Luther Starts the Reformation

Martin Luther’s protests over the abuses in the Church led to the founding of Protestant churches

Causes of the Reformation

The Renaissance’s focus on the secular and individuality challenged the Church’s Authority.

The printing press spread secular ideas.

Rulers resented the power of the pope’s and his attempt to control them.

Problems in the Church Critics claimed that the Church and its leaders

were corrupt.

The popes spent huge sums of money on themselves for personal pleasure and to fund wars.

Priests and monks were poorly educated.

Many of the clergy broke their vows and had problems with women, gambling and drinking.

Early Calls for Reform

In the early 1400s, John Wycliffe of England and Jan Hus of Bohemia advocated reform within the Church. Both denied that the pope had the right to worldly power.

They also advocated the idea that the Bible had more power than Church leaders.

John Wycliffe

Jan Hus

Luther Challenges the Church

Martin Luther was a monk in the German state of Saxony.

In 1517 he decided to take public stand against the actions of a friar named Johann Tezel. Tezel was raising money to help fund the rebuilding of St. Peters Cathedral in Rome by selling indulgences.

Indulgences An indulgence was essentially a pardon

or forgiveness for a sin. The Church began selling indulgences for future as well as past sins.

The 95 Theses Luther wrote 95

formal complaints against Tezel and posted them on the door of the castle church in Wittenberg on October 31, 1517.

He challenged other scholars to debate him.

Someone took Luther’s statement from the door of the church and sent it to the local printer.

Very soon, Luther’s ideas were spread all over Germany.

The Reformation Leads to Religious Reform

As people read Luther’s theses, they began to agree with him. A movement began called the “Reformation” that lead to religious reform throughout Europe.

Luther’s Reforms Soon, Luther moved beyond criticizing

indulgences. He wanted a full reform. His teaching rested on the the following principles:

– People could win salvation only through faith in God’s gift of forgiveness.

– All Church teachings should be clearly based on the words of the Bible.

– All people in the faith were equal; therefore, they could interpret the Bible for themselves.

Response to Luther Initially, the Church

viewed Luther’s as a rebellious monk who needed to be punished by the Church.

As Luther’s ideas became more radical, the Church began believing that he was a bigger threat.

The Punishment In 1520, Pope Leo X

threatened Luther with excommunication unless he retracts his statements. Luther refuses to recant.

Luther’s supporters built a bonfire and burned the pope’s decree.

Martin Luther was excommunicated.

The Emperor Responds The Holy Roman

Emperor, Charles V, controlled a vast empire including Germany.

He summoned Luther to the town of Worms in 1521 to stand trial.

Luther still refused to recant his statements.

Edict of Worms The emperor, Charles V, issued an imperial order- the Edict

of Worms- declaring Martin Luther an outlaw and a heretic.

According to the edict, anyone giving Luther food or shelter was to be declared a traitor.

All of Luther’s books were ordered burned.

Frederick the Wise Converts The Ruler of Saxony

disobeyed the Edict of Worms and sheltered Luther in one of his castles.

Frederick of Saxony saw converting to Luther’s religion would free his kingdom from the oppressive taxation of the Church.

The Peasants Revolts Luther’s reforms met

acceptance among the peasants. In 1524, peasants began a series of revolts against the Church and their princes. This is not what Luther had intended.

Luther encouraged the princes to act quickly to calm the revolts.As a result, nearly 100,000 peasants were massacred.

Germany at War

There was a split throughout the Holy Roman Empire. Some princes wanted to strengthen the Church while others wanted to break away.

It was a question of economics. If a prince supported the Church, the Church would in turn support the prince. However, if a prince were to break away from the Church, he no longer had to pay the heavy Church taxes

Protestants Initially, the term

“Protestant” was given to the princes who supported non-Catholic Churches. As time went on, the term applied to everyone who supported non-Catholic churches.

Charles V Responds

Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, was determined to keep his subjects loyal to the Church. He declared war on the Protestant princes in his empire.

His armies defeated those of the Protestants however, he was unable to force them back to the Church.

Peace of Augsburg

In 1555, Charles ordered all of the princes to assemble in the city of Augsburg.

At that meeting, the princes agreed that each German citizen had the right to chose for himself which religion he would support, and that this decision would not be made by the rulers.

England Becomes Protestant

King Henry VIII of England needed an heir and his wife, Catherine of Aragon (Charles V (HRE) niece), had not given birth to a boy. She had given birth to a girl- Mary.

England Becomes Protestant

In 1547, Henry believed that Catherine (42 years old) was too old to have any more children so he asked the pope to grant him an annulment so that he could marry a younger woman.

The Pope Declines The pope refuses the

request. This denial was political in nature. Catherine would have been disgraced by an annulment and this in turn would anger her family which included Charles V, the great champion of the Church in the Holy Roman Empire.

The Reformation Parliament

Henry solves his problem by calling Parliament into session and asking it to pass a set of laws that ended the pope’s power in England.

The Parliament honored Henry’s request as they approved the Act of Supremacy which made the king the head of the Church of England.

Consequences of Henry’s Change

As a result of the Act of Supremacy, Henry seized the wealth of the Church and increased his personal treasury.

“Off With Her Head”

In 1533, Henry married Anne Boleyn. She too was unable to provide Henry with a male heir. She did, however, give birth to a daughter, Elizabeth.

Anne Boleyn was accused of treason against the king (she was caught having an affair) and beheaded at the Tower of London.

Catholicism Returns to England Henry finally was

given a son by his third wife, Jane Seymour.

Edward, Henry’s only son, was a very sickly child and died at age 15. The only suitable heir was Henry’s eldest daughter Mary.

Bloody Mary After Henry divorced Catherine,

Catherine and their child Mary returned to Spain. Mary was brought up to be a devout Catholic.

After Edward’s death, Mary inherited the throne of England and promptly restored Catholicism.

She sponsored massive persecutions of those who practiced the Protestant faith. This is how she was given the nickname “Bloody Mary”.

Elizabeth Restores Protestantism

After Mary’s death, Elizabeth, (Anne Boleyn’s daughter) inherited the throne. She had been raised in Protestant England and was quick to undo all that her sister Mary had done.

She formally established the Church of England and some concessions were made to satisfy those who practiced Catholicism.

The Spanish Armada Mary had been married to

Philip II of Spain, Charles V’s son. Philip believed that through his marriage to Mary, he would be able to gain control of England. With her death, his plans were dashed.

Philips solution was to propose marriage to Elizabeth, even before Mary died. Elizabeth refused his proposal.

If Not Through Love-Then War If Philip II could not gain England through marriage, he would gain it by force. In 1588 he launched a huge

armada of ships from which he would invade England.

A spy for Elizabeth revealed Philip’s plans and the armada was ambushed and defeated before it reached England.

Defeat Changes the Course of History

With the destruction of the Spanish fleet, England emerged as the greatest sea power in the world.

Now England was able to look for colonies in the New World with out interference from Spain.

England begins to establish new colonies in America.