1. Warm up!
Why did the Roman Empire come to an end?

2. The Protestant Reformation
Story Time!

3. Once upon a time in the 1500’s, there was a man named Desiderius Erasmus in the Holy Roman Empire. He was a Christian Humanist, a person that wanted to reform the Catholic Church.

4. Erasmus believed that people should live good lives on a daily basis and not just focus on being saved in the afterlife. He said there was a problem- corruption in the church!

5. The church was creating wars, unaware of their spiritual duties, and unable to offer advice. Instead of helping people live Christian lives, they only focused on their death. They sold indulgences which supposedly would get rid of their sins.

6. Martin Luther was a monk and professor at the University of Wittenberg
Martin Luther was a monk and professor at the University of Wittenberg. He agreed with Erasmus about the problems in the church. He wrote Ninety- five Theses attacking the problems in the church and posted them on the door of the Castle Church.

7. The church was outraged and excommunicated him
The church was outraged and excommunicated him. The Holy Roman Empire was mad too! They wanted his work burned and for him to be captured.

8. But Luther escaped them
But Luther escaped them! He came back a year later and started creating state-dominated churches with people that agreed with his reforms.

9. The new religion became known as Lutheranism and the churches as Lutheran. This was the first Protestant faith.
The End