The Reformation
• Christianity during the Middle Ages
– Pope was God’s representative on earth
– Control and influence over people’s lives
– Hoc Est Corpus Meum
• Renaissance—the Church was nearly 1,400
years old, very wealthy and powerful.
• The papacy had become corrupt:
– Sacraments—ceremonies that give spiritual grace
– Indulgences—pardon from sins
– Simony
Early Challenges
• Babylonian Captivity 1309-1376
• Great Schism 1378-1418
– Council of Constance
• Conciliar Movement
– Assemblies
– Marsiglio of Padua “Defensor Pacis”
– John Wyclif: pope has no authority;
Lollards
• Jan Hus
– Czech Priest who verbally attacked the
wealth and power of the church.
– Burned at the stake in 1415
– Became a martyr for those who wanted
to reform the church
And that was just the beginning….
• 1514—Pope Leo X—Indulgences
and St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome
• Johann Tetzel
• Erasmus “In Praise of Folly
Martin Luther
• October 31, 1517
• The 95 Theses
– Sola Scriptura
– Sola Fide
• Excommunication
– 1520, Pope Leo issues a Papal bull
ordering Luther to recant
Martin Luther
• Address to the Christian Nobility of the German
Nation
Why’d the Renaissance lead to
the Reformation?
• People gained access to books, reading and
writing
• People grew tired of the power and
worldliness of the Church
• The Church became less important as
people sought to understand God on their
own
Four Views during the Reformation
“Against the Roman Church lying teachers are
rising, introducing ruinous sects, and drawing
upon themselves speedy doom. They boast and
lie against the truth.”
—Pope Leo X condemning Luther, 1520
“Christians are to be taught that he who gives to
the poor or lends to the needy does a better
work than buying pardons.”
—From the 95 Theses, Martin Luther
Four Views during the Reformation
“As soon as gold in the basin rings, right then the
soul to heaven springs.”
—John Tetzel on indulgences
“The fact that indulgences have so long stood safe
and with impunity, and wantoned with so much
fury and tyranny, may be regarded as a proof into
how deep a night of ignorance mankind were for
some ages plunged.”
—From Institutes of the Christian Religion, John Calvin