"The just shall live by faith".

Weakness of the Church by 1500

• The Renaissance emphasis on the secular and individual challenged

Church authority and the printing press spread these ideas.

• Rulers began to challenge the authority of the pope.

• It was difficult for the pope to impose central authority in Germany

because of so many competing states

• Northern merchants resented paying church taxes to Rome.

Criticisms of the Church •Many leaders were corrupt including some popes who patronized

the arts, spent extravagantly on personal pleasures and fought wars.

•Some had children and worldly affairs.

•The lower clergy were so poorly educated that many could hardly

read. Others drank or gambled excessively.

"The just shall live by faith". Praying, fasting, and good works were not the

key to salvation. Instead, a strong faith in God

was all that mattered.

Selling of Indulgences

“Pardon from Sins"

Martin Luther’s Response

Posting of “95 Thesis” on the

church door in Wittenberg,

Germany challenging Tetzel

and others to debate the issue

The Church Response to Luther

Pope Leo X issue a papal decree (papal bull)

threatening Luther with excommunication if

he refused to recant his beliefs.

1. Salvation by faith - good works would not save a person, faith

in God was the only way to salvation

2. The Bible is the only authority for Christian life – Both the

pope and Church traditions were false authorities.

3. The Priesthood of all Believers - Each person had a

relationship with God and all people with faith were equal.

People did not need priests to interpret the Bible

Luther’s Three Main Beliefs

Luther’s Response to the Church

Burning of the Papal Bull by Luther and his

followers in a bonfire.

Holy Roman Emperor Charles V’s

Response to Luther

Convened the Diet of Worms to try Luther for Heresy.

Luther refuses to recant and is declared a heretic and

outlaw. His books are ordered to be burned.

Luther is Protected

Luther translates the New

Testament of the Bible to German.

Prince Frederick the Wise

of Saxony houses Luther in

a castle and protects him

from arrest

When he returns to Wittenberg

in 1522 many of his ideas had

been put into practice by his

followers. They were known as

Lutherans (Lutheran Church)

Protestants and the Peace of Augsburg

• Throughout the 1520’s Lutheranism continues to grow, especially

in northern Germany.

• In 1529, princes in southern German states who were loyal to the

pope agreed to fight against Luther’s ideas and to stop him.

• Princes loyal to Luther signed a letter of protest against the

treatment of Luther. They later became known as Protestants.

• The terms stuck and later was used to describe Christians who

turned away from the Catholic Church.

• In 1555, after years of fighting Holy Roman Emperor Charles V

called a meeting of all German princes in Augsburg, Germany.

• An agreement called The Peace of Augsburg allowed each ruler to

choose whether the religion of his state would be Lutheran or

Catholic.

Peace of Augsburg

Henry VIII Catherine of Aragon Anne Boleyn

• When the pope refuses to annul Henry’s marriage to Catherine he

breaks from the Church and creates the Church of England

• The Act of Supremacy makes Henry the supreme head of the

Church in England. He grants his own annulment.

SIR THOMAS MORE

•More refuses to sign the Act of Supremacy and is arrested, tried

and found guilty of high treason. He is executed in 1535 at the

Tower of London

John Calvin • French follower of Luther who studied law in France

and set up a theocratic Calvinist government in Geneva,

Switzerland. His followers were known as Calvinists.

• In 1536, he published Institutes of the Christian

Religion which set forth a systematic Protestant

philosophy about God, salvation, and human nature.

• His teachings became known as Calvinism.

• People are sinful by nature; only the elect are saved

• Predestination: God has always known who the

elect are;

• Government should be run by religious leaders

• Morality should be rigidly regulated.

• Very strict guidelines were established which outlawed

dancing, drinking, gambling, prostitution., and other

forms of immorality.

John Knox

•A preacher from Scotland who visited

Geneva to see Calvin's ideas at work.

•Put Calvin's ideas to work in Scottish

towns. Each community church was

governed by a small group of laymen

called presbyters.

•The Church became known as the

Presbyterian Church.

• Calvinism became the official

religion of Scotland in 1567.

Ignatius Loyola •Spaniard who wrote a book titled Spiritual

Exercises, which laid out a day-by-day plan of

meditation, prayer, and study. He gathered a band

of followers.

•In 1540, the pope recognized his group as a

monastic order called the Society of Jesus. Known

as Jesuits.

• Jesuits were well disciplined and were willing to

go anywhere in the world to serve the pope.

•They concentrated on three major goals.

•Founding strong schools throughout Europe

•Convert non-Christians to Catholicism. They

preached in the Americas, Africa, and Asia.

• Prevent the further spread of Protestantism.

The Council of Trent

• The pope's interpretation of the Bible was final. Any Christian who

substituted his/her own interpretation was a heretic

• The Bible and Church tradition shared equal authority

• The false selling of indulgences were banned.

• Christians needed faith and good works for salvation. They were not

saved by faith alone as taught by Luther.

Council of Church leaders that met between 1545 and 1563 to re-

define Roman Catholic doctrine and eliminate abuses in the Church

Effects of the Reformation

• Greater emphasis put on education by Catholics and Protestants. New

colleges and universities were formed by both.

• Catholic Reformation led to greater unification of Catholics

• Forming of Protestant churches throughout Europe and world wide.

• Status of women improved

• Monarchs grew stronger leading to development strong nation-states.

• Laid the groundwork for the Enlightenment in Europe

• Led to widespread religious wars and persecution in Europe

throughout the late 16th and 17th centuries.`