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Y207: The German Reformation and the Rule of Charles v 1500–1559

The German Reformation 1517–1529: Charles V’s inheritance, the Church and Luther’s challenge

  • 3 things to know
  • Unit group 2

Overview

Recall questions on Charles V’s lands and election, the structure of the Empire, abuses in the German Church, indulgences and Tetzel, the 95 Theses, their rapid spread and the Leipzig disputation.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

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Key term

What abuses were commonly complained of in the German Church around 1500?

Key term

What was an indulgence?

Key term

Explain the arrangement behind the indulgence Tetzel preached in Germany.

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    What lands had Charles V inherited by 1519, and what problems came with them?

    Model answer

    He held the Burgundian Netherlands and Franche-Comté, Spain with Naples, Sicily, Sardinia and the Indies, and the Austrian Habsburg lands, and was then elected Emperor; because these territories encircled France, lay open to the Ottoman advance in Hungary and the Mediterranean, and had no common institutions, he was committed from the outset to war on several fronts at once.

  2. 2

    Describe the political structure of the Holy Roman Empire around 1500.

    Model answer

    It was a loose federation of several hundred principalities, ecclesiastical states, knights' holdings and free cities under an emperor chosen by seven electors, with an Imperial Diet of electors, princes and cities, a supreme court established in 1495 and circles for keeping the peace, but no standing army, common treasury or effective central taxation.

  3. 3

    How did Charles win the imperial election of 1519?

    Model answer

    He outbid Francis I for the electors' votes, borrowing enormous sums from the Fugger bank to do so, and he had to sign an agreement promising to respect German liberties, to employ Germans and not to condemn anyone unheard.

  4. 4

    What abuses were commonly complained of in the German Church around 1500?

    Model answer

    Bishoprics were held in plurality by absentee noblemen, offices were bought and sold, many parish priests were poorly educated or kept concubines, and the Church's wealth, courts and exemptions provoked resentment that was collected in formal lists of grievances against Rome.

  5. 5

    What was an indulgence?

    Model answer

    A remission granted by the Church of the temporal punishment due for sins already forgiven, which by 1500 could be bought for money and applied to souls in purgatory.

  6. 6

    Explain the arrangement behind the indulgence Tetzel preached in Germany.

    Model answer

    Albert of Brandenburg had borrowed heavily to pay Rome for a dispensation allowing him to hold Mainz alongside two other sees, and the St Peter's indulgence was licensed in his lands so that half the proceeds could repay that debt to the Fuggers.

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