DBQ: PROTESTANT REFORMATION

BACKGROUND
conformity. Expulsion, imprisonment,
The Protestant Reformation was a torture, the death penalty, mass
cultural and political change that executions and massacres were tools of
splintered the Catholic Church in religious repression applied by both
Europe, setting in place the structures Catholics and Protestants.
and beliefs that would define the Why was the struggle so bitter,
Protestant religion. Reformers like long and deadly? Because the Protestant
Martin Luther, John Calvin, and Henry movement, as it evolved, sought not
VIII challenged papal authority and merely to reform the Catholic Church; it
questioned the Catholic Church’s ability aimed to replace it with a church based
to define Christian practice. In 1517 on the Protestant interpretation of the
Martin Luther, a Catholic priest in Bible, shorn of traditional Catholic
Germany at the University of sacraments, ritual and ecclesiastical
Wittenberg, appealed to the Pope to hierarchy for which the Protestants
correct abuses in the Roman Catholic could find no scriptural justification. At
Church. Luther was stake was the
excommunicated by the immense and
Pope for insubordination pervasive power of
and religious dissent the Pope and the
erupted in Europe, Catholic Church.
which continued Finally, after 200
intermittently for the years, either
next 200 years. Catholicism or
Historians now refer to Protestantism had
these events, in achieved dominance
retrospect, as the in each European
Reformation. state. However, a
During this period state policy of
the Catholic Church was religious toleration
reformed and was rarely adopted
reorganized, and until much later.
numerous "protestant" The Catholic Church
sects of Christianity were separately retained its power and authority in
established. These included Lutheran, Spain, Portugal, France, Ireland, and in
Anglican and Calvinist denominations. southern and eastern Europe. Protestant
The Protestants were later subdivided denominations prevailed in central and
by doctrinal differences into a variety of northern Germany, Holland, the
sects known as Congregationalists, Scandinavian countries and in England
Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, and Scotland. Meanwhile, major
Puritans, Quakers, etc. political realignments and
When each ruler attempted to consolidations occurred within the
enforce religious conformity within nations of Europe, leading to
their domain, religious intolerance, establishment of strong secular states
already the norm, was intensified. that progressively reduced the influence
Special police and courts were set up to of religion in government.
investigate and penalize non-
DIRECTIONS

1. Read each of the documents and answer the questions ON A

SEPARATE SHEET OF PAPER.
2. Categorize the documents thematically (SPICE) and provide an
explanation of how each document relates to the theme(s).

HONORS: Write a 3-5 paragraph essay on the Causes and

Consequences of the Protestant Reformation utilizing all of the
documents as sources.
Document 1

In the 1370s in England, the scholar John Wycliffe was openly critical of the
church, and specifically what he perceived to be the arrogance and corruption of the
clergy. The brief passage below expresses Wycliffe’s attitudes toward the Church.

But see now the sinfulness of man’s curse. If a true man shall displease a worldly prelate
[bishop or high priest] by teaching and maintaining God’s law, he shall be slandered for
an evil man, and forbidden to teach Christ’s Gospel, and the people shall be charged upon
pain of the greater curse [excommunication], to flee, and not to hear such a man, for to
save their own souls. And this shall be done under the colour of holiness; for they will say
that such a man teacheth heresy, and bring many false witnesses and notaries against him
in his absence, and in his presence speak no word. And they pretend, by means of this
invented and false law, that if three or four false witnesses, hired by money, say each a
thing against a true man, that then he shall not be heard…
Also [bishops and high priests] make many new points of belief, and say it is not enough
to believe in Jesus Christ…unless a man also believe that the bishop of Rome [the Pope] is
head of holy church. And certainly the apostles of Jesus Christ never constrained any man
to believe thus concerning himself. And yet they were certain of their salvation in heaven.
How then should any sinful wretch, who knows not whether he shall be damned or
saved, constrain men to believe that he is head of holy church? Certainly, in such case,
they must sometimes constrain men to believe that a devil of hell is head of holy church,
when the bishop of Rome [the Pope] shall be a man damned for his sins.

Source: Wycliffe, John. De Conversatione Ecclesiasticorum. From Tracts and Treatises of John
de Wycliffe, ed. Robert Vaughan. London: Blackburn and Pardon, 1845.

Questions
1. What is Wycliffe’s complaint about the Church?
2. What is Wycliffe’s criticism of the Pope in Rome?
Document 2

Pope Gregory XI condemned John Wycliffe for questioning the Catholic Church.

