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| 6631372 | Jansenism | Movement within the seventeenth-century Catholic Church. It opposed the Jesuits and advocated that humans could only achieve salvation through divine grace, not through good works. | |
| 6631373 | Index of Forbidden Books | Written by Pope Paul IV as part of the Counter-Reformation. It forbade Catholics from reading books considered "harmful" to faith and morals. This indicates the significance of the printing press in disseminating Reformation ideas. | |
| 6631374 | Council of Trent | Summoned by Pope Paul III to try and define Catholic doctrine and thwart Protestant attacks on Catholic beliefs. These meetings did not reform the doctrines but did end several currupt practices criticized by Reformers within the Church and reasserted traditional Catholic doctrine. | |
| 6631375 | Jesuits | A religious order known as the Society of Jesus, created to strengthen support of the CHurch during the Counter-Reformation. Founded by Ignatius de Loyola in 1534, these "soldiers of the Counter-Reformation" were committed to doing good deeds in order to achieve salvation. | |
| 6631376 | Excommunication | Refusal of the Catholic Church to administer the sacraments to a person. | |
| 6631377 | 95 Theses | Martin Luther's list of complaints and reforms. He accused Johann Tetzel of wrongdoing in his selling of indulgences and asking people to pay for false promises of exoneration of their sins. Luther's protests spread throughout Europe, igniting the Reformation. | |
| 6631378 | John Wycliff | Criticized the Church and the corruption in its clergy in the 1300s. Challenged papal infallibility and called for the power of the clergy to be supplanted with the Bible and individual interpretation of it by all Catholics. Together with Jan Hus he set the stage for the Protestant Reformation. | |
| 6631379 | Simony | Practice of teh Roman Catholic Church in the Middle Ages wherein Church leaders sold high Church positions. This practice was used to gain power for sons who would not inherit family wealth and land because of birth order. | |
| 6631380 | Johann Tetzel | Monk who was commissioned by Pope Leo X to raise money for the Church and was sent throughout northern Germany to sell indulgences (official ablutions for the purchaser's sins). This outraged Martin Luther and other critics of the Church and played a role in the start of the Reformation. | |
| 6631381 | Diet of Worms | Special imperial council in Worms, Germany, to which Martin Luther was summoned after his excommunication in 1521. Luther was ordered to abandon his revolutionary ideas, which he refused to do, so he was banished from the empire. Luther was then sheltered in Saxony. | |
| 6631382 | Justification of Faith Alone | Luther's ideas revolved around this central tenet that people were led to salvation only through inner faith in God, rather than by participating in worldly rituals and good deeds. | |
| 6631383 | Priesthood of All Believers | Luther's revolutionary idea that every believer had the ability to read and interpret theBible, that all people of faith were viewed by God as equals. This challenged the Church's position that priests had an exclusive ability to do so. | |
| 6631384 | John Calvin | Swiss leader of Protestantism and advocate of predestination who creatd theocracies in Swiss cantons. His ideas led to a large following in France, known collectively as Huguenots. | |
| 6631385 | Predestination | John Calvin's belief that at the beginning of time, God had preselected who among all people would be saved and have salvation, a group known as the "elect." This group was expected to follow the highest moral standards and be completely dedicated to God's wishes. | |
| 6631386 | Huguenots | Converts or adherents to Calvinism in France, including many from the French nobility wishing to challenge the authority of the Catholic monarch. Also known as French Protestants. | |
| 6631387 | Edict of Nantes | Decreed by French King Henry IV in 1598, it granted Huguenots limited political freedoms and the freedom of worship and brought temporary civilian peace. Very unpopular in France among Catholics. Revoked by Louis XIV in 1685, leading to a massive emigration of French Huguenots. | |
| 6725765 | sacraments | Religious rituals performed by Christians that are believed to be essential for salvation. Questions about the validity of these rituals - how they should be performed and who should be qualified to perform them - represented frequent sources of religious conflict. | |
| 6766656 | Counter-Reformation | Was started in the 1530s by the Church and was aimed at reforming internal Church practices to combat the success of the Protestant Reformation. | |
| 6834042 | Act of Supremacy | Passed by the English Parliament in 1534, it completed England's break with the papacy by declaring Henry VIII the head of the Church of England, or Anglican church. It also allowed the monarchy to confiscate church property. | |
| 6844970 | Anabaptists | A religious sect started in Zurich, Switzerland, in the 16th century that believed that true faith was based on reason and free will and that people must knowingly select the Christian faith through rebaptism as adults. These men and women rejected the authority of the state and the courts, abolished private property, and believed themselvesto be true Christians who lived acording to the standards established in the Bible. The movement gained most of its support from artisans and the middle and lower classes, who were attracted by its simple message of peace and salvation. They were persecuted by both Catholic and Protestant authorities, and Zurch's magistrates, angered at the pacifist sect's refusal to bear arms, ordered that hundreds of them be put to death, thereby making them the Reformation's first martyrs of conscience. | |
| 6845431 | auto da fe | Portuguese for "demonstration" or "act of faith"; a ritual of public confession and humiliation for heretics and those suspected of heresy in Spain and Portugal during the Inquisition. Imposed and overseen by the Catholic Church, the first one took place in Sevill, Spain, in 1481, and the practice continued into the 19th century. | |
| 6847940 | Bull | An official papal letter or document, named for the bulla or raised seal used to signify its authenticity. Among the more famous ones was Exsurge Domine (1520), isued by Pope Leo X (r. 1513-1521) against Martin Luther. | |
| 6848057 | canon law | The law of the Roman Catholic church. Originally a loose collection of papal decrees and edicts from church councils about the rules and practice of the faith, canon laws became a means through which the papacy asserted its authority over the church and medieval society. | |
| 6887658 | Church of England | Protestant church - and the official church of England - created by Henry VII (r. 1509-47) in 1534 to supplant the Roman Catholic church. Although initially opposed to Protestantism - even executing some of its leaders - Henry changed his mind when the pope refused to approve his divirce in 1527. In response he appointed two Protestants to high posts: Thomas Cromwell as chancellor and Thomas Cranmer as archbishop of Canterbury. Henry instructed Parliament to outlaw the Catholic church and declare him "the only supreme head of the Church of England." |
