1. The Protestant Reformation

2. The Medieval Catholic Church (500-1500 AD)
Church-only way to being saved and going to heaven was through the Roman Catholic Church
However, with the new ideas of Renaissance humanism people within and outside the church began to question the Church’s teachings and practices

3. The Medieval Catholic Church
Popes and monarchs (kings and queens) were in a power struggle
Italian Papal states fought against France, Spain, Naples and Venice and the German-ruled Holy Roman Empire
One Pope Julius II actually rode into battle against a French king and wore a suit of armor as the head of the Papal armies
Popes would excommunicate kings and queens as way to keep power over them

4. Corruption in the Medieval Catholic Church
Anger against the Church got to the point where the French kidnapped the 86-year-old Pope Boniface VII –he died from the trauma
French set up the papacy in Avignon (SE France)-Babylonian Captivity of the Church

5. Medieval Church Abuses
Priests supposed to be educated, but many could not read or write
Priests and nuns having sex with each
other and with parishioners
Popes raised illegitimate children
(Innocent VII and Alexander VI)
Bishops and cardinals lived lives
of luxury-(gold robes and sumptuous meals) while the common people were desperately poor

6. More Church Abuses and Corrupt Practices
In order to help pay for their extravagant lifestyles, church leaders came up with some corrupt practices
Church charged money for people to see holy relics- Mary’s “breast milk”, fragments of Jesus’ cross, straw from Jesus’ manger, Moses burning bush
Simony- church positions went to highest bidder
Mary’s “Breast Milk’

7. The most controversial and corrupt Practice- Selling of Indulgences
Started in 1200s
Christians would pay money to church officials to have their sins forgiven, get time off from purgatory and then get to heaven
Some priests even had some of their people paying for dead family members to get to heaven

8. Early Calls for Reform
Who were some of the first to speak out against the church corruption and teachings?

9. John Wycliffe
Thought Christians didn’t need the Church or sacraments (communion, baptism, etc.) to achieve salvation
Regarded Bible as most important source of religious authority
Completed first translation of the Bible into our English language
Outcome: the Church persecuted his followers as heretics

10. Jan Huss of the Czech Republic
Criticized the wealth of the church
Believed that religious services should be held in language of the common people, not Latin
Spoke out against the indulgences
Result: he was burned alive at the stake

11. Saint Catherine of Siena, Italy
Mystic and nun- belief that any Christian could experience God on their own through prayer and direct meditation in God’s presence
Viewed as a threat because she taught that the Church was unnecessary for a fulfilling life
Result: she actually lived a long life and many in the church secretly followed her teachings

12. Martin Luther

13. Who was Martin Luther?
German Catholic monk, turned priest turned protestant minister
Left the church and got married
Founder of the Lutherans

14. Why did he protest?
Being saved is not by being good, but by faith in Jesus’ death and resurrection (redemption)
Forgiveness of sins should be by one’s own personal confession directly to God by His mercy, not confession to priest
Angered by the sale of indulgences

15. How did Luther’s criticisms expand into an effort to form a new church?
Wrote the 95 Theses to start debate on Church corruption and question church teachings
He Said:
Church congregations should be able to choose their own ministers
Worshiping saints and the Virgin Mary was sinful
Church Services and the Bible should be in one’s own language, not Latin
Let the priests get married

16. Luther’s Ideas Spread Throughout Europe
What other groups separated from the Catholic Church and formed new religions?

17. What allowed for Luther’s ideas to spread so quickly?
Many leaders wanted to escape the power of the church
People tired of corruption
Rising literacy rates and the invention of the printing press allowed for rapid spread of ideas

18. Anabaptists
In 1525 founded by Germans and Swiss who wanted to take Luther’s ideas even farther
Christians should not be baptized until adulthood
True Christians should go off and live separately and be pacifists (peace, no war)
In the Netherlands, Menno Simons, gave up his position as a priest in the Catholic church, and embraced the Anabaptist beliefs. In 1676, his followers became the Mennonites.
Jacob Amman broke away from the Mennonites and formed the Amish
The Amish, Mennonites and Brethren came from Anabaptism- many of whom fled to America

19. Anglicans (1534) Founded by King Henry VIII of England
Henry was angry at Pope Clement VII’s decision not to grant him a divorce from Queen Catherine of Aragon
Believed the King, not the pope, was the supreme religious authority in England
Broke away from the catholic church, but beliefs kept very similar
Formed the Church of England (The Anglicans) in America it branched off into Episcopalian, Methodist, and the Wesleyan churches

20. Calvinists Founded in 1546 by John Calvin in Geneva, Switzerland
Believed in predestination-God had predetermined before creation who would be saved
Believed a disciplined and strict life were for those who were chosen by God
Ideas popular in France, Holland, Scotland and England
Baptists, Pentecostals, Assemblies of God, Church of God, Presbyterians and the Church of Christ came from Calvinism

21. The Catholic Church’s Response to the Reformation

22. Catholic Church Changes (sort of)-The Catholic Reformation
Positive changes:
Missionary work by the Jesuits- spread message of Christ into Asia, Africa and the Americas
Outlawed simony and indulgences
Got rid of immoral priests and nuns
But….
The Inquisition (1542)-imprisoned, exiled or executed those who had “heretical views”
Still Bible and Church service should be in Latin only
Censored (1539) the Protestant Bibles and writings of scientists like Copernicus and Galileo

23. This is the Catholic church in Philadelphia where I was baptized as a baby. My parents left when I was 6 and we became Protestants