The Reformation
Hopefully faster than the
Renaissance
Set-up for Reformation
• The vast majority of people in this early period are still Catholic
• Reasons for the time period being right:
– Criticisms of the Catholic Church
• Corrupt leadership (popes are supposed to have kids…)
• Inability of much of the lower clergy to read the book they were supposed
to be preaching about
• Many instances of priests marrying, drinking, and gambling
– Early Calls for Reform
• John Wycliffe of England and Jan Hus of Bohemia
– Both denied the idea that the pope had the right to worldly power
– Believed the Bible had more authority than the Church leaders did
– The Printing Press
• Made it easy to quickly spread ideas about the Reformation because of
how quickly books and, more importantly, pamphlets could be printed
– Increasing autonomy of the German Princes
• German Princes in the Holy Roman Empire had been pushing back against
the leadership for a while and the Reformation gave them a chance to
separate themselves from the very Catholic emperor, Charles V
Martin Luther Challenges the Church
• Ninety-Five Theses 1517
– This was not done as a protest
• Luther was mad at a guy named Johann Tetzel (the original OG)
– Indulgences – a pardon that released a sinner from performing the penalty a priest
imposed a sins and supposedly allowed a person to buy their way into Heaven
• But Luther was a teacher and wanted to debate the issue of indulgences and
corruption in front of his students with other scholars in the area
• A printer in Wittenberg, where Luther was teaching, copied these theses and
started selling them
– The theses spread pretty quickly throughout Germany, leading to the first widespread
questioning of church teachings
• Luther’s Teachings
– Wanted reforms in the Church:
• Salvation could only be gained by faith in God
• All teachings should be clearly based on the Bible
• All people with faith were equal so priests were unnecessary
– Wife: Katherina von Bora
• She was a nun that agreed with Luther’s ideas so she fled the nunnery and
met up with him, they were married in 1525
Response to Luther
• A Pope’s Threat
– In 1520 Pope Leo X excommunicated Luther after the monk
refused to take back his statements of reform
• A Prince’s Defiance
– Charles V controlled the Holy Roman Empire and did not
approve of Luther’s teachings
• He called Luther to Worms in 1521 to stand trial but Luther refused to
recant his story
• Charles issued the Edict of Worms which labeled Luther a heretic and
said no one could shelter Luther
– Fredrick the Wise of Saxony disobeyed his Emperor
• He had been Luther’s protector for a while but now he hid him in a
castle in Saxony
• Luther came out of hiding in 1522 and headed back to Wittenberg where
he found out a bunch of his ideas had already been put into practice,
Lutherans were followers of Luther
• The Peasant’s Revolt
– In 1525, German town leaders banded together to
protest the control exercised by Charles V
• They used the language of Luther to frame their protest, stating
that the people should be allowed to decide their relationship
with God, they should be allowed to chose their own priests,
one of the most clever was the idea that God made animals and
land available to all men so why was it the right of the emperor
who could hunt on what land
– Although this revolt uses the inspiration of Luther, Luther
is going to categorically say that the leadership of the
Holy Roman Empire should stop the peasants at any cost
– The armies of the various princes crush the revolt, killing
up to 100,000 people
• The peasants are understandably upset with Luther
• Holy Roman Empire at War (with itself)
– Remember those Princes who were looking for ways to break
away from the hold of the empire?
• They find it with Luther
• The princes who decided to follow Luther’s ideas (either genuinely or
for other reasons) sign a protest to show their solidarity to each other
and show the leadership what they think, so they become known as
Protestants
• Those that remain loyal to Charles V and the empire will fight against
the protestant princes
– Peace of Augsburg
• 1547 the warring factions in the Holy Roman Empire are brought back
together when Charles V finally defeats the protestant princes
• But Charles realizes that no matter what he can’t get the princes back
into the Catholic Church so,
• 1555 he signs the Peace of Augsburg which establishes cuius regio, eius
religio
– Meaning the person who runs the realm picks the religion
But this thing keeps going…
• Huldrych Zwingli
– Catholic priest in Zurich who in 1520 openly attacked abuses in the Catholic Church
– Wanted the people to have a bit more control in the Church
– Managed to take control in Zurich but in 1531 was killed in a war between Swiss
Protestants and Catholics
– Oh, and he hated Martin Luther
• The Marburg Colloquy: the major debate was over the Lord’s Supper, is it symbolism or the actual
blood and flesh
• John Calvin
– Predestination – God chooses a very limited number of people to save and he chose
these people at the beginning of time
• Comes out of the idea that humans cannot earn salvation
– Calvinism – the religion based on Calvin’s teachings
– Theocracy – a government controlled by religious leaders
• Put this in place in Geneva, Switzerland in the 1540s
• Had strict rules: no bright colors, no dancing, not card playing and you could be severely punished for
breaking the rules
– Calvinism spreads