By the insinuation of many, if they are indeed worthy of belief, deploring it

deeply, it has come to our ears that John de Wycliffe, rector of the church of
Lutterworth, in the diocese of Lincoln, Professor of the Sacred Scriptures (would that
he were not also Master of Errors), has fallen into such a detestable madness that he
does not hesitate to dogmatize and publicly preach, or rather vomit forth from the
recesses of his breast, certain propositions and conclusions which are erroneous and
false. He has cast himself also into the depravity of preaching heretical dogmas
which strive to subvert and weaken the state of the whole church and even secular
polity, some of which doctrines, in changed terms, it is true, seem to express the
perverse opinions and unlearned learning of Marsilio of Padua of cursed memory,
and of John of Jandun, whose book is extant, rejected and cursed by our predecessor,
Pope John XXII, of happy memory. This he has done in the kingdom of England,
lately glorious in its power and in the abundance of its resources, but more glorious
still in the glistening piety of its faith, and in the distinction of its sacred learning;
producing also many men illustrious for their exact knowledge of the Holy
Scriptures, mature in the gravity of their character, conspicuous in devotion,
defenders of the Catholic Church. He has polluted certain of the faithful of Christ by
sprinkling them with these doctrines, and led them away from the right paths of the
aforesaid faith to the brink of perdition.
Wherefore, since we are not willing, nay, indeed, ought not to be willing, that so
deadly a pestilence should continue to exist with our connivance, a pestilence which,
if it is not opposed in its beginnings, and torn out by the roots in its entirety, will be
reached too late by medicines when it has infected very many with its contagion; we
command your University with strict admonition, by the apostolic authority, in
virtue of your sacred obedience, and under penalty of the deprivation of all the
favors, indulgences, and privileges granted to you and your University by the said
see, for the future not to permit to be asserted or proposed to any extent whatever,
the opinions, conclusions, and propositions which are in variance with good morals
and faith, even when those proposing strive to defend them under a certain fanciful
wresting of words or of terms. Moreover, you are on our authority to arrest the said
John, or cause him to be arrested and to send him under a trustworthy guard to our
venerable brother, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Bishop of London, or to
one of them.

Source: From Thatcher, Oliver J. The Library of Original Sources. Vol V: The Early Medieval
World. Milwaukee: University Research Extension Co, 1907.

Questions
1. What are Pope Gregory’s criticisms of John Wycliffe?
2. What actions are the Pope asking the University of Oxford to take
against Wycliffe?
Document 3

One of the great European poets of the Middle Ages was Geoffrey Chaucer (c.
1343-1400). He is best known for The Canterbury Tales, a series of narrative
poems told by a group of pilgrims travelling to the famous shrine of Thomas
Becket, the murdered Archbishop of Canterbury. To pass the time, each traveler
told a tale. One of Chaucer’s pilgrim characters was a clergyman who sold
pardons. In this Prologue, Chaucer introduces each pilgrim and comments on his
or her character. Here are some of his comments about the Pardoner:

He’d sewn a veronica on his cap. [veronica was a badge with a portrait
His knapsack lay before him, on his lap, of Christ’s face]
Chockful of pardons, all come hot from Rome…
For in his bag he had a pillowcase
Which had been, so he said, Our Lady’s veil:
And he’d a brass cross, set with pebble-stones,
And a glass container of pig’s bones.
But with these relics, when he found
Some poor up-country priest or backwoods parson
In just one day he’d pick up far more money
Than any parish priest was like to see
In two whole months. With double-talk and tricks
He made the people and the priest his dupes.
But to speak truth and do the fellow justice,
In church he made a noble ecclesiast. [ecclesiast is a person who leads
He’s read a lesson, or saint’s history, the Church and assembly]
But best of all he sang the offertory:
For, knowing well that when that hymn was sung,
He’d have to preach and polish smooth his tongue
To win some silver, as he right well could;
The louder and the merrier he would sing.

Source: Adapted from Chaucer, Geoffrey. The Canterbury Tales. Ed. David Wright and
Christopher Cannon. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2011.

Questions
3. How does Chaucer describe the Pardoner?
4. What does this tell us about the role of religious preachers in
European society?
 Document 4

As early as 1508, the Dutch writer Erasmus was criticizing pardons, but his
writings did not get the attention of church official because Erasmus presented his
criticisms in a less confrontational manner than did Martin Luther in his Ninety-
Five Theses. The following is an excerpt from The Praise of Folly.

