The Reformation
Hopefully faster than the
Renaissance
Set-up for Reformation
• Major Causes:
– Criticisms of the Catholic Church
• Corrupt leadership
• Illiterate Clergy
– Early Calls for Reform
• John Wycliffe of England and Jan
Hus of Bohemia
– The Printing Press
– Increasing autonomy of
German Princes
Martin Luther Challenges the Church
• Ninety-Five Theses (1517)
– Indulgences – way to buy your
way into Heaven
– Luther wanted to debate
corruption with other scholars
in the area
– A printer in Wittenberg copied
these theses and started selling
them
• Luther’s Teachings
– Wanted reforms in the Church:
• Salvation gained by faith
• All teachings based on Bible
• Priests were unnecessary
Response to Luther
• 1520 - Pope Leo X
excommunicated Luther
• A Prince’s Defiance
– Charles V did not
approve of Luther’s
teachings
• Edict of Worms labeled
Luther a heretic
– Fredrick the Wise of
Saxony disobeyed
Charles V
• Hid Luther in a castle
• Luther came out of hiding
in 1522 and headed back
to Wittenberg to find his
ideas in practice
• The Peasant’s Revolt
– In 1525, German town
leaders banded together to
protest the control
exercised by Charles V
– Turn to Luther for
inspiration
– Luther tells the leadership
of the Holy Roman Empire
to stop the peasants at any
cost
– The armies of the princes
crush the revolt, killing up
to 100,000 people
• Holy Roman Empire
at War
– Lutheran princes sign
an agreement to show
their solidarity and
promise aid in case
the emperor attacked
• Became known as
Protestants
– Leads to a war
– Peace of Augsburg
(1555)
• Establishes “cuius
regio, eius religio”
(Whose realm, his
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
– Hated Martin Luther
• John Calvin
– Predestination – God already
chose a very limited number
of people to save
– Theocracy – a government
controlled by religious
leaders
• Put this in place in Geneva,
Switzerland in the 1540s
– Calvinism spreads
• Presbyterians when Calvinism
was taken to Scotland by John
Knox in 1559
• France – Huguenots
England Goes
Protestant
• Henry VIII really wants a son
– Afraid the country would be
torn apart without a son
• Wanted a divorce from Catherine
of Aragon
– When the Pope refused in
1529, Henry called Parliament
• Passed laws that ended the
pope’s power in England
– Act of Supremacy 1534 – made
Henry’s divorce legal and made
him the head of the Church of
England
• Other relationships
– Anne Boleyn only
gave Henry Elizabeth
– Married Jane
Seymour
• Henry died in 1547
– All his children ran
the country at one
point creating
religious and political
turmoil
• Edward, ruled for six
years – Protestant
• Mary Tudor, ruled
until 1558 – Catholic
• Elizabeth I Protestant
Elizabeth I in
England
• Devout Protestant,
Parliament set up the
Anglican Church for
her in 1559
– This was the only
legal church in
England
– Balanced between
Catholic and
Protestants practices
– Managed to bring
relative peace
Other Reformers
• The Anabaptists
– Only baptized people who chose to be Christian
– Baptized s children should be re-baptized as adults
– Church and state separate
– Most were pacifists
• Paul III
– Investigated indulgence
selling
– Approved the Jesuit order
(1540)
– Inquisition
– Council of Trent (15341549)
• Christians needed faith and
good works to get to Heaven
• The Bible and Church
tradition were equally
important
• Indulgences were valid
expressions of faith
• Priests had to be educated
The
Catholic
Answer
• Ignatius of Loyola
– Founder of the Society
of Jesus
• Members are the
Jesuits
– Wrote Spiritual
Exercises
– Founded schools
across Europe
– Went 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