The Reformation

Background
 Beforethe Reformation several
events had already weakened the
Catholic Church. These included:
– The Great Schism
– The Inquisitions
 Theinvention of the printing press
was also significant.
 The Catholic Church in the
Middle Ages
 The Catholic Church
dominated European
religious, social, and
intellectual life for
most of the Middle
Ages.
 It was also the largest
land owner in Europe,
giving it substantial
economic power over
peasants and princes
alike.
The Great Schism (of the
1370s)
 After the death of Pope Gregory XI, the
Church decided to move the papacy
back to Rome after years of it residing
in Auvignon, France.
 Pope Urban VI was elected, but then
the College of Cardinals in France
elected a different pope, Clement VII.
 Each pope excommunicated the other
and claimed the sole papacy, Urban VI
in Rome and Clement VII in Auvignon.
 The tension between the French and
Italian sections of the church greatly
reduced the power of the papacy and
validity of the Catholic Church.
 Not fully resolved until 1429 when the
papacy officially stayed in Rome.
 Inquisition
 Though there were a few
Inquisitions, the first starting in
118o, the most famous is the
Spanish Inquisition.
 After trying to drive out the
Muslims for 300 years, the
Spanish monarchy finally
succeeded in the 1400s and
launched the Inquisition.
 Jews, Muslims, and Christians
accused of heresy-beliefs
different from official church
beliefs-were questioned, tried,
and often burned at the stake.
 Thousands were murdered by
the church.
The Printing Press
 Sixty years before the
Reformation started
German inventor, Johan
Gutenburg, developed a
printing press using
modern techniques from
Asia and Europe.
 His printing press
drastically increased the
availability of books and
thus the new ideas of the
Renaissance and later the
Reformation.
 The Reformation Begins…
 In response to corruption within the
Catholic Church, Martin Luther wrote
his “95 Theses” in 1517 and posted it
on the door of a church.
 The “95 Theses” were taken to a
printer and distributed throughout the
German kingdoms stirring up a lot of
turmoil.
 Lutherans and Protestants
 Martin Luther was excommunicated from
the Catholic Church and his followers
became Lutherans.
 Some German princes converted to
Lutheranism in order to break from the
domination of the Catholic Church and the
Holy Roman Emperor Charles V.
 These princes were said to be in protest of
Catholicism, or Protestant. Protestant
came to mean any non-Catholic Christian.
The Reformation Spreads
 King Henry VIII of
England broke with the
Catholic Church,
putting himself at the
head of a new church
in 1529-later becoming
The Church of England.
 His daughter Elizabeth
I, presided over the
creation of the Church
of England or the
Anglican Church in
1559.
 Calvinism
 In 1536, John Calvin
published “Institutes of
the Christian Religion”
expressing Protestant
religious beliefs in a
more complete form.
 He believed God knew
ahead of time who was
going to be saved-a
doctrine called
predestination.
 The Counter Reformation
 Despite huge growth of Protestantism,
most Europeans remained Catholics. The
Protestant Reformation spurned a move to
reform the Catholic Church as well-known
as the Counter Reformation.
 The Jesuits were an order of monks who
set up schools to stop the spread of
Protestantism in Europe and were sent to
other parts of the world to convert non-
Christians to Catholicism.
 Conclusion
 Though the Catholic Church remained
a dominant power in European politics
and religious life, its power was
nonetheless weakened.
 Protestantism began to become the
religion of choice for the emerging
merchant class and spread
accordingly.