Protestant Reformation--A Revolution?

Was the Protestant Reformation a revolution?
What causes revolution?
On what principle is a reorganization of society justified?
   
Some key terms to know:

• Protestant
• Catholic
• Council of Trent
• Henry IV
• Martin Luther
• Edict of Nantes
• Thirty Years War
• Peace of Westphalia
• Jesuits
• Huegenots
• Peasants Revolt
• Jesuits
• Sola Scriptura
• Sola Fide
• Sola Gratiae
• Papal Hierarchy

 Skills:
WR: Sentences
CT: Logic of Definitions
AH: Questions/Notes
C: Questions

Outline of Strayer:
Western Christendom Fragmented: The Protestant Reformation
   1. Protestant Reformation began in 1517
       a. Martin Luther posted the Ninety-five Theses, asking for debate about ecclesiastical abuses
       b. Luther’s was one of many criticisms of the Roman Church
       c. Luther’s protest was more deeply grounded in theological difference
               i. argued a new understanding of salvation—through faith alone rather than through good works
               ii. the Bible, not Church teaching, is the ultimate authority
               iii. gave large role to individual conscience
       d. questioned the special role of the clerical hierarchy (including the pope)
   2. Luther’s ideas provoked a massive schism in Catholic Christendom
       a. fed on political, economic, and social tension, not just religious differences
       b. some monarchs used Luther to justify independence from the papacy
       c. gave a new religious legitimacy to the middle class
       d. commoners were attracted to the new religious ideas as a tool for protest against the whole social  
       order
               i. German peasant revolts in the 1520s
   3. many women were attracted to Protestantism, but the Reformation didn’t give them a greater role in 
   church or society
        a. Protestants ended veneration of Mary and other female saints
              i. male Christ figure was left as sole object of worship
        b. Protestants closed convents, which had given some women an alternative to
        marriage
        c. only Quakers among the Protestants gave women an official role in their churches
        d. some increase in the education of women, because of emphasis on Bible reading
              i. but there was little use for education beyond the family
    4. the recently invented printing press helped Reformation thought spread rapidly
        a. Luther issued many pamphlets and aGerman translation of the New Testament
    5. as the Reformation spread, it splintered into an array of competing Protestant
        churches
    6. religious difference made Europe’s fractured political system even more volatile
         a. 1562–1598: French Wars of Religion (Catholics vs. Huguenots)
              i. August 24, 1572: massacre of thousands of Huguenots
              ii. Edict of Nantes issued by Henry IV in 1598: granted considerable religious toleration to       
              Protestants
          b. 1618–1648: the Thirty Years’ War
              i. Catholic-Protestant fight started in the Holy Roman Empire
              ii. spread to most of Europe
              iii. killed off 15–30 percent of the German population
              iv. Peace of Westphalia (1648): each state is sovereign and can decide its own religious affairs
   7. Protestant Reformation provoked a Catholic Counter-Reformation
          a. Council of Trent (1545–1563) clarified Catholic doctrines and practices
          b. corrected the abuses and corruption that the Protestants had protested
          c. new emphasis on education and supervision of priests
          d. crackdown on dissidents
          e. new attention given to individual spirituality and piety
          f. new religious orders (e.g., the Society of Jesus [ Jesuits]) were committed to renewal and expansion
    8. the Reformation encouraged skepticism toward authority and tradition
          a. fostered religious individualism
          b. in the following centuries, the Protestant habit of independent thinking led to skepticism about all
          revealed religion