Protestant Reform

  • The Decadence of the Church:

    • Renaissance popes were more concerned with Italian politics and money than with the spiritual needs of their people.

    • Church officials used their church offices to advance their careers and their wealth

    • At the same time, many ordinary parish priests seemed to ignore their duties

    • People wanted to know how to save their souls, but priests appeared unwilling or unable to offer them advice or instruction

  • Indulgences:

    • Ordinary people desired meaningful religious expression and assurance of their salvation, or acceptance into heaven

    • Church practices had morphed over time to include different ways in which individuals could gain indulgences

    • An indulgence was a document sold by the Church and signed by the pope or another church official that released the bearer from all or part of the punishment for sin.

  • Martin Luther:

    • Martin Luther was a monk in the Catholic Church and a university professor.

    • Catholic teaching had stressed that faith and good works were needed to gain personal salvation

    • In Luther’s opinion, human beings could never do enough good works to earn salvation

    • Luther argued that humans are saved through their faith in god

  • The Ninety-Five Theses:

    • On October 31, 1517, Luther, enraged by the Church and Tetzel, made his Ninety-Five Theses public by nailing them to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg,

    • His Theses were a stunning attack on abuses in the sale of indulgences

    • Thousands of copies of the Theses were printed and spread to all parts of Germany

    • He claimed the following:

      • Solo Fide: Faith Alone

      • Solo Scriptura: The Bible Alone

  • Breaking away from the church:

    • Luthger also attacked the Church’s system of sacraments, arguing that the church had destroyed the true meaning of the Gospel

    • Luther called for the princes of Germany to break ties with Catholicism and form a new reformed German Church

    • In reforming, Luther wanted to keep the sacraments of baptism and communion

    • He also proposed that the church should accept his idea that faith alone brings salvation