Leaders of the Protestant Reformation



Leaders of the Protestant Reformation

Global History and Geography I Name: ___________________

E. Napp Date: ___________________

While Martin Luther was a significant leader of the Protestant Reformation, he was not the only leader of the Protestant Reformation. There were many individuals who challenged the authority of the Roman Catholic Church and Church teachings. Let’s examine several important leaders of the Protestant Reformation.

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Questions:

1: What benefited the soul according to Luther? _____________________________________________________________

2: What did not benefit the soul according to Luther? _____________________________________________________________

3: Why did Luther write the 95 Theses? _____________________________________________________________

4: Why was the Pope furious with Luther? _____________________________________________________________

5: What did the Pope do to Luther? _____________________________________________________________

6: Why was Luther not killed as a heretic? _____________________________________________________________

7: What is one difference between the Lutheran Church and the Roman Catholic Church? __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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Questions:

8: Who was Ulrich Zwingli and how was he influenced by events in Germany? __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

9: What did Ulrich Zwingli believe about the Bible? _____________________________________________________________

10: What were followers of Zwingli to do if a practice of the time was not contained in the Bible? __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

11: How did Zwingli view the Eucharist? _____________________________________________________________

12: Why did so many different Protestant churches develop after Martin Luther’s posting of the 95 Theses? __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

13: Why is there often conflict between secular individuals and individuals who believe in a literal interpretation of the Bible? __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

14: Which view do you support and why? _____________________________________________________________

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Questions:

15: Who was John Calvin?

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16: Why was John Calvin tossed out of Geneva and then invited back to Geneva? __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

17: How was John Calvin similar to Zwingli? _____________________________________________________________

18: What was John Calvin’s belief of predestination? __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Finally, a little Henry VIII:

The adoption of Protestantism in England was a political rather than a religious move. King Henry VIII had originally married Catherine of Aragon; since she had been previously married to his brother, though, Henry had to get special papal dispensation for the marriage. Marrying the wife of one's brother was incest; it was almost equivalent to marrying one's sister. The marriage, however, produced no male children to occupy the throne at Henry's death. Henry began to doubt both the marriage and the spiritual validity of the marriage. In the mid-1520's, he met and fell in love with Ann Boleyn, a lady in waiting to Catherine. He wished to annul his marriage to Catherine and marry Ann; not only did he love Ann, he feared leaving the throne of England without a male heir. A divorce led to the rise of the Protestant faith in England.  

The Wives of Henry VIII

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Interesting Facts about Henry VIII and his Wives:

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Luther became a monk in 1505, disappointing his equally strong-willed father, who wished him to become a lawyer. He earned a doctorate in theology from the University of Wittenberg, but instead of settling down to a quiet teaching career, he began to develop his own personal beliefs, which challenged the Church when he protested the use of indulgences in his 95 Theses. Luther argued that good works do not benefit the soul; only faith could do that. Things took a turn for the worse: Pope Leo declared Luther's teachings as heretical teachings, and Luther's books were publicly burned in Rome. Luther was excommunicated from the Catholic Church, protected by German princes, and eventually started his own church.

While Germany struggled under the consequences of Luther's reform movement, the movement itself quickly spilled out of Germany into neighboring Switzerland. Ulrich Zwingli (1484-1531) was an important leader of the Protestant Reformation in Switzerland. Zwingli believed in the literal reading of the Old and New Testaments. The words of the Bible meant what they said. They were the words of God. Therefore, the practices not contained in Scriptures were to be shunned and avoided, but practices, beliefs, and rules that were contained in the literal meaning of the Old and New Testaments were to be adhered to absolutely and uncritically. Zwingli built a strict Protestant society, in religious, social, and moral terms. He also believed that the Eucharist only symbolized the body and blood of Christ. He differed from Luther and the Catholic Church on this issue.

John Calvin was a successful lawyer who was invited to Geneva, Switzerland to build the new Reformed church. He imposed a strict moral code on the citizens of Geneva; this moral code was derived from a literal reading of Christian scriptures. The people of Geneva did not like this strict moral code and tossed Calvin out of the city.  In 1540 a new crop of city officials in Geneva invited Calvin back to the city. The core of Calvinism is the Zwinglian insistence on the literal reading of Christian scriptures. Anything not contained explicitly and literally in these scriptures was to be rejected; on the other hand, anything that was contained explicitly and literally in these scriptures was to be followed unwaveringly. Calvin also built his reformed church on the concept that salvation was not a choice, but was rather pre-decided by God from the beginning of time. This meant that individuals were "elected" for salvation by God; this "elect" would form the population of the Calvinist church.

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