1. THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION
3 Factors contributed to religious upheaval:
1. The poor - saw Church as wealthy, oppressive ruling class
2. Middle classes - wanted same autonomy in Religion as they
had in economics and politics
3. Kings & princes - fought Church over taxes, territories
Reformation = Revolution -Goal was change, not reform - Church
itself was wrong in principle

2. Corruption in the Church:
- Pope Alexander VI :
- Bribed Cardinals to get elected, used Church funds to support
his illegitimate son’s wars
- Accused of incest w/ his daughter, Lucrezia Borgia
- Initiated wars to enlarge Papal lands in central Italy
- Pope Leo X – Luther’s opponent – a member of the Medici
banking family of Florence

3. Martin Luther and the Holy Roman Empire
- ( ) An Augustinian monk who felt that he still was not on track for salvation
- He felt that ONLY FAITH could save you - good deeds had nothing to do with it - you could not buy your way in to heaven by your actions or w/ $$
- He believed faith was a gift given by God alone
- Indulgences - Luther rejected the Church’s practice of selling forgiveness for the living & deceased. He also rejected the sacrament of Penance, where a priest hears & forgives sins
95 Theses - in 1517, Luther nailed his complaints on a church door - they were quickly printed & circulated throughout the Holy Roman Empire

4. Luther Cont’d
- He believed that only the Bible contained the teachings necessary for salvation - you did not need the Pope/clergy’s interpretations to help save your soul
- He supported the German nobility & called on them to support him against the Church - many nobles supported him as a way to resist the centralizing power of the HRE
- illiterate lower class also backed him - shared his apocalyptic, end-of-days view
John Tetzel - a friar authorized by the Church to sell indulgences - he was a focal point of Luther’s anger

5. Social, nationalist, religious protests fused w/ lower class resentment
of the wealthy Church – reflected the Czech revolt that emerged w/
Jan Hus’ protest against the Church
- Diet of Worms, meeting called by HRE Charles V to address
Luther’s issues
- “Here I stand...” - Luther professed his desire not to reform the Church, but to reject the Catholic hierarchy entirely - he was excommunicated as a result and became an outlaw in the HRE – avoided Hus’s fate due to the protection of a German noble Frederick the Wise, elector of Saxony

6. Diet of Worms- 1521

7. Lower Class Reaction:
Peasant War of peasants & artisans fought against the Catholics and Landed Nobility - Luther disagreed w/ fight against nobility
Luther - religion is separate - all must obey civil authority despite differences of faith
- Catholic Church - largest land-owner in German states (1/7th of the land)
- Peasants & artisans paid taxes to Church & nobility
- Cath. & Prot. nobles united to crush it, Luther supported Nobles
- 100,000 killed, many more wounded or maimed
- Nobles were winners - they simultaneously defeated peasants &
confronted the HRE’scentralized authority over them

8. Upper Class Reaction -The German Princes and Lutheranism:
- Resented Church’s taxes which drained German lands of wealth
- Popes were almost always Italian, Cardinals were Italians, Frenchmen,
and Spaniards
- Luther knew he needed the Princes, so he supported their confiscation
of Church lands, encouraged peasants to obey them
Many princes openly converted to they could collect their own
religious taxes, eliminate power of church courts, and wipe out
church territorial boundaries that divided their lands (dioceses)
- Some free cities did the same for the same reasons

9. Huldrych Zwingli & John Calvin
-Huldrych Zwingli ( ) - Swiss preacher from Zurich who attacked Church corruption & other Church dogma
differed with Luther on concept of Transubstantiation- idea that Christ is literally present in the bread (Eurcharist) and wine - that it is miraculously transformed through the mass into the
actual body and blood of Christ:
Luther believed it, Zwingli believed the bread & wine were SYMBOLS of Christ’s union w/ believers
attempts to reconcile their opposing views failed – other rifts formed that split the Reform movement into several different sects
Huldyrch Zwingli

10. *Agreed with most Lutheran thought
CALVINISM
JOHN CALVIN - French clergyman, humanist, lawyer - a generation younger than Luther
*Agreed with most Lutheran thought
Institutes of the Christian Religion - his most famous work - denounced Church, professed his views
Calvin’s key focus:
PREDESTINATION - your salvation/damnation is already known by an omniscient God. You cannot “earn” salvation -

