Luther and the Reformation

Church Work

~SOCIALLY: Renaissance emphasis on the secular(worldly) and the individual challenged church authority
-printing press spread these ideas
~POLITICALLY: Rulers(especially Germans) began to challenge church's political power
~ECONOMICALLY: Northern Merchants resented paying church taxes to Rome

Church Problems
~corrupt leadership
~Popes spent money on personal pleasure
~Pope Alexander the 6th admitted to fathering 7 children
~Priests and Monks were poorly educated
~Some priests broke vows, got married, and had children
~Some priests drank heavy, gambled

Indulgences
~Selling indulgences (pardons) "Releases a sinner from preforming the penalty a priest imposed for sins"
~Johann Tetzel was a monk who sold indulgences to help rebuild St. Peters Cathedral

Martin Luther

~Born in Germany1483
~Studied trivium- grammer, logic, rhetoric- hates it
~Attends university of Erfurt
~After that inrolls in law school

At 21 thrown off his horse and was scared and vowed to become a priest

~then drops out of law school
~joins Augustinian monastery
~ordained priest
~teaches theology at university of Wittenburg
~two bachelors degrees
~doctor of theology
~MAD AT CHURCH

~called Tetzel a "pardon merchant"
made 95 objections to the way the church was doing business and nailed to the church door
~known as "95 Theses"














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