Unit 3: Topic 3 - Empires: Belief Systems Flashcards
What arguments against the Roman Catholic Church appeared as Europe shifted from feudalism to centralized governments?
The Church was subject to corruption. Efforts to curb corruption resulted in numerous Church councils and reform movements. However, efforts at reform were unsuccessful. Theological disagreements began to surface as well. John Wycliffe and the Lollards in England in the late 14th century argued that priests were unnecessary for salvation. The church faced even more pressure when they couldn’t stop the Black Death, leaving many to question their legitmacy.
Who was Martin Luther and why was he important in creating change in the Church?
A monk named Martin Luther in Wittenberg, a German city in the Holy Roman Empire, concluded that several traditional Church practices violated biblical teachings. He objected to the sale of indulgences, which granted a person absolution from the punishments for sin, and to simony, the selling of church offces. He then nailed his arguments on a church door as a sign of protest.
How did Martin Luther help the rights of women?
Martin Luther believed that women could have direct access to God just like men could. Luther’s emphasis on reforming gender roles promoted women’s literacy as he believed that women had signifcant roles in the family, particularly teaching their children to read the Bible.
indulgences
To raise money to build St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, Pope Leo X (1475-1521) authorized the sale of indulgences. The purchase of an indulgence allowed a person to shorten their (or a deceased loved one’s) time in purgatory and, in some cases, forgive sins before they were committed by paying a nominal fee.
How did popes during the Middle Ages ensure obedience from Catholics?
Popes such as Leo X (1475-1521) denied those who opposed them the right to participate in sacraments, a process termed excommunication. Without participation in these sacraments, a Catholic was believed to be sent to hell.
What event signaled the beginning of the Protestant Reformation?
On October 31, 1517, Martin Luther, a priest and professor of theology, nailed his 95 Theses to the door of a Catholic church in Wittenberg, Germany.
Outraged that church members were forced to pay for the forgiveness that was a free gift from God, Luther’s 95 Theses sharply criticized the practice of selling indulgences. The theses were 95 questions designed to provoke debate within the Catholic Church.
What ensured the rapid dissemination of Luther’s 95 Theses?
Since it could reproduce materials rapidly, the printing press allowed for the easy distribution of Luther’s 95 Theses throughout Germany. The printing press had been invented by Johannes Gutenberg, who first used it to print Bibles.
Although Luther insisted that indulgences were errant since only God could forgive sin, he did not intend to break from the Catholic Church, but merely to start a scholarly debate on the subject of indulgences.
How did Luther’s view of salvation differ from that of the Catholic Church?
Luther viewed salvation to be achieved from faith alone, as opposed to the Catholic belief of the taking of the seven sacraments and good works leading to salvation. Thus, Luther’s views stood directly against those of the Pope and the Catholic Church. Those who opposed Catholic teachings became known as Protestants.
What attracted many of the rulers of the North German states of the Holy Roman Empire to Luther’s teachings?
Although Luther’s teachings were attractive in their own right, Lutheranism also gave many of the North German rulers the opportunity to seize Church lands, significantly adding to their holdings. Denmark and Sweden also became Lutheran and, by the 1530s, the Catholic Church and the Holy Roman Empire lost control of most of Northern Europe.
Who followed Luther as the dominant figure of the Protestant Reformation?
John Calvin (1509-1564), a French humanist who was exiled to Geneva, followed Luther as the leader of the Protestant Reformation. Calvin preached predestination, contending that an omniscient God knew in advance who was going to heaven and hell. Calvin established a theocracy in Geneva, which became home to Protestant exiles from Scotland, the Netherlands, France, and England. Upon their return to their home countries, these exiles brought Calvin’s teachings with them.
What is the most important difference between Lutheranism and Calvinism?
While both Lutheranism and Calvinism share a belief in justification by faith alone, they differ on the concept of predestination. Lutheranism contends that anyone may attain salvation through faith alone, while Calvinism contends that only those predestined by God will be saved.
What Catholic religious order was founded in the wake of the Protestant Reformation to provide reform within the Catholic Church?
The Jesuits, founded by St. Ignatius of Loyola in 1534, sought to reform the Church from the inside. The Jesuits emphasized education and missionary work, in part to refute Protestant theologians and to prevent Protestantism’s further spread.
In the aftermath of the Protestant Reformation, what steps did the Catholic Church take to reform itself, a process known as the Counter-Reformation?
Several church councils were called, including the Council of Trent, which lasted from 1545 to 1563. These councils refined and systematized Catholic belief and remedied most of the excesses that had provoked the Reformation, including banning indulgences.
So effective was the Council of Trent in reforming the Church that another church council was not called for 300 years.
What led King Henry VIII to break with the Catholic Church?
Henry VIII was obsessed with the idea of having a son. When his wife Catherine of Aragon failed to give him one, he asked the Pope for a divorce. The Pope was under the control of Catherine’s nephew and denied the request.
Henry banished Catherine, married Anne Boleyn (who he would later behead), and started the Anglican Church. Although technically Protestant, the Anglican Church was far more similar to Catholicism than it was to Lutheranism or Calvinism.
Sahkulu rebellion
A wide-spread pro-Shia and pro-Safavid uprising in Anatolia, directed against the Ottoman Empire in 1511. The Safavid dynasty was consolidated and founded by Ismail I in the early 16th century. Ismail, being a champion of Shiite faith and partially a Turkmen, was also sympathetic to the Turkmen of the Ottoman Empire. In the decades preceding the events of the rebellion, due to the fluid religious character of the region, the primarily Sunni Ottoman state demonstrated a notable tolerance towards Shia Islam. However, beginning in the early 16th century, this tolerance began to recede, resulting in the revolt
