the reformation

• Cause of the reformation


  People during the renaissance in the 1500’s challenged the Church authority
• Invention of printing presses

  Helped develop new groups of thinkers by spreading literacy, spiritual thinking, individual thought, and perspective among people
• Writing and Language Shifts

  • Writers used local languages, boosting literacy
• Challenges to Church


  • Rulers, especially in Germany, questioned authority and led a movement of change
  • Merchants disliked paying church taxes
  • It spread across Europe
• Social changes


  • The values of humanism and secularism in the renaissance made people question the Church
• Political changes


  • Powerful monarchs challenged the Church as the supreme power in Europe
  • Many leaders thought the Pope as a foreign ruler challenging his authority
• Economic changes


  • European rulers being jealous of the church’s wealth
  • Merchants and others resented paying taxes to the church
• Religious changes


  • Some church leaders become worldly and corrupt
  • Many people found the sale of indulgences unacceptable church practice
• In the 1300s and 1400s, some people wanted to change the Catholic Church. They believed the Bible was more important than the pope, and they criticized the church's leaders. This idea became more popular, especially in the 1500s, with thinkers like Erasmus and More joining in. Many Europeans started reading religious books and forming their own ideas about the Church. By the early 1500s, people were ready for change
• Luther challenges the Church

  1. Parents wanted him to be a lawyer → he became monk and teacher

  2. Taught scripture at University of Wittenberg (Saxony, Germany)

  3. The 95 theses

  4. 1517: Luther took public stand against actions of friar named Johann Tetzel who was raising money to rebuild St. Peter’s Cathedral in Rome
• Luther was surprised to see how quickly his ideas spread and gained followers. Many people were unhappy with the Church because of political and economic issues. They saw Luther's protests as a way to challenge the Church's power and control
• Church leaders in Rome saw Luther as a disobedient monk who needed discipline from his superiors


  But as Luther's ideas gained popularity, the pope realized he was a serious threat
• Pope Leo X warned Luther to take back his statements or face excommunication


  Luther refused and publicly burned the pope's decree, leading to his excommunication by Leo
• England becomes protestant


  • Henry VIII became king of England in 1509, initially a devout Catholic
  • In 1521, wrote an attack on Luther's ideas, earning the title "Defender of the Faith" from the pope
  • Needed a male heir to avoid potential civil war after his death
  • Had one living child, a daughter named Mary, but no woman had successfully claimed the English throne
• Henry VIII's Marriage Troubles and Desire for Divorce


  • By 1527, convinced his wife, Catherine of Aragon, would have no more children
  • Wanted to divorce and marry a younger queen
  • Church law didn't allow divorce, but an annulment could be possible with proof of the marriage's illegality
  • Asked the pope to annul his marriage in 1527, but the pope refused to offend Catherine's powerful nephew, the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V
• The Reformation Parliament (1529)


  • Called Parliament into session to pass laws ending the pope's power in England
  • This Parliament is known as the Reformation Parliament
• Secret Marriage and Break with the Pope

  • In 1533, secretly married Anne Boleyn
  • Parliament legalized Henry's divorce from Catherine
  • In 1534, Parliament approved the Act of Supremacy, declaring Henry, not the pope, as the official head of England's Church
• Opposition and Execution of Thomas More

  • The Act of Supremacy faced opposition
  • Thomas More, despite criticizing the Church, remained a devout Catholic
  • Refused to accept the terms of the Act, leading to his arrest and imprisonment
  • In 1535, More was found guilty of high treason and executed
• Huldrych Zwingli starts religious change in Switzerland


  1. Influenced by Christian humanism and Luther's reforms, Zwingli called for a return to early Christianity's personal faith and more control over the Church

  2. Zwingli's reforms were adopted in Zurich and other Swiss
• Huldrych Zwingli, a Catholic priest in Zurich, started religious change in Switzerland
• Zwingli called for a return to early Christianity's personal faith and more control over the Church
• Zwingli's reforms were adopted in Zurich and other Swiss cities, leading to conflict between Protestants and Catholics in 1531, resulting in Zwingli's death
• John Calvin, influenced by Luther's followers, fled France and settled in Geneva, where he established Calvinism
• Calvin emphasized predestination and strict moral regulation, leading Geneva to become a model city for many Protestants despite its rigid governance
• Calvin's "Institutes of the Christian Religion" summarized Protestant theology and solidified his influence in the spread of Protestantism
• Calvinism spread more to the northwest + northeast
• John Knox, a Scottish preacher, adopted Calvin's ideas after visiting Geneva
• Knox introduced Presbyterianism in Scotland, with community churches governed by laymen called elders or presbyters
• Knox and Protestant nobles made Calvinism Scotland's official religion in the 1560s
• Swiss, Dutch, and French reformers adopted Calvinism's church organization
• Calvin's influence is significant as many Protestant churches today trace their origins to him
• Many Protestant churches have softened Calvin's strict teachings over time
• Protestants emphasized the Bible as the sole source of religious truth, leading to the formation of various Protestant groups due to differences in interpretation
• The Anabaptists believed in baptizing only adults and advocated for the separation of church and state. They also refused to participate in wars and shared their possessions
• Both Catholics and Protestants persecuted the Anabaptists, viewing them as radicals threatening society
• Some Anabaptists settled in Münster, Westphalia, where leaders like Jan Mathijs and John of Leiden persecuted non-Anabaptists. The city was later captured in 1535 by an army comprising Catholics and Protestants, but the Anabaptists survived
• The Anabaptists eventually became the forerunners of the Mennonites and the Amish, with some of their descendants settling in Pennsylvania
• The teachings of the Anabaptists influenced later groups like the Quakers and Baptists, who split from the Anglican Church
• Women played significant roles in the Reformation, particularly in its early stages
• Marguerite of Navarre shielded John Calvin from execution for his beliefs while he was in France