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John Knox really liked Calvin’s ideas so he took them to Scotland in 1559
The religion changed a bit and followers became known as Presbyterians
They were called Huguenots in France
Many Protestant churches can trace themselves to Calvinism, although most have softened the
original teachings
England Goes Protestant
• Henry VIII really wants a son
– Henry was given the title “Defender of the Faith”
– But Catherine of Aragon (his first wife) could not give him a son so he
wanted to divorce her claiming that his marriage was blighted because
Catherine was the widow of his brother (but they had no children so it
was not considered against religious law)
• Children would be Mary Tudor (you might know her as “Bloody Mary”
– Henry was afraid that the country would be torn apart by civil war
without a son to secede him (his father had won a civil war to come to
power)
– The pope refused him a few times before Henry took matters into his
own hands
• 1529 he called Parliament and asked it to pass laws that ended the pope’s
power in England
– 1533 Henry married Anne Boleyn before his divorce was legalized by
Parliament
– Act of Supremacy 1534 – gave Henry VIII which made Henry’s divorce
legal as well as making him the head of the Church of England (which
looked a lot like the Catholic Church minus the pope)
This is going to set off a powder keg in
England
• Henry VIII
– Anne Boleyn only gave Henry a daughter, Elizabeth
• She fell out of his favor only to be beheaded for incest, witchcraft, adultery, and
conspiring to kill the king (none of which were ever proved)
– Then he married Jane Seymour
• She gave him a son, Edward, but she died two weeks later
– So he married three more times
• None of which produced any kids, sensing a common thread?
• Henry died in 1547 and all three of his children ran the country at one
point creating huge amounts of religious and political turmoil
(remember the reason he wanted to divorce Catherine?)
– Edward was too young so his advisors ruled and they were Protestants
– Edward reigned for about six years then Mary Tudor took the throne
– Mary was Catholic and returned the country to the pope
• She killed quite a few protestants earning her the name “Bloody Mary”
– Mary died in 1558 and Elizabeth took the throne
Elizabeth I in England
• Devout Protestant, Parliament set up the Anglican
Church for her in 1559
– This was the only legal church in England
– But it was balanced so both Catholic and Protestants
recognized elements of the church
• Priests could marry (Protestant)
• Sermons delivered in English (Protestant)
• Rich robes and ceremony (Catholic)
– Managed to bring relative peace to the country this way
• However, some Catholics tried to replace Elizabeth with Mary,
Queen of Scots (who by the way was from France not Scotland)
• This relative peace does not last unfortunately and
much of the resentment fueled by these religious
differences will continue to spur wars and conflicts
throughout England’s history
Other Reformers
• The Anabaptists (these are the people that everyone else
pointed to as crazy)
– Only baptized people who chose to be Christian
– Persons who had been baptized as children should be
baptized as adults
– Wanted the church and state to be separate
– For the most part they were pacifist but there were some
crazy ones
– Hating the Anabaptists was about the only thing that the
Catholics and Protestants could agree on
• The city of Munster, Westphalia
– John Leiden was the leader of the new messianic kingdom of Munster
» Kicked out all non-Anabaptists
» 1534 the city was surrounded by an army of Catholics and Protestants
» Captured in 1535, the Anabaptist leaders were tortured and killed, their
bodies hung in steel cages from the steeple of the church
The Catholic Answer
• While it took a while for the Church to really figure out what to do to
affect change, they did try
– Paul III
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Directed a council of cardinals to investigate indulgence selling
Approved the Jesuit order
Used the Inquisition to seek out heresy in papal territory
Called the Council of Trent
– Council of Trent (1534-1549)
• Finally got the Catholic Church to agree on several doctrines:
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The Church’s interpretation of the Bible was final
Christians needed faith and good works to get to Heaven
The Bible and Church tradition were equally important for guiding Christian life
Indulgences were valid expressions of faith
Priests and those who were administering to the faithful had to be educated
The Index of Forbidden Books
– Ignatius of Loyala
• Wrote a book called Spiritual Exercises that was a plan for meditation, prayer, and
study – this gained him followers
• In 1540, Pope Paul III officially recognized Ignatius and his followers as the Society of
Jesus and the members were called Jesuits
• Founded schools across Europe as well as going to the East as missionaries
The Legacy of Reformation
• Religious and Social Effects
– Protestant churches flourished despite the danger
– The Roman Catholic Church became more unified because
of the events of the Reformation
– The importance of education was pushed by both
Protestants and Catholics
• Political Effects
– Gain of power by individual princes and other monarch
(Henry VIII, Elizabeth)
– Furthering of the rights of people within the country
• The peasant’s revolt resulted in the peasants gaining some of the
rights they had argued for