Transcript The Protestant Reformation

The Protestant Reformation
• OBJ: SW develop listening and note-taking skills
and complete guided reading activities IOT
explain why the Protestant Reformation occurred,
the response of the Catholic Church, and the
political and social effects of the Reformation
• WU: How many more books a month could be
produced by one person as a result of the
development of the printing press?
What was the Reformation?
• During the Renaissance, there was a growing
belief that there were things wrong with the
Catholic Church and that something should be
done to correct, or reform the church
• The Reformation starts as an attempt to fix the
Catholic Church but quickly becomes a
splintering of Christianity into many separate
churches.
What were the causes of the
Reformation?
• There were several causes:
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Religious
Social
Political
Economic
All of these causes contributed to the splintering of
Christianity in Europe into many different churches,
some with very different beliefs
The Causes
1.Religious Reasons
• The initial factor
• Some church leaders had become worldly and corrupt
• Several Popes were known to have mistresses and
were involved in politics and fighting wars for control
of territory in Italy
• Many people found Church practices such as selling
indulgences unacceptable
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An Indulgence was a “Get out of hell free
card”
• Early Reformers
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John Wycliffe in England
Jon Hus in Bohemia
Erasmus
Thomas More
• Social Factors
• Renaissance values of Humanism and Secularism led
people to begin to question the Church
• The Printing Press helped to spread ideas critical of the
Church much faster and to more people
• The printing press helped to promote literacy in Europe
• As people started to read the Bible, they began to form their own
opinions on church practices
• Political
• For years the Church had claimed the right to
intervene in the affairs of countries as the Pope was
supposed to be the religious leader of Europe
• As monarchs gained more power in their countries,
they began to challenge the right of the Church to this
claim
• Because the Pope had his own armies and intervened
militarily in affairs in Europe, many leaders began to
view the Pope as a foreign ruler whose authority could
be challenged.
• Economic
• European princes and kings were jealous of the
Church’s wealth
• Merchants and others resented having to pay taxes to
the Church
• The Church also had very strict rules on how much
interest a banker could charge on a loan
• The princes, merchants and bankers were all looking
for a way to weaken the Church’s influence in these
secular affairs