GERMANY 1500-1600

Reform, War, and Renaissance

MAXIMILIAN HOLY ROMAN EMPEROR

 Was born to Emperor Frederick III in 1459

 Became emperor in 1493
 Divided Germany into 6 circles for easier rule
BUILD UP TO THE REFORMATION
 Corruption in the Catholic church
 Abuse of power
 MARTIN LUTHER

 Spent a lot of time trying to do enough good things to get to

heaven
 Started the reformation by nailing his 95 theses to the door of a
church
 The Catholic church did not react well to Luther
 He rejected the authority of the Pope
 Set up the Bible as the only source of Christian truth
THE TREATY OF AUGSBURG (1555)
 Brought religious peace to Germany
PEASANTS WAR 1524-1525
 The peasants were greatly oppressed
 Treated like slaves
 Sent a document called “The Twelve
Articles” to the pope
 The Pope basically ignored it
PEASANTS WAR 1524-1525
 Inspired by the teachings of Martin Luther
 They started a war for human rights
 Münzer told them that he was a prophet
 He took things a little too far
PEASANTS WAR 1524-1525

 Princes started fighting together

 The war ended in June 1525
 The war was pretty much pointless, because the
peasants lost, and didn’t get their human rights
COUNTER REFORMATION
 The Catholics didn’t like the fact that Luther
started the reformation
 Luther made them look at what was going on in
the church
COUNTER REFORMATION
 The Council of Trent took place in Italy in 1545
 The Council got together to talk about and solve
the problems in the Catholic church
COUNTER REFORMATION

 Banned indulgences
 Indulgences are little
certificates that
basically say that your
sins are forgiven, and in
order for them to get
these certificates they
had to pay taxes to the
priests
COUNTER REFORMATION