Unit 2: Age of Reformation

Late medieval Catholic Church

A central institution in European life that functioned not only religiously but also as a political authority, major landowner, educator (universities/schools), legal system (church courts), and organizer of community life (parishes, festivals, charity).

Sacraments

Rituals the Catholic Church taught as channels of grace that guided salvation (notably baptism and the Eucharist), reinforcing the Church’s authority over spiritual life.

Clergy as mediators of grace

The Catholic belief that priests and other clergy were necessary intermediaries who administered sacraments and helped guide people toward salvation.

Latin Christendom

The shared Western European Christian world linked by Latin ritual, a common calendar, and papal moral authority; its fracturing opened space for national/territorial churches.

Reform from within

Late medieval and Renaissance efforts to correct abuses and improve spirituality while remaining inside Catholicism, rather than breaking away to form a new church.

Pluralism

Holding multiple church offices at the same time, often criticized because it looked like office-holding for income rather than pastoral service.

Absenteeism

The practice of bishops/clerics collecting income from positions while not residing locally or performing duties, fueling perceptions of a profit-driven Church.

Simony

The buying and selling of church offices, reinforcing the belief that money could purchase institutional or spiritual advantage.

Clerical celibacy (criticism)

A Catholic discipline requiring priests not to marry; criticized as unnatural and blamed by some for sexual misconduct and illegitimate children.

Vernacular languages

Local spoken languages (e.g., German, English) whose increased use in texts and worship broadened religious participation beyond Latin-educated elites.

Indulgence

A Church-granted remission of temporal punishment for sins already forgiven, linked to good works (prayer, pilgrimage, charity) and sometimes to donations; controversial when it appeared to monetize salvation.

Temporal punishment

In Catholic theology, the remaining penalty for sin after forgiveness, understood as something that could be remitted (e.g., through indulgences).

Purgatory

In Catholic belief, a state of purification after death for those ultimately saved; indulgences were tied to reducing time/penalties associated with purgatory.

John Wycliffe

A 14th-century English reformer who argued the Bible should be available to ordinary people (including in English) and criticized Church wealth and corruption.

Lollards

Followers of John Wycliffe who continued spreading his reform ideas after his death, helping normalize critiques of Church authority.

Jan Hus

A 15th-century Bohemian reformer who denounced corruption and indulgences and supported vernacular worship; condemned for heresy and executed in 1415.

Girolamo Savonarola

A late 15th-century Florentine reform preacher who condemned clerical corruption and called for moral renewal; executed for heresy in 1498.

Waldensians

A dissenting Christian movement that rejected aspects of Catholic authority; persecuted in the late medieval period, with some communities surviving into the early modern era.

Papal authority (criticisms)

Objections to strong centralized control by the pope, including arguments that popes should not have final say in all matters of faith and that claims of definitive authority were excessive.

Renaissance humanism

An intellectual movement emphasizing classical learning, rhetoric, languages, and moral philosophy, reshaping how educated Europeans evaluated texts and authority.

Christian humanism

The application of humanist methods to Christian sources, urging renewal through a return to the Bible and early Church writings rather than relying solely on later traditions.

Erasmus of Rotterdam

A leading Christian humanist who criticized superstition and clerical abuses and promoted moral reform and careful study of scripture, while generally opposing a Protestant break with Rome.

Printing press

A mid-1400s technology (associated with Gutenberg) that made texts cheaper and enabled rapid, wide circulation of religious arguments, accelerating public controversy.

Popular religion

Everyday religious practice blending official teaching with local customs (shrines, relics, pilgrimages, charms), often attacked by reformers as superstition or idolatry.

Iconoclasm

The destruction or removal of religious images to prevent idolatry; promoted by some Protestant reformers, though Protestant attitudes toward art varied by region.

Justification by faith alone

Luther’s core doctrine that salvation is God’s gift received through faith, not earned by good works—undermining the Church’s role as gatekeeper of salvation.

