John Wycliffe (4.04)
In the 1370s, English theologian and philosopher John Wycliffe began to attack some of the beliefs and practices of the Church. Wycliffe had three main criticisms. First, he objected to the wealth of many clergy members, arguing that the Church, led by the pope, should give up worldly possessions. Next, Wycliffe believed that the Bible, not the pope, was the highest source of religious authority; people should be able to read the Bible for themselves. Lastly, he attacked the Church's teaching of transubstantiation. According to this teaching, the bread and wine used in the Catholic mass were changed into the body and blood of Jesus Christ. Wycliffe's public attacks on the Church aroused bitter opposition. The Church denounced him as a heretic or a person who holds beliefs opposed to official doctrine (known as heresy
John Calvin (4.04)
John Calvin was another major leader of the Protestant Reformation. Calvin was born and educated in France. Like Luther before him, he believed in the supreme authority of the Bible. In 1533, political pressures forced him to leave France, and he settled in Basel in Switzerland. Three years later, in 1536, he published his most important work, Institutes of the Christian Religion, in which he explained his religious beliefs. The book was read by Protestants throughout Europe. Unlike Luther, Calvin believed in the idea of predestination. According to this teaching, God has chosen only certain individuals for salvation. Also unlike Luther, Calvin believed that there should be no separation between politics and religion, and that Christians should build an ideal state. Calvinism rejected the Church office of bishop. Instead, Calvinist churches were governed by elected groups of elders, called presbyters. During the remainder of the 1500s, Calvin's ideas spread through Europe, notably in Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Scotland. Calvinism strongly influenced some English Protestants, as well. These people, known as Puritans were persecuted in England. In search of religious freedom, they traveled to North America, where they became some of the earliest English transatlantic settlers
Martin Luther (4.04)
Martin Luther began his studies in law but soon shifted to theology. He was ordained a priest in 1507. Like John Wycliffe and Jan Hus, Luther was shocked by the Church's great wealth and its sale of indulgences. He also became convinced that humans gained salvation through faith alone, rather than through faith and good works, such as prayer and acts of charity. The grace of God, not human achievements, was the root of salvation. Luther believed more and more firmly that the time for reform in the Church was long overdue. On October 31, 1517, in the German university town of Wittenberg, Luther made his criticisms public by posting a list of 95 Theses or statements, on a church door. This date is usually considered to be the formal beginning of the Protestant Reformation. Less than four years later, the pope in Rome condemned Luther as a heretic and excommunicated or expelled, him from the Church. As the movement for reform grew stronger, Luther faced many challenges. He managed to avoid arrest and execution, became involved in numerous theological disputes, and battled against poor health. One of his greatest achievements was his translation of the New Testament into German, published in 1534. Luther envisioned human life as full of conflict. His own life certainly exemplified this vision.
Elizabeth I (4.04)
Catholics and Protestants competed with each other, sometimes violently, in England. However, under the skillful leadership of Henry's daughter, Queen Elizabeth I, religious rivalries diminished. Although she was a Protestant, she embraced symbols of Catholicism such as the crucifix. Because the Catholic Church did not consider her the legitimate heir to the throne, she embraced the Protestant Church of England. However, to avoid the threat of a Catholic uprising, she needed to find a compromise that would appease both Catholics and Protestants. Elizabeth therefore accepted her role as head of the Church of England, and passed various laws that made membership and attendance mandatory, while keeping many elements of Catholic ritual intact.
Ignatius Loyola (4.04)
Pope Paul III granted permission to a Spanish priest, Ignatius of Loyola, to organize a new society, or order, in the priesthood. This group was known as the Society of Jesus, and the priests who joined it were called Jesuits. Ignatius, who had served as a soldier, prescribed a strict code of discipline for his new order. Jesuits were rigorously trained and were required to take a special oath of obedience to the pope. Their goal was to spread the Catholic faith as missionaries and to educate the young. Within the Church, Jesuits soon rose to an elite position of leadership, renowned for their energy and intellectual ability
John Hus (4.04)
Bohemian religious reformer Jan Hus was strongly influenced by Wycliffe. Hus also raised other important issues. For example, he criticized the practice of simony or the sale of church offices, and he also attacked the sale of indulgences as a sinful practice. The Church allowed people to buy indulgences as a substitute for penance and prayer. These indulgences were believed to decrease or even cancel the time people would have to spend in purgatory as penance for their sins. Hus was convicted of heresy and burned at the stake in 1415
Erasmus (4.04)
Desiderius Erasmus was a Dutch Roman Catholic priest. He spent many years in Italy studying Greek, and he also lived in England, where his close friend Thomas More was also a leader of the humanist movement. Erasmus, who was a very learned man, became the first editor of the Greek New Testament. In his theological works, he criticized the papacy and singled out corruption in the Church. He corresponded with Martin Luther, and many contemporaries and later historians believed that Erasmus had inspired Luther, at least to some degree. In later life, though, Erasmus maintained an independent position. He struggled to establish a middle ground between Catholics and Protestants.
