Reformation

Question 1

What started the Reformation though?

Answer 1

Well, the reputation of the church declined!

• Initially, the centralization of the church office was good… But when the church became almost indistinguishable from a secular power, it was a problem!

AND THEN

Babylonian Captivity

• Italian popes were THE thing in Rome
  BUT ALL OF A SUDDEN
• Clement V, of France, elected in 1305, power shifted to France.
  THEN
• Clement V moved to Avignon, France in 1309 and French Kings controlled the papacy until 1378.
  THEN
• England, at war with France, refused to send money to a French pope.
  BOOM = the Babylonian Captivity because it was about 70 years long, like the Babylonian Captivity of Israel.

The Great Western Schism (say that 3 times fast!): 

- It became a total scandal! 
- -> 3 popes all began to defy one another and no one knew who was right! Yikes! Eventually, people began to realize that they didn't need a church to talk to god.

- This moral degradation of the church eventually lead to the platform for the reformation!

All this is important because it has CAUSED the reformation!

Question 2

Martin Luther (1483 - 1546)

Answer 2

Who was he!?

–> He went to law school cause he listened to his father and the one day as he was strolling back from uni through a corn field he got STRUCK BY LIGHTENING and lived SO he joined a monastery!

• He was obsessed with his own guilt and sin and dedicated his entire life to staying pure and abstinent and became a terrific scholar from doing this.
• So, as you do, they sent him to Whittenburg so he could be surrounded by terrific scholars! –> He became a prof at the Uni of Whittenburg and started thinking…
• What was his value as a Christian and - OH MY LORD - faith alone is enough to achieve salvation, everything else is useless!

TURNING POINT ~~~

In 1517, Indulgences came to Whittenburg (you want less time in purgatory? Buy an indulgence! Your sins, BOOM, forgiven!)

• Luther thought this was complete BULL and actually wrote 95 theses about how he would argue with anyone who actually believed this crap and nailed them to the W castle!
• This wouldn’t have been a big deal, but he totally made it a big deal by seriously accusing the church of certain things! (People stopped buying indulgences!)

-

Question 3

Diet Of Worms (1521)

Answer 3

• Charles of Hapsburg was convinced of Luther’s herecy and ordered all his books to be burned, meanwhile Luther was a hero to the people of Germany (wrote in their language, everyone knew about him)
• The duke hid Luther in one of his castle’s and translation of bible into German –> This spread everywhere by printing and created a new religion (Lutheranism) !!
• Revolution are full of unintended consequences

1. Reading his message, thousands of peasants rose up against their landlords
2. Believed the message was to free soul AND body
3. Luther spoke powerfully to the peasants - YOU ARE GOING AGAINST GODS PLAN! - Only thing he agreed to was going against pastors, not everything else! (CHILL PEASANTS CHILL!) … This lead to slaughtering of THOUSANDS of peasants! :(

Question 4

Speyer (1529)

Answer 4

• Another diet (geez, love yourself Europe)
• The peasants were protesting their landlords
• The catholics and the protestants fought a lot!

Question 5

Augsberg (1555)

Answer 5

• Religion of the prince would determine the religion of all his subjects
• Catholic prince? You’re catholic? Protestant prince? Guess what!? You’re protestant.
• Lutheran revolt was stable and revolutionized at this point in Germany –> Broken the church –> Universal church could be separated meant that others could too! - - Now they’re challenged Christendom and Lutheranism!

Question 6

Zwingli (1484 - 1531)

Answer 6

In a nutshell:

• The church tells you mass because we’re recounting what HAPPENED - the priest can’t turn your bread and wine into the blood and body of Christ okay people calm down (Luther)
• Um… okay bro whatever you say… (Zwingli)

–> This leads to disagreement and several branches of Protestantism constantly fighting over who has power!

And then Zwingli (or Luther?) goes and dies, but leaves the field open for second generation of reformers.

• Saw the need for closer identification of state and religion (There should be no difference between laity and the clergy- they’re all normal people! Nothing magical about being a priest!)

BUT NOW… What’s going to happen to the power of the Roman Catholic Church? They were the only thing keeping people in line… —> City council will take care of that!

So they brought in… THE POPO! Constant reminders to society to stay in line!

• Protestantism = stay in line = city council spying on you and making SURE you stay in line :0 = Your life and conscious belonging to the state

Question 7

John Calvin (1509 - 1564)

Answer 7

• Most important of the Second Generation Reformers*
• He studied in Paris as a Protestant, but had to flee France because the King was still a Roman Catholic
• Calvinism was a simplification of religion; not in the bible, don’t do it!
• He saw Geneva as the new Jerusalem! (But it became a living hell for some!)
• God knows your path in life (predestination!) –> Since we don’t know whether we’re going to heaven or hell, we must operate in a way which pleases him - so NO pleasure (dancing, art, music, etc.) because it’ll distract us from salvation!
• So, naturally, the spies returned to ensure that there would be no pleasure taking and Geneva became God’s city, with a strict hierarchy of power starting with the Lord!
• Because of this, everything became almost Totalitarian and it wasn’t an accident - if you didn’t like something, you better pretend like you did!

Yet, Calvinism became super successful! Why?

• Because it was a no nonsense religion! Very straightforward. And it provided a path for people who didn’t really know anything else.
• If you act super great, you’ll go to heaven AND you are special. Plus, if you don’t like someone, just gang up on them!