Renaissance+Religion


 * Prince of the Humanists || 16th Century Religous Leaders || The Reformataion ||
 * [[image:kellibmusesam/erasmus.jpg]] || [[image:kellibmusesam/303622w.jpg width="216" height="265"]] || [[image:kellibmusesam/Notre_Dame_Dome_001.jpg width="298" height="364"]] ||
 * The most famous of the Northern or Christian humanists was Desidarius Erasmus (1466-1536) of Rotterdamn. Erasmus had an interest in education and religious reform. He believed that people should study the ancient classics and the Bible in an effort to reform themselves and society. To aid in this effort, Erasmus translated the Bible into Greek. In addition, Erasmus worried about the increasing emphasis on ritual, ceremony, and rules in the Catholic faith. To counter this trend, he developed what he called, "The Philosophy of Christ." This philosophy encouraged believers to examine Christ's life and words for examples of love and ethical behavior. In his most famous work, The Praise of Folly, Erasmus satirically examined all aspects of society, including the Church. Meanwhile, Thomas More (1478-1535), a close friend of Erasmus, was helping to introduce humanism in England. In his widely read Utopia, more presented a unique view of society. More's Utopia was an imaginary island near where Columbus had recently encountered the New World. Utopia described an idealistic society based on reason. The population was educated, worked hard, and shared the fruits of their labor. Since material wealth was divided equally, greed did not exist, and people did not desire material things. || The picture above is of the sixteenth-century religious leaders Ulrich Zwingli, Martin Luther, John Knox, and John Calvin. After German monk Martin Luther first challenged the authority of the pope, individual inquiry and personal opinion became important parts of reformist thought. Reformation in England had a political beginning in the quarrel between King Henry VIII and the pope. Henry broke from the Catholic Church and formed the Anglican Church with himself as the supreme head. Although the impetus may have been political, Henry's break from the Catholic Church spurred important religious reforms. One of the most important changes was the introduction of the Bible in English. In northern Europe, Lutheranism was the dominant force of the Protestant Reformation, but regional differences throughout Europe influenced specific matters of doctrine and authority. In Denmark, the Danish Church was established in 1539 and identified the king as the head of the church with the clergy as the ultimate authority in matters of faith. Norway soon follow​ed suit. Eastern Europe had lived for many years with different forms of religion, and a more radical Protestantism found fertile ground in countries like Poland, Bohemia, and Hungary. Calvinism, a type of Protestantism originating in France, appealed to many in eastern Europe because it was non-Germanic in thinking and had changed enough to lose what was perceived as its French bias in philosophy and belief. A weak centralized government, Turkish influences, and a history of religious diversity made Hungary one of the most tolerant countries for religious reformers of all types. || The picture above is of an old dome catholic church. In Europe at the beginning of the 16th century, the Roman Catholic Church had become extremely powerful, but many felt that it had also become internally corrupt. They charged that the pope and other religious leaders, influenced by the worldliness of the Renaissance, were not living and conducting Church business in accordance with Church doctrine, and so they called for reform. The first and perhaps strongest voice calling for reform was that of Martin Luther, a German Augustinian friar who posted a list of grievances against the Catholic Church in 1517. The publication of Luther's Ninety-Five Theses marked the beginning of the Reformation—a movement that at first demanded reform from within the Church but ultimately resulted in the establishment of separate, Protestant churches. Luther called for national, rather than Roman, control of Church finances; permission for the clergy to marry; and a series of sacramental reforms that reduced the sacraments to baptism and the Eucharist (communion). Within the Catholic Church, a series of powerful popes, including Leo X and Paul III, responded to demands for reform. Their efforts became known as the Counter-Reformation, or Catholic Reformation. A new religious order, the Jesuits, was formed to teach and reinforce the Catholic doctrine to clergy and lay people and also to prevent the spread of Protestantism. Paul III convened the Council of Trent in 1545. As members of the council, the leaders of the Church initiated a general reform of the Church and precisely defined its essential dogmas. ||

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