Assignment 1:
1. The sources of religious discontent that preceded the Reformation was the people’s unhappiness with the selling of the offices of the church, clergy members holding more than one office, the selling of indulgences, church taxation, absenteeism, the literate and uneducated priests, and nepotism among the clergy. Additionally, the fact that most clergy was exempt from tax but could own property upset the people.
2. Luther’s intentions and actions of the 95 thesis to the Peace of Augsburg was to tell the Archbishop Albert that the indulgences were making penance insignificant, going against what was in the Gospels, and taking the importance of charity out of Christian’s lives. Luther intended to have theologians debate his topics in the 95 thesis to make the pope have no choice but to call a council to try to reform, not wanting to separate from the church. However, when he said that he did not believe the pope had the authority to grant indulgences and that he was not infallible, he was past the point of recanting his opinions of the church and refused to do so at the Diet of Worms. His actions that caused the religious chaos in the Holy Roman Empire as well as his excommunication, led to the Peace of Augsburg which allowed Germanic princes to choose to be Catholic or Lutheran as well as have a sense of religious tolerance,
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The effect the spread of Protestantism had on the Holy Roman Empire and France was that it caused the tensions between them to intensify. Since the Holy Roman Empire was weakened by the fighting over Protestantism and Catholicism, France saw the opportunity to get back at the Habsburg dynasty, that it has had a feud with, by weakening it even futher. By aiding the Protestants in their efforts to prevail against Catholic Charles V, not only did it spread Protestantism but France weaken Charles V, in an attempt to get back at the Habsburg dynasty, to a point where he eventually abdicated the throne after the Peace of