Reformers Newspaper• Use the following slides and the pages in your

textbook to help you complete your newspaper on the Reformation.

• You may report on the topics in a number of ways:– Report– Interview– Song/rap/poem– Eye witness accounts

The Church’s Problems & Criticisms

• Priests and bishops were not religious anymore

• Pope too involved in politics• Church had grown too rich• Sale of indulgences

– A document given by the pope that excused a person from penalties for the sins that he/she had committed

Martin Luther• Luther troubled by the sale of indulgences

among other practices of the Catholic Church• Luther posts his 95 theses on the door of the

castle church in Wittenberg, Germany on October 31, 1517 – THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION BEGINS!!!

Luther’s 95 Theses• Getting to Heaven is based

on Faith not money• The bible was the only

source of religious truth-not the Pope

• Get rid of the Pope• Priests do not have any

special powers• Anyone can talk to God

through prayer• Luther translated the bible

from Latin to German• Said that indulgences should

be banned

• Pope pays little attention to the Luther at first

• Luther attacks the Pope and his threats of excommunication

• The Protestant Reformation further divided Germany

• Those who protest the Roman Catholic Church known as PROTESTANTS!

• Protestants that followed Luther’s teaching were known as LUTHERANS!

Martin Luther cont…

John Calvin

• Calvin taught predestination. This was the idea that God knew who would be saved even before they were born. Nothing that people did during their life would change God’s plan. He thought it was important to live a good life and obey God’s laws.

• In 1542 Geneva, Switzerland made Calvin their religious and political leader.

William Tyndale• Very educated - went to Oxford and Cambridge

University. • 1523, Tyndale moved to London with the

intention of translating the New Testament into English, an act that was strictly forbidden. He passionately believed that the Bible should determine the practice and doctrine of the Church and that people should be able to read the Bible in their own language.

Desiderius Erasmus • Dutch humanist and Catholic priest. Believed

in free will and wrote about it. He wanted people to have better understanding of one another. Did not agree with everything Martin Luther said but did believe in the Protestant Reformation

• Criticized church rituals stating they did not focus on teachings of Jesus or devotion to God

Political Change leads to reform…

• Notion of the Renaissance Prince• Recent War of the Roses created a sense of political

instability for the Tudor dynasty--Henry VIII

• The significance of a male heir to the Tudors• Henry VIII stood against the Protestant Reformation and

was proclaimed the “Defender of the Faith” by the pope.• Henry wanted a boy to ensure a male heir would succeed

him when he died.• His marriage to Catherine only produced a daughter,

Mary

The Reformation spreads to England

• King Henry VIII seeks an annulment of his marriage to the Queen – Catherine of Aragon

• Henry denounces the Roman Catholic Church creates the Church of England and establishes his own supremacy over it – gets his annulment

• 6 wives…

England is Catholic, oh wait…

• Henry VIII - 1st Protestant king• After his death, his daughter, Mary will take

the crown – she is Catholic!! –The rule of “Bloody” Mary–tried to change the country back to

Catholicism, killing many Protestants at the stake

• Mary dies and the crown goes to her half sister – Elizabeth (Protestant)

A Policy of Religious Compromise

• Elizabeth became queen after her sister, Mary died–She created reforms that could be

accepted by both Protestants and Catholics – attacked those who opposed her

–English replaced Latin as the language of prayer in England

• Elizabeth’s reign in England is considered a Golden Age