The Ideas of Martin Luther and John Calvin
Chapter 12 Sections 3 and 4
Desiderius Erasmus –
The Father of Christian
Humanism








Between 1450 & 1520, a series of popes failed to meet the church’s
spiritual needs.
Julius II led armies against his enemies, disgusting those who
viewed the pope as a spiritual not a military leader
Many church officials were concerned with money & used their
church offices to advance their careers & their wealth.
Many priests seemed ignorant of their spiritual duties.
People were craving assurance of their salvation.
According to church practice at the time, a person could gain an
indulgence- release from all or part of the punishment for sin.
The church also sold indulgences.
Many people felt the worldly wise clergy had little interest in the
spiritual needs of their people.







Monk and Professor at the University of Wittenberg, in
Germany.
Catholic teaching stressed that both faith & good works
were needed to gain personal salvation.
In Luther’s eyes, human beings could never do enough good
works to earn salvation.
Through his study, Luther came to believe that humans are
not saved through their good works but through their faith
in God.
This faith will make the person just, or worthy of salvation.
Justification by faith alone became the chief teaching of the
Protestant Reformation.
The Bible became for Luther, as for all other Protestants, the
only source for religious truth.





October 31, 1517, Luther sent a list of 95 theses
to his church superiors.
The objections he had centered around the
selling of indulgences.
Thousands of copies were printed and spread all
over Germany.
Pope Leo X did not take him seriously.
Claimed Luther was some drunken German who
would amend his ways when he sobers up





Called for German papacy to establish a
reformed German church.
Only kept 2 sacraments- baptism and the
Eucharist (communion)
Called for the clergy to marry
Continued to emphasize his new doctrine of
salvation
Church excommunicated him in January 1521.




Charles V summoned Luther to appear before
the legislative assembly of the Holy Roman
Empire.
Thought he could convince Luther to change
his mind; Luther refused.
Edict of Worms made Luther an outlaw. His
works were to be burned & Luther captured.
Luther went into hiding until 1522.




Many German rulers supported Luther and
formed state churches.
New religious services to replace Catholic
mass which included Bible readings,
preaching of the word of God, and song.
Doctrine became known as Lutheranism and
the churches as Lutheran churches.
The first Protestant faith




John Calvin was educated in his native
country, France.
After his conversion to Protestantism, he was
forced to flee Catholic France for Switzerland
for protection.
In 1536, he published The Institutes of
Protestantism, a summary of Protestant
thought.
He also believed in justification by faith alone.





Calvin also placed much emphasis on the all
powerful nature of God.
One of his new ideas was predestination- this
ideology was that God determined in advance who
would be saved & who would be damned.
Calvin’s success in Geneva made the city a center of
Protestantism.
Missionaries were trained & sent out to all parts of
Europe
By the mid sixteenth century, Calvinism had
replaced Lutheranism as the most important &
dynamic form of Protestantism.