Protestant Reformation Through Memes

First Schism: Great Schism (1054) Catholic vs. Eastern Orthodox

Catholic Church Complete Control over spiritual matters

Causes: Catholic Church 1. Spiritual Corruption: Selling Indulgences 2. Medicis: powerful family who had control over Catholic Church

Education: 1. Printing Press: made books more available. Increased literacy 2. Humanism: People taught to rely more on reason and logic than the Bible

Previous Critics of the Catholic Church 1. Erasmus 2. John Wycliffe 3. Jan Hus

Origin 1: Catholic Church 1. Attempt at “Universal Religion”, everyone loyal to Catholic Church 2. Desire to have people more loyal to Christianity above their country of origin.

Origin 2: Holy Roman Empire 1. Not an entire Empire, made up of different kingdoms Politically unstable

England Just finished fighting a civil war (War of the Roses, 1455-1487)

Origin 3: Spain Unifies and kicks out Muslims from entire Spanish peninsula (1493) Spanish Inquisition: Desire for Spain to be “purely” Catholic First kicks out all non Christian Spanish or gives them choice to convert to Catholicism, later tortures anyone who does not fully convert Militant Catholicism

Protestant Reformation: Timeline Events

Martin Luther German Lawyer Had “Divine Revelation” became a monk Tried praying, could not get over the idea of going to Hell Made pilgrimage to Rome

1522: Martin Luther: 95 Theses Nailed 95 problems he had with the Catholic Church

Catholic Church Martin Luther -Good Deeds + Faith = Salvation -Talk to God through a Priest -Give money to Church and poor for salvation -Faith alone = salvation -Talk to God one on one -Keep money, if you are good you’ll give to the poor anyway, but not necessary

Diet of Worms (1521) -Council to try to convince Luther he was wrong -it had the opposite effect, Luther gains stronger beliefs against Catholic Church

1531: King Henry VIII splits from Catholic Church (not Lutheran) -becomes head of Anglican Church -Did it to divorce his wife, Catherine of Aragon (sister of Charles V) -gets divorced 6 times -does it to have a male heir

1538: Lutheranism spreads to Denmark, Norway- kings adopt it

1525: Peasants Revolt -Peasants use Protestant Reformation to fight against Feudalism -Martin Luther is against them -Zwingli supports it

1555: Peace of Augsburg -German Princes in Holy Roman Empire who want to convert to Lutheranism can, peasants must convert too. Any princes who want to stay Catholic can. First instance of “Freedom of Religion in Europe, kind of….

1558-1603: Queen Elizabeth of England -Takes over from Mary Queen of Scots (Bloody Mary) -Makes England into more of a Protestant country -Fights against the Spanish (Spanish Armada)- Protestantism is here to stay

1536: John Calvin publishes critique of Catholic Church, joins Protestant Movement Predestination: certain people will be saved and not others, has nothing to do with what you do in your life

1618-1648: 30 Years War -War to determine if a Lutheran could become the Holy Roman Emperor -Later became a war of Protestants vs. Catholics, involved almost all of Europe -Most destructive war in European history after WW1, WW2- 30% of German pop. killed -Spain loses much prestige Charles V