Survey
* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
14 - Protestant Reformation By the 900s A.D., the Roman Catholic Church had come to dominate religious life in Northern and Western Europe. However, the 16th century would bring radical changes to the balance of power and the attitude of citizens towards religious freedoms. The Protestant Reformation was the 16th-century religious, political, intellectual and cultural upheaval that splintered Catholic Europe, setting in place the structures and beliefs that would define the continent in the modern era. Many would even say it was the beginnings of resistance that led to the eventual revolutions seen in the next couple hundred years, including our own American Revolution. CAUSES OF THE REFORMATION By 1500, many forces were weakening the church. The Renaissance emphasis on the secular and the individual challenged church authority and caused many to contemplate the condition of the world around them. This led to a series of challenges: 1. Merchants in northern Europe resented paying church taxes to Rome. They often had to face triple payments; a tax to their king or ruling family, a tithe to their local church, and a tithe or tax to the church in Rome. 2. Printing press spread secular ideas – Johannes Gutenberg’s invention made bulk printing of books and pamphlets both easy and inexpensive. With new access to printed books, a new hunger for information developed. Once reformers began publishing Protestant ideas against the Roman Catholic Church, they were quickly spread throughout Europe. 3. The city-states in Germany or Italy were difficult for the pope or the emperor to impose central authority. 4. Kings and rulers began to challenge the Church’s political power. Popes and Cardinals often lived more like kings than spiritual leaders. Popes claimed political as well as spiritual power. They commanded armies, made political alliances and enemies, and, sometimes, even waged war. After a military campaign between the two in 1516, King Francis I of France and Pope Leo X created a pact (agreement) called the Concordat of Bologna which gave the French king power to nominate leaders to the church. This was a big step in taking supreme power of appointing church leadership out of the hands of just one man. When the church refused to give King Henry VIII a divorce, Henry forced a separation of England from the Catholic Church altogether (more about this later). 5. Corruption in the church caused discontent. Simony (the selling of Church offices), nepotism (favoritism based on family relationships) and the selling of indulgences (a promise to go to heaven in exchange for money) were common practices in the church. In addition, many of the church leaders lived immoral lives; committing the very sins they condemned their followers for. The corruption of the Church was well known, and several attempts had been made to reform it (notably by John Wycliffe and Jan Hus), but none of these efforts successfully challenged Church practice until Martin Luther's actions in the early 1500s. LEADER OF THE MOVEMENT Martin Luther was a German monk and Professor of Theology at the University of Wittenberg. Luther sparked the Reformation in 1517 by posting his "95 Theses" on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany - these theses were a list of statements that expressed Luther's concerns about certain Church practices - largely the sale of indulgences. Committed to the idea that salvation could be reached through faith and by divine grace only, Luther vigorously objected to the corrupt practice of selling indulgences. 1517 Martin Luther nailed his 95 Thesis to the door of the Wittenberg Palace All Saints' Church. This event signaled the beginning of the Protestant Reformation in Germany and Protestantism in general. 1518 - 1520 Luther faces trials before the papacy (Pope) who demands he recants. Luther publicly burned the papal edict demanding that he recant or face excommunication. 1521 Pope Leo X excommunicated Martin Luther from the Catholic Church. 1521 Martin Luther was called before an Imperial Diet (a legislative assembly) in Worms, Germany. He was already accused of heresy and excommunicated by the Pope. Emperor Charles V and the Diet issued the Edict of Worms which banned Luther's work and declared all of Luther’s followers to be outlaws. 1522 Martin Luther translated the New Testament from Latin into German Luther’s actions began a world changing movement that created a split between Catholics and Protestants. Notice that the word Protestant contains the word "protest" and that reformation contains the word "reform"—this was an effort, at least at first, to protest some practices of the Catholic Church and to reform that Church. Little did they know it would not only reform the Church, but also create an explosion of protestant religion. Today there are almost 40,000 protestant denominations (religious classifications) and over 800 million protestant Christians in the world! OTHER CONTRIBUTORS TO PROTESTANTISM Zwingli, Huldreich Swiss theologian and leader of early Reformation movements in Switzerland. Vigorously denounces the sale of indulgences in 1518. Tyndale, William Published the New Testament in English in 1526. Is burned at the stake for heresy in 1536. Calvin, John Instituted a form of Church government in Geneva which has become known as the Presbyterian Church. Started the belief in predestination, the doctrine that all events have been willed and planned by God, including the eventual destination of each individual soul. Very controversial. King Henry VIII The English Reformation started in the reign of Henry VIII . King Henry VIII had requested that the Pope permit him to divorce his wife and marry his mistress. The Pope refused. King Henry responded by renouncing Roman Catholicism, taking England out from under Rome’s religious control, and declaring himself as the reigning head of State to also be the new head of the Church. This new branch of the Christian Church, neither Roman Catholic nor truly Protestant, became known as the Anglican Church or the Church of England with King Henry acting essentially as its “Pope”. This set in motion a chain of events that resulted in dramatic changes to the religious, economic and cultural structure of European society.