Religious Reformers, Expansion, and New Perspectives WHAP/Napp
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“The Catholic Church had been a very important societal force in medieval Europe. Not only had people’s lives revolved around religion, but the church had actively defined many other aspects of society, including politics, art, and science. During the era from 1450 to 1750 the church lost significant power in almost every way. Not only were scientists and literary writers beginning to challenge the church, but the Pope’s political power was compromised as centralization of government gave more authority to kings. Starting in the early 16th century, the church’s religious authority was seriously weakened by the Protestant Reformation, a movement led by Martin Luther, a German priest who believed that the church was seriously flawed.
The Catholic Church was very wealthy by the early 1500s. Popes were often from Italian merchant families, and their wealth was bolstered by the many lands that church officials claimed all over Europe. Their land ownership in turn led to great political power that many kings deeply resented. Martin Luther, a priest and teacher at the University of Wittenberg, was troubled by all of these trends, especially as he compared the situation to the modest beginnings of Christianity and his interpretation of the teachings of Jesus. His doubts were provoked by a priest named Tetzel.
Luther placed a great deal of emphasis on the importance of faith, the glue that he believed formed the bond between Christians and God. According to his own writings, his most important revelation was that faith and actions cannot be separated. A true believer will naturally do good works, so the two are intertwined. He believed that the church practice of accepting indulgences directly contradicted this basic building block of true Christianity. Indulgences were payments to the church that insured eternal salvation, life after death in heaven. For example, in 1519, when Luther openly challenged the religious authority of the church, the Pope was conducting an indulgence campaign to raise money for a new basilica for St. Peter’s Church in Rome. Tetzel was the priest collecting indulgences in Wittenberg, who so enraged Luther with his blatant selling of indulgences for promises of salvation that he wrote and openly displayed the 95 Theses, which listed 95 problems with church practices. With this action, Luther did what no priest had dared to do before – openly defy the authority of the church.
The developments after Luther’s posting of the 95 Theses indicate just how dramatically times were changing in Europe. Luther was excommunicated from the church, but he managed to hide from them throughout his long life with the help of many German princes. His writings were widely accepted in Germany, where Protestantism, as the protest movement came to be called, took firm root.” ~ AP World History
1- Why was the Catholic Church an important societal force in medieval Europe? ______
2- Why did some kings and some priests resent the Catholic Church? ______
3- Identify Luther’s beliefs and actions – actions which transformed Europe. ______
I. The Protestant ReformationA. Shattered the unity of Roman Catholic Christianity
B. Began in 1517 when a German priest, Martin Luther, publicly invited debate about various abuses within the Roman Catholic Church
C. Luther posted a document, known as the Ninety-five Theses
D. Luther opposed the sale of indulgences (said to remove penalties for sins) and held that salvation came through faith alone which was theologically revolutionary
E. Faith was a free gift of God, graciously granted to undeserving people
F. According to Luther, sole source of religious authority was the Bible
G. Contrary to original intentions; provoked a schism in Christianity
H. In Protestant-dominated areas, the veneration of Mary and female saints ended
I. Protestant opposition to celibacy and monastic life…closed monasteries/convents
K. Reformation thinking spread with invention of printing press by Johann Gutenberg
L. Luther translated Bible into German (the vernacular – language of the people)
L. For more than thirty years (1562-1598), French society was torn by violence between Catholics and Protestant minority known as Huguenots
M. Henry IV issued Edict of Nantes (1598) granting measure of toleration to French Protestants hoping they would return to Catholic Church
N. Culmination of European religious conflict took shape in Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648), Catholic-Protestant struggle that began in the Holy Roman Empire
O. Peace of Westphalia (1648) brought conflict to an end with agreement that each state was sovereign and authorized to control its own religious affairs
II. The Catholic Counter-Reformation
A. Catholics set about correcting abuses and corruption
B. Council of Trent (1545-1563): reaffirmed unique doctrines/practices, such as authority of pope, priestly celibacy, and veneration of saint, good works
C. Inquisition, Catholic court, established to crackdown on dissidents and heretics
D. New religious orders, such as the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), established
III. Impact of Reformation
A. Catholic Spain and Portugal actively converted Amerindians of Americas
B. New England Puritans were not interested in converting Natives
C. Catholic missionaries actively spread Christianity
D. Missionaries had greatest successes in Spanish America and in Philippines
E. But always syncretism like blending Christian practices with indigenous ideas
IV. Encounters with Christianity
A. Miniscule number of Chinese converted to Christianity
B. Syncretic (blended) religions such as Vodou in Haiti, Santeria in Cuba, etc.
V. Yet Islam during Early Modern Period Too
A. New converts did not generally give up older practices and to more orthodox Muslims, this religious syncretism was heretical
B. Led to movements of religious renewal and reform
C. In Arabia, Muslim theologian, Abd al- Wahhab (1703-1792) wanted a return to a doctrinaire Islam in strict accordance with sharia (Islamic law)
VI. Other Responses
A. Kaozheng or “research based on evidence” took shape in China
B. Flourishing of a devotional form of Hinduism known as bhakti in India
1- What did the Protestant Reformation end in Western Europe? ______
2- In what year did Luther post the 95 Theses? ______
3- What did Luther oppose? Why? ______
4- What did Luther theologically believe about salvation? ______
5- How did Protestantism affect the role of women in religion and life? ______
6- Who invented the printing press and what did this invention help spread? Why? ______
7- Why was the translation of the Bible into the vernacular significant? ______
8- Why was French society torn apart as a result of religion? ______
9- Who were the Huguenots? ______
10- What was the Thirty Years’ War? ______
11- Why was the Peace of Westphalia significant? ______
12- What was the Catholic Counter-Reformation? ______
13- Why was the Council of Trent significant? ______
14- What was the Inquisition? ______
15- What was the Society of Jesus or the Jesuits? ______
16- How did the Reformation affect the Americas? ______
17- Compare the introduction of Christianity in Spain’s Empire and North America. ______
18- Where did Catholic missionaries have their greatest successes? ______
19- Define syncretism. ______
20- Provide examples of religious syncretism in the Americas. ______
21- Who was Abd al- Wahhab and what did he believe? ______
22- Define Kaozheng. ______
23- Define bhakti. ______
1. Which of the following does NOT belong in a list of Catholic doctrines rejected by Martin Luther?(A) Papal authority
(B) Granting of indulgences
(C) Monasticism
(D) Priestly celibacy
(E) Acceptance of the Holy Trinity
2. Where did Luther’s movement first take root?
(A) France
(B) England
(C) Spain
(D) Italy
(E) Germany
3. Which group traces its roots to the Catholic Reformation, sometimes referred to as the Counter-Reformation?
(A) Benedictine monks
(B) Coptic Christians
(C) Jesuits
(D) Liberation theologians
(E) Calvinists / 4. France’s role in the Thirty Years’ War illustrates which of the following?
(A) An emphasis on one’s own geopolitical interests, rather than religious belief
(B) A sincere commitment to pacifistic principles
(C) The influence of religious faith on military decision making
(D) A relentless pursuit of harsh military treatment of civilians
(E) Strict neutrality
5. Which of the following belief systems had little to no following in India by 1750?
(A) Hinduism
(B) Islam
(C) Jainism
(D) Christianity
(E) Confucianism
6. What did Johannes Gutenberg invent that transformed Europe?
(A) the steam engine
(B) the movable-type printing press
(C) the flying buttress
(D) the spinning jenny
(E) the steel plow
Thesis Practice: Change over Time
Analyze continuities and changes in Christian theology from the post-classical era to the early modern era.
______