3. The Protestant Reformation

Discuss Martin Luther's concept of "salvation by faith alone."

Faith is a gift from a merciful God and faith is the only way to reach salvation.

Lollards

Followers of John Wycliffe

Johannes Gutenburg

An invention by a German goldsmith played a prominent role in the Protestant Reformation. Johannes Gutenberg is the inventor of the Gutenberg press, an innovative printing machine that used movable type. Gutenberg was born between 1394 and 1400 and died in 1468. His invention helped spread the ideas and beliefs of the Protestant Reformers fifty years after his death. Without his invention, the Protestant Reformation would not have been possible.

Christian Humanism

Christian humanism inspired many Reformation thinkers, particularly Martin Luther.

Erasmus

Desiderius Erasmus's greatest contribution to the Reformation was undoubtedly the publication of his Greek-Latin New Testament in 1516. The New Testament casted a new light on the the perception of religion. It allowed others to see the church for what it was and what needed to so desperately be fixed. Erasmus's New Testament was primarily used by Martin Luther in 1522 to translate the content from its original Latin form to the native language German for the first time. It was also used by William Tyndale in 1526 who translated the work into English. The spread of the content within the New Testament eventually led to the popularity of the Reformation. Erasmus also laid the foundation for the Reformation not just by the writing of the New Testament, but with the spread of his own beliefs. Led by Erasmus, the humanists condemned the corruption within the church. Erasmus believed that true religion depended upon inward devotion rather than outward displays of ceremony and ritual. By favoring the moral reform of the church and de-emphasizing the practice of didactic ritual, Erasmus ultimately laid the groundwork for Martin Luther, who eventually sparked the beginning of the reformation.

Discuss Holy Roman Emperor Charles V's position on the Protestant Reformation and actions toward it.

He struggled to hold his empire together against the growing forces of Protestantism, increasing Turkish and French pressure, and even hostility from the Pope. At last he yielded, abdicating his claims to the Netherlands and Spain in favour of his son Philip II and the title of emperor to his brother Ferdinand I and retiring to a monastery.

Henry Vlll

Henry VIII (1491-1547) — In 1533, Henry was excommunicated by the pope for marrying Anne Boleyn and having the archbishop of Canterbury sanction the divorce from his first wife, Catherine. In 1534, Henry had Parliament pass an act appointing the king and his successors supreme head of the Church of England, thus establishing an independent national Anglican church.

Uldreich Zwingli

Huldreich Zwingli (1484-1531) — Swiss theologian and leader of early Reformation movements in Switzerland. Vigorously denounces the sale of indulgences in 1518.

Martin Luther

In 1517, nails his 95 Theses onto a Wittenberg Church door.

Discuss the main pre-Lutherian attempts to reform the Catholic Church.

Individual Christians- laymen and priests- anxiously pursued reform in many and various ways. A type of reform was attempted by secular princes: German territorial princes like the Saxon Dukes, who in 1485 were authorized by the Pope to reform the monasteries in their land, or the French Kings who used the great power they had over the Church to further reform. Christian humanists also tried to reform. The work of reformers was constantly frustrated by the failure of Church leaders to support them.

How did the structure of the Holy Roman Empire- that is, the large number of cities and urban areas- stimulate the Protestant Reformation?

It caused the spread of Lutheranism.

John Calvin

John Calvin (1509-64) — Calvin was a French theologian and reformer who fled religious persecution in France and settled in Geneva in 1536. He instituted a form of Church government in Geneva which has become known as the Presbyterian church. He insisted on reforms including: the congregational singing of the Psalms as part of church worship, the teaching of a catechism and confession of faith to children, and the enforcement of a strict moral discipline in the community by the pastors and members of the church. Geneva was, under Calvin, essentially a theocracy.

Jan Hus

John Huss (1369-1415) — A Bohemian priest, excommunicated in 1410, and burned at the stake for heresy in 1415. His death lead to the Hussite Wars in Bohemia. Huss followed Wycliffe's teachings closely, translating Wycliffe's Trialogus into Czechoslovakian, and modeling the first ten chapters of his own De Ecclesia after Wycliffe's writings. He believed in predestination, regarded the Bible as the ultimate religious authority, and argued that Christ, rather than any ecclesiastical official, is the true head of the church.

John Knox

John Knox (1513-1572) — An ardent disciple of Calvin, Knox established Calvinistic Protestantism as the national religion of Scotland. He left a powerful political legacy within the Calvinist or Reformed branch of Protestantism, a political legacy known as Presbyterianism.

John Wycliffe

John Wycliffe (1330-84) attacked what he saw as corruptions within the church, including the sale of indulgences, pilgrimages, the excessive veneration of saints, and the low moral and intellectual standards of ordained priests. Wycliffe also repudiated the doctrine of transubstantiation, held that the Bible was the sole standard of Christian doctrine, and argued that the authority of the Pope was not grounded in Scripture. Some of Wycliffe's early followers translated the Bible into English, while later followers, known as Lollards, held that the Bible was the sole authority and that Christians were called upon to interpret the Bible for themselves. The Lollards also argued against clerical celibacy, transubstantiation, mandatory oral confession, pilgrimages, and indulgences.

The Peasants' War 1524-1525

Rather than rejecting Luther and his ideas, the princes and important figures sided with Luther more. This support provided Lutheranism into the Holy Roman Empire.

Indulgences

Release from the temporal penalties for sin through the payment of money

Thomas More

Sir Thomas More (/ˈmɔr/; 7 February 1478 - 6 July 1535), known to Roman Catholics as Saint Thomas More,[1][2] was an English lawyer, social philosopher, author, statesman and noted Renaissance humanist. He was an important councillor to Henry VIII and Lord Chancellor from October 1529 to 16 May 1532.[3] More opposed the Protestant Reformation, in particular the theology of Martin Luther and William Tyndale, whose books he burned and whose followers he persecuted. More also wrote Utopia, published in 1516, about the political system of an ideal and imaginary island nation. More later opposed the King's separation from the Catholic Church and refused to accept him as Supreme Head of the Church of England because it disparaged papal authority and Henry's marriage to Catherine of Aragon. Tried for treason, More was convicted on perjured testimony and beheaded.

Protestant Reformation

The Protestant Reformation was a major 16th century European movement aimed initially at reforming the beliefs and practices of the Roman Catholic Church.

How did the development of moveable type (printing press) stimulate the Protestant Reformation?

The invention of movable type printing wrought a technological revolution in Europe. After more than sixty years of development and improvement, the printers of Luther's era were able to publish his books, pamphlets, tracts, treatises, hymns, and his translations of the Bible into German.

95 Theses

These theses were Latin propositions opposing the manner in which indulgences were being sold in order to raise money for the building of Saint Peter's in Rome.

Diet of Worms 1521

was an imperial diet of the Holy Roman Empire held in Worms, Germany at the Heylshof Garden. (A "diet" is a formal deliberative assembly.) It is most memorable for the Edict of Worms (Wormser Edikt), which addressed Martin Luther and the effects of the Protestant Reformation.