The Protestant Reformation

1
The Protestant Reformation

• Christianity Divided

2
The Role of the Church

• Law Order European wide Canon Law
• Social Services help for the poor sick
• Diplomatic services Intermediaries
• Preservation of Culture books, universities,
  art, music
• Education teachers, scholars, judges, diplomats
  ministers of state
• Spirituality - comfort in a dangerous world

3
The Church

• The whole body of the faithful, lay and cleric
  alike, alive and dead.
• As far as the people were concerned, the Church
  was the same thing as European society as a whole

4
Why a Reformation ?

• The Church was always being reformed
• Wanted to go back to the pure roots
• The Church in Rome had introduced false doctrine
• There was no actual unified Church
• Defenders of the Church saw it as a sick tree
  that needed pruning
• Attackers saw it as a dead tree that needed to be
  cut down at the trunk

5
The Four Pillars of Christian Authority

• Tradition Church Councils
• Scripture
• Personal experience
• Reason

6
What were the issues?
7
Clerical Abuse

• Simony
• Pluralism
• Absenteeism
• Nepotism
• Benefit of Clergy
• Ignorance
• Immorality

8
The Babylonian Captivity

• Using the excuse of violence in Rome the French
  King, Philip IV, bribed the Cardinals to elect a
  French Pope
• Moved the Papacy to Avignon on the French border
  - 1309
• While in Avignon 116 out of 134 Cardinals named
  were French
• Pope Gregory XI returned to Rome - 1377

9
The Great Schism (1378 1415)

• The Cardinals at first elected Pope Urban VI but
  he proved to be too reformist and mentally
  unstable
• The threat of reform caused the French Cardinals
  to return to Avignon and choose a new Pope
  Clement VII
• Each Pope excommunicated the other and all of
  their followers

10
The Great Schism divides Europe
11
The Case against the Church

• They were too worldly
• They were too wealthy
• They were too corrupt
• Everything in Rome is for sale
• They were too immoral
• They were too ignorant

12
Desiderius Erasmus

• Pious Christian Intellectual
• Member of the Augustinians
• Widely traveled
• Prolific writer
• Wanted to return to the philosophy of Christ

13
The Prince of Humanists

• The central problems of the Church were ignorance
  and immorality
• Wrote
• Handbook of the Christian Soldier (1503)
• Praise of Folly (1511)
• Greek translation of The New Testament
• (1516) dangerously subversive
• His was a rare voice for religious toleration

14
Martin Luther
15
Martin Luther (1483-1546)

• Born in central Germany
• Son of a peasant (mine owner)
• Studied the Law
• Had a deeply moving religious experience
• Became an Augustinian monk
• Studied Biblical theology
• Professor at Wittenburg University

16
Luther as Reformer

• Opposed the sale of Indulgences
• Posted his 95 Theses (Nov. 1517)
• Thanks to printing presses his message was spread
  rapidly all over Germany
• Excommunicated by the Pope declared a heretical
  outlaw (april, 1521)
• Hidden by Frederick of Saxony to protect him from
  the Pope and Emperor

17
Map of the Reformation
18
Luthers German Bible

• While in hiding he translated the Bible into
  German
• Called on the German princes to reform the church
• Very popular with the people who detested Rome

19
Three Core Beliefs

• Justification by faith alone
• Sola Fide!
• Scripture is the sole source of authority for
  Christian doctrine and practice
• Sola Scriptura!
• The priesthood of all believers

20
The Spread of the Reformation

• Switzerland (1523)
• Huldrych Zwingli
• Converted the city of Zurich to Protestantism
• The Reformed Church
• Killed fighting Swiss Catholics (1529)

21
The Peasants Revolt (1524-1525)

• German peasants with economic grievances against
  the Church and nobility adopt Luthers message
• Luther initially supports but then condemns the
  peasants
• The peasants are ruthlessly suppressed
• Largest social revolution in Europe until the
  French Revolution (1789)

22
Radical Protestantism

• Rise of the Anabaptists
• Melchior Hoffman (1530)
• Conflict with the earlier reformers
• The Kingdom of Munster (1534-1535)
• Anabaptism suppressed

23
John Calvin

• Born in France but has to flee to Geneva
• Trained in the Law
• Develops his own theology based on the awesome
  majesty of God
• Spends his whole life in exile

24
Calvins Theology

• Institutes of the Christian Religion (1559)
• Double Predestination
• Some are born saved and some are born damned
• A denial of predestination is a denial of Gods
  power
• A holy Christian life is a sign of election

25
Calvinism Spreads

• Calvinism will spread to France where they are
  called Huguenots
• It spreads to Scotland thanks to John Knox
• Presbyterianism
• It spreads to England and then to America
• Puritanism / Congregationalism
• It spreads to the Netherlands and becomes the
  official religion of the Dutch Republic

26
The Counter-Reformation

• The Catholic Church responded to the Reformation
• It is late and not effective
• 4 kinds of argument used
• The longtime support of tradition
• Biblical support for the authority of the Church
• Too many contradictions within Protestantism
• Heresy leads to political, social, moral decay

27
Catholic Efforts at Reform

• The Council of Trent (1545 1563)
• Clarified and defined disputed doctrines
• Justification by faith and works
• Confirmed all 7 sacraments
• Called for a new trained clergy
• Added new Orders - The Jesuits
• Looked outward beyond Europe for souls

28
The World was changing

• The growth of cities
• International trade
• The Black Death
• The age of exploration
• The rise of the new nation-states
• The rise of science