THE PROTESTANT

REFORMATIONMay 5, 2014World History

THE CHURCH IN THE 1500S

O The Church competed for power against royal leaders

O They fought for power against kings/emperors

O Much of this power struggle led to corruption in the church

O Most uneducated people didn’t understand Latin, but knew the common language or “vernacular”

O Almost all bibles were written in Latin before the Reformation

O It was the job of the clergy to translate the bible to its people

O The Church was very wealthy

O Gained much of its money from collecting taxes from the people

O Used their wealth and power to influence its followers

MARTIN LUTHER’S COMPLAINTS

O In an effort to raise money, Priests and Popes offered the sale of “indulgences” as a way to get into Heaven

O Many people in the church were too naïve to realize how corrupt the church was

O Some of the educated elite began questioning the church’s actions

O The revolt against the church was led by a German monk and professor of theology, Martin Luther

THE 95 THESESO In 1517 Johann Tetzel offered

indulgences for those who offered to help pay for the rebuilding of the Cathedral of St. Peter in Rome

O Indulgences – pardons issued by the pope that people could buy to reduce a soul’s time in purgatory

O People could buy their way into Heaven

O This was Luther’s final outrage

O Luther wrote a protest against the church and posted it on the door of Wittenberg’s All Saints Church for all to see

O 95 Theses – Luther’s list of complaints against the Catholic church

O Thesis = statement/complaint

O Luther’s intention was not to break from the church, but to reform it

LUTHER VS. THE CHURCH

O Luther began a furious debate with the Church

O Luther was charged with heresy

O Appeared before the Diet of Worms

O Assembly of the Holy Roman Empire held at Worms, Germany

O Pope Leo X ordered Luther to give up his beliefs

O Luther burned the order and was excommunicated

O Luther went into hiding where he translated the New Testament into German – spreading his beliefs even further

LUTHER’S TEACHINGSO Excommunicated from the

church, Luther formed his own religion with his devout followers

O His teachings were focused on the following beliefs…

O Good deeds are not necessary for salvation

O The bible is the sole religious truth

O There was no hierarchy in the church

O These reforms turned into the Lutheran Church

OTHER REFORMATIONS

O Ulrich Zwingli in Switzerland

O Theocracy

O A government in which church and state are joined and in which officials are considered to be divinely inspired

O John Calvin in Switzerland

O Predestination

O God knows who will be saved, even before people are born, and therefore guides the lives of those destined for salvation

O John Knox in Scotland

O Laid grounds for Presbyterian Church