Huldrych Zwingli or Ulrich Zwingli
the Swiss reformer, Ulrich Zwingli, sometimes known in English as Huldrych Zwingli. Zwingli agreed with Martin Luther about many issues. Zwingli attacked corruption in the Catholic Church and developed a new liturgy to replace the Catholic mass. His followers were called the Anabaptists. They believed that adults, and not infants or children, should be baptized. Unlike the Calvinists, the Anabaptists believed the church should be separate from the state. Most of them were pacifists, and they were persecuted for their unpopular views.
John Knox
Knox was the founder of the Presbyterian Church in Scotland. While living in Geneva, he was greatly influenced by the ideas of John Calvin, and was largely responsible for the elimination of the Catholic Church in Scotland.
John of Leyden
In 1534, an extreme Anabaptist from the Netherlands, John of Leyden, led his followers in a takeover of the German city of Münster. This group abolished private property and legalized polygamy, or the marriage of a man to multiple wives. They were defeated and executed the following year.
Henry the 8th
Henry VIII, who ruled as king of England from 1509 to 1547, is most commonly known for his six wives. In England, the Reformation pursued a different course. King Henry VIII wanted his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, to produce a male heir. When she failed to bear a son, Henry asked the pope for an annulment, or cancellation, of their marriage. The pope refused. Henry divorced Catherine anyway and married Anne Boleyn. The pope excommunicated him. Henry then declared himself to be the head of the Church in England. However, members of the Church of England, called Anglicans, continued to use forms of worship that greatly resembled Roman Catholic practices. Officially, though, Anglicans were Protestants since they did not acknowledge the supreme authority of the pope in Rome.
Pandemics/Black Plague (4.01)
Pandemics/Black Plague (4.01) The bubonic plague or Black Death killed about 50% of Europe's population in the mid-1300s, was one of the worst pandemics ever known. About 2,000 years ago black rats, which lived around farms, caught bubonic plague from other species of rats that were infested with plague-carrying fleas. Fleas carried the bacteria that caused the plague and transferred it to the rats. Rats were rampant during this time period. When the fleas find a warm-blooded animal, they jump onto it, drink its blood, and transmit the plague. When infected rats died, the fleas hopped off them and onto other rats—or nearby humans. Bubonic plague was usually fatal to any person who became infected.
Milan, Naples, Rome, Florence, and Venice (4.02)
City-states, of Italy that were influential in Italy's growth and prosper.
Renaissance humanism (4.03)
Renaissance humanism refers to the specific philosophical and artistic movement that began in Italy and continued throughout Europe between the 14th and 17th centuries.
Protestant Reformation (4.04)
The Protestant Reformation was a major 16th century European movement aimed initially at reforming the beliefs and practices of the Roman Catholic Church. Its religious aspects were supplemented by ambitious political rulers who wanted to extend their power and control at the expense of the Church. Some protestant reformers include: Martin Luther and John Calvin
Council of Trent (4.04)
The Council of Trent (Latin: Concilium Tridentinum), held between 1545 and 1563 in Trento (Trent) and Bologna, northern Italy, was one of the Roman Catholic Church's most important ecumenical councils. Prompted by the Protestant Reformation, it has been described as the embodiment of the Counter-Reformation
Indulgences
special grants that released Catholics from the obligation to pray or perform good works as penance for their sins
Council of Trent (4.04)
The Council of Trent (Latin: Concilium Tridentinum), held between 1545 and 1563 in Trento (Trent) and Bologna, northern Italy, was one of the Roman Catholic Church's most important ecumenical councils. Prompted by the Protestant Reformation, it has been described as the embodiment of the Counter-Reformation
Columbian Exchange (4.06)
From the moment Europeans first set foot in the Americas, certain animals, plants, and diseases began to cross the Atlantic. This transfer is called the Columbian Exchange. The Columbian Exchange is one of the biggest ecological events in human history.
Middle Passage(4.07)
In the triangular slave trade, the route from West Africa to the Caribbean along which enslaved Africans were transported is called the Middle Passage. The captains of the slave ships used two methods to load the slaves: loose packing and tight packing. With the first approach, fewer slaves were loaded onto ships with the hope that such packing would reduce losses resulting from disease and death among their cargo.
Counter Reformation (4.04)
The Counter-Reformation was the reaction of the Catholic Church to the Protestant Reformation. It essentially began with the Reformation (1517) and lasted until the Peace of Westphalia (1648) imposed a truce on religious wars
Treaty of Tordesillas (4.05)
The agreement between Spain and Portugal aimed at settling conflicts over lands newly discovered or explored by Christopher Columbus and other late 15th-century voyagers
Anabaptism
Anabaptism ⦁ Bible is supreme authority ⦁ Promoted baptism of adults, rather than infants ⦁ Should be separation between Church and state ⦁ Mostly pacifists
Presbyterianism
Presbyterianism ⦁ Bible is supreme authority ⦁ Do not believe in transubstantiation ⦁ Influenced by Calvinism
Anglicanism
Anglicanism ⦁ Used forms of worship that resemble Roman Catholic practices ⦁ Does not recognize pope as supreme authority
Calvinism
Calvinism ⦁ Bible is supreme authority ⦁ God's grace, and not human achievement, leads to salvation ⦁ Christians should build an ideal state
Lutheranism
Lutheranism ⦁ Bible is supreme authority ⦁ God's grace, and not human achievement, leads to salvation ⦁ Should be separation between Church and state