Lutheranism and Protestant Reformation
 Increased Education:
 Spreading universities
 Printing press to publish bibles
 Political Power:
 Popes possessing significant authority
 Increased Religious Beliefs (Renaissance)
 People becoming more religious
 Vatican amongst the worlds most beautiful sites
 Wealth of church
 Simony
 Pluralism
 Clergy immorality
 Pilgrimages common
 Shrines believed to cure illnesses
 Yet people wanted more…
 Humanists condemned many practice of the church
 As suffering rose so did outcry against the church
 Conflicts between Religion and Politics
 Erosion of confession and the rise of indulgence
 Substitute for confession
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and penance.
Part of the Catholic
doctrine of good works
“so as soon as the coin in
coffer rings, the soul
from purgatory springs”
Came to be viewed as
“pardons”
Sale had become big
business
 Needed an agent to sell
them to build the St.
Peter’s Basilica.
 Gave the ability to grant
your ancestors freedom
from their sins and
removal from purgatory.
 Relatively obscure
German professor.
 Rose due to his
intellectual
achievements.
 Preached and taught.
 Successful and content
on the outside, but
internally tormented.
 “I was one who terribly feared the last judgment and
who nevertheless wished with all my heart to be
saved.”
 He couldn’t erase his belief in his own sins
 How could he liberate his own soul?
 “I pondered night and day until I understood the
connection between righteousness of God and the
sentence “The just shall live by faith”, then I grasped
that the justice of God is his righteousness by which
through grace and pure mercy, God justifies us
through Faith”
 Sola Fide: Justification by
faith alone
 Sola Scriptura: all that
was needed to
understand the mercy of
God was contained in the
Bible
 All who believed in Gods
righteousness were equal
in God’s eyes.
 Luther’s
scholarly
response to
Indulgences.
 Nature of the
act?
 Content?
 Placed him in
direct conflict
with the Roman
Catholic Church.
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Excommunication
Books burned
A public letter burning
“let every soul be subject to the higher powers. For there
is no power but of God.” Papal v. Bible
 How is someone to be
saved?
 No longer both faith and
good works.
 Now salvation from Faith
alone.
 In the Pope?
 Now it shall lie in the
word of God—the Bible.
 Each person is capable of
their own leadership.
 Is it the clergy and the
institution?
 Lutheran view holds it
that the church is the
entire community of
believers.
 Previous teachings held
the monastic and
religious orders.
 Luther emphasized that
all vocations have equal
merit and that every
person should serve god
per their individual
calling.
 The answers to these four
questions becomes the
basis of Protestantism
 Ordered to recant
 “I cannot and I will not
retract anything, since is
neither safe nor right to
go against conscience. I
cannot do otherwise.”
 Asked Charles V and the
Pope to use the Bible to
contradict his words…
 Encouraged local princes
to allow their subjects to
practice it.
 Diminished power of the
papacy.
 Published over 30 works
that were huge best sellers.
 German princes long angry
with politics in Europe
were the quickest to
embrace it
 John Calvin
 Unwilling reformer
 Geneva was largely under
Catholic and prince
control.
 The region had been
exposed to Protestantism
by the reformer
Huldrych Zwingli
Calvin’s World in the 16c
 Luther/Calvin comparison
 Calvin and Paris under
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Francis I (at right)
An avid defender of French
Huegenots (Protestants)
Predestination
“Many are called but few are
chosen” “The Elect”
Puritans (congregational elect
government)
“infants themselves bring
their own damnation from
the mothers womb”
Discounts the good works
doctrine
Pastors
Doctors
Deacons
Elders
Protestant
Churches
in
France
(Late 16c)
The Anabaptists
Dutch persecution of Anabaptists
(Mennonites)
Reformation
Europe
(Late 16c)