
What is the Reformation and why is it important?
Why the Reformation is important? The Reformation became the basis for the founding of Protestantism, one of the three major branches of Christianity. The Reformation led to the reformulation of certain basic tenets of Christian belief and resulted in the division of Western Christendom between Roman Catholicism and the new Protestant traditions.
What are 3 causes of the Reformation?
What were the causes of the Protestant Reformation quizlet?
- Clergy. corrupt, immoral; appointed for reasons other than religious devotion.
- Veneration of relics. bones, objects, belief in gaining merit from worshipping Saints.
- Disagreements over belief. transubstantiation.
- transubstantiation.
- Wealth of the church.
- Maritn Luther.
- Indulgences.
- 95 Theses.
How did the Reformation affect society?
The Reformation affected European society by establishing two conflicting religious orders that dominated the countries of Europe, by starting many religious wars, and by prompting a wave of self-reform in the Catholic church.
What did the reformation lead to?
The Reformation led to the reformulation of certain basic tenets of Christian belief and resulted in the division of Western Christendom between Roman Catholicism and the new Protestant traditions. The spread of Protestantism in areas that had previously been Roman Catholic had far-reaching political, economic, and social effects.

What changed after the Catholic Reformation?
Various aspects of doctrine, ecclesiastical structures, new religious orders, and Catholic spirituality were clarified or refined, and Catholic piety was revived in many places. Additionally, Catholicism achieved a global reach through the many missionary endeavours that were initiated during the Counter-Reformation.
What were 3 Results of the Reformation?
Improved training and education for some Roman Catholic priests. The end of the sale of indulgences. Protestant worship services in the local language rather than Latin. The Peace of Augsburg (1555), which allowed German princes to decide whether their territories would be Catholic or Lutheran.
What two social changes resulted from the Reformation?
Numerous political reforms occurred as a result of the Protestant Reformation, including: Increased authority of local princes in the Holy Roman Empire. Decreased power of the Holy Roman emperor. Increased religious tolerance in the Holy Roman Empire.
What changed in Europe after the Reformation?
Along with the religious consequences of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation came deep and lasting political changes. Northern Europe's new religious and political freedoms came at a great cost, with decades of rebellions, wars and bloody persecutions.
How did the Reformation change society?
Ultimately the Protestant Reformation led to modern democracy, skepticism, capitalism, individualism, civil rights, and many of the modern values we cherish today. The Protestant Reformation increased literacy throughout Europe and ignited a renewed passion for education.
Why is the reformation important today?
The Reformation still matters today because Scripture alone is still our supreme authority for faith and practice. In the minds of many medieval Christians, Scripture and church tradition were treated as more or less equal authorities.
What was the lasting impact of the Protestant Reformation?
The Reformation's legacy has been hotly debated. It has been credited with increasing literacy rates, improving the lives of women, birthing modern capitalism, advancing the scientific revolution, and giving rise to the Protestant work ethic.
What were the effects of the Protestant Reformation?
The effects of the Protestant Reformation were profound on every level. Literacy rates improved dramatically as Protestants were encouraged to read the Bible for themselves, and education became a higher priority. The concept of propaganda was established and used to advance personal or group agendas.
What are the causes and effects of Reformation?
The corruption in the church with the political and economic power of the church and brought resentment with all classes especially the noble class. People made impressions that church leaders had cared more about gaining wealth than ministering the followers.
What were the social effects of the Reformation on Europe?
The Reformation itself was affected by the invention of the Printing Press and the expansion of commerce which characterized the Renaissance. Both Reformations, both Protestant and Catholic affected print culture, education, popular rituals and culture, and the role of women in society.
What were important ideas from the Reformation?
The reformers rejected the authority of the pope as well as many of the principles and practices of Catholicism of that time. The essential tenets of the Reformation are that the Bible is the sole authority for all matters of faith and conduct and that salvation is by God's grace and by faith in Jesus Christ.
How did the Reformation impact politics?
The massive turmoil that the Reformation caused had a lasting impact on European politics. Soon after the Catholic Church deemed Martin Luther a “protestant,” Europe became divided along confessional, as well as territorial, lines. The religious turmoil of the period led to warfare within most states and between many.
What were the main results of the Reformation?
The Reformation became the basis for the founding of Protestantism, one of the three major branches of Christianity. The Reformation led to the reformulation of certain basic tenets of Christian belief and resulted in the division of Western Christendom between Roman Catholicism and the new Protestant traditions.
