Unit I Part B:
The Spread of Protestantism
So what was the Church Doing?
Calvinists: God has chosen those who shall
be saved and those who won't be, no one controls their own salvation
Church of England: England broke from the
Catholic Church so King Henry could divorce his current wife who gave birth to a girl in favor of one he assumed would bear a male heir.
Anabaptist: Believed that one should choose
whether they wish to be baptized, believing that a true Christian Community is voluntary.
Indulgences: Payment to the Catholic Church
that purchased an exemption from punishment (penance) for some types of sins.
Repentance: the action of repenting; sincere
regret or remorse.
Canon Law: rules made by councils of
prelates of the Catholic church (distinct from rules found in the Bible, like the Ten Commandments)
A bit of an Identity Crisis
The Protestant Reformation
The church said the only way to salvation was through good works. Martin, a monk who taught the Bible came to the belief that in the eyes of god, no amount of good works could save you. The only salvation was through faith in god. I.E. The Bible is the only truth, not the teaching of the Catholic Church, which we will get to later
TL;DR
Martin Luther:
- Faith = Salvation
- In Bible
Catholic Church:
- Good Works = Salvation
- Not in Bible
95 Theses
Martin Luther
The Rise of Lutheranism
Martin was so mad he posted 95 complaints or criticisms of Pope Leo X on the doors of Churches. The biggest complaints were as follows: And I'm paraphrasing here...
1. When Jesus said “repent” he meant that believers should live a whole life repenting
2. Only God can give salvation – not a priest.
3. Only God can forgive -the pope can only reassure
people that God will do this.
4. When you die all your debts to the church are wiped
out and those debts are free from being judged.
Martin Luther is the professor of moral theology at the University of Wittenberg, Germany. Through his studies he became enraged at the Catholic Church
Pope Leo X
During the next few years Luther's ideas
caught fire. The word for Martin Luther's new religious doctrine became Lutheranism.
The spread of this new form of Christianity
was added almost solely by the printing press.
Because all bibles before then were produced
in Latin, only Catholic Priests could read them, leaving the people unable to study and fact check the Church.