The
Renaissance
What is the Renaissance?
● This came after the Middle Ages and the Plague
○ With the population decrease from the plague there was more
food than ever before
○ This allowed people to have more time and money to focus on
other things, besides just basic food production
○ This will lead to a search for new ideas, and to the
Renaissance
● Renaissance means rebirth
● It was a renewed interest in: art, literature, science, and learning
● These ideas had been a focal point of ancient Greece and Rome,
but had been lost during the Middle Ages
The
Reformation
Vocabulary
● Monk: A man who dedicates his life to religious study (often living in
poverty and with strict obedience to the rules of the religion)
● Protestant Reformation: A movement to reform (change/ fix) abuses
within the Catholic Church
● Purgatory: A place of suffering where the souls of sinners go to
amend for their sins before going to heaven
● Indulgences: Pardons issued by the pope of the Roman Catholic
Church. They were said to reduce your time in purgatory
● Relic: An object of interest that survived from an earlier time
● Worldliness: Being concerned with material things and things on
earth rather than with spiritual issues
● Clergy: Church leaders
● Excommunicated: to be excluded from the church
The Church
● Remember: the church united all of Europe and priests were
highly respected
● The Renaissance opened people up to new ideas and ways of
thinking, they read more and were better educated than they
had been in the past
● People began to question the church’s teachings, thinking it had
strayed from its spiritual roots
Issues with the Church
● Church had expanded its influence, wealth, and worldliness
● As the church grew, so did:
○ Financial corruption
○ Abuse of power
○ Immorality
○ High taxes
● People began to lose respect for church leaders
● Sale of indulgences:
○ What they were: a pardon a person could buy from the pope to reduce their
time in purgatory (Catholics believe after you die you go to purgatory to work
off sins you have committed)
○ This was one of the most criticized of church practices
Martin Luther
● He was a German monk
● He is credited with the official start of the Protestant Reformation in 1517
● Luther wrote 95 Theses or issues he saw within the church, this included:
○ Selling of indulgences
○ Criticizing the power and wealth of the church
○ He also expressed that:
■ Jesus (not the pope) is the head of the church
■ That faith (not good works) is the way into heaven
● Luther wrote these in Latin and nailed them to the church door
○ They were meant for church leaders and Latin was used by church leaders, but was not common among “regular”
people
○ The church door acted as a form of a community bulletin board at this time
● Luther also translated the bible into German so regular people could read it. He
believed individuals should read and interpret scripture themselves as true
Christian practices should come only from the bible
Spread of Luther’s Message
● The printing press made it so copies of Luther’s message were spread across
Europe
○ It was read by: intellectuals, clergy members, and laypeople (regular people)
● Luther also continued to share his message through speeches
● Many people agreed with Luther’s ideas and the desire for church reform grew
Consequences for Luther
● In 1520 Luther was excommunicated from the
church
○ Do you think he cared?
● In 1521 he was called to appear before the
Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, and the
German assembly in the city of Worms
○ They tried to get him to change his
opinions and Luther refused
○ Charles V handed down the Edict of
Worms condemning his writings and
saying that Luther was an outlaw
Lutheranism
● Despite the setbacks he faced, Luther’s ideas were accepted by many people
and spread
● By 1530, Lutheranism was a new branch of Christianity
● Charles V tried to stop the Lutheran movement in Germany, but people
protested, which is where we get the word “Protestant”
Luther Movie
Martin Luther: Monk
who started the
Protestant Reformation
Johann Von Staupitz:
Leader of the
Augustinian Order (the
group of monks Luther is
part of)
Spalatin: Old friend of
Luther's. Secretary to
Prince Frederick the Wise:
Prince Frederick.
Prince of Saxony, place where
Luther takes his stand
Girolamo Cardinal Cajetan:
Aleander: A church leader in
The pope’s charge of bringing
secretary charges against
Pope Leo X: Pope at the
Luther
start of the Protestant
Reformation
Charles V: Holy Roman
John Tetzel: Monk who
Emperor
sells many indulgences
The Spread of Protestantism
● After Luther’s stand against the
church, Protestant ideas spread.
● Other countries split from the
Catholic church for their own
reasons, and new versions of
Christianity spread from those
areas as well.
○ In England, the king
separated the country from
the church in order to
divorce his wife
○ In Switzerland, John Calvin
spread his ideas about
Christian teachings.
Counter-Reformation
● The Counter-Reformation were early reform movements within the Catholic
church
○ Even before Martin Luther, some Catholics wanted to change issues they
saw with the church
○ After Luther, the Counter-Reformation began and they started to
implement some of these changes
● Council of Trent
○ Called together by the Pope
○ Was supposed to redefine the doctrines of the church
○ Addressed the abuses and corruption within the church
○ They also said that the Catholic Church was the way to salvation,
making a clear statement that they did not believe in or support
Protestant ideas
