In this week of the course, you will be studying the Protestant Reformation that
occurred in the sixteenth century.  The person most responsible for the Reformation
was Martin Luther, a German Augustinian monk, and you will be reading his 95 Theses
which he originally wrote for discussion of church practices.  

By the early sixteenth century, the church was no longer the formidable political,
economic and intellectual institution that it had once been.  By that time, strong political
powers had emerged in Europe, for example, the king of France, the king of England,
the king of Spain, not to mention the Holy Roman Emperor.  All of these political figures
were contestants for political power, and the loser in that contest was increasingly the
church.  From an economic perspective, although the church still commanded
enormous material wealth, much of that wealth was locked up in the fixed capital base
of the church, to use a modern economic expression, in the buildings and art work of
the church, and it was increasingly expensive to maintain that structure.  Besides, the
church had to compete for economic resources with the other political entities of the
day.  In other words, increasingly wealth was flowing not into the church but to secular
authorities, further strengthening their power and weakening the power of the church. 
From an intellectual perspective, by the sixteenth century the church had long ceased
to be in innovated intellectual force in Europe.  Increasingly intellectual activity took
place outside of the church in secular society, in the universities and not under control
of the church.  In fact, in the span of the entire Middle Ages, with the exception of some
individuals such as Pope Gregory the Great or St. Thomas Aquinas, the church had
never really been an intellectually-active institution.

Finally, what doomed the church to suffer the Reformation and the eventual split of the
church into many churches was the fact that from a theological point-of-view the church
had failed to keep pace.  There were two aspects to this point.  First, from the
standpoint of church practice, the church continually refused to correct practices that
were blatantly anti-Christian and anti-ethical, for example the scandalous sexual
practices of some of the popes or the outrageous monetary practices of some of the
leading church figures.  Second, from the standpoint of doctrine and dogma, the church
repeatedly refused to reconsider any interpretations of church teachings other than
what the church held to be the church standard teaching.  This tended to solidify the
church and leave it impervious to criticism and reform.

Luther succeeded for a number of reasons, but perhaps the most important of those
was the fact that by the early sixteenth century a new invention had appeared on the
scene in Europe, the printing press.  The printing press allowed the writings of Luther
and the discourses of other critics to circulate on a far wider level than had ever
previously been known.  By the sixteenth century there was a substantial middle- and
upper-class in Europe that could read, that could appreciate the argumentation of
Luther and that could support his criticism of the church.  This was different then had
existed in the case of any of the earlier church reformers who were forced to
operate only within the context of the church and not with public support.  The fact 
that Luther could muster public support made it increasingly difficult for the church to
defend itself, and so Luther was able to succeed in his Reformation.  The end result
was the division of a single Christian church (a characteristic of the medieval
world) which in fact had already divided into two churches--into multiple churches (a
characteristic of the modern world).