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Section three (part 1: pp. 48-50) Luther Starts the Reformation

1. In "Setting the Stage" What two significant points are made about the position of the Catholic Church toward the end of the Middle Ages?

2. What role did the following play in the Reformation:

Renaissance outlook
the printing press
Northern European merchants
problems within the Church

3. How can you draw on your knowledge of The Canterbury Tales to illustrate the significance of point "d" above?

4. What challenges and criticisms were posed by reformers such as John Wycliffe, John Hus, and the Italian monk Savonarola?

5. Martin Luther and the revolt against the Catholic Church:

who was Martin Luther
who was Johann Tetzel
what is an indulgence
what was the "95 Theses"

6. What were some of Luther's other objections to the teachings of the Catholic Church?

7. Assess the political impact of Luther's revolt:

on the Holy Roman Emperor
on the peasants
as a cause of war

Significant Identifications:

Pope Alexander VI Edict of Worms

Pope Leo X Lutherans

Emperor Charles V Peace of Augsburg

Frederick the Wise

2. What did Henry VIII want from the Pope and why did he want it? Why did the Pope say no?

4. How did Henry's children bring religious confusion to England for a time? Who finally puts an end to this religious turmoil, and how?

5. The Anglican Church is sometimes called the "Anglican compromise" or the via media or "middle way." Explain this.

Section 4: Reading Guide: The Reformation Continues (pp. 53-57)

Directions: Briefly identify and describe the significance of the following.

In the early 1500s, a German monk and university teacher named Martin Luther began to feel that reforms were needed in the Roman Catholic Church. In 1517, Luther made a list of his objections to church practices, called the Ninety-Five Theses, and then, according to legend, nailed the list to the door of the Wittenberg Castle Church. Although the Catholic Church disagreed with Luther and eventually excommunicated him, the Ninety-Five Theses sparked widespread criticism of he Church and started the Reformation.

1. Our Lord and Master Jesus Christ in saying “Repent ye,” etc., intended that the whole life of believers should be penitence.

6. The Pope has no power to remit [forgive] any guilt, except by declaring and warranting it to have been remitted by God…

21. Thus those preachers of indulgences are in error who say that, by the indulgences of the Pope, a man is loosed and saved from all punishment.

37. Every true Christian, whether living or dead, has a share in all the benefits of Christ and of the Church, given him by God, even without letters of pardon.

40. True contrition seeks and loves punishment; while the ampleness of pardons relaxes it, and causes men to hate it, or at least gives occasion for them to do so.

43. Christians should be taught that he who gives to a poor man, or lends to a needy man, does better than if he bought pardons.

44. Because by a work of charity, charity increases, and the man becomes better; while by means of pardons, he does not become better, but only freer from punishment.

46. Christians should be taught that, unless they have superfluous wealth, they are bound to keep what is necessary for the use of their own households, and by no means to lavish it on pardons.

50. Christians should be taught that, if the Pope were acquainted with the actions of the Preachers of pardons, he would prefer that the Basilica of St. Peter be burnt to ashes, than that it should be built up with the skin, flesh, and bones of his sheep.

86. Again; why does not the Pope, whose riches are at this day more ample than those of the wealthiest of the wealthy, build the one Basilica of St. Peter with his own money, rather than with that of poor believers?

92. Away then with all those prophets who say to the people of Christ: “Peace, peace,” and there is no peace.

94. Christians should be exhorted to strive to follow Christ their head through pains, deaths, and hells.

95. And thus trust to enter heaven through many tribulations, rather than in the security of peace.

2. Explain how three factors--cities, a thriving merchant class, and the heritage of Greece and Rome--help explain why the Renaissance begins in Italy first.

3. What similarities in outlook and values connect the classical world of Greece and Rome to the modern world of the Renaissance?

4. Compare/contrast medieval and Renaissance art in style, content, and technique.

5. Understand the significance of the three giants of the High Renaissance-- Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Raphael--in the following areas:

6. Identify and briefly describe the significance of the following in your notes:

2. How did the character of the Northern Renaissance differ from that of the Italian Renaissance?

3. After reading the descriptions of the famous Christian humanists Erasmus and Thomas More, what would you say was the principal aims of their writings?

4. What characteristics of the plays of William Shakespeare identify him as a Renaissance writer?

5. Understand the origins of block printing in China and the significance of the "reinvention" of moveable type and the invention of the printing press by Gutenberg.