Unit: Rise of Modern EuropeTopic: The Protestant Reformation

1. Church Abuses

A.Priests hired artists to beautify churches, as well as charging fees for services.

B. As Europe’s largest landowner, the Church charged people high taxes or took their crops.

C.Priests frightened people with stories of Hell, but then gave them hope with Purgatory.

D. Priests sold indulgences, a special pardon to get out of Purgatory and into Heaven.

• One peasant compared the clergy to “wicked wolves,” protesting, “Instead of saving the souls of the dead and sending them to Heaven, they gorge themselves at banquets after funerals.”

2. Martin Luther

Yes!

No!

A. Martin Luther, a German monk and professor, drew up 95 thesestheses, or arguments, against indulgences.

B. He argued that indulgences had no basis in the Bible.

C. Martin Luther nailed the 95 Theses to a Church door!

C. This sparked the ProtestProtestantant ReformationReformation, the period when Europeans broke away from the Catholic Church and formed new Christian churches.

• People can reach heaven only through faith in God.

• Masses can be said in the vernacular.

• The pope cannot grant a pardon for sins.

• The Bible was the only source of religious truth.

3. Luther vs. the Catholic

Church!

A. The Church told Luther to recantrecant, or give up his views – he refused.

B. Luther then had to go to the Diet of WormsDiet of Worms, in which Charles V asked him to recant – he refused.

C. The Pope excommun-icated Luther, or banned him from being a Catholic.

D. Luther’s followers, or LutheransLutherans (eventually, ProtestantsProtestants) spread his ideas through Europe using the printing press.

4. John Calvin, Another

Protestant

A. A French monk, Calvin believed in predesti-predesti-nationnation, the belief that God had determined before the beginning of time who would gain salvation.