was killed in a war between Catholics and Protestants in Switzerland
• Calvinism was started by John Calvin after he fled to Switzerland from Catholic France
– He placed a new emphasis on the all-powerful nature of God
– Predestination = God has determined in advance who will be saved (the elect) and who
would be damned (the reprobate)
• God knows who the elect are before they are born
• No amount of good works could change this
– Began to reform the city of Geneva and the city became a theocracy under Calvin’s
leadership
• Calvinists viewed humans as sinful by nature and enacted strict laws to regulate
people’s behavior
• John Knox became the spokesman for the Reformation in Scotland
– Knox’s Reformed Church replaced the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland after years of
religious turmoil
– Eventually becomes the Presbyterian denomination
• The Anabaptists believed in the complete separation of church and state
– They also believed in adult baptism since the true Christian church was a voluntary
community of adult believers
– Anabaptists were branded as dangerous radicals since rebaptizing adults was crime
punishable by death
– Later evolved into several religious factions, such as the Mennonites and the Amish
Mennonites
The English Reformation
• Reformation in England was due to politics and romance, not religion
• King Henry VIII became king at age 17 in 1509
– He was a devout Catholic who defended the Catholic Church against Luther and Erasmus
– Earned the title “Defender of the Faith”
– Was married to Catherine of Aragon, a Spanish princess, who had been married to his
older brother first before he died
– The problem was that after years of marriage, the couple only had the princess Mary and
Henry wanted a son – felt a female monarch would weaken England
• Henry then met and fell in love with Anne Boleyn and decided he wanted to have his first
marriage annulled (declared invalid)
– The pope refused, since he wouldn’t go against Catherine’s nephew, the Emperor Charles
V
– The king wanting to end his marriage was known as “the king’s great matter”
• Henry summoned a Reformation Parliament, which declared that England was no longer under
the authority of the pope
– Henry became the head of the Church of England
• Kept the new church closely tied to Catholicism
– Henry also closed Catholic monasteries and took away Church lands
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– England’s church courts granted Henry a divorce and he married Anne, who then gave
birth to Elizabeth
• In 1534 the Parliament passed the Act of Supremacy, which stated that the king was the supreme
head of the new Church of England
– Subjects had to take an oath declaring Henry the supreme head
– His friend Thomas More opposed this and was beheaded
• Henry was still Catholic and followed the Catholic teachings, but at his death in 1547, his nineyear old son Edward VI moved the Church of England in a more Protestant direction
• In 1553, young Edward died and Mary, the daughter of Catherine of Aragon, became Queen
– She returned England to the authority of the pope and had Protestants burned at the stake
– So many people were killed she earned the nickname “Bloody Mary”
• When Mary died, Elizabeth became Queen
– Tired of all the religious turmoil, Elizabeth broke with Rome and established a moderate
Protestant Church of England
– She did not persecute people for their religious beliefs
– Some Catholics plotted to kill Elizabeth and replace her with Mary, Queen of the Scots
The Catholic Reformation
• The Catholic Church responded to the spread of Protestantism by beginning a series of reforms,
also known as the Counter-Reformation
• Formed new religious orders whose members worked to reform the Church
– The most influential was formed by a Spanish nobleman named Ignatius of Loyola
• Ignatius of Loyola founded the Society of Jesus, better known as the Jesuits
– Took a vow of obedience to the church and pope
– Concentrated on education to spread their message
– The Jesuits established missions, schools, and universities and were successful in
restoring Catholicism to parts of Germany and Eastern Europe
• The Council of Trent convened by Pope Paul III
– Met on and off from 1545 to 1563
– One goal was to examine criticisms made by Protestants and look at Protestant theology
• In the end, they rejected all Protestant ideas and upheld Catholic theology
– Both faith and good works were needed for salvation, the clergy could not
marry, belief in purgatory, and the seven sacraments were upheld
• There would be no compromise between Catholicism and Protestantism
– Another goal was to address reform within the Church
• Addressed the corruption of the clergy, the training of priests became regulated,
and the sale of indulgences was abolished
– The council was a great boost to Catholicism and many Catholics had renewed
confidence in the Church
• Two other things the Catholic Church did to combat the spread of Protestantism was establish
the Roman Inquisition and the Index of Prohibited books (list of books that Catholics were
forbidden to read, such as Erasmus, Luther, and Galileo)
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