John Wycliffe And The Lollards Function

3. John Wycliffe attacked papal authority and called for even more radical reform of the

A major 16th century movement initially aimed at reforming the beliefs and practices of the Roman Catholic Church, the Reformation was begun by a German monk named Martin Luther who challenge the Catholic Church’s doctrine by posting his 95 Theses on a church door. He did this because he was appalled that the church was selling indulgences, which were written letters that assured people’s salvation, in order to build a new Basilica in Rome under Pope Leo X. Martin Luther argued that the Bible, not the pope, was the central means to discern God’s word and was the only thing capable of giving salvation.

The protestant reformation was a significant turning point during the 16th century that completely revolutionized the Roman Catholic Church. The “reformation” was launched in 1517 when a German monk by the name of Martin Luther posted his “95 Theses” on the door of Castle Church in Wittenberg. The main ideas of this publication was that selling and buying indulgences was wrong and that the pope has no power over purgatory. These 95 revolutionary opinions formed the basis for the protestant reformation which revolutionized western civilization over the next three centuries. Although most people believe these reforms only affected religion, the reformation also impacted political life. Politics played an enormous role in the reformation due to the fact that political rulers wanted to extend their power and control using the church. Throughout the course of the protestant reformation, political authorities such as Emperor Charles V and Henry

The Voices of Morebath is a book by Eamon Duffy about the small parish of Morebath in England during the time of the Reformation. His book is a microhistory, focusing solely on a very small and specific area in time and space. This book, like all microhistories, seeks to help the reader understand a larger area of history by showing a great amount of detail about one specific area. It helps the reader come to terms with normal daily life, and gives a more personable feeling to the history rather than cold faceless facts and statistics. In this essay I will explain first the basic everyday life of Morebath and its inhabitants. I will then look into how specifically this parish evolved during the

Let us now examine the time of the Reformation, beginning proper in 1519 with Luther’s quarrels with the Roman Catholic church and ending in the eighteenth century with Wesleyanism, the reformation of theology that occurred within the Church of England.

As the church was losing more power, Reformers began questioning the church’s teachings and introduced new Christian faiths. Reformers wanted to purify the church. They interrogated the Pope and Catholic Church’s authority. Many early leaders spoke out against the church. One was John Wycliffe, an English scholar, spoke opposing

His critiques of the Catholic Church is said to be one of the first things to happen to lead up to the Reformation 2. Lollards- followers of John Wycliffe a. Preached and distributed Bibles in English. Attracted popularity from the people of the working class. Opposed luxurious lives of the Church. Reform put down in the 15c.

In the first document, John Wycliffe claims that the Church is contradicting itself. He claims that the Church is engaging in behavior that does not comply with what they preach. John also claims that the pope is wrongly considering himself the head of the Church. Wycliffe speaks out against

Catholic leaders believed they were defending traditional Christian civilization against rebellions and anarchical forces, whilst the latter argued they were restoring pure religion and defending against corruption and superstition. To them, the Pope was anti-Christ, whilst to the Catholics, Luther, Alvin and all other ‘reformers’ were heretics. Consequently, the secular rulers sought to base their political unity upon that of a religious nature, using their authority to compel their subjects into adopting one form of Christianity. In contrast to Pope Leo X, who face the Lutheran revolt, who urged secular leaders to suppress Protestant heretics by force, Luther appealed for this same force to be used against Catholics, and even Calvin, considered to be an apostle of religious tolerance didn’t permit Catholics to reside in Geneva. Meanwhile, Spain, Portugal and Italy all used methods such as the Inquisition and the Index to eliminate religious dissent and persecute Protestant subjects. Therefore, this shows that despite the argument regarding whether England was ‘torn apart’, the rest of Europe was considerably so, which could subsequently have impacted England.

1) The Protestant Reformation Produces Puritanism a) 1517 - Friar Martin Luther nailed protest on Catholic door of Wittenberg’s cathedral i) he said that the Bible is the only truth of God’s words ii) he started the Protestant Reformation b) Reformation bloomed in Geneva by John Geneva i) He elaborated on Luther’s ideas that affected the future men and women in New England and American settlers c) 1536 - Calvin wrote basic doctrine in Latin tome, named Institutes of the Christian Religion i) He said that God is all mighty, and humans are sinful ii) your fate is chosen by him and you cannot do anything to change it d)

“The Church of England was only a half reformed church in the period 1559-1603”. To what extent

12. ’98 Compare and contrast the Lutheran Reformation and the Catholic Reformation of the sixteenth century regarding the reform of both religious doctrines and religious practices.

“Unless I am convinced by proofs from scriptures or by plain and clear reasons and arguments, I can and will not retract anything I have written, for it is neither safe nor wise to do anything against conscience. Here I stand. I can do no other. God help me. Amen.” Martin Luther stated these words in 1521 when he was asked whether he still believed what his works taught. The Protestant Reformation was a movement during the 16th century, which aimed to reform some beliefs and practices of the Roman Catholic Church. The reformation was led by a German monk named Martin Luther and was further modified by John Calvin, a French theologian and Henry VIII, the king of England. The ideas bought forward by these individuals started the Protestant Reformation, which triggered wars, prosecutions and the Counter-Reformation.

“We could keep on arguing for a hundred years and it wouldn’t get us anywhere! Until you can get rid of my verse I will not admit defeat.” (Documents on the Continental Reformation, p.97) When people are liberated with the power to think for themselves and own their own ideas, differences in opinion will occur. When we look at the Protestant Reformation we will see that key individuals such as Martin Luther and Ulrich Zwingli, even though they are protesting similar things, develop differences upon the way, especially in the way they interpret Scripture. These differences, in any movement, will ultimately affect the outcome and the development of the Protestant movement that started in 1517 with Luther. This essay aims to examine these differences between Luther and Zwingli and find out how the Protestant movement was affected by their differing opinions. Firstly, Luther and Zwingli’s reformations will be observed individually and what they each stood for and then we will discuss their major differences and the influence they had on the Protestant movement.

The attendant effects of Martin Luther’s reformation in the early period of the sixteenth century occasioned by his posting of the 95 theses that raised objections to some of the then prevalent practices of the Roman Catholic Church eventually led to a significant breakaway from the church of a relatively more liberal Christian sect known as the “Protestant”. It is worthy of note however that the Roman Catholic Church tried albeit unsuccessfully to placate the breakaway by instituting a “counter-Reformation” but this only achieved a cleansing of the church internally without achieving much in its most important mandate to prevent the protestant breakaway. Consequently, Europe was enmeshed in bloody religious war largely between forces loyal to the papacy in Rome and those who sympathized with the runaway protestant movement. As a result, the Roman Catholic Church invariably began to lose its pole position in the scheme of things in an already divided Europe.