1. What was the Medieval Worldview, and how were both Christianity and the Churc

1. What was the Medieval Worldview, and how were both Christianity and the Church viewed during the Middle Ages?
2. What problems faced the Catholic Church during the High Middle Ages and the Renaissance?
3. Prior to Luther, what people dared to question or criticize the Catholic Church? What practices or teachings of the Church did they attack, why did they attack them, and how did they attack them? Why did these earlier critics fail in their efforts to reform the Catholic Church?
4. To what degree was the message of Luther new? To what degree did he build on the work of the reformers who preceded him, and to what degree did he develop an original message for his audiences?
5. What groups of people formed the main audiences for Luther (worried and/or dissatisfied Christians, nobles, peasants, townspeople, Humanists, and more general readers)? Why were these audiences inspired by Luther’s teachings and writings? What were these different groups of people attempting to accomplish in the name of Luther? To what degree were they motivated by religious fervor and to what degree were they seeking to accomplish more practical, self-serving goals?