__Protest__ant __Reform__ation: Protesting about something (in this case, we're talking about religion) in order to make it better

• 1450s-1600s: happened at the same time the Italian Renaissance happened

  • Around the 1450s, many artists from the Renaissance were just being born

What caused the Protestant Reformation?

• During this time, the popes in the churches held the most powers, and they were able to do anything they wanted

• With great powers, come great responsibilities, but they abused their power, and decided to be corrupt

• It was also until now that people started to have their own opinions, and believed what they believe was true.

  • This meant that the religion, Christianity as a whole, broke into branches, causing all different kind of sects to form

3 main groups of Protestants

1. Lutheranism:

   • Founded by Martin Luther, who during the process of protesting, got excommunicated (banned) from the Church

   • Disagreed with some of the church doctrines, ESPECIALLY the indulgences

     • Indulgences: paid grants that allowed a person's sins to be forgiven

   • Also believed that salvation depended on whether one was faithful to God and the religion. Your status in life doesn't matter, as long as you were devoted to God

2. Calvinism:

   • Founded by John Calvin, who also got excommunicated from the Church

   • Mostly believes the same things that Lutherans believed

   • Focuses and stresses on the idea of "Predestination"

     • This meant that people were already destined to a place before. God already knew who was going to be saved or perish.

     • Trying to climb up the social ladder is important, as the higher level you are, the seemingly "better" you are

   • The term "Protestant Work Ethic" also came from Calvinism

     • This meant that if you worked hard, you'll earn your level in life (The more rich you are, the higher level you will be)

3. Anglicanism:

   • There's no central power at the church, meaning that the pope isn't of high level. It's free of control

   • However, people still had to follow the rules and doctrines of the Church

   • It's basically like an in-between between roman catholic and the reformation

Counter Reformation/Catholic Reformation:

As the people turned on the Church, they couldn't just sit back and watch. The Church had to do something to counter their attacks

1. Inquisition

   • punishing the people for going against church doctrines

   • also punishes the non-believers

2. Jesuits

   • people that spread the religion around to other people during missionaries

   • they would talk to others and spread Catholicism and would try and outnumber the number of protestants

3. Council of Trent

   • A meeting held with popes, church officials, and other people to discuss all the topics that the reformists had disagreed with

   • The main outcome of this meeting was getting rid of indulgences, but the other doctrines were just clarified and had stayed.

These counter reformation strategies actually worked. They've managed to keep the reformists put. Catholicism remained dominant in the south and southwest, and soon enough, people from the reformation ended up converting back to Catholicism because they wanted to follow the religion of their home country