And what shall I say of those who comfortably delude themselves with imaginary pardons
for their sins, and who measure their time in purgatory with an hourglass into years,
months, days, and hours, with all the precision of a mathematical table? There are plenty,
too, who, relying upon certain magical little certificates and prayers – which some pious
imposter devised either in fun or for the benefit of his pocket, -- believe they may procure [a
rich life], nay in the end, a seat at the right hand of Christ in heaven…The trader, the
soldier, and judge think that they can clean up [the sins of a lifetime] by sacrificing a golden
coin from their ill-gotten gains…
The greater part of the monks exhibit such confidence in ceremonies and trivial human
traditions that one would think a single heaven would scarce suffice as a worthy reward for
their merits. They little think that Christ will put them off with a "Who hath required these
things at your hands?" and will call them to account only for the stewardship of his legacy
of love. One will confidently call attention to his paunch, filled with all kinds of fish;
another will pour out a hundred bushels of psalms; a third will enumerate his
myriad fastings and will tell how a single meal nearly killed him; a fourth will produce as
many ceremonies as would fill seven merchant ships; a fifth will plead that for three-score
years he never so much as touched money except he fingered it through double thick gloves
. . . But Christ shall interrupt their boastings: "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees! I left
you one great precept, but of that alone I hear nothing from you. I told you plainly in my
gospel, with no disguising parables, that my Father's kingdom was promised, not for cowls,
petitions, and fastings, but for deeds of love. I know them not who rely on their own merits.

Source: Erasmus, Desiderius. The Praise of Folly. From Readings in European History, ed.
James Robinson. Boston: Ginn and Company, 1906.

Questions
1. According to Erasmus, how is the church misguided in its practice of
pardons?
2. According to Erasmus, how are monks behaving in ways contrary to
the teachings of Jesus Christ?
 place. upon Christianity
doubtedly the conspiracy of divergent sects under the leadership of the
Emperor Julian (331 362), surnamed the Apostate because he abjured the
Document 5

Orthodoxy surrounded by the Snares of Heresy. Facsimile of a wood-engraving in

the Livre des Persecutions des Crestens, Paris.

Source: Lacroix, Paul. Military and Religious Life in the Middle Ages, and at the Period of the
Orthodoxy surrounded by the Snares of Heresy. Boniface Simoneta (1470 to 1500),
Fig. 307.
Renaissance. London: Bickers and Son, 1874.
Abbot of San Stefano del Corno (diocese of Cremona), " calling God to his aid in order that
his work may be more
Questions efficaciously wrought, . . . and desiring above all things to speak
reason 1.
andHow " Livre des
does this
equity." drawing
Fac-simile of indicate society’s attitude
a "Wood-Engraving in the toward people who
Persecutions des
"
Crestiens might
:
challenge
Paris, Antoine traditional religious
Verard, gothic 4to (nobeliefs?
date).

Christian faith with the view of re-establishing paganism. His plan for

at this result was conceived. that it

Document 6

Indulgences and pardons were an integral part of the religious landscape on the eve
of the Reformation. Pope Clement VI (1343) and Pope Sixtus IV (1476) gave the
official theories supporting indulgences.

Clement VI, Unigenitus (1343)

…The purposes [of indulgences] served should be proper and reasonable: sometimes
total, sometimes partial remission of punishment due for temporal sins, as well
generally as specifically…and for these ends the treasure should be applied in mercy
to those who are truly penitent and have made their confession.

Sixtus IV, Salvator noster (1476)

…With the longings of such great paternal affection as with God’s help we can
achieve, in reliance on the divine mercy and the plenitude of our power, we grant by
concession an indulgence as follows: If any parents, friends or other Christians are
moved by obligations of piety towards these very souls who are exposed to the fire
of purgatory for the expiation of punishments which by divine justice are their due,
let them during the stated period of ten years give a fixed amount or value of
money…

Albert of Mainz, Instructio summaria (1515)

…these four indulgences that the preachers must concentrate their utmost diligence,
infiltrating them one by one into the ears of the faithful in the most effective way,
and explaining them with all the ability they have.
The first principal grace is the plenary remission of all sins…[man] obtains through it
perfect remission and God’s grace anew…remission of sins, punishments in
purgatory are remitted in full. …the punishments of the said purgatory are totally
wiped out.
If anyone for any reason seeks to be excused visit to churches: such a visit may be
compounded by a larger financial contribution.