Sola Scriptura

The Protestant principle that the Bible is the ultimate authority for Christian faith and practice, above church tradition or papal decrees.

Sola Fide

The Protestant principle that salvation comes through faith alone, not through meritorious works.

Sola Gratia

The Protestant principle that salvation is a free gift of God’s grace, not something humans can earn.

Priesthood of all believers

The Protestant idea that every Christian has direct access to God through Christ, weakening the need for clergy as exclusive spiritual mediators.

Ninety-Five Theses

Martin Luther’s 1517 critique of indulgence-selling and related theology, spread quickly through print and escalating into a broader challenge to papal authority.

Frederick the Wise

A German prince who protected Luther, illustrating how political support and the Holy Roman Empire’s fragmentation helped Protestant reform survive.

German Peasants’ War (1524–1525)

A major uprising mixing social/economic grievances with reform language; brutally suppressed with tens of thousands killed, revealing limits of reformers’ support for social revolution.

Thomas Müntzer

A radical leader associated with the German Peasants’ War who used reform ideas to push for broader social change.

John Calvin

A major Reformation theologian whose ideas helped form the Reformed/Calvinist tradition and spread across borders, often aligning with political resistance to Catholic monarchs.

Predestination

A Calvinist doctrine that God has eternally chosen who will be saved; disciplined moral life was often treated as a sign of election, not the cause of salvation.

Geneva (Calvinist civic discipline)

The city where Calvin helped build a tightly regulated, church-influenced civic order, using moral oversight and discipline to shape daily life.

Huldrych Zwingli

A Zurich reformer whose movement resembled Luther’s in rejecting many Catholic practices; famously disagreed with Luther over the Eucharist, highlighting Protestant divisions.

Anabaptists

Radical reformers who rejected infant baptism in favor of adult belief-based baptism; often advocated separation of church and state and were persecuted by both Catholics and mainstream Protestants.

Royal Supremacy

The English Reformation principle that the monarch, not the pope, is the highest authority over church governance in England (central under Henry VIII).

Dissolution of the monasteries

Under Henry VIII, the suppression of monasteries and redistribution of their lands/wealth, strengthening the crown and creating elites invested in the new religious order.

Elizabethan Settlement

Elizabeth I’s policy stabilizing England’s church by maintaining royal supremacy and establishing a distinct national Protestant identity while enforcing conformity (not full toleration).

Council of Trent (1545–1563)

A Catholic Reformation council that reaffirmed Catholic doctrine (faith and works, sacraments, tradition alongside scripture) while reforming abuses through improved clerical discipline and education (seminaries).

Society of Jesus (Jesuits)

A Catholic religious order founded in 1540 emphasizing disciplined spirituality, education, and missionary work, aiding Catholic renewal and global expansion.

St. Teresa of Avila

A Catholic reformer who renewed the Carmelite order and emphasized personal prayer and devotion, showing Catholic reform was also deeply spiritual.

Roman Inquisition

A Catholic institution for investigating and prosecuting heresy, reflecting early modern assumptions that religious unity was necessary for social order.

Peace of Augsburg (1555)

A settlement in the Holy Roman Empire between Catholics and Lutherans that institutionalized territorial religion but left major issues unresolved (especially for Calvinists and mixed areas).

Edict of Nantes (1598)

Henry IV’s decree granting limited toleration to French Calvinists (Huguenots), aimed at stabilizing France through pragmatic statecraft rather than modern equality.

Thirty Years’ War (1618–1648)

A devastating conflict that began in the Holy Roman Empire amid confessional tensions and expanded into a great-power struggle; notable for massive civilian suffering and the blend of religious and political causes.

Peace of Westphalia (1648)

The treaties ending the Thirty Years’ War that recognized the independence of the Dutch Republic and Switzerland, reinforced state sovereignty, and confirmed ongoing political fragmentation within the Holy Roman Empire.