The Reformation and 95 Thesis

Catholic Church was powerful and rich

The Church governed the land, run by the Pope out of Rome

Life Events happened in the Church

Crimes were resolved by the Church

People started to think the Church was gaining too much power

People believed the the people in the Church could grant forgiveness

The Church made money off of indulgences

People started to question the Church's authority

Bibles were expensive

People couldn't read

Before the printing press, books had to be copied by hand, word-for-word!

Johannes Gutenberg invented the Printing Press

letters were made into metal stamps and one page could be copied much quicker

Allowed for a quicker distribution of the Bible, and more people could read now because of a thirst for knowledge in the Renaissance

Martin Luther was a monk who studied the Bible and found some discrepancies between the text and the Church's teaching

On October 31, 1517 Luther took a list of 95 points where he thought the Church was wrong and nailed it to the Church door!

He claimed indulgences were wrong

church started making less money

Luther was labeled as a heretic, a crime punishable by death

As more people heard about Luther's 95 Theses and started reading the Bible, they started to separate from the Church

Began the Protestant church