1. The Protestant Reformation

2. 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

3. THE CHURCH’S BIG PROBLEMS:
Popes – greedy/worldly; more worried about living in luxury, collecting art and war than being spiritual leaders
Priests – decline due to Plague; still had “wives” and kids; not well educated
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
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

4. PRINTING PRESS:
Germany 1455
Johan Gutenberg – prints the Bible

5. EFFECTS OF THE PRINTING PRESS:
Books made quickly/cheaply
Many people can buy books
For the 1st time the Bible is widely read
New ideas spread quickly
Literacy increases

6. PEOPLE WHO SPOKE OUT AGAINST THE CATHOLIC CHURCH:
Savonarola
controlled Florence (overthrew
Medici
- Told people to “burn vanities”
- Burned at the stake
- Showed how easily religious passion could
turn to revolutionary thought

7. 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 ( ) - said “Christianity should show people how to live good lives on a daily basis, not just provide beliefs for them to be saved”

8. 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

9. 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 – Excommunicated by Pope Gregory XII – Burned at the stake John Wycliffe and John Hus openly criticized the church which began the discussions that eventually led to reform.

10. PEOPLE WHO SPOKE OUT AGAINST THE CATHOLIC CHURCH:
5. Martin Luther (Monk/religious scholar; Germany)

11. MARTIN LUTHER ( )
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.