Theology Notes

John Wycliffe

  • English priest who taught evangelical poverty for priests

  • Wrote a Bible in English

  • Questioned the Church hierarchy

  • Condemned as a heretic at the Council of Constance

Jan Hus

  • Czech priest who sought reform

  • Renounced indulgences

  • His followers, the 'Hussites', were condemned as heretics

Girolamo Savonarola

  • Dominican who instituted theocratic rule in Florence

  • Challenged Renaissance values and humanism

  • Burned at the stake by Florentians

Martin Luther

  • German priest who wrote the 95 Theses condemning indulgences

  • Founder of the Lutheran church

  • Condemned as a heretic

Ulrich Zwingli

  • Swiss priest who embraced sola scriptura

  • Met with Luther at the Marburg Colloquy

  • Formed the Swiss Reformed Church after disagreements with Luther

John Calvin

  • Moved to Geneva and became a theocratic ruler

  • Founded the Presbyterians

  • Believed in double predestination

Frederick the Wise

  • Prince of Saxony who supported Luther after he was condemned

  • Took Luther under his wing

Charles V

  • Holy Roman Emperor who declared Luther an outlaw

  • Sacked Rome and put the pope on house arrest

Anabaptists

  • Protestant movement advocating adult baptism

  • Believed in adult baptism as a sign of true acceptance of faith

King Henry VIII

  • English king who founded the Anglican Church

  • Split from the Catholic Church due to his inability to divorce

Queen Mary I and Queen Elizabeth I

  • Mary I led a violent return to Catholicism

  • Elizabeth I returned to Protestantism with continued persecution of Catholics

Indulgences and Penance

  • Indulgences were used to reduce punishment before sins were absolved

  • Penance was voluntary self-punishment to justify sins

Protestant Beliefs

  • Protestants are Western Christians not affiliated with Catholicism

  • Sola scriptura emphasizes Bible-based beliefs

Double Predestination and Depravity

  • Belief that God predetermined who goes to heaven and hell

  • Calvinists believed in human depravity

  • Book of Common Prayer and Thirty-Nine Articles

  • Book of Common Prayer guided Anglican liturgy

  • Thirty-Nine Articles listed differences between Anglican and Catholic Church

  • Key Events of the Reformation

  • Diet of Worms

  • German princes and Charles V declared Luther an outlaw

  • Outcome of Luther's refusal to recant

  • Peace of Augsburg

  • Allowed individual princes to choose their religion

  • Directed Lutherans and Catholics to relocate based on religion

  • Marburg Colloquy

  • Meeting between Luther and Zwingli

  • Disagreement on the Lord's Supper and iconoclasm led to split

  • Response to Sadoleto

  • Calvin's reply to Sadoleto's letter to Geneva

  • Refusal to conform to the Catholic Church