World History / Unit 6: Renaissance, Reformation and the Age of Exploration
6.3 The Protestant Reformation
Notes
The Reformation was a movement that split Western Christianity and created Protestant churches.
- Causes: Church corruption, the sale of indulgences (reductions of punishment for sin), rulers' wish for Church land and power, humanist criticism and the printing press.
- Martin Luther, a German monk, posted the Ninety-Five Theses in 1517 at Wittenberg, attacking the sale of indulgences.
- Luther taught salvation by faith alone, that the Bible is the only authority, and that all believers can read scripture for themselves. He translated the Bible into German.
- He was excommunicated and refused to take back his views at the Diet of Worms (1521). Some German princes protected him.
- John Calvin in Geneva taught predestination (God decides in advance who is saved).
- In England, Henry VIII broke with the pope when he was refused an annulment of his marriage. The Act of Supremacy (1534) made the king head of the Church of England.
- The Peace of Augsburg (1555) let each German prince choose whether his lands would be Lutheran or Catholic.
Practice
Read thesis 86 (1915 translation): "Why does not the pope... build just this one church of St. Peter with his own money, rather than with the money of poor believers?" Luther is criticizing:
Indulgence sales were funding the rebuilding of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.
Why did King Henry VIII break with the Catholic Church?
The Act of Supremacy made the king head of the Church of England.
Some German princes supported Luther partly because:
Political and economic motives mixed with religious ones.
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