Martin Luther starts the Protestant Reformation in 1517 by nailing his 95 theses criticizing the Catholic Church's sale of indulgences to the door of the Wittenberg chapel. This sparks a religious movement to reform the Catholic Church. Luther argues that salvation comes through faith alone, not good works, and that the Bible is the sole religious authority, not Church doctrine or the Pope. Though tried for heresy, Luther gains protection from Frederick the Wise and continues leading the growing Lutheran movement. Meanwhile in England, King Henry VIII establishes himself as head of the newly-formed Church of England when the Pope refuses to annul his marriage, allowing Henry to divorce and seize Church lands. The Reformation spreads religious and political changes

1. Luther Starts
the
Reformation

2. Learning Goals:
• Analyze historical forces and religious
issues that sparked the Reformation
• Race Martin Luther’s role in the religious
movement to reform the Catholic Church
• Analyze the impact of Luther’s religious
revolt

3. 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.

4. Causes of the Reformation
• The spread of Renaissance ideas and
claims of corruption among the clergy
undermine the Catholic Church’s authority
• In the 1200s & 1300s, John Wycliffe &
John Huss criticize Church practices
• In the late 1400s, Savonarola calls for
Church reforms

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

6. • Politics
• The northern Italian city-states didn’t 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 didn’t want
other entities that could lessen that
centralization. Also, men with power don’t like
sharing it much.

7. • 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.

8. • 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 Magnificent’s
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.

9. Pope Leo X

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

11. Pope Clement VII
Look familiar?

13. In this environment comes Martin Luther

14. • Luther was an Augustinian monk and a pretty devout
one at that.
• 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.

15. • 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. God’s 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.

16. • In Luther’s 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. Peter’s 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

17. • 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.

20. • 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 didn’t need others to
interpret the Bible for them.

21. • Luther’s actions didn’t go over well with the Church, but
it was relatively slow to act since it didn’t 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, it’s too late to stop it.
Luther only becomes more radical, rebellious, and
insistent.
• Luther’s 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.

22. • He translates the Bible into German so that common
people can understand it (they didn’t know Latin so
well) and eventually becomes the leader of the full-
fledged movement of Lutheranism.

23. • 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.

24. • He also came out against the Peasant Revolt
• The peasants were trying to apply Luther’s
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 didn’t much trust Luther after
that.

25. • 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).

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

27. England also goes Protestant
• It was done by this
handsome devil:
King Henry VIII of England

28. • 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
didn’t 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 didn’t permit divorce, but it
would grant annulments, which essentially say the
marriage wasn’t legal to begin with.
• Henry tries to get his marriage annulled on
interesting grounds in 1527. It doesn’t work
because Pope Clement VII doesn’t want to cheese
off Spain and especially didn’t want to cheese of the
HRE Charles V (Catherine’s nephew) whose troops
were kinda occupying Rome at the time.

29. • So, Henry still needs a male heir, but can’t get a
legitimate one without a new wife, which means
divorcing his current wife, which the Catholic Church
won’t allow, or annulling his marriage, which the
pope won’t grant.
• What’s a king to do?

30. • 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 wasn’t chump
change.

31. 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.

32. Henry at 18

33. • He had six wives.

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

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

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

37. 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.

38. 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.
• She’s beheaded two days
later in 1542.

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

40. One more thing… that
painting at the beginning is a
Hans Holbein. Check the
detail.

43. 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.

44. 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.”

45. Mary I
• Queen from
1553-1558.

46. • Also known as Bloody Mary.
• Mary was Catholic and she didn’t 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.

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

48. • 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 she’s 13 and she goes to live with
Catherine Parr.
• She becomes fluent in English, Spanish, French,
Italian, Latin, and Greek.
• When she’s 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.

49. 13-year-old Elizabeth

50. • She’s coronated at
the age of 25.

51. • 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.