Source: Reformation Reader, 2nd ed. Ed. Denis R. Janz. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2008.

Questions
1. What does a person gain by purchasing an indulgence?
2. How did this affect the political and economic power and authority
of the church?
Document 7

The Ninety-Five Theses or Disputations on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences

of 1517 is the most famous document of Martin Luther’s Reformation. Their
importance lies in the fact that they are a small initial step that stirred up an
international controversy and thereby set in motion the dramatic events that
followed.

6. The pope cannot remit any guilt, except by declaring and showing that it has been
remitted by God; or, to be sure, by remitting guilt in cases reserved to his judgment. If
his right to grant remission in these cases were disregarded, the guilt would certainly
remain unforgiven.

20. Therefore the pope, when he uses the words "plenary remission of all penalties,"
does not actually mean "all penalties," but only those imposed by himself.

21. Thus those indulgence preachers are in error who say that a man is absolved from
every penalty and saved by papal indulgences.

24. For this reason most people are necessarily deceived by that indiscriminate and
high-sounding promise of release from penalty.

27. They preach only human doctrines who say that as soon as the money clinks into
the money chest, the soul flies out of purgatory.

28. It is certain that when money clinks in the money chest, greed and avarice can be
increased; but when the church intercedes, the result is in the hands of God alone.

32. Those who believe that they can be certain of their salvation because they have
indulgence letters will be eternally damned, together with their teachers.

43. Christians are to be taught that he who gives to the poor or lends to the needy does
a better deed than he who buys indulgences.

Source: Reformation Reader, 2nd ed. Ed. Denis R. Janz. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2008.

Questions
1. What is Luther’s primary criticism of the pope and the Church?
Document 8

Pope Leo X responded to Luther’s writings with a proclamation in 1520. He

threatened that unless Luther disavowed himself of his views and writings
(recanted) he would be excommunicated (cut off from the Catholic Church). The
proclamation demanded that Luther retract his views within sixty days.
Give heed to the cause of the holy Roman Church, mother of all churches and teacher
of the faith, whom you by the order of God, have consecrated by your blood. Against
the Roman Church, you warned, lying teachers are rising, introducing ruinous sects,
and drawing upon themselves speedy doom. Their tongues are fire, a restless evil, full
of deadly poison. They have bitter zeal, contention in their hearts, and boast and lie
against the truth.
Wise in their own eyes, according to the ancient practice of heretics, they interpret
these same Scriptures otherwise than the Holy Spirit demands, inspired only by their
own sense of ambition, and for the sake of popular acclaim, as the Apostle declares. In
fact, they twist and adulterate the Scriptures. As a result, according to Jerome, “It is no
longer the Gospel of Christ, but a man's, or what is worse, the devil's.”
In virtue of our pastoral office committed to us by the divine favor we can under no
circumstances tolerate or overlook any longer the pernicious poison of the above errors
without disgrace to the Christian religion and injury to orthodox faith. Some of these
errors we have decided to include in the present document; their substance is as
follows:
10. Sins are not forgiven to anyone, unless when the priest forgives them he believes
they are forgiven; on the contrary the sin would remain unless he believed it was
forgiven; for indeed the remission of sin and the granting of grace does not suffice, but
it is necessary also to believe that there has been forgiveness.
13. In the sacrament of penance and the remission of sin the pope or the bishop does
no more than the lowest priest; indeed, where there is no priest, any Christian, even if
a woman or child, may equally do as much.
19. Indulgences are of no avail to those who truly gain them, for the remission of the
penalty due to actual sin in the sight of divine justice.
24. Christians must be taught to cherish excommunications rather than to fear them.
Moreover, because the preceding errors and many others are contained in the books or
writings of Martin Luther, we likewise condemn, reprobate, and reject completely the
books and all the writings and sermons of the said Martin…We forbid each and every
one of the faithful to read, assert, preach, praise, print, publish, or defend them.
We enjoin, however, on Martin that in the meantime he cease from all preaching or the
office of preacher....

Source: Reformation Reader, 2nd ed. Ed. Denis R. Janz. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2008.

