Henry VIII (1491–1547)

Henry VIII (1491–1547) King of England from 1509 to 1547. Henry VIII split the Church of England from Rome, leading to the rise of Protestantism in England. He dissolved the monasteries and reduced the power of the church. The Protestant Reformation began with criticism of the Catholic Church by priests and other religious thinkers. In England, the Reformation began with the king. Henry VIII became king of England in 1509 at the age of 17. As a young king, he was a devout Catholic who wrote angry protests against the "venomous" ideas of Luther. Henry's actions won him the title "Defender of the Faith". By 1525, Henry's wife, Catherine of Aragon, had borne only one child, a girl named Mary. This presented a problem for Henry, who wanted a male heir. It was thought that a female monarch could weaken England politically, and he believed that Catherine would produce no male heir. Henry decided to have the marriage annulled, or declared invalid based on church laws, so that he could marry again. The pope offered Henry several solutions to his problem but would not agree to the annulment because Catherine and her nephew, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, opposed to it. The dilemma became known as the "king's great matter". While Henry argued with the pope over his annulment, he fell in love with Anne Boleyn. Henry soon took matters into his own hands. Henry summoned Parliament. Known as the Reformation Parliament, the gathering led to a declaration that England no longer considered itself under the authority of the Pope. Instead, Henry himself became the head of the Church of England. He changed the rituals of the church very little, but Henry closed Catholic monasteries and convents and distributed much of the land to nobles. This helped build more public support for the split from the church. In 1533, Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII were secretly married. Later that year, after Parliament had declared Henry's marriage to Catherine null and void, Anne gave birth to a girl, Elizabeth. The next year, Parliament passed the Act of Supremacy, which required subjects to take an oath declaring Henry VIII to be "Supreme Head of the Church of England". The break with Rome was complete. (Ramirez, Stearns, and Wineburg, 2008) 1 John Calvin (1509–1564) Born in France in 1509, theologian/ecclesiastical statesman John Calvin was Martin Luther's successor as the preeminent Protestant theologian. Calvin made a powerful impact on the fundamental doctrines of Protestantism, and is widely credited as the most important figure in the second generation of the Protestant Reformation. He died in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1564. Background Born on July 10, 1509, in Noyon, Picardy, France, John Calvin was a law student at the University of Orléans when he first joined the cause of the Reformation. In 1536, he published the landmark text Institutes of the Christian Religion, an early attempt to standardize the theories of Protestantism. Calvin's religious teachings emphasized the sovereignty of the scriptures and divine predestination—a doctrine holding that God chooses those who will enter Heaven based His omnipotence and grace. Leading Figure of Reformation Calvin lived in Geneva briefly, until anti-Protestant authorities in 1538 forced him to leave. He was invited back again in 1541, and upon his return from Germany, where he had been living, he became an important spiritual and political leader. Calvin used Protestant principles to establish a religious government; and in 1555, he was given absolute supremacy as leader in Geneva. As Martin Luther's successor as the preeminent Protestant theologian, Calvin was known for an intellectual, unemotional approach to faith that provided Protestantism's theological underpinnings, whereas Luther brought passion and populism to his religious cause. While instituting many positive policies, Calvin's government also punished "impiety" and dissent against his particularly spare vision of Christianity with execution. In the first five years of his rule in Geneva, 58 people were executed and 76 exiled for their religious beliefs. Calvin allowed no art other than music, and even that could not involve instruments. Under his rule, Geneva became the center of Protestantism, and sent out pastors to the rest of Europe, creating Presbyterianism in Scotland, the Puritan Movement in England and the Reformed Church in the Netherlands. 2 Martin Luther (November 10, 1483 to February 18, 1546) He was a German monk who began the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century, becoming one of the most influential and controversial figures in Christian history. Luther called into question some of the basic tenets of Roman Catholicism, and his followers soon split from the Roman Catholic Church to begin the Protestant tradition. His actions set in motion reform within the Church. A prominent theologian, Luther’s desire for people to feel closer to God led him to translate the Bible into the language of the people, radically changing the relationship between church leaders and their followers. Martin Luther’s '95 Theses' and the Reformation On October 31, 1517, Martin Luther, angry with Pope Leo X’s new round of indulgences to help build St. Peter’s Basilica, nailed a sheet of paper with his 95 Theses on the University of Wittenberg’s chapel door. Though Luther intended these to be discussion points, the 95 Theses laid out a devastating critique of the indulgences, good works (which sometimes involved monetary donations) that popes could grant to the people to cancel out penance for sins, as corrupting people’s faith. Luther also sent a copy to Archbishop Albert Albrecht of Mainz, calling on him to end the sale of indulgences. Aided by the printing press, copies of the 95 Theses spread throughout Germany within two weeks and throughout Europe within two months. Excommunication and the Diet of Worms Following the publication of his 95 Theses, Martin Luther continued to lecture and write in Wittenberg. In June and July of 1519 Luther publicly declared that the Bible did not give the pope the exclusive right to interpret scripture, which was a direct attack on the authority of the papacy. Finally, in 1520, the pope had had enough and on June 15 issued an ultimatum threatening Luther with excommunication. On December 10, 1520, Luther publicly burned the letter. In January 1521, Martin Luther was officially excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church. Lutheranism Though still under threat of arrest, Martin Luther returned to Wittenberg Castle Church, in Eisenach, in May 1522 to organize a new church, Lutheranism. He gained many followers and got support from German princes. When a peasant revolt began in 1524, Luther denounced the peasants and sided with the rulers, whom he depended on to keep his church growing. Thousands of peasants were killed, but Luther’s church grew over the years. 3 Johannes Gutenberg (1400–1468) Johannes Gutenberg was born circa 1395, in Mainz, Germany. He started experimenting with printing by 1438. In 1450 Gutenberg obtained backing from the financier, Johann Fust, whose impatience and other factors led to Gutenberg's loss of his establishment to Fust several years later. Gutenberg's masterpiece, and the first book ever printed in Europe from movable type, is the “Forty-Two-Line” Bible, completed no later than 1455. Gutenberg died in Mainz in 1468. Early Life Born into a modest merchant family in Mainz, Germany, circa 1395, Johannes Gutenberg’s work as an inventor and printer would have a major impact on communication and learning worldwide. He was the third son of Freile zum Gensfleisch and his second wife, Else Wirick zum Gutenberg, whose maiden name Johann later adopted. There is little recorded history of this early life, but local records indicate he apprenticed as a goldsmith while living in Mainz. Experiments in Printing When a craftsman revolt erupted in Mainz against the noble class in 1428, Johannes Gutenberg’s family was exiled and settled in what is now Strasbourg, France, where his experiments with printing began. Already familiar with bookmaking, Gutenberg perfected small metal type. Infinitely more practical than carving complete wood blocks for printing, each type was a single letter or character. Movable type had been used in Asia hundreds of years earlier, but Gutenberg’s innovation was developing a casting system and metal alloys which made production easier. 4.

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