HST 111 LECTURE 10 10 1 12 CLASS NOTES Why did the Protestant Reformation begin The failure of the Catholic Church is a big reason Great Schism weakens the authority and spiritual leadership of the church The Church also became interested above all else in money Many men in the Church had been replaced by nobles and middle class peoples The Church had essentially become a financial industry there was money to be made Another way to make money was to accumulate different clerical offices Pluralism about holding more than one job at a time and being unable to properly devote proper time to all jobs Pluralism led to absenteeism church officials began ignoring their duty and led to the appointment of inappropriate people to offices Leaders ignored their responsibilities and people clamored for salvation The goal was to make money Indulgence piece of paper you paid for that eased your way into Heaven or paid for construction for the church These type of practices made the German Monk Martin Luther attack the church Luther read and studied the Bible What he found in the scriptures was that a Christian could not be saved by faith and good works alone Protestant Doctrine of Salvation Justification by grace through faith alone They are saved by the sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross Those are the twin pillars of the Protestant Reformation If you take the Bible as the true word of God you re challenging the Pope In 1517 Pope Leo X issued a special indulgence to finance the building of St Peter s Basilica in Rome If you gave money to build this church you would get time off from purgatory This indulgence had its own PR campaign and slogan This indulgence tipped Luther over the edge he believed the Church was eternally damned for relying on these papers At this point Luther allegedly nailed his 95 theses to Wittenberg Church This rebellion against the Catholic Church happened after the invention of the printing press and after the Renaissance idea that works written in Latin should be translated Thousands of copies of this were printed it was inevitable a break would occur Main point the Bible is the authority denied power of Pope Luther was excommunicated his works burned Lutheranism quickly spread throughout Germany Because the Bible was ultimate authority a hierarchical structure of the Church was unnecessary Transubstantiation the bread and wine becoming the body and blood of Christ Luther denied this Luther believed in consubstantiation Consubstantiation bread and wine infused with spirit of Christ but not actually Christ Lutheranism became the state religion of many German nations Along with the new church came new religions services which concentrated on reading the Bible in German not Latin Luther denounced clerical celibacy The ability for the clergy to marry became an important part of Protestantism Luther s ideas raised the question what constituted the correct interpretation of the Bible This led to theological confrontation and open warfare Each different Christian group was unwilling to admit they were wrong In Scandinavia the state religion became Lutheranism In Switzerland new reformers such as Ulrich Zwingli emerged Zwingli denied there was any spiritual presence in the bread and wine simply a symbolic act Zwingli destroyed relics and icons of the Church as well as statues of saints that adorned churches purified church Zwingli believed it was all about how you talked to God and how you got to Heaven only not about such distractions as paintings Zwingli s reform was primarily an urban movement rural areas remained conservative This led to a Swiss Civil War over religion Zwingli s army was defeated and he was burned in 1531 Luther was delighted when Zwingli was burned it was not just Catholics v Protestants Extreme groups continued to rise Anabaptists were radical lower class and appealed to workers and peasants They attempted to live very simple Christian lives They believed in separation of Church and state They believed in the statement thou shalt not kill Refused to bear arms and hold political offices If there s one thing both Catholic and Protestants agreed on it was important to persecute these radical groups especially the Anabaptists Because of the persecution the Anabaptists never became a large movement Descendants today are the Amish KEY POINTS Luther attacks corruption in Church Sale of indulgences illiterate and unsuitable clergy excessive power and greed of the Pope Importance of reading the Bible Justification by faith alone Luther s critique of the Church opens the way for other reformations Start of religious violence between Catholics and Protestants