Daily Question – What is an indulgence?

http://www.history.com/topics/reformation

The Protestant Reformation In the 1500s, the Renaissance in the north sparked a religious upheaval. A call for church reform would shatter Christian unity.

Background Many Europeans led difficult and uncertain lives. In Italy, most people were poor and surrounded by violence. Humanist ideas took hold here and the printing press helped spread Humanist ideas even faster and farther. Humanist ideas encouraged people to question the church.

Church Abuses The church had gotten caught up in worldly affairs. Popes fought not only religious wars but selfish wars as well. Popes led lavish lifestyles, supported the arts, and paid enormous fees to beautify churches. To finance big projects, clergy sold indulgences.

Indulgences Supposed to lessen time in purgatory In Middle Ages, a person could obtain an indulgence through good deeds. During the Renaissance, you could buy them. Early leaders to reform the church John Wycliff Jan Hus

Martin Luther In 1517, Luther sparked the Protestant Reformation. Luther became enraged when he heard about Johann Tetzel selling indulgences in Wittenberg, Germany. Tetzel promised people salvation and their dead relatives entry into heaven as well.

St. Peters in Rome

95 Theses Luther drew up 95 arguments against indulgences and legend has it that he marched up to the door of Wittenberg’s All Saints Church and nailed it to the front.

The church ordered Luther to recant his views. He refused. Luther was labeled an outlaw. Through the help of rich and influential friends, Luther was protected and his ideas spread (printing press).

Luther wanted all people to have access to the Bible. He wanted every town to have a school so children could learn to read and write. He banned indulgences, confession, pilgrimages, and prayers to the saints. He also permitted the clergy to marry.

Chart on page 426

Martin Luther’s Ninety-Five Theses were a call for religious revolt against the German princes reforms within the Roman Catholic Church greater papal authority crusades to spread Christianity