What was the result of the Catholic Reformation quizlet?
The catholic church became more unified. The role of education became more important. Its questioning of beliefs and authority laid the groundwork for enlightenment.
What were the effects of the Protestant Reformation?
The effects of the Protestant Reformation were profound on every level. Literacy rates improved dramatically as Protestants were encouraged to read the Bible for themselves, and education became a higher priority. The concept of propaganda was established and used to advance personal or group agendas.
What major events happened in the Reformation?
1519: Reformist zeal sweeps the south. ... 1520: Rome flexes its muscles. ... 1521: Luther stands firm at Worms. ... 1525: Rebels are butchered in their thousands. ... 1530: Protestants fight among themselves. ... 1536: Calvin strikes a chord with reformers. ... 1555: Charles V brokers an uneasy peace with Lutherans.More items...•
Where and when did the Reformation start?
The Reformation is said to have begun when Martin Luther posted his Ninety-five Theses on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany, on...
What did the Reformation do?
The Reformation became the basis for the founding of Protestantism, one of the three major branches of Christianity. The Reformation led to the ref...
Who were some of the key figures of the Reformation?
The greatest leaders of the Reformation undoubtedly were Martin Luther and John Calvin. Martin Luther precipitated the Reformation with his critiqu...
What did the Reformation reclaim?
Second, the Reformation reclaimed a biblical idea of the pastorate. The Reformation also reclaimed the biblical picture of what a “pastor” or “priest” is supposed to be. The days of unintelligibly going through the motions had passed.
What does a pastor do after the Reformation?
Post-Reformation, pastors no longer try to impart grace or effect salvation in any way. They merely lift eyes to the cross and all the heavenly blessings therein. They’re no longer fountainheads of grace, but arrows pointing us to the inexhaustible riches that God’s people have in Christ.
When did Luther and Zwingli meet?
This disagreement came to a head in October 1529 when Luther and Zwingli met, at the behest of Phillip of Hesse, to attempt a pan-Protestant alliance over and against the Pope and his pressing military force.
What is Martin Luther's legacy?
Martin Luther has a complex legacy. Many laud him as a historical and theological hero—the German reformer who drove a nail through the heart of works-based righteousness. Others lambaste him as a derisive, ego-driven anti-Semite. And still others champion Luther as the humanist’s humanist, a 21 st -century man liberating personal freedom ...
What did the Reformers point to?
The Reformers pointed to the Christian’s “alien righteousness,” attained fully through Christ’s finished work at Calvary. This understanding upended the Roman Catholic Church and its notions of “progressive,” drip-drip-drip justification. Luther’s fully fleshed-out soteriology was still to come, and only after an intense study of Scripture.
When did Zwingli start preaching?
On January 1, 1519 , Zwingli, still a “Roman Catholic” priest at this point, did away with the traditional Latin lectionary and began expository sermons on the New Testament in his own native tongue (George, 113). By 1525, he’d finished the entire New Testament and then moved on to exposit the Old.
Who translated the Bible into German?
Concurrently, Luther translated the Bible into German for his people and had published the Old Testament by 1534 (Reeves, 63). All of this was in the name of getting Scripture as the very Word of God to people in a way they could not only understand, but respond to.
What was the Reformation?
The Reformation became the basis for the founding of Protestantism, one of the three major branches of Christianity. The Reformation led to the reformulation of certain basic tenets of Christian belief and resulted in the division of Western Christendom between Roman Catholicism and the new Protestant traditions.
Where and when did the Reformation start?
The Reformation is said to have begun when Martin Luther posted his Ninety-five Theses on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany, on October 31, 1517.
Who were some of the key figures of the Reformation?
The greatest leaders of the Reformation undoubtedly were Martin Luther and John Calvin. Martin Luther precipitated the Reformation with his critiques of both the practices and the theology of the Roman Catholic Church. John Calvin was the most important figure in the second generation of the Reformation, and his interpretation of Christianity, known as Calvinism, deeply influenced many areas of Protestant thought. Other figures included Pope Leo X, who excommunicated Luther; the Holy Roman emperor Charles V, who essentially declared war on Protestantism; Henry VIII, king of England, who presided over the establishment of an independent Church of England; and Huldrych Zwingli, a Swiss reformer.
