The Reformation
Excommunication
the action of officially excluding someone from participation in the sacraments and services of the Christian Church
Simony
the buying or selling of ecclesiastical privileges, for example pardons or offices.
Anabaptism
the doctrine that baptism should only be administered to believing adults, held by a radical Protestant sect that emerged during the 1520s and 1530s.
Consubstantiation
the doctrine, especially in Lutheran belief, that the substance of the bread and wine coexists with the body and blood of Christ in the Eucharist.
Vernacular
the language or dialect spoken by the ordinary people in a particular country or region: he wrote in the vernacular to reach a larger audience. In Luther's case, German was the vernacular.
Papacy
the office or authority of the pope.
Counter/Catholic Reformation
the reform of the Church of Rome in the 16th and 17th centuries that was stimulated by the Protestant Reformation.
Protestant Work Ethic
the view that a person's duty is to achieve success through hard work and thrift, such success being a sign that one is saved.
The printing press
this device was largely credited with ushering in modernity by revolutionizing how people share information. Luther's theses were copied and distributed using this.
Martin Luther
(1483-1546), German theologian; the principal figure of the German Reformation. He preached the doctrine of justification by faith rather than by works and railed against the sale of indulgences and papal authority.
Predestination
(as a doctrine in Christian theology) the divine foreordaining of all that will happen, especially with regard to the salvation of some and not others. It has been particularly associated with the teachings of St. Augustine of Hippo and of Calvin.
Transubstantiation
(especially in the Roman Catholic Church) the conversion of the substance of the Eucharistic elements into the body and blood of Christ at consecration, only the appearances of bread and wine still remaining.
Act of Supremacy
(in English history) either of two Acts of Parliament of 1534 and 1559 (particularly the former), which established Henry VIII and Elizabeth I as supreme heads of the Church of England and excluded the authority of the Pope.
Indulgences
(in the Roman Catholic Church) a grant by the pope of remission of the temporal punishment in purgatory still due for sins after absolution. The unrestricted sale of these by pardoners was a widespread abuse during the later Middle Ages and led to the Reformation.
Philip II
A devout Catholic, this king of Spain is also known for organising a huge naval expedition against Protestant England in 1588, known usually as the Spanish Armada, which was unsuccessful, mostly due to storms and grave logistical problems. Husband of Mary I.
Thomas Cranmer
English cleric and martyr. A leader in the English Reformation, he was appointed the first Protestant archbishop of Canterbury in 1532 and was responsible for liturgical reform and the compilation of the Book of Common Prayer (1549). He was convicted of treason and heresy under Bloody Mary and burned at the stake.
Cardinal Wolsey
English prelate and statesman; He incurred royal displeasure through his failure to secure the papal dispensation necessary for Henry VIII's divorce from Catherine of Aragon. He was arrested on a charge of treason and died on his way to trial.
Thomas More
English scholar and statesman; lord chancellor 1529-32; which described an ideal city state, established him as a leading humanist of the Renaissance. He was imprisoned in 1534 after opposing Henry's marriage to Anne Boleyn and was beheaded for opposing the Act of Supremacy.
Thomas Cromwell
English statesman, chief minister to Henry VIII 1531-40. He presided over the king's divorce from Catherine of Aragon (1533) and his break with the Roman Catholic Church. He fell from favor over Henry's marriage to Anne of Cleves and was executed on a charge of treason.
Henry of Navarre
French (Bourbon) King baptized as a Catholic but raised in the Protestant faith by his mother. As a Huguenot, he was involved in the French Wars of Religion, barely escaping assassination in the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre, and later led Protestant forces against the royal army.
John Calvin
French theologian and reformer. On becoming a Protestant, he fled to Switzerland, where he attempted to reorder Genevan society on reformed Christian principles. His Institutes of the Christian Religion (1536) was the first systematic account of reformed Christian doctrine.
Pope Leo X
He is probably best remembered for granting indulgences for those who donated to reconstruct St. Peter's Basilica, which practice was challenged by Martin Luther's 95 Theses. He seems not to have taken seriously the array of demands for church reform that would quickly grow into the Protestant Reformation. His Papal Bull of 1520, Exsurge Domine, simply condemned Luther on a number of areas and made ongoing engagement difficult.
Charles V
His reign was dominated by war, and particularly by three major simultaneous conflicts: the Habsburg-Valois Wars with France, the struggle to halt the Ottoman advance, and the Protestant Reformation resulting in conflict with the German princes.
Institutes of the Christian Religion (1536)
John Calvin's seminal work of Protestant systematic theology.
Frederick III of Saxony (aka Frederick the Wise)
One of the most powerful early defenders of Luther and Protestantism, a German prince who guaranteed Luther's safe passage under Charles V
Ulrich Zwingli
Swiss religious reformer, the principal figure of the Swiss Reformation. He rejected papal authority and many orthodox doctrines and, although he had strong local support in Zurich, his ideas met with fierce resistance in some regions. Zwingli was killed in the civil war that resulted from his reforms. He believed in The Lord's Supper as a remembrance.
Pope Clement VII
The Sack of Rome and English Reformation occurred during his papacy. He was a Medici.
Edward VI
The son of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour, he was the third monarch of the Tudor dynasty and England's first monarch raised as a Protestant. During his reign, the realm was governed by a Regency Council because he never reached his majority age.
Cuius regio euis religio
To whose realm, his religion. Augsburg.
Sacraments
a Christian rite recognised as of particular importance and significance. "an outward sign of an inward grace, instituted by Jesus Christ"
Society of Jesus (aka Jesuits)
a Roman Catholic order of priests founded by St. Ignatius Loyola, St. Francis Xavier, and others in 1534, to do missionary work. The order was zealous in opposing the Reformation. Despite periodic persecution it has retained an important influence in Catholic thought and education.
