Protestant Reformation

Karee Wicks Senior Division Individual Website

Wicks 2 Last Spring my confirmation class watched a movie about Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation. We discussed it in class, but I still wanted to learn more. This year, I was really excited when I found out the NHD theme because I already knew what I was going to do! There is a lot of research available on my project. First, I looked into the Reformation itself and what happened. I was on Google a lot just trying to find good sites to use. I researched some of the key Reformers from 1517, like Martin Luther and Philipp Melanchthon and found many of their writings and read through some of the translations. While I was finding information about Luther, I also found out about John Wycliffe. Even though he was from the late 1300s, he still helped to reform the Church. I thought it was interesting that people had been questioning the Catholic Church for over 200 years. I decided to broaden my topic zone to include some of the history behind it, and to talk about the Reformation as a whole. While doing my research, I came across a lot of Reformation art. I learned that art was a very controversial subject in that time period. Some people, like Martin Luther, believed that art should be in churches but some people opposed it. I decided to do a website for my project because I thought it would work better than anything else. At first, I was thinking about an exhibit, but I was worried that I would go over the word limit. As it is, I still came really close to the word limit. I just found so much information on my topic, and I had to sort through to find out what I really wanted in my website. I had to look at the rulebook to make sure quotations and picture titles werent counted in the total. Another reason I wanted to do a website was because I thought it would be fun. I hadnt done one before, so I thought it would be interesting to learn about. My project definitely fits in with the NHD theme. The Reformation was a major

Wicks 3 change back then. All of the previous attempts to reform the Catholic Church had not succeeded as well as Martin Luther did. He started something huge without even trying. In the beginning, he just wanted to reform the Church. He ended up splitting off, and creating a new branch of Christianity. He only partly succeeded in his original goal of reforming the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church eventually changed some of its methods after so many people left. The Church is very different now than what it used to be. The Reformation caused a major reform in the world, and thats why I think it fits in the NHD theme so well.