11. LUTHER VS. CALVIN
1. Calvin more obsessed w/ predestination - believed very few were
saved - piety was a sign that you were saved.
2. Role of the state - Luther revered civil authority, Calvin rejected it
outright.
Lutherans had leaders similar to Bishops, Calvinists had self-
contained communities that elected their own ministers
4. Calvinists - militant, uncompromising - called “Puritans” in Britain
and America
5. Luther retained music, altars, ritual, Eucharist – Calvin forbade
instrumental music, all sacraments, vestments, religious images

12. - Laypeople of Zurich who took Zwingli’s lead and had
Anabaptists
- Laypeople of Zurich who took Zwingli’s lead and had
their own rebellion
- rejected infant baptism & insisted on adult baptism
- lead by the artisan class, supported by middle & lower classes
- radical pacifists who rejected civil authority
- many executed by Zurich magistrates at Zwingli’s urging for
not swearing allegiance to him and bearing arms
- condemned by HRE, it spread rapidly in southern Germany
- They seized the city of Munster, abolished private property, created
a commune that allowed men to have multiple wives
- City retaken by combined Cath/Prot. army - leaders’ bodies
displayed in cages hung from the church tower

14. New Forms of Discipline:
- Peasant revolt scared people & turned middle class against the
chaos of the lower classes - they urged self-discipline through several activities:
- Reading the Bible - part of daily life. It was translated into
the vernacular of multiple languages - protestants preferred it, the
Catholic Church eventually followed suit, contrary to past practice.
Public Relief for the Poor - The states, often under converted protestant leadership, sought to rid society of “vagabonds” through public charity
Reforming Marriage - Prot. reformers wanted to end clerical celibacy and make marriage an official institution in both
civil and religious life - it was viewed as essential to a stable
society

15. The Anglican Church in England
HENRY VIII - “Defender of the Faith”
- Wanted a male heir to ensure stable succession of the Tudor line
- Wanted divorce from Catherine of Aragon, daughter of Ferd. & Isab. of Spain, to marry Anne Boleyn
-C of A’s nephew was Charles V, HRE - Pope could not afford to offend him, refused annulment
ACTS OF SUPREMACY - HVIII established the Anglican Church with himself as its spiritual head - still mainly Catholic in doctrine

16. Anglican impact on Catholic England:
- All Catholic tax revenue redirected to the crown
- All papal court appeals/authority dissolved
- Sir Thomas More – Chancellor to the king – executed for publicly
opposing Henry’s divorce
- Dissolved monasteries, confiscated all Church lands, redistributed it
- In Practice – not much changed – Anglicanism greatly resembled
Catholicism in doctrine and practice

17. Edward VI – Succeeded H8, influenced by reformists, radically changed
religious practice to emulate Calvinist/Protestant ideology
- Priests could marry, faith alone = salvation, English mass,
new version of the Bible, reduced sacraments to 2
Mary Tudor – H8’s daughter – succeeded E6 – daughter of Catherine
of Aragon
- Mad that Mom got the boot
- Reinstituted Catholicism
- Persecuted all Protestants – “Bloody Mary”

18. Elizabeth Tudor – Daughter of H8 & Anne Boleyn
The Elizabethan Compromise -
- Puritans (Eng. Calvinists) wanted Eliz. to eradicate all Catholic
ritual from Anglicanism
- 39 Articles of Religion - issued under Eliz., it included much
Catholic ritual along w/ Calvinist practices
- Puritans denounced it, under-cut Anglican authority by
setting up local Presbyteries -localized Puritan councils
that included the minister & town elders
- Puritans encouraged Bible reading, adopted King James Bible,
named after Mary Stuart’s (Scotland) son James

19. Catholic Reaction:
COUNCIL OF TRENT - 2 goals - reform & establish doctrine
of the Church
Major results included:
- Reaffirmation of salvation by Faith & Good Works
- Reaffirmation of Vulgate as the official Bible
- Reaffirmed transub., priesthood, conf. & absol., purgatory
- Reaffirmed practice of indulgences
- Cemented break w/ Protestants - eliminated hope of
compromise w/ them

20. New Religious Orders - Society of Jesus - AKA the “Jesuits”:
- established by Ignatius Loyola, Sp. nobleman
- the most vigorous defenders of the Pope
- established hundreds of colleges in Eur., As., Africa, eventually America
- their activities restored confidence in
the church’s power to Catholics
- became chief missionaries of the
Church