Protestant Reformation

1500s - Protestantism arose due to many calling for a reformation in the Church

Martin Luther:

  • Man who started the Protestant Reformation

  • Born 1483 to poor peasants

  • Becomes a monk after reading St. Paul’s Epistle to the Romans

  • His idea was called Justification by Faith (one simply needs to have faith in God and they shall go to heaven)

While Luther was forming his ideas, Pope Leo X was trying to raise money to build St. Peter’s Basilica

  • Sold church offices

  • Sold indulgences (paid pardons for sin)

Luther hated indulgences; he preached against their sale.

October 31, 1517 - Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door of Wittenburg Cathedral, containing his criticisms of the Catholic Church (indulgences, corrupt clergy, etc)

The printing press allowed the theses to be spread across Germany, causing a decrease in the number of indulgences

People Leo X sent people to Germany to stop Luther

1520 - Luther was formally condemned by the Pope

1521 - Luther was excommunicated

Diet of Worms:

  • Held in Worms, Germany shortly after Luther’s excommunication

  • Members of the diet wanted Luther to recant his statements about the church and Pope

  • Luther attended the diet, but refused to recant

  • He became an outlaw to the Church

  • Luther goes into hiding

  • Many German Princes help protect Luther

  • While in hiding, Luther translates the New Testament into German

  • Luther, also, creates the worlds 1st Protestant Religion - Lutheranism

Lutheranism:

  • Not that different from Catholicism

  • Believed in Justification by Faith

  • Religious truth lies solely in the Bible

  • Church is a community, not a hierarchy like the Catholic church

  • By the late 1500s, Lutheranism was widely accepted in many parts of Germany

  • Many north german principalities made lutheranism their official religion

  • Merchants took Lutheran ideas through the rest of Europe

  • North Germany - Protestant (Lutheran)

  • South Germany - Catholic

Spread of Protestantism

Swiss Reformers:

With the rise of Lutheranism, Swiss preachers and merchants also broke from the Catholic Church

Swiss preachers and merchants set up churches called Reformed

  • Huldreich Zwingli: leader of the Swiss Protestant Movement

    believed in Luther’s “justification by faith”

    criticized the Catholic Church for its vices

  • Unlike Luther, Zwingli wanted a complete break from the Catholic Church

  • He also wanted to produce a church-run state (theocracy) in the city of Zurich

  • 1525: Zwingli created his theocracy in Zurich

    was short-lived, war erupted in 1531 between Protestants and Catholics, Zwingli was defeated

John Calvin

  • Born in 1509

  • Catholic

  • Educated in theology, law, and humanism

  • Carefully studied the Bible

  • His studying of the Bible helped him develop his Protestant ideas

  • 1536: Calvin published his ideas in The Institutes of the Christian Religion

  • Calvin’s idea was based on the belief that God was omnipotent - God possessed all powers and knowledge

  • Calvin believed that all people’s fates were controlled by God — predestination

  • Calvin used a consistory (a group of 12 men) to make sure all people in his theocracy were obeying the laws

  • People could NOT: fight, gamble, curse, become intoxicated, or dance

  • People still caught practicing the Catholic belief were executed

  • People were required to attend Church many times during the week (applied to all of Geneva)

Radical Reformers - Anabaptists

  • The Anabaptists began the practice of adult baptism

  • Only adults were allowed to be members of the Anabaptist church

    • They believed only adults were able to make the decision to become Christian, not infants or children

  • Many Anabaptist groups did not allow local governments to control their lives

    • They would refuse to hold public office, would not carry weapons, and would not take oaths

  • Most Anabaptists were peaceful people

    • Some groups, however, were very radical and violent

    • 1534: a group of violent Anabaptists took over the German city of Munster

    • They burned books and took land

    • A combination of Lutherans and Catholics drove the Anabaptists out of Munster

    • Many Anabaptists fled to the Americas in the 1600s

England’s Church

  • End of 1500s: the Reformation had reached England

  • The king of England — Henry VIII and the Pope had a serious confrontation

  • Henry had no male heir to his throne

    • His wife, Catherine of Aragon, had given birth to six children

    • Only one of the six survived— Mary

    • Henry needed a male heir to keep other families from taking the English throne

  • Henry decided that his wife Catherine could not produce a male child

  • He wanted to annul (like a divorce) his marriage to Catherine

  • The Pope denied Henry’s request

  • Henry decided to break England away from the Catholic Church so he could annul his marriage to Catherine

  • Henry became the head of this new Church in England

  • 1534: Parliament finalized the separation between England and the Catholic Church

  • Henry finally divorced Catherine and and married Anne Boleyn

  • Anne will get pregnant, but she, too, had a girl — Elizabeth

  • Henry will eventually have Anne executed and marry Jone Seymore

    • Jane will give Henry a male child — Edward

    • Jane will die soon after giving birth to the child

  • Henry will marry three more times before he dies in 1547

  • Edward will be his only male child

  • 1547: Henry VIII died leaving his throne to young Edward

    • Edward was only 9 years old

    • Edward was small and sickly

    • A council was elected to rule in place of Edward

      • 1553: Edward died at the age of 16

  • After Edward’s death, his half-sister Mary became queen of England

  • Mary wanted to return England to the Catholic Church

  • Mary burned hundreds of Protestants in order to scare people to become Catholic

    • She earned the nickname Bloody Mary

  • Her actions backfired

  • More people began to convert to the Portestant church (because who wants to be associated with burning innocent people???)

  • 1558: Mary died with no heir to the throne

  • Mary’s half-sister Elizabeth became queen of England

  • Elizabeth will combine the Church of England with lots of Catholic aspects into the Anglican Church

  • Many in England wanted to get rid of all Catholic ideas in the Church of England— they wanted to “purify” the Church of England

    • These people were the Puritans

Catholic Reformation

  • Some areas of the church still remained very Catholic

    1. Spain

    2. France

    3. Italy

    4. Portugal

    5. Hungary

    6. Poland

  • The Catholic Church will decide to reform itself — Catholic (Counter) Reformation

  • 1536: Pope Paul III had a study conducted on what reform was needed and who to blame for Church problems

  • The study blamed thee church for all of the Church’s problems (themselves)

  • Also included reforms that could bring Protestants back to the Church

  • Unfortunately, the Church failed to act on the reforms

  • 1540s: Catholic Church decides to act

    • Introduce a “rebirth of faith” to the people

    • 1542: implement the Inquisition (Church court that went after heretics)

    • Inquisition had 2 purposes:

      • rid Italy of non-Catholics

      • restore the Pope’s authority over the Church

      ^ Both successful

Council of Trent (1545-1563)

  • Called by Pope Paul III

  • Church tries to solidify its doctrine

  1. Salvation could not be reached by faith alone — you had to do good works

  2. Latin Vulgate version of the Bible — only acceptable Bible

  3. Stops the sale of Indulgences (new!)

  4. Clergy and priests follow strict rules

  5. Seminaries created to train priests

  6. Mass still to be said in Latin

Spread of Catholicism:

  • Church used monks and nuns to help spread Catholicism

Ignatius Loyola:

  • Priest who created the Jesuits (Society of Jesus)

  • Absolutely obedient to the Pope

  • Lived simple lives

  • sent around the world to spread Catholic faith

  • Created rules to teach religion and sciences

Results of the Catholic Reformation:

  • Mid 1500s: Catholic Church became stronger

  • Some Protestants were reclaimed

  • Much of Europe still remained Protestant

  • By 1545: Europe was divided

    • Northern Europe: Protestant

    • Southern Europe: Catholic

  • Eventually, war will break out in Europe between Catholics and Protestants