REASONS FOR THE
REFORMATION
TOO MANY TO COUNT
THE RELIGIOUS
SITUATION ABOUT
1560 By 1560, Luther,
Zwingli, and Loyola
were dead, Calvin was
near the end of his life,
the English break from
Rome was complete,
and the last session of
the Council of Trent
was about to assemble.
This map shows
“religious geography” of
western Europe at the
time.
DECLINE OF THE PAPACY
– Damaged by Babylonian Captivity (1309-1378)
and Great Schism (1378-1417)
– Renaissance Popes often more interested in the
arts than the spiritual welfare of the people
– Popes and high church officials often lived in great
luxury
– Monarchs considered the popes rivals for political
power – often fought battles to protect Papal
States
– Conciliar Movement had encouraged a diffusion of
power
CORRUPTION IN THE CHURCH
• Lower clergy poorly educated, lack
knowledge of Church doctrine
• Breaking of clerical vows: poverty,
chastity, and obedience not followed
• Simony: selling of Church offices
• Sale of indulgences: forgiveness of
punishment in Purgatory sold to sinners
CORRUPTION IN THE CHURCH
• Excessive money collection: tithes, clerical fees,
support of the monasteries, bishops, etc. Peter’s
Pence: money collected to support popes
• Absenteeism: bishops and cardinals were often
absent from their area of responsibility, leaving
the governing of the territory to subordinates
• Pluralism: some prelates held multiple offices,
reaping the economic benefits from all of them
DEMAND FOR REFORM
• John Wycliffe (1328-1384): English theologian and
reformer who taught at Oxford University. He said the
Bible was the highest source of truth, preached
against the wealth and worldliness of the Church; he
denied transubstantiation, he advocated a vernacular
Bible. After his death he was condemned by the
Council of Constance (1415) and his body was
ordered exhumed and burned. Wycliffe’s ideas were
taken up and disseminated in England by the Poor
Preachers and later by the Lollards
DEMAND FOR REFORM
• John Huss (1372-1415) Bohemian
reformer and follower of Wycliffe. He
criticized the church’s wealth and
corruption and opposed the condemnation
of Wycliffe’s doctrine. He was forbidden to
preach, was excommunicated. In 1413 he
published “On the Totality of the Church”.
He urged a return to the values of early
Christianity.
DEMAND FOR REFORM
• Assured safe conduct by the Holy Roman
Emperor, Sigismund, he traveled to the
Council of Constance. He was arrested
within a month and condemned for heresy,
he was burned at the stake. After his
execution, Huss’ teachings and works
became the rallying point for Czech
national self-expression. His followers
were called Hussites
DEMAND FOR REFORM
• Savonarola (1452-1498) Dominican Friar
who attempted to establish a theocratic
government in Florence.
DEMAND FOR REFORM
• He became prior of San Marco in Florence
in 1490 at the insistence of Lorenzo de
Medici. The sermons that he preached
were marked by the theme of warning
against coming doom. His sermons
became more popular and more pointed,
with directed attacks on the vices and
tyrannical abuses of the Medici
government
DEMAND FOR REFORM
• When French intervention allowed (1494) the
Florentines to expel the Medici and establish a
republic, Savonarola became virtual dictator in
the city, imposing a program of sweeping moral
reforms. He began the practice called the
“Bonfire of the Vanities” – burning of wigs, velvet
gowns, rare manuscripts, paintings.
DEMAND FOR REFORM
• He interpreted the French intervention as
the vengeance and punishment he had
prophesied earlier. He also began to see
himself as a prophet of God sent to
announce judgment on Italy and on the
church. Soon his ties with the French
brought him into conflict with Pope
Alexander VI, who was desperately
forming alliances against the French.
DEMAND FOR REFORM
Savonarola
• In 1495, Savonarola ignored a summons to Rome
to explain his supposed revelations from God.
The pope, pressured by the Florentine partly
opposed to Savonarola, then initiated an inquiry
and suspended him from preaching until the case
was settled. Savonarola at first complied and a
truce was arranged between the two so long as
Savonarola avoided politics in his sermons – an
impossible condition.
DEMAND FOR REFORM
• In the final clash between the two,
Alexander excommunicated Savonarola,
but when his censure was published in
Florence, Savonarola denied its validity.
Soon his intransigence and defiance
alienated his supporters in the Florentine
government. When popular feeling turned
against him, he was arrested, tortured,
tried, and condemned to death for heresy
and schism. He was hanged and burned.
DEMAND FOR REFORM
• Desiderius Erasmus (14661536) Dutch humanist who
advocated peace,
reconciliation, and unity as a
cure for the disintegration of
medieval Europe into
disputatious national and
religious factions. His works
combined piety and
scholarship in an attempt to
reconcile faith and reason and
bring together Christianity and
culture of ancient times. He
was sharply critical of the
corruptions of the church but
did not reject basic dogma.
DEMAND FOR REFORM
• His attempt to reform the church through gentle
reason and toleration was swept aside by the
fanaticism of the Reformation and Counter
Reformation. He wrote In Praise of Folly while
staying in England with his friend Sir Thomas
More. In it he attacked the superstition,
vulgarity, and foolishness of his day. Erasmus
pursued a career of writing and traveling that
took him to most countries of Europe and won
him the friendship of many leading humanist
scholars of his time.
DEMAND FOR REFORM
• Sir Thomas More (1478-1535)
English Christian humanist and
statesman. He was educated at
Oxford and at Lincoln’s Inn,
where he studied law. As
speaker of the House of
Commons in 1523, More helped
establish the parliamentary
privilege of free speech. He
refused to endorse King Henry
VIII’ plan to divorce Catherine of
Aragon. Nevertheless, after the
fall of Thomas Wolsey, More
became Lord Chancellor.
DEMAND FOR REFORM
• His work in the law courts was exemplary, but he
resigned in 1532, citing ill health and probably
feeling that he could not in conscience serve a
government that was interfering with the church.
Two years later he was imprisoned in the Tower
of London for refusing to acknowledge Henry as
supreme head of the Church of England. He
was found guilty of treason, on evidence that
was probably perjured and was beheaded on
July 6, 1535. More was canonized in 1935.
NEW TECHNOLOGY
• Paper: Expensive parchment (sheepskin)
and medium (calfskin) was replaced by
Arab technique of making paper from
shredded rags; greatly reduced price
• Printing Press: Movable Type: Invented
in China by Pi Sheng in 11th century.
Johann Gutenberg used a printing press,
printed the Bible in ~1453 in Mainz,
Germany
NEW TECHNOLOGY - EFFECTS
• Reduced the price of books so that they became
more available and more Europeans could buy
them
• Religious critics spread their ideas more easily
• Illustrated religious books encouraged popular
piety.
• Bible available to all literate Christians – no
longer dependent on priest to interpret for them
MARTIN LUTHER
AND PARENTS