can anybody summarize this?

The fourteenth century saw major changes in many people's thinking. Society, politics, economics, art and Christianity were all undergoing major transformations as the feudal, Church dominated society was being buried or reinvented. Individualism and humanism were coming to the fore as citizens started looking towards themselves for answers, rather than to God or Religious institutions.

In Northern Europe these changes radically affected religious life. The Renaissance occurred simultaneously with the discovery of the New World and many scientific discoveries that seriously harmed the credibility of the Church and made many of her dogmas seem ridiculous. The Earth was no longer the center of the galaxy or flat and the Church was less and less the center of people's lives.

St. Francis of Assisi founded the Franciscans in Italy during his lifetime (1182-1226). The Franciscans promoted a more individualistic style of worship and relationship with God. Italy became the heart and soul of the Renaissance. In England, John Wycliffe (1325-1384) had also begun to challenge the teaching of the Roman Church. He taught against transubstantiation (the belief that the bread and wine turn into Christ's body and blood during the mass), proclaimed Christ the head of the Church instead of the Pope and claimed the Bible as the sole authority for believers instead of the Church. John Wycliffe translated the New Testament into English and made it available to the people.

In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the Catholic Church had many problems with the low level of morality among its clergy. Many were living extravagantly, had illegitimate children and were more interested in secular power than church affairs. In 1305, Pope Clement V moved the papacy from Rome to Avignon, France. This move was more the result of the influence of the King of France than any religious reason. Pope Gregory XI moved the papal seat back to Rome in 1377 and when he died, two Popes were elected, one in France and the other in Rome.

The growing nations of Europe were simultaneously becoming more nationalistic and resenting the high taxation that they were required to pay to Rome. European political leaders embraced the Reformation as a way to break away from Rome and the Church's taxation and ownership of vast tracts of land upon which they paid no tax.

By 1500, new markets were opening up around the world for merchants. The Church's prohibitions on charging interest and forming guilds (unions) was a limiting restriction on doing new business. Theologians, such as Erasmus of Rotterdam, were translating the Bible from the original languages and challenging the Church on the differences between her and the New Testament Church of the Bible.

The first Reformer was Martin Luther, born in 1483. His father had wanted him to study law but Martin chose to study for the ministry and became a monk. He taught theology at the University of Wittenburg, Germany but became increasingly troubled by the corruption within the Church. In 1516 he became convinced that salvation was available through faith in Christ only. One of the ways that the Church raised money was through the sale of indulgences (a reduction in time spent in purgatory, a place where sins were purged before you were admitted to heaven). Archbishop Albert controlled two provinces at the time. (Even though the Church officially limited these offices to one province) When he was campaigning to control a third, Pope Leo X offered it to him for a large sum of money. The Archbishop set about raising the funds by selling indulgences.

In 1517 Martin Luther nailed his ninety-five theses to the church door in Wittenburg. He harshly criticized the abuses of the indulgence system and challenged the necessity of priests to administer sacraments, believing in the priesthood of the believer. In 1518 he was called before the Diet of Augsburg where he repeated his assertion that the scriptures were the sole authority for believers, not the Pope. Luther was eventually excommunicated and his books were burned but the German princes liked what he was doing and protected his life.

John Calvin (1509-64) was the other main figure in this new Protestant movement. By 1550 he had many followers in Holland, Switzerland, Scotland and France. Luther may have started the reformation but Calvin gave it a structure. Calvin, a French citizen, wrote the "Institutes of the Christian Religion" in an effort to win King Francis of France over to the new ideas of the Reformation. Calvin believed that the Holy Spirit irresistibly draws people to God. He asserted that the church and government were both agents of God and should cooperate.