THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION

Catholicism in the 1400s

Roman Catholic Church – influential, extravagant, and worldly. Some people felt church straying from spiritual roots. Concerns crystallized into the PROTESTANT REFORMATION

THE CHURCH’S BIG PROBLEMS:

1. Popes – greedy/worldly; more worried about living in luxury, collecting art and war than being spiritual leaders

2. Priests – decline due to Plague; still had “wives” and kids; not well educated

3. Selling of indulgences by the church-INDULGENCES – pay $$; reduce a soul’s time in purgatory(Catholic’s

believed dead went to purgatory to work off sins)- Sale of indulgences approved by Pope Leo X to build St. Peter’s Basilica

4. People:- Question why some spared by God during plague and others were

not- Found the clergy had little interest in their spiritual needs- More open to new ideas

- Direct result of the Renaissance and invention of printing press

- More literate people

PRINTING PRESS:

Germany 1455 Johan Gutenberg –

prints the Bible

EFFECTS OF THE PRINTING PRESS:

1. Books made quickly/cheaply2. Many people can buy books3. For the 1st time the Bible is widely

read4. New ideas spread quickly5. Literacy increases

PEOPLE WHO SPOKE OUT AGAINST THE CATHOLIC CHURCH:

1. Savonarola - 1494-98 controlled Florence (overthrew

Medici- Told people to “burn vanities”- Burned at the stake- Showed how easily religious passion could

turn to revolutionary thought

PEOPLE WHO SPOKE OUT AGAINST THE CATHOLIC CHURCH: (cont’)

2. Christian Humanists:- Major goal – reform the Catholic Church- Believed in ability of human beings to reason and improve

themselves- Read classics – especially basic works of Christianity and

you would become more pious (inward religious feeling)- This would bring about reform in the church and

society- Best know Christian Humanist – Erasmus (1466-1536)- said “Christianity should show people how to live

good lives on a daily basis, not just provide beliefs for

them to be saved”

PEOPLE WHO SPOKE OUT AGAINST THE CATHOLIC CHURCH:

3. John Wycliffe (Early Reformer)- Professor at Oxford- Ideas:

- Pope stuffy, rich, proud- Jesus was boss, not the pope- Bible was authority, not the pope- Church shouldn’t own land or be rich

- Translated Bible to English- Removed from teaching position, arrested but freed, died 1384

PEOPLE WHO SPOKE OUT AGAINST THE CATHOLIC CHURCH:

4. John Hus (Bohemia- Czech.)- Preached against immorality and worldliness of Catholic Church- Preached Bible>Pope- Hero to Czech people- 1411 – Excommunicated by Pope Gregory XII- 1415 – Burned at the stake

John Wycliffe and John Hus openly criticized the church which began the discussions that eventually led to reform.

PEOPLE WHO SPOKE OUT AGAINST THE CATHOLIC CHURCH:5. Martin Luther (Monk/religious

scholar; Germany)

MARTIN LUTHER (1483-1546)

Background: - Mean father/priests scared him - Tried to “be good” as a kid – guilty/afraid - Friends die during The Plague/ struck by lightening at

21 – becomes a monk - As a monk Luther would fast/confess/freeze but still

did not “feel good” - Monk/Professor at the University of Wittenberg

- Lectured on the Bible - Change – read Bible and discovered FAITH was key to

salvation not all the stuff the Priests said!!! All you need is FAITH to be saved.