Zurich
a city in northern central Switzerland. The largest city in Switzerland, it was home to Ulrich Zwingli.
Munster
a city in northwestern Germany. It was formerly the capital of Westphalia; the Treaty of Westphalia, which ended the Thirty Years War, was signed here.
Geneva
a city in southwest Switzerland. It was home to John Calvin and his Reformed Government.
Monasticism
a contemplative life or prayer lived in community or in solitary confinement meant to bring closer connection with God.
Pluralism
a form of society in which the members of minority groups maintain their independent cultural traditions. (i.e. Religious Pluralism of the Reformation era)
Disputation
a formal academic debate
Diet of Worms (1521)
a meeting of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V's imperial diet at Worms, at which Martin Luther was summoned to appear. Luther committed himself there to the cause of Protestant reform, and his teaching was formally condemned in the Edict of Worms. Where Luther said, "here I stand, I can do no other."
Christian Humanism
a philosophical union of Christian ethics and humanist principles. (e.g. Erasmus)
Wittenberg
a town in eastern Germany, on the Elbe River northeast of Leipzig. It was the scene in 1517 of Martin Luther's campaign against the Roman Catholic Church that was a major factor in the rise of the Reformation.
Council of Trent (1545-1563)
an ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church, held in three sessions in Trento, Italy. Prompted by the opposition of the Reformation, the council clarified and redefined the church's doctrine, abolished many ecclesiastical abuses, and strengthened the authority of the papacy. These measures provided the church with a solid foundation for the Counter-Reformation.
Church of England
the English branch of the Western Christian Church, which combines Catholic and Protestant traditions, rejects the pope's authority, and has the monarch as its titular head.
Ninety-five theses (1517)
are a list of propositions for an academic disputation written by Martin Luther. They advance Luther's positions against what he saw as abusive practices by preachers selling plenary indulgences, which were certificates that would reduce the temporal punishment for sins committed by the purchaser or their loved ones in purgatory.
Sola Fide
asserts God's pardon for guilty sinners is granted to and received through faith alone, excluding all "works".
Elizabeth I
daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn; queen of England and Ireland 1558-1603. Succeeding her Catholic sister Mary I, she re-established Protestantism as the state religion. Her reign was dominated by the threat of a Catholic restoration and by war with Spain, culminating in the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588. Although frequently courted, she never married.
Mary I (aka Bloody Mary)
daughter of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon; reigned 1553-58. In an attempt to reverse the country's turn toward Protestantism, she instigated the series of religious persecutions by which she earned her nickname.
Catherine of Aragon
first wife of Henry VIII; youngest daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella of Castile; mother of Mary I. Henry's wish to annul his marriage to Catherine (due to her failure to produce a male heir) led eventually to England's break with the Roman Catholic Church.
Justification by faith
the act of declaring someone righteous on the basis of faith alone. God's righteousness is given to believers simply because they have faith in God's saving work accomplished in Christ.
Sola Scriptura
is a Christian theological doctrine which holds that the Christian Scriptures are the supreme authority in all matters of doctrine and practice.
Vocation
one's particular calling or gifting suited to the needs of the world.
Catherine de' Medici
queen of France; wife of Henry II. She ruled as regent 1560-74 during the minority reigns of her three sons: Francis II, Charles IX, and Henry III. She slaughtered Huguenots.
Henry VIII
reigned 1509-47. He had six wives (Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anne of Cleves, Catherine Howard, Katherine Parr) and three children (Mary I, with Catherine of Aragon; Elizabeth I, with Anne Boleyn; and Edward VI, with Jane Seymour). His first divorce, from Catherine of Aragon, was opposed by the pope, leading to England's break with the Roman Catholic Church.
Anne Boleyn
second wife of Henry VIII; mother of Elizabeth I. Henry divorced Catherine of Aragon in order to marry her, but she fell from favor when she failed to provide him with a male heir. She was eventually executed because of alleged infidelities.
Marburg Colloquy (1529)
was a meeting at Marburg Castle, Marburg, Hesse, Germany which attempted to solve a disputation between Martin Luther and Ulrich Zwingli over the Real Presence of Christ in the Lord's Supper.
Sack of Rome (1527)
was a military event carried out by the mutinous Spanish troops of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, in Rome, then part of the Papal States. It marked a crucial imperial victory in the conflict between Charles and the League of Cognac (1526-1529) — the alliance of France, Milan, Venice, Florence and the Papacy.
St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre
was a targeted group of assassinations and a wave of Catholic mob violence, directed against the Huguenots (French Calvinist Protestants) during the French Wars of Religion.
Peace of Augsburg (1555)
was a treaty between Charles V and the Schmalkaldic League at the imperial city of Augsburg. It officially ended the religious struggle between the two groups and made the legal division of Christendom permanent within the Holy Roman Empire, allowing rulers to choose either Lutheranism or Roman Catholicism as the official confession of their state. Calvinism was not allowed until the Peace of Westphalia.
Peasant's War (1520's)
was a widespread popular revolt in the German-speaking areas of Central Europe. It failed because of the intense opposition of the aristocracy, who slaughtered up to 100,000 of the 300,000 poorly armed peasants and farmers.
Menno Simons
was an Anabaptist religious leader from the Friesland region of the Low Countries. He was a contemporary of the Protestant Reformers and his followers became known as Mennonites. He was a main part of the Radical Reformation.
The Book of Common Prayer (1549)
written largely by Thomas Cranmer, this contained the complete forms of service for daily and Sunday worship in English.
