The Protestant Reformation

In the sixteenth century, many European Christians were critical of practices within the Catholic Church. Some scholars in northern Europe had turned to Christian humanism as a means of making people more pious and thus achieving religious reform. Martin Luther, a German monk, began the Protestant Reformation when he publicly objected to the church’s sale of indulgences. Luther was excommunicated, but the printing press enabled his ideas to spread throughout Europe. Luther taught that faith alone was needed for salvation and that scripture was the only source of Christian authority.  Luther’s ideas became popular among many, including Ulrich Zwingli and John Calvin in Switzerland. Followers of John Calvin, called Calvinists, spread his teachings to the Netherlands, Scotland, France, and England. A variety of Anabaptist churches were also established that rejected infant baptism. In England, Henry VIII rejected the pope’s authority after the pope refused to grant him an annulment. As Protestantism gained adherents, religious wars erupted throughout Europe. The Council of Trent, called by the Roman Catholic Church in 1545, reaffirmed some aspects of church doctrine while also passing reforms that attempted to eliminate some of the problems that led to the Reformation. Wars over religion continued for many years.            All images referenced in this podcast can be found at https://openstax.org/books/world-history-volume-2/pages/5-1-the-protestant-reformation            Welcome to A Journey into Human History.    This podcast will attempt to tell the whole human story.       The content contained in this podcast was produced by OpenStax and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License.     Access for free at https://openstax.org/books/world-history-volume-2/pages/1-introduction    Podcast produced by Miranda Casturo as a Creative Common Sense production.

Om Podcasten

Welcome to a journey into human history. This podcast will attempt to tell the whole human story. You may be asking yourself what is history? Is it simply a record of things people have done? Is it what writer Maya Angelou suggested—a way to meet the pain of the past and overcome it? Or is it, as Winston Churchill said, a chronicle by the victors, an interpretation by those who write it? History is all this and more. Above all else, it is a path to knowing why we are the way we are—all our greatness, all our faults—and therefore a means for us to understand ourselves and change for the better. But history serves this function only if it is a true reflection of the past. It cannot be a way to mask the darker parts of human nature, nor a way to justify acts of previous generations. It is the historian’s task to paint as clear a picture as sources will allow. Will history ever be a perfect telling of the human tale? No. There are voices we may never hear. Yet each new history book written and each new source uncovered reveal an ever more precise record of events around the world. You are about to take a journey into human history. The content contained in this podcast was produced by OpenStax and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License. For more information please review the links and resources in the description. Podcast produced by Miranda Casturo as a creative common sense production.