• One peasant compared the clergy to “wicked wolves,” protesting, “Instead of saving the souls of the dead and sending them to Heaven, they gorge themselves at banquets after funerals.”
A. Martin Luther, a German monk and professor, drew up 95 thesestheses, or arguments, against indulgences.
B. He argued that indulgences had no basis in the Bible.
C. This sparked the ProtestProtestantant ReformationReformation, the period when Europeans broke away from the Catholic Church and formed new Christian churches.
• People can reach heaven only through faith in God.
• Masses can be said in the vernacular.
• The pope cannot grant a pardon for sins.
• The Bible was the only source of religious truth.
A. The Church told Luther to recantrecant, or give up his views – he refused.
B. Luther then had to go to the Diet of WormsDiet of Worms, in which Charles V asked him to recant – he refused.
D. Luther’s followers, or LutheransLutherans (eventually, ProtestantsProtestants) spread his ideas through Europe using the printing press.