What distinguished Martin Luther from previous reformers?
Martin Luther claimed that what distinguished him from previous reformers was that while they attacked corruption in the life of the church, he went to the theological root of the problem—the perversion of the church’s doctrine of redemption and grace.
Why was the body of Christ physically present in the elements?
According to Luther’s notion, the body of Christ was physically present in the elements because Christ is present everywhere, while Zwingli claimed that entailed a spiritual presence of Christ and a declaration of faith by the recipients. Huldrych Zwingli.
Where did Martin Luther post his Ninety-five Theses?
The Reformation is said to have begun when Martin Luther posted his Ninety-five Theses on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany, on October 31, 1517. Ninety-five Theses. Learn more about Luther’s Ninety-five Theses.
What was Luther's concern for the ethical and theological reform of the church?
Here lay the key to Luther’s concerns for the ethical and theological reform of the church: Scripture alone is authoritative ( sola scriptura) and justification is by faith ( sola fide ), not by works. While he did not intend to break with the Catholic church, a confrontation with the papacy was not long in coming.
What happened after the Reformation?
After the Reformation, that changed, though it took a while – many Protestant countries were just as intolerant as Catholic ones. Real freedom of religion was a long way off and in the beginning only the strange Anabaptists taught it – but the Catholic Church’s monopoly was broken.
What was the Reformation?
It gave us democracy. The Reformation began as a protest against authority. Luther was deeply opposed to violent rebellion and wrote a truly horrible pamphlet urging rulers to put down a peasants’ revolt with fire and sword. But others were perfectly prepared to resist unjust authority.
What did the Reformers believe?
The Reformers believed in going back to the scriptures. While the Catholic Church set store by tradition, the Reformers believed in going back to the source. So, their scholars and pastors read the Bible intensively, and as printing and literacy spread they encouraged their people to do so too.
Why was Luther's "Sale of indulgences" radical?
This was radical because it cut out the middle man. Anyone, without the intervention of a priest, could repent and be saved. It was also threatening to the authorities: the sale of indulgences – effectively tickets to heaven – was an industry bringing in huge revenues to the Church. Luther was hitting the Pope in his pocket.
How did the Church obtain forgiveness?
In the Church of the day, forgiveness was obtained through doing penance – acts of charity, prayers, or self-punishment that were supposed to reinforce an inward repentance and were inseparable from it.
What did the Catholic Church believe about the Bible?
They preached from the Bible and wanted everyone to understand it, so they translated it; the Catholic Church believed the Bible was dangerous in untrained hands.
What was the Catholic Church in charge of before the Reformation?
Which is not quite the same thing. Before the Reformation, the Church was in charge of spirituality. The Catholic Church, which controlled religion in the West, defined right and wrong theology. It exercised political power through Catholic rulers who all acknowledged – grudgingly, in quite a few cases – that the Pope had some kind of authority over them. After the Reformation, that changed, though it took a while – many Protestant countries were just as intolerant as Catholic ones. Real freedom of religion was a long way off and in the beginning only the strange Anabaptists taught it – but the Catholic Church’s monopoly was broken.
When did Martin Luther start the Reformation?
31 October 1517 – the day the Reformation began. According to some, Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door of Wittenberg’s Castle Church in defiance of the Pope, and the rest is history.
What did the Reformers believe?
The Reformers believed in going back to the scriptures. While the Catholic Church set store by tradition, the Reformers believed in going back to the source. So, their scholars and pastors read the Bible intensively, and as printing and literacy spread they encouraged their people to do so too.
What happened to Zwingli in the Reformation?
It didn’t always end well – Zwingli died at Kappel in a battle against Catholic forces , and several others came to sticky ends. Many Continental Protestant countries had absolute and authoritarian monarchies even so, but in England it was the children of the Reformation who chopped King Charles’s head off and gave Britain a true parliament.
Why was Luther's "Sale of indulgences" radical?
This was radical because it cut out the middle man. Anyone, without the intervention of a priest, could repent and be saved. It was also threatening to the authorities: the sale of indulgences – effectively tickets to heaven – was an industry bringing in huge revenues to the Church. Luther was hitting the Pope in his pocket.
How did the Church obtain forgiveness?
In the Church of the day, forgiveness was obtained through doing penance – acts of charity, prayers, or self-punishment that were supposed to reinforce an inward repentance and were inseparable from it.
