Crashing Reforms
We had a busy day of shopping and homeschooling. It was membership day at our local supermarket and that is the best day to stock up; we were also out of eggs and that meant a walk across the neighbourhood to Whole Foods for the Jumbo eggs I am partial too. I know in many places the price of eggs have sky-rocketed and here the price of most things are right up there in the stratosphere with your eggs. We have been lucky though with our dozens and only seen a modest increase, at least for the free range. It might be the conventional that are up there too. I should check.
It was super nice day to traipse through the streets of the West End. A clear crisp fall day, after a whole lot of rain, is a great way to enjoy the waning days of Fall.
We are continuing to make our way through the European History of the Middle Ages/Renaissance and have reached the Protestant Reformation. This year's Social Study program appears to have decided religious over-tones. Makes sense. So much about culture and history stems from our beliefs and back before most could read, the Church held some tremendous sway. Today we looked at the first half of the following Crash Course History video and up to the Diet of Worms.
From our studies ...
According to John Green in the Protestant Reformation: Crash Course European History video, the Catholic Church had built a highly hierarchal papacy by the 16th century that held tremendous power in Europe. Papal Rome's influence extended from peasant to monarch in just about every European country. Class division, social and political inequality, was supported by Catholic ideology and mirrored in the structure of the Church. The Catholic Church of the time taught everyday people that rulers and nobles were closer to the divine and as such merited their privileged place in society.
Resistance to Church power began in the early 16th century. It would see the Church split into two: Catholic and Protestant.
Martin Luther was a lawyer who subsequently became a devout monk. Followers of the Catholic Church believed that both faith and good works were needed to achieve salvation at the time of death. Luther saw the insistence of good works by the Church as something akin to bribing one's way into Heaven. Challenging the teachings of the Church was approaching heresy. Heresy could get you burned alive at the stake. Luther began down the dangerous path of seeking to change a very powerful institution of government.
In Catholic beliefs, there is the idea of Purgatory. Purgatory was where souls who had not lived a virtuous enough life went before getting into Heaven. Here a soul could work off her sins. Purification could be gained through the prayers of the living or through the torture of the soul in Purgatory.
In 1517, the Pope issued a special indulgence to raise funds for the building of St. Peter's Basilica. By donating money to the Catholic Church, repenters were promised they would get time off in Purgatory Help for the dead could also come from the living. You could get their dead loved-ones out of Purgatory by buying indulgences. Martin Luther saw the obvious corruption in this practice.
For Luther, salvation was not to be bought, either with good works or through the buying of indulgences. Only faith could save you. In 1517, Luther wrote the ninety-five theses, and it is believed, posted them on the chapel in Wittenberg. His ideas spread among Christian humanists. Luther and his followers would come to formally reject the Papacy, and so began the Reformation.
At the time of the early Reformation, priests were the authority on the bible. Common people had to go through the Church in all matters of spirit and religion. Luther recognized that priests too were human and flawed. Priests were sinners too. He saw that the Church, with its hierarchy of priests, bishops, and cardinals, was corrupt and that corrupt individuals could not serve as intermediaries with the divine. The Bible he believed was the literal word of God and the only true religious authority, and that the relationship one had with God was more important than the relationship one had with the Church. It was now essential for eternal salvation that everyone learn to read. The Reformation fuelled a literacy revolution because the written word of God was now the way to God.
In 1521, Luther was excommunicated and he appeared before the Diet of Worms. The Diet of Worms was led by the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V. Luther did not recant. Charles declared Luther an outlaw and called for his imprisonment.
Luther was offered sanctuary with the wealthy German prince, the influential Frederick the Wise.
(More to Come)
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