The Protestant Reformation

indulgences

An indulgence was sold to grant your soul/ someone you want the indulgence for into heaven. Leo X gave permission to Tetzel to sell the indulgences which started the rise of Martin Luther. The sale of indulgences was so important to this era because it is what gave Martin Luther the idea to write the 95 theses which led to the reform of the Catholic Church.

Catherine of Aragon

Catherine of Aragon was Queen of England from the years 1509 to 1533. She first married Prince Arthur to get to the throne but when he died, she then married King Henry VIII. This marriage caused all kinds of problems because King Henry said that the marriage was illegitimate which caused him to take the Church under his control so that he could divorce her and then kill her.

Henry VIII

Henry VIII was King of England from 1509 to his death in 1547. He became King when his brother, Prince Arthur, dropped dead and then he married his brother's wife Catherine of Aragon which just caused problems so he ended up divorcing her. During his reign he took power of the Church of England, married and killed many wives, tried to reform the political conditions of the Church, and reaffirmed traditional Catholic doctrine.

Ignatius Loyola

Ignatius of Loyola was a Spanish theologian who founded the Society of Jesuits during the Counter Reformation. Ignatius was completely devoted to the Catholic Church and more specifically the Pope. The Society of Jesuits that he founded worked to use education to teach people Catholic values.

John Calvin

John Calvin was a lawyer born in France who created the newly found religion Calvinism in Geneva. His religion, Calvinism, was based on the idea of predestination which is the idea that God determined who was saved and who was damned before birth and became so popular because it appealed to the middle class since his ideas on wealth were more appealing to them. Calvinism made such an impact to the Reformation because although Lutheranism started the Reformation, it was Calvinism that was able to get it going with the merchants spreading the ideas from town to town.

Leo X

Leo X was the Pope of the Catholic Church from 1513 to 1521. During his time as head of the Catholic Church he authorized the sale of indulgences and also excommunicated Luther after Luther made the 95 theses. Leo X was important to this era because he was the person that allowed indulgences to happen thus resulting in Luther creating the 95 theses and reform beginning.

Martin Luther

Martin Luther was a key player in the Reformation and is really considered the person who started the Reformation. Luther created the 95 theses because he did not believe that the sale of indulgences should be allowed because there was no where in the Bible that said you could buy your way into heaven. Once his ideas spread to the public, people began agreeing with his ideas and the Reformation began.

Ninety-Five Theses

The 95 theses were written by Martin Luther on October 31st, 1517 over the anger of the sale of indulgences. The theses stated that no where in the Bible did it say that you could buy your way into heaven. The 95 theses were not meant for the public but when they got stolen and then translated to German the ideas spread very quickly and the Reformation began.

Act of Supremacy

The Act of Supremacy made King Henry VIII the supreme head of the Church and severed ties with the papacy of the Church of England. This occurred in November 1534 mainly because King Henry was trying to find a way to divorce Catherine and had to separate from the Church because they would not grant his request. The new Church's doctrines were the same, but the main difference was that the Anglicans believed the monarchy was the head of the Church.

Anabaptism

The Anabaptists were a radical Christian group during the Reformation. They got there name of anabaptists because they believed that you had to get re-baptized if you had only gotten baptized as a child because they believed children who were baptized are not legitimate. They believed in social and religious equality, strict separation of church and state, nonviolence, and once again the idea of children that are baptized don't count. They weren't always taken seriously and eventually became heavily persecuted by Roman Catholics.

Council of Trent

The Council of Trent was developed in 1543 during the Catholic Reformation in order to reform the Catholic Church and their practices. The Council, led by Pope Paul III, plan was to reconcile with the Protestants but once they decided to reaffirm the seven sacraments they knew that was never going to happen. Some of their other accomplishments were the education of the clergy by creating seminaries, the fact that marriages must have a priest present with witnesses to be legitimate, they forbade the sale of indulgences, reaffirmed seven sacraments, forbade pluralism, absenteeism, and simony, and lastly they made a procedure for "checking on" the clergy.

Diet of Worms

The Diet of Worms was an assembly of the princes of the Holy Roman Empire in 1521. Martin Luther was summoned in front of Charles V and the princes because they wanted him to recant his statements made in the 95 theses. Luther did not recant because he said that there was nothing in the bible saying you can buy your way into heaven and until he can be proved wrong by the bible he will not recant. Luther was then declared an outlaw by Charles V.

Peace of Augsburg

The Peace of Augsburg was a treaty issued by Charles V stating that the leader of the land chooses the religion for the people of that territory. The two options of religion were Lutheran or Catholic so the North became Protestant and the South remained Catholic. This treaty pretty much just legalized what was already happening since Lutheranism and Catholicism was already divided.