What was the Catholic Church in charge of before the Reformation?
Which is not quite the same thing. Before the Reformation, the Church was in charge of spirituality. The Catholic Church, which controlled religion in the West, defined right and wrong theology. It exercised political power through Catholic rulers who all acknowledged – grudgingly, in quite a few cases – that the Pope had some kind of authority over them. After the Reformation, that changed, though it took a while – many Protestant countries were just as intolerant as Catholic ones. Real freedom of religion was a long way off and in the beginning only the strange Anabaptists taught it – but the Catholic Church’s monopoly was broken.
What did the Catholic Church believe about the Bible?
They preached from the Bible and wanted everyone to understand it, so they translated it; the Catholic Church believed the Bible was dangerous in untrained hands.
What was the Reformation?
In England, the Reformation began with Henry VIII’s quest for a male heir. When Pope Clement VII refused to annul Henry’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon so he could remarry, the English king declared in 1534 that he alone should be the final authority in matters relating to the English church. Henry dissolved England’s monasteries to confiscate their wealth and worked to place the Bible in the hands of the people. Beginning in 1536, every parish was required to have a copy.
What were the key ideas of the Reformation?
The key ideas of the Reformation—a call to purify the church and a belief that the Bible, not tradition, should be the sole source of spiritual authority —were not themselves novel. However, Luther and the other reformers became the first to skillfully use the power of the printing press to give their ideas a wide audience.
What was the Catholic Church slow to respond to?
The Catholic Church was slow to respond systematically to the theological and publicity innovations of Luther and the other reformers. The Council of Trent, which met off and on from 1545 through 1563, articulated the Church’s answer to the problems that triggered the Reformation and to the reformers themselves.
What was the Protestant Reformation?
The Protestant Reformation was the 16th-century religious, political, intellectual and cultural upheaval that splintered Catholic Europe, setting in place the structures and beliefs that would define the continent in the modern era. In northern and central Europe, reformers like Martin Luther, John Calvin and Henry VIII challenged papal ...
When did Lutheranism become the state religion?
When German peasants, inspired in part by Luther’s empowering “priesthood of all believers,” revolted in 1524 , Luther sided with Germany’s princes. By the Reformation’s end, Lutheranism had become the state religion throughout much of Germany, Scandinavia and the Baltics.
Where did Calvinism spread?
Calvin’s Geneva became a hotbed for Protestant exiles, and his doctrines quickly spread to Scotland, France, Transylvania and the Low Countries , where Dutch Calvinism became a religious and economic force for the next 400 years.
Who challenged the authority of the Catholic Church?
In northern and central Europe, reformers like Martin Luther, John Calvin and Henry VIII challenged papal authority and questioned the Catholic Church’s ability to define Christian practice. They argued for a religious and political redistribution of power into the hands of Bible- and pamphlet-reading pastors and princes.
What was the importance of education before the Reformation?
Their schools were the first to educate girls and saw the importance of developing the potential of every child for the glory of God.
Who were the leaders of the Protestant Reformation?
The idea of the importance of Christian education was firmly established by leaders of the Protestant Reformation such as Martin Luther and John Calvin. The book John Calvin, Theologian, Preacher, Educator, Statesman, explains that Luther and Calvin both disagreed with the medieval church’s view that “ignorance is the mother ...
What did Luther believe about education?
The reformers believed that the primary responsibility of educating children fell upon the church and parents (with possible infrastructure support from the state). Luther personally started numerous schools in existing churches. Congregations were expected to provide the necessary funding and oversight. Parents were also expected to play an important role, not only making sure their children attended class but also reinforcing instruction at home. Church leaders would shepherd the instruction process and assess a student’s progress by meeting with students and parents during the school year.
What did the Reformers believe about biology?
Thus, biology was also theology. The reformers believed that their movement would grow through a study of the arts and sciences seen through the lens of scripture. 4. Good Education Requires Gifted Christian Teachers.
Why was the teacher important to the Reformers?
They viewed teachers as “officers and servants of the church” and required that they not only be trained in the subjects they would teach but also obtain a degree in theology and “be of mature and good character”. They also argued that teachers’ pay should be generous enough to allow for poor children in their classroom who could not afford to pay for their schooling.
What was the influence of Dewey on education?
Some have named Dewey’s progressive, anti-Christian influence on public education as one of the contributing factors that moved Western culture from a once Christian culture to our current “post-Christian” culture.
