Luther Starts the Reformation

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Luther Starts the Reformation
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• The Reformation was both spiritually and
  politically motivated.
• It was spiritual for most common folks and
  political for many rulers and nobles (who,
  naturally, were more concerned about political
  affairs), though many rulers had some spiritual
  concerns.

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• Causes
• Weakened Church authority
• Between the Churchs inability to stop the plague
  and its infighting with the Schism, the luster
  of the Church had dulled somewhat in many
  peoples eyes.

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• Proto-Reformers
• Early guys like John Wyclif, Jan Huss, Erasmus,
  and Thomas More paved the way for thinking of how
  things could be done differently in the Church or
  at least of Christianity being different than how
  the Church taught (heretical views according to
  the Church).

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• Renaissance
• The new wave of learning and thinking, which had
  a decidedly secular bent, challenged the
  traditional view in which science, philosophy,
  and Church-based theology were all the same
  thing.
• The humanism aspect focused more on the
  individuals and humans than on the spiritual
  realm.
• The renewed interest in Latin and Greek also
  enabled people to look at the Bible itself.

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• Printing press
• The invention of the printing press around 1450
  allowed new and radical ideas to be mass produced
  and quickly widely distributed.

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• Politics
• The northern Italian city-states didnt much like
  papal interference.
• The burgeoning kingdoms in France and England,
  and the various German princes liked the
  interference even less.
• The strong centralized governments didnt want
  other entities that could lessen that
  centralization. Also, men with power dont like
  sharing it much.

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• Church decadence
• In many places, the upper clergy had become more
  like secular rulers instead of religious
  authorities.
• The Church owned massive amounts of land and was
  part of the feudal system.
• Immorality had become rife in the higher clergy
  with simony and non-celibacy becoming the norm.

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• The popes themselves had become rather decadent
  and worldly with luxury, non-celibacy, and
  exercising secular power.
• The papacy was also increasingly political as
  powerful families competed to put their members
  on the throne of St. Peter.
• Pope Leo X (pope from 1513-1521), for example,
  was Lorenzo the Magnificents second son. He
  continued the Medici ways of luxury and
  patronage, but with Church money.
• Upon being elected, he said, Since God has given
  us the papacy, let us enjoy it. And he did he
  nearly bankrupted the Church which was no small
  feat.

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Pope Leo X
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• The (almost) next pope was Clement VII, Leo Xs
  cousin and Lorenzos nephew/adopted son
  (Lorenzos brother was killed in an assassination
  plot that nearly got Lorenzo too).

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Pope Clement VII Look familiar?
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In this environment comes Martin Luther
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• Luther was an Augustinian monk and a pretty
  devout one at that.
• He was on his way to becoming a prominent lawyer
  (which very much pleased his miner father) until
  he got caught in a violent thunderstorm and swore
  he would enter the monastery if he survived.
• He lived and followed through on his oath (which
  very much displeased his miner father).
• As a monk, he gave his life over to severe
  dedication and privation, hoping his devotion
  would reconcile him to God. It only served to
  emphasize his sinfulness and separation from God,
  however, and starting around 1510, he came to the
  theology that salvation is a gift of God that
  comes through faith alone.

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• Luther was especially put out by the sale of
  indulgences.
• According to Catholic theology at the time, if
  one sinned, you could repent and be given the
  sacrament of penance. While the blame for the
  sin is gone, the sin is not erased and you must
  still be punished for it through temporal
  punishment on earth or in purgatory. Gods
  justice demands it.
• You can, however, lessen the amount of punishment
  by performing acts of merits (you gain heaven
  through Jesus, not the act you merely lessen
  the punishment through the act).
• You can also be spiritually assigned merit by the
  Church via its treasury of merit. This is
  typically done through prayers and such. This
  transfer of merit is an indulgence.

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• In Luthers time, indulgences were being abused.
• Johann Tetzel, a Dominican friar, was given
  authority by Pope Leo X (yes, the Medici one) to
  sell indulgences in order to build St. Peters
  Basilica in the Vatican (you know, the one with
  the big dome).
• Luther was put out AND cheesed off.

A 1517 indulgence from Tetzel that reads, By the
authority of all the saints, and in mercy towards
you, I absolve you from all sins and misdeeds and
remit all punishments for ten days.
Tetzel
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• This spurns Luther to post his famous 95 theses
  on the door to the Wittenberg chapel on October
  31, 1517.
• The 95 theses argued against the way indulgences
  were being used for profit and how they were
  being presented as a way of being able to buy
  your way into heaven.
• The theses were copied and sent off to a printer
  who promptly made copies and then the theses were
  getting distributed all over the place.

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• Luther had a three tiered platform
• Salvation comes through faith alone and not
  through good works
• The Bible is the sole authority and not Church
  dogma or the pope.
• People of faith were equal and didnt need others
  to interpret the Bible for them.

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• Luthers actions didnt go over well with the
  Church, but it was relatively slow to act since
  it didnt take him all that seriously. As far as
  they were concerned, he was just a rebellious
  monk who needed to be whipped back into line.
• Pope Leo X sent some theologians north hoping to
  quell the disturbance. He referred to Luther as
  a drunken German who will change his mind when
  sober.
• Once word gets out, though, its too late to stop
  it. Luther only becomes more radical,
  rebellious, and insistent.
• Luthers is tried for heresy and the Edict of
  Worms is issued, but he gets out of town and
  comes under the protection of Frederick the Wise,
  the ruler of Saxony.

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• He translates the Bible into German so that
  common people can understand it (they didnt know
  Latin so well) and eventually becomes the leader
  of the full-fledged movement of Lutheranism.

