Protestant Reformation
Church abuses
Popes competed
with Italian princes for
power
Led lavish lifestyles
Raised fees for services (marriage, baptisms)
Clergy sold indulgences
A lessening of the
time a soul would
have to spend in
purgatory
1517, Protest against
Church abuses lead to a
revolt
Lead by Marin Luther
 German monk, theology
professor
95 Theses
Arguments against indulgences
May have posted list on the door of
Wittenberg’s All Saints Church
By 1530’s Lutherans were
calling themselves
Copies were printed &
spread across Europe Protestant (protested papal
authority)
“I have cast the die… I will not reconcile myself to
them [the Roman Catholic Church] for all eternity…
Let them condemn & burn all that belongs to me; in
return I will do as much for them… Now I no longer
fear, & I am publishing a book in the German tongue
about Christian reform, directed against the pope, in
language as violent as if I were addressing the
Antichrist.”
 -Marin Luther, 1520
John Calvin
Trained as a priest
Shared many of Luther’s ideas
Preached predestination
1541, Geneva asked Calvin to head their
community
Stressed hard work,
Calvinists
discipline, thrift,
honesty, & morality
Spread around Europe
1600s, some Calvinists left England for New World
English Reformation
King Henry VIII
Originally against Protestant
revolt
Pope named him “Defender of
the Faith”
But, 1527, he & his wife of 18
years Catherine of Aragon had
one surviving child, Mary Tudor
Wanted a boy & in love with
Anne Boleyn (served the queen)
Catholic law prohibits divorce, but Protestants…
England would become a Protestant nation but
keep many Catholic traditions
Catholic church also reformed during this time
Most of Europe remained Catholic, but the
Church revised & updated many traditional
Catholic beliefs
Time of heightened religious passion
Both Catholics & Protestants were intolerant…
Witch hunts
Between 1450-1750, tens of thousands of women &
men died as victims of witch hunts
Restrictions on & persecution of Jews also increased
Renaissance & Reformation broke down Medieval
thinking
Mid 1500s, shift in scientific thinking
Copernicus proposed a heliocentric (suncentered) universe (1543)
Galileo said Earth moves around the sun
1633, tried since he contradicted Christian teachings
Threatened with death unless he stated publicly in
court that Earth stands motionless at the center of the
universe
Legend has it he muttered…”And yet it moves”