History the reformation

• Before the Reformation, pretty much all Christians in Europe were Roman Catholic
• Importance of the Protestant Reformation

  • It changed people's way of looking at themselves and the world
  • It led to wider European literacy
  • It eventually forced governments to grant religious freedoms
  • It was more of a political revolution than a religious one
• Catholic Church's power in the Middle Ages


  • It was the caretaker of people's eternal souls
  • Parish priests played a pivotal role in people's lives
  • It provided social services and education
  • It owned over 1/3 of all land in Europe
  • The Pope claimed authority over all the kings of Europe
• Martin Luther


  A chronically constipated monk who initiated and shaped the Reformation
• Martin Luther's path to the Reformation


  1. Studied law and hated it

  2. Became a monk after a sudden storm

  3. Went to Rome and was shocked by the Church's corruption

  4. Found his answer in St. Paul's epistles, specifically the line "The just shall live by faith"

  5. Wrote 95 Theses against indulgences and nailed them to the Church door
• Luther's new interpretation of "sola fide" (only faith) grew into a full-scale conflict with the Catholic Church
• Indulgences


  A donation to the church that came with a promise from the pope to reduce a sinner's time in purgatory
• Luther felt that indulgences should not be for sale
• Luther's increasing radicalism


  1. Started by stating that Christians were saved only through faith and the grace of God

  2. Then argued that the Church's rituals didn't have the power to save souls

  3. Denied that the church and the pope were infallible

  4. Ultimately denied that the church and its officers had any spiritual powers
• Luther was called to defend his ideas before the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, at the Imperial Diet of Worms
• The printing press helped spread Luther's ideas widely, reaching millions of readers and listeners
• Luther's translation of the Bible into German


  For the first time ever, non-priests could read the Bible for themselves
• The Reformation took place in Europe

  Early 1500s
• Holy Roman Empire


  A collection of smaller kingdoms ruled by an emperor
• The Reformation had to do not with the country so much as the Catholic Church
• Catholic Church


  • The most powerful entity in Europe
  • Controlled every aspect of life
  • Everyone had to go to church and believe in the church or they would be expelled from the country or even killed
  • Acted as a middleman between the average person and God
• Everything was in Latin including the Bible so no one really knew if the priests were just making stuff up
• Indulgences


  A way for people to pay the church in order to forgive sins instead of actually being a good person
• The church had a nasty habit of burning people at the stake who disagreed with them
• Martin Luther


  • A priest who lived in the Holy Roman Empire
  • Sick and tired of all the church's corruption
  • In 1517 he nailed the document with 95 issues he had with the church to the door of the Wittenberg Cathedral in Saxony
• The document called the 95 Theses became famous both inside the church and out
• At first Luther just wrote it in Latin so the church could reform itself but the church just got really mad at him instead
• Luther printed his 95 Theses in German and with the help of the printing press was able to distribute his ideas far and wide
• Lots of people outside the church agreed with Luther
• In 1520 Pope Leo the 10th issued a papal bull ordering every copy of Luther's theses to be burned and banned
• In 1521 the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire Charles V decided to hold a trial for Luther
• The Diet of Worms decided that Luther was a heretic and tried to even prevent him from speaking in his own defense
• Before he was officially labeled a heretic, Luther left for home but was kidnapped along the way
• His kidnapper was Frederick the Wise, a Saxon noble who agreed with Martin Luther and decided to shelter him from the church who wanted to burn him at the stake
• Luther's ideas spread across the Holy Roman Empire and he had no trouble getting around to certain parts of the empire
• In 1522 Luther would translate the Bible into German and for the first time regular people at least those who were literate could read the Bible for themselves
• Luther's philosophy


  The average person should have a stronger more direct connection with God instead of having the church act as a middle man
• Lutheranism


  A rival to the Catholic Church
• Lutherans and Catholics fought and killed each other like a lot
• Neither side believed in religious tolerance and a radical Reformation took place where Lutherans tried to overthrow the Catholics
• This eventually led to a peasant revolt in 1524 where hundreds of thousands of people died
• Luther for his part condemned the violence and did not believe in destroying the Catholic Church so much as creating one of his own
• While Lutheranism spread across the Holy Roman Empire, other religious movements in Europe were inspired and gained esteem as well
• Protestantism


  The collective movements that weakened the Catholic Church even more
• Calvinism


  A religious movement that sprang up in Switzerland in 1519 preaching an idea of predetermination