The Protestant Reformation

DO NOW ASSIGNMENT• Take a Renaissance handout from

the resource table. Complete the handout.

• Copy down these lesson objectives:– Describe Christian humanism.– Describe Luther’s role in the

Reformation.

What caused the Protestant Reformation?

• Christian humanism– Believed in the ability of human beings to

reason and improve themselves– Wanted to reform the Catholic Church

• Erasmus– Wanted to reform the Catholic Church– He developed the “philosophy of Christ,” meant

to show people how to live good lives on a daily basis rather than how to achieve salvation.

– He did not want to break away from the church.

• People were calling for reform in part because of the corruption in the Catholic Church.

• Between 1450 and 1520 a series of popes failed to meet Church’s spiritual needs.

• They were more concerned with the political interests.

• Julius II, the “warrior-pope,” even led armies against his enemies.

• Indulgences: release from all or part of punishment for sin.

Martin Luther• Was a monk and a professor where he lectured on the

Bible.• Through his study of the Bible, Luther began to reject

the Catholic teaching that both faith and good works were necessary for salvation.

• He believed that human deeds were powerless to affect God and that salvation was through faith alone.

• Justification by faith alone is the Protestant Reformation’s chief teaching.

• The Bible, not the Church, became the primary source of religious truth.

• The widespread selling of indulgences upset Luther.• Legend says, Luther posted his Ninety-Five Theses on

the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg. Who knows? What historians do know is that he sent the letter to his church superiors.

• The Ninety-five Theses attacked abuses in selling indulgences.

• Thousands of copies were printed.• Luther called the German princes to overthrow the

papacy and establish a reformed German church.• The Church excommunicated Luther.• Charles V summoned Luther to appear before him

and the Legislative Assembly and asked him to change his ideas. He refused.

• Charles V issued the Edict of Worms which deemed Luther an outlaw.

• Lutheranism became the first Protestant religion.• Many individual rulers in the German states

supported Luther. • Charles V was forced to make peace with the

Lutheran princes with the Peace of Augsburg.• It accepted the division of Christianity.

• German states could choose between Lutheranism and Catholicism.

• Rulers could choose their subjects’ religion.

• The settlement did not recognize the rights of subjects to choose their own religion.

• It did not recognize religious tolerance.

ASSIGNMENT• Explain the significance of each of these

terms to the Protestant Reformation.– Martin Luther– Christian humanism– Selling of indulgences– The Ninety-Five Theses– Printing– Lutheranism– Edict of Worms– The Peace of Augsburg