Who was the anti-Christian leader who influenced the Western culture?
However, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, states started passing compulsory school attendance laws and we witnessed the rise of secular public education championed by people like John Dewey. Some have named Dewey’s progressive, anti-Christian influence on public education as one of the contributing factors that moved Western culture from a once Christian culture to our current “post-Christian” culture.
How did the Counter Reformation affect the political climate of the time?
One major political charged incident was the sinking of the Spanish Armada in 1588 which was the response of Protestant Queen Elizabeth I against Philip II, the Catholic King of Spain, who plotted to aggressively reinstate the Catholic religion in England. The rise of Protestantism was also directly tied to the rise of the nation states.
What was the counter reformation?
The Counter Reformation was a period of spiritual, moral and intellectual revival which the Catholic Church engaged with in response to the Protest Reformation. Sometimes called the Catholic Revival or Catholic Reformation, this movement began in 1545 during the start of the Council of Trent and ended in 1648 during the end of the Thirty Years’ War.
What was Cardinal Farnese's way of life before the Fifth Lateran Council?
Before the Fifth Lateran Council, Cardinal Farnese had lived a compromised way of life. He kept a mistress for many years with whom he had four children. The council motivated him to change his way of life just before Martin Luther sparked the Protestant Reformation.
What was the purpose of the Council of Trent?
The purpose of the council was to defend major Catholic Faith doctrines that Luther and later protestants attacked. The council was also established to address many structural problems that existed within the Church.
Why was the Council of the Church established?
The council was also established to address many structural problems that existed within the Church. One such problem included popes like Cardinal Farnese who were notorious for their scandalous lifestyles and others such as those who came from the Medici Family of Florence.
What were the Jesuits responsible for?
They were also responsible for paving the way for missionary work beyond Europe, particularly in Asia, Canada, South America and the Upper Midwest of the United States.
Why did Martin Luther end the practice of appointing secular rulers as bishops?
Martin Luther had used the latter as a reason to attack the Church’s teachings about Purgatory.
What was the Reformation?
As the name of the movement suggests, the Reformation was an effort to reform the Catholic Church. Though most view this as a mere attempt to rid the Church of corruption within the hierarchy, it was also a serious theological, philosophical, and sociological turning point in Europe—the effects of which are still being felt today in the West.
What was Martin Luther's proposal?
So, Luther’s proposal was not merely asserting the authority of scripture, but positing that any and every Christian had, by themselves, the authority to properly interpret it. This describes what we might call a transfer from a social epistemology to an individual epistemology (mode of knowing). Essentially, in Protestantism, knowledge of the scriptures and the lessons they were intended to convey moved from being a social, dialogical process (as purported by the Catholic Church) to something that each individual had the autonomy to do by himself. Certainly, this prevented hierarchical corruption, being that the Tradition was no longer viewed as authoritative, and gave interpretive power to individual Christians. However, it ushered in several novel problems of it’s own. For example, it became increasingly difficult to maintain unity throughout Christendom. Several contemporaries of Martin Luther followed suite and began their own reform movements proffering different understandings of the Gospel (Calvin and Zwingli to name a few), appealing to this doctrine of Sola Scriptura.
What did Luther say about scholastic philosophy?
Luther indicated his disdain for scholastic philosophy in an explicit treatise entitled, “Disputation Against Scholastic Philosophy,” in which he hammered the scholastics for their integration of Aristotelian logic in theological thought and condemned the methodology more generally. Now, this separated the theologian from the preceding tradition in a way that was unprecedented. One could simply go to scripture to uncover theological truths; they need not consult with the traditional theological wisdom or apply logic,necessarily, to find the best or most reasonable conclusions. Truth, for Luther, was only revealed through the medium of divine revelation; philosophy wasn’t any help.

Why Did The Reformation Happen?
When Did The Reformation Take place?
- The Reformation began when Martin Luther published his Ninety-Five Theses in 1517. It concluded with the end of the Thirty-Years' War and the Peace of Westphaliain 1648.
What Was The Impact of The Protestant Reformation?
- The major impactof the Protestant Reformation is that England, Scotland, and the Scandinavian countries left the Catholic Church. The situation in the Holy Roman Empire was more complicated. Decades of war lead to the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. It was agreed that the various princes in the Holy Roman Empire could decide whether they wanted their ...