protestant reformation, catholic reformation, and wars of religion

B A C K G R O U N D

lots of it comes from the renaissance! the northern renaissance was very focused on why

at this point the church as had a lot of problems, many of which contributed to people losing faith in the church. (western schism, babylonian captivity) then there are many thinkers questioning the doctrines supported by the church. corruption in the church was a big problem. occurred during the renaissance, both overlap. several things contribute to this major religious change such as the babylonian captivity and the western schism. in general, the church’s inability to avoid war and plague leads to skepticism.

criticisms of the church

• simony

  • selling roles to be part of the church

  • paying to have a position

  • example: to ensure your son has a high position in the church

• pluralism

  • the practice of a bishop being in charge of many areas

  • having several jobs in different areas

  • couldn’t individualize, not caring much about a single one

  • did it for the pay and for the power

• absenteeism

  • basic rules of being a bishop/clergy member: being a ruler of a place but not living/visiting there

  • being governor or virginia; but not living there and not visiting ever

  • the communities are neglected, there wasn’t anyone there for them

• nepotism

  • the practice of those with power giving power or jobs to family (sometimes friends)

  • favoritism

  • positions stopped being based on merit and skill

• clerical “worldliness”

  • immoral acts of the clergy

  • they wouldn’t follow the rules that they put in place

  • if the clergy isn’t following the rules, why should i?

  • abuse of power

  • hypocritically

• clerical ignorance

  • priests weren’t educated and it wasn’t enforced

  • priests and clergy wouldn’t know or understand

example: pope alexander the sixth

• broke like everything on this list

• had a whole family

• nepotism

• all sorts of things

impact of the renaissance

• northern v italian renaissance

  • italian focuses on greek and rome, while the northern renaissance focuses on christianity

• role of hundred years war // plague

  • led to pessimistic behavior

  • skepticism

• humanists

  • looking back at early church thinkers, hebrew scripture

  • chrisitian humanists want to confirm all their information

• individualism

  • italian: paying attention to human body; glorifying humans

  • Northern: individuals need to have more power over their spirituality and body; not to be dictated by the clergy

• printing press

  • johannes gutenburg; developed the printing press

  • ideas of the reformation can spread widely and quickly

the sale of indulgences

belief: that when you die you don’t go straight to heaven. you go to purgatory to pay for your sins, hell had become more developed by this time. after you spent your time/paid for your sins you would be allowed to go to heaven.

the clergy/church would sell indulgences, being that they would give something and so people wouldn’t spend as much time in purgatory. the pope issued a papal bull saying that he could do this.

papal bull** an executive order from the church

the collection of frederick the wise

essentially, a collection of holy relics and religious items and it was believed that their time in purgatory would be reduced. there was competition between the church and nobles to see who would have the most holy stuff.

this is happening because the church needs money!!! st. peter’s basilica was a very expensive project so the church got money by selling these indulgences. this is also classist to some degree, as the nobility were the ones that could get their way out of purgatory.

martin luther

• legend: got stuck in a thunderstorm and prayed to god and said “yo dude let me live and i won’t become a lawyer, i’ll become a monk”

• not impressed by the clergy and does not like the indulgences

• johann tetzel

  • salesman for indulgences; pushy

  • irritates martin luther

• 95 theses

  • martin luther writes down all of his complaints

  • in october in the 1500s he put this list on a door

  • the printing press increased the spread of this; church can’t stop the spread

• questions the pope, which makes him technically question the whole structure of the church

luther’s beliefs

• core of lutherism

  • sola fide - salvation through faith alone

    • you can go to heaven for having faith, but if you are so faithful you will do good things

  • sola scripture - bible is the sole authority

    • if it’s not in the bible it doesn’t count

    • vernacular - needs to be in the vernacular, so for everyone to access not just those that know latin

  • two sacrements!

    • baptism

      • when jesus is baptised

    • eucharist

      • aka communion (last supper)

      • meaning of communion

        • catholic church: transubstantiation

the bread and wine would transubstantiate into the flesh and blood of jesus

• martin luther: consubstantiation

not about eating blood and body of christ

when you take communion, god is truly present with you

the Real Present is there with you

• priesthood of all believers

  • popes, bishops, cardinals are all unnecessary

  • therefore, you’re also not subject to the pope’s interpretation of the bible

  • abhorrence of indulgences and simony

    • if you don’t need church offices in the first place, you shouldn’t be selling them in the first place

  • rejected catholic monastic tenets

    • as a clergy member you can have kids and get married

    • this is all unnecessary

  • simplified churches and services

    • read bible, sermon, songs, FIN

    • should be plain because you should focus on the bible and the teachings

  • all of these are an attack on the church

martin luther gets excommunicated by the pope, but it doesn’t matter to him because he does not acknowledge the power and authority of the pope.

gets political because martin luther is in the holy roman empire and charles v promised that he would not excommunicate anyone without a trial. a trial is held at diet of worms. martin luther refuses to take back what he thought/said he’s excommunicated and because this was in front of the ruler, he is also outlawed (outside of the protection of the law). however, he saved through politics. a prince kidnaps and leaves him at the safety of his palace. many turn to lutheranism, it works for them in several ways. charles v can’t only focus his attention on just luther as several other princes want to break away and with other conflicts like the ottomans.

this comes to an end, temporarily.

state by state, prince picks the religion for the state

• all sorts of things

calvinism

• john calvin

  • french man

  • gets kicked out of french, due to his beliefs and goes to geneva

• in geneva writes a lot about his beliefs, includes some martin luther ideology, writes in the institutes of christian religion

• institutes of chritsian religion

  • foundational for calvinism

  • predestination

    • whether you go to heaven or hell is already decided

  • the elect vs. the reprobate

    • he divides the people into the elect, which are those who’ve been elected to go to heaven. they are members of calvin’s church. they’re supposed to act super holy. people going to hell, are the reprobate. these are people that aren’t part of the church, maybe sin or commit crimes frequently. like if you drink a lot, cuss, or are selfish

• geneva and theocracy

  • calvin completely takes over, he’s in power of the church and the government. believes that the government should reinforce christian behavior.

• differences to luther

• protestant work ethic

• spread of calvinism

  • people hang out in geneva, because it was like a safe haven, and when they returned to their home country - they took these ideas with them and started new sects.

  • examples: presbyterians, huguenots, puritans

english reformation

• early english reformers were there

• reformed due to politics and not theology

started with henry viii

• get henry’s family tree

  • continuing the tudor line was more important to him than his faith

  • marries catherine of aragon and has mary i of england, who’s betrothed to the prince of france and flashback to the hundred years war, this made him nervous and he wants a new wife because he’s convinced he will not have a male son with catherine

  • advisor tells the king that he could just stop acknowledging the power of the pope

  • government and church become one as henry becomes head of the church

• henry’s six wives!!!!!

• the church of england

  • act of supremacy

  • act of succession

english reformation after henry viii

• edward vi

  • very sickly and young

  • had advisors who were influenced by lutheranism and calvinsm

• mary tudor

  • very, very, very, catholic

  • takes it all back (act of succession)

  • “bloody mary”

  • didn’t marry prince of france, marries philip the 2nd of spain

• elizabeth

  • daughter of anne boleyn

  • raised protestant

  • middle ground between anglican and protestant

  • the enforcement of the elizabethan settlement