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• On the downside
• Luther was a big time anti-Semite who thought
  synagogues should be burned, Jews property and
  money seized, and the people forced into labor or
  expelled. Oh, those crazy Germans.
• He actually did succeed in getting some Jews
  expelled and the pamphlet in which he made the
  claims is sometimes called the blueprint for the
  Nazi pogrom program.

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• He also came out against the Peasant Revolt
• The peasants were trying to apply Luthers ideas
  of egalitarianism to the social sphere. Luther
  came out against them and the German princes
  crushed the revolt, killing around 100,000(!!!)
  peasants in the process.
• The peasants didnt much trust Luther after that.

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• The political aspect of all this is that some of
  the German princes used the Reformation as an
  excuse to throw off the yoke of the Church and
  gain power over their realms. This led to a
  series of wars until the Peace of Augsburg in
  1555.
• The Peace declared that princes could decide what
  religion would be practiced in their realm
  Lutheranism or Catholicism (and only those two).

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• People could move to a place that practiced their
  religion.
• Other religions were persecuted.

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• England also goes Protestant
• It was done by this handsome devil

King Henry VIII of England
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• Henry needed a male heir. Unfortunately for him,
  his wife, Catherine of Aragon (daughter of
  Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain) bore him only
  one daughter. She had other children, but they
  were either stillborn or didnt live long.
• When Catherine turned 42, he was fairly certain
  no male heirs would be forthcoming. Thus, he
  needed a new wife.
• The Catholic Church didnt permit divorce, but it
  would grant annulments, which essentially say the
  marriage wasnt legal to begin with.
• Henry tries to get his marriage annulled on
  interesting grounds in 1527. It doesnt work
  because Pope Clement VII doesnt want to cheese
  off Spain and especially didnt want to cheese of
  the HRE Charles V (Catherines nephew) whose
  troops were kinda occupying Rome at the time.

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• So, Henry still needs a male heir, but cant get
  a legitimate one without a new wife, which means
  divorcing his current wife, which the Catholic
  Church wont allow, or annulling his marriage,
  which the pope wont grant.
• Whats a king to do?

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• Henry takes over.
• He calls Parliament and in 1534 it passes the Act
  of Supremacy, which makes the English king the
  head of the Church in England, not the pope.
• As the head of his own church, Henry can now
  allow his own divorce. Good thing since he had
  already secretly married Anne Boleyn in 1533.
• Henry goes on and seizes all Church land in
  England, including the monasteries. Considering
  the Church owned some 20 of the land, this
  wasnt chump change.

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• Henry VIII stuff
• Henry was an interesting guy.
• By most accounts, he was daring and pretty
  handsome in his youth.
• He was fluent in English, Latin, French, and
  Spanish.
• He was quite athletic and good at jousting,
  tennis, and hunting.
• He was a decent poet and composer.

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Henry at 18
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• He had six wives.

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• Catherine of Aragon
• Left by Henry when no male heir.

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• Anne Boleyn
• Married 1533
• One of Catherines servants.
• In 1536, shes accused of adultery and treason.
  Henry locks her up and has her executed.
• Her sister was a mistress of Henrys.
• Henry was nice and got a skilled swordsman to
  behead her.

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• Jane Seymour
• Henry married her 11 days after Annes execution.
• She was one of Annes servants.
• Finally bears a male heir.
• Dies almost two weeks after the birth.

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• Anne of Cleaves
• Married in 1540
• Was a political marriage for Henry.
• Once the political advantage was gone, Henry has
  the marriage annulled.
• She fares pretty well.

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• Catherine Howard
• Married 1540.
• Henry found out she had affairs before getting
  married and may have committed adultery.
• Got Parliament to pass a law declaring it treason
  for an unchaste woman to marry the king.
• Shes beheaded two days later in 1542.

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• Catherine Parr
• Married 1543
• She survives Henry who dies in 1547.

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One more thing that painting at the beginning
is a Hans Holbein. Check the detail.
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• His kids
• So out of those six wives, Henry has three kids
  that make it out of infancy Mary by Catherine of
  Aragon, Elizabeth by Anne Boleyn, and Edward by
  Jane Seymour.
• This causes problems.

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• Edward VI
• Becomes king in 1547 at the age of nine.
• Dies six years later of tuberculosis, arsenic
  poisoning, or syphilis.
• During his reign, however, English Protestantism
  was significantly advanced and developed.
• Last words Oh my Lord God, defend this realm
  from papistry and maintain Thy true religion.

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• Mary I
• Queen from 1553-1558.

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• Also known as Bloody Mary.
• Mary was Catholic and she didnt like the whole
  Protestant direction the country had been going
  in.
• She turns England back toward Catholicism and has
  300 dissenters executed.
• She also considered herself the only legitimate
  child of Henry VIII.
• Dies of probably ovarian cancer in 1558 at the
  age of 42.

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• Elizabeth I
• One of Englands greatest rulers if not THE
  greatest.
• Kinda ironic considering how desperate Henry was
  for a male heir.
• Reigns from 1558-1603

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• She had a rough time of it early considering that
  her mother, Anne Boleyn, was beheaded when
  Elizabeth was only three.
• The title of princess was taken away from her.
• Henry dies when shes 13 and she goes to live
  with Catherine Parr.
• She becomes fluent in English, Spanish, French,
  Italian, Latin, and Greek.
• When shes 21, she spends two months in the Tower
  of London (not a pleasant place) because she was
  implicated in an overthrow plot against Queen
  Mary.

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13-year-old Elizabeth
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• Shes coronated at the age of 25.

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• Elizabeth steers the state back towards
  Protestantism and again breaks with the Roman
  Catholic Church.
• Institutes various reforms, such as allowing
  priests to marry, services would be in English
  and not Latin, vestments were somewhat simplified.