Renaissance: The Reformation



Renaissance: The Reformation

I. Causes of the Reformation

A. The Renaissance put a lot of emphasis on the individual which ultimately challenged the Catholic church’s and the pope’s authority

B. People began to resent pope’s attempts to try and control them

1. Why, you ask?!

2. Because people were starting to think outside the box for the first time in 1,000 years!!!

i. Gutenberg’s printing press

C. Merchants who had become wealthy resented paying taxes to the church

D. Church leaders had become corrupt in many cases

1. Popes were spending too much time on the arts and worldly pleasures

- Ex. Michelangelo and the Sistine Chapel

- “If the truth be confessed, the luxury and pomp of our courts is too great” –Pope Pius II

II. Martin Luther

A. Martin Luther was a man in search of God.

1. He often felt very sinful and guilty about his human nature

2. After becoming a monk in 1505, he eventually decided that faith was the key to salvation. From that point on he felt at peace.

B. Martin Luther’s perspective on salvation spurred him to write the 95 Theses as a criticism of Catholic practices

1. This writing attacked the practice of selling indulgences (buy your sins away), simony (selling of church positions), and declared that salvation comes from faith alone (not from the Pope or Catholic sacraments)

2. He posted it on the door of a church in Wittenberg, Germany, and challenged scholars to debate him

3. Luther’s 95 Theses was printed and distributed with great speed...the Protestant Reformation was fully underway

III. The Popes Response to Luther

A. The pope excommunicates Luther for his radical ideas

B. Many people in northern Europe began following Luther’s ideas

1. Ex: priests began wearing normal clothes and marrying

2. Although Luther’s original goal was to reform the Catholic Church it was not to be, instead the Lutheran Church was formed based upon Martin Luther’s ideas, thus making it the first protestant Church in Christendom with more to follow…

IV. Henry VIII and the Catholic Church

A. When Henry VIII became king in 1509 he was a devout Catholic

B. He actually wrote a pamphlet condemning Martin Luther

C. King Henry VIII asks the pope for an annulment and the pope refused

1. Following this Henry decides to solve the problem himself by asking Parliament to end the pope’s power in England

2. This is known as the Reformation Parliament

D. After three of Henry VIII’s heirs ruled England the country was in religious turmoil, however upon the crowning of Elizabeth I, England became protestant – known as the Elizabethan Settlement

E. Collectively all of this is known as the English Reformation and resulted in the Anglican Church (Church of England)

V. John Calvin

A. Religion based on his teachings became known as Calvinism

1. According to Calvinism salvation was determined by predestination

- This was based on the idea that since the beginning of time God already knew everyone who would be saved

B. Calvinism eventually became Scotland’s official religion, except in Scotland it was known as Presbyterianism

VI. Catholic Reformation

A. While many converted to Protestantism, the Catholic church retained millions of follower

B. Then began a movement to reform itself

1. Investigate abuses of the church, including the selling of indulgences

2. Approval of the Jesuit order

3. Use the Inquisition to stamp out heresy in papal territory

4. Summoned a council of church leaders; Council of Trent

VII. The Legacy of Reformation

A. Protestant churches flourished despite religious wars and persecutions

B. Religion was no longer a uniting factor of Europe

C. Individual monarchs and states gained power

D. The political and social effects of Reformation, through the rejection of the Christian church, helped paved the way towards the ‘modern world’

1. Exploration – people seeking religious freedom

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