Week 3 -- Reformation

 Homework: Read the handout, Ottomans in Europe and answer the questions. (If you can't find it, it is attached below)

Summary:

This week, we learned about the Protestant Reformation in Northern Europe, and the Catholic reaction.

With the influence of the printing press, Europe saw an increase in literacy, and the publication of bibles in the vernacular led to people beginning to interpret scripture themselves. At the same time, the Catholic church was extracting high taxes, and selling salvation with letters of indulgence.

In 1517, Martin Luther sparked a revolution in the church by nailing his 95 Theses (or complaints) against the door of the Wittemburg church. Over the next twenty years, he and his followers would print and distribute over 400 volumes critical of the Catholic church. He was most critical of corruption and the Catholic view on salvation.

The reformation spread, splitting parts of the Holy Roman Empire away from the Catholic church, and other reform movements sprouted such as the Calvinists (Hugenots). In England, King Henry VIII separated from the Catholic church, establishing himself as the head of the new English church, and selling off church land to wealthy merchants and lords (who would then be loyal to him, and who would fear that a return to the Catholic church would threaten their claim to their land).

The Catholic Church reacted by enacting their own reforms, getting rid of indulgences, and adopting some aspects of humanism. The Society of Jesus, or Jesuits, were founded to stop the spread of the Protestant Reformation by seeking converts and establishing schools. These would be some of the best schools in Europe, and led to further increased literacy across the continent. In Spain, there was a push to eradicate all non-Catholics, which led to the expulsion or murder of Jews and Muslims, and then to the Inquisition -- a system of trials to persecute heretics.

As this is going on, the Ottoman Empire is gaining power and territory in the East, which concerned leaders in Western Europe, who saw it as a threat to Christianity and to their own empires.

Feast in the House of Levi, by Paolo Veronese