Questions
1. What is the pope’s response to criticism of church practices?
2. What are the “errors” that the pope is referring to in this
proclamation?
Document 9

With the sixty-days past, Luther gathered with students near a church outside of
Wittenberg castle and threw the proclamation of the pope on a bonfire of already
burning Catholic and anti-Luther writings. He then wrote a pamphlet entitled
Against the Execrable Bull of Antichrist in response to the pope.

I have heard that a bull against me has gone through the whole earth before it came to
me, because being a daughter of darkness it feared the light of my face. …whoever
wrote this bull, he is Antichrist. …this bull condemns me from its own word without
any proof from Scripture, whereas I back up all my assertions from the Bible.

I demand that they show absolutely…point by point and not in a lump, just what is
heretical. Let them show where I am a heretic, or dry up their spittle.

They say that some articles are heretical, some erroneous, some scandalous, some
offensive. …this bull is the sum of all impiety, blasphemy, ignorance, impudence,
hypocrisy, lying – in a word, it is Satan and his Antichrist.

Woe to all who live in these times. The wrath of God is coming upon the papists, the
enemies Of the cross of Christ, that all men should resist them. You then, Leo X, you
cardinals and the rest of you at Rome, I tell you to your faces: "If this bull has come out
in your name, then I will use the power which has been given me in baptism whereby I
became a son of God and co-heir with Christ, established upon the rock against which
the gates of hell cannot prevail. I call upon you to renounce your diabolical blasphemy
and audacious impiety, and, if you will not, we shall all hold your seat as possessed
and oppressed by Satan, the damned seat of Antichrist; in the name of Jesus Christ,
whom you persecute.

…as they excommunicated me for the sacrilege of heresy, so I excommunicate them in

the name of the sacred truth of God. Christ will judge whose excommunication will
stand. Amen.

Source: Bainton, Roland. Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther. New York: Abingdon-
Cokesbury Press, 1950.

Questions
1. What is Luther’s primary criticism of the pope’s proclamation?
2. What authority does Luther claim to have?
Document 10

Since the crusades, Anti-Semitism increased in Europe. Luther failed to convert

Jews in any appreciable numbers and he became embittered with that failure. It is
in this sense that he wrote Concerning the Jews and Their Lies.

What shall we Christians do with this rejected and condemned people, the Jews? Since
they live among us, we dare not tolerate their conduct, now that we are aware of their
lying and reviling and blaspheming. If we do, we become sharers in their lies, cursing
and blasphemy. Thus we cannot extinguish the unquenchable fire of divine wrath, of
which the prophets speak, nor can we convert the Jews. With prayer and the fear of
God we must practice a sharp mercy to see whether we might save at least a few from
the glowing flames...I shall give you my sincere advice:
First to set fire to their synagogues or schools and to bury and cover with dirt
whatever will not burn, so that no man will ever again see a stone or cinder of them.
Second, I advise that their houses also be razed and destroyed.
Third, I advise that all their prayer books and Talmudic writings, in which such
idolatry, lies, cursing and blasphemy are taught, be taken from them.
Fourth, I advise that their rabbis be forbidden to teach henceforth on pain of loss of life
and limb.
Fifth, I advise that safeconduct on the highways be abolished completely for the Jews.
For they have no business in the countryside, since they are not lords, officials,
tradesmen, or the like. Let them stay at home.
Sixth, I advise that usury [loans] be prohibited to them, and that all cash and treasure
of silver and gold be taken from them and put aside for safekeeping. The reason for
such a measure is that, as said above, they have no other means of earning a livelihood
than usury, and by it they have stolen and robbed from us all they possess. Such
money should now be used in no other way than the following: Whenever a Jew is
sincerely converted, he should be handed one hundred, two hundred, or three
hundred florins, as personal circumstances may suggest. With this he could set himself
up in some occupation for the support of his poor wife and children, and the
maintenance of the old or feeble. For such evil gains are cursed if they are not put to
use with God's blessing in a good and worthy cause.
Seventh, I commend putting a flail, an ax, a hoe, a spade, a distaff, or a spindle into the
hands of young, strong Jews and Jewesses and letting them earn their bread in the
sweat of their brow.
Source: McKim, Donald K. The Cambridge Companion to Martin Luther. Cambridge, U.K.:
Cambridge UP, 2003.

Questions
1. What is the source (reason) for Luther’s anti-Semitism?
2. How did Luther’s ideas influence discrimination against Jews in
Germany and in Europe?