Basis for Religious Freedom
Over the centuries, religion has been an important part of culture and society. During
the 1500s among the European Christian countries, there was only one church and one
religion accepted. People were expected to adhere to the doctrines of the Catholic Church.
Those who disagreed with the teachings of the Church were declared
heretics
. A person
risked severe penalty if he or she was found guilty of heresy by the church.
This did not stop people fromhaving different thoughts about religion. In 1517, a
German priest by the name of Martin Luther nailed 95 ideas for Catholic Church
reform
to a church door. For his efforts, he was abolished from the Catholic Church and
declared an outlaw. There were other people who agreed with Luther’s ideas for change
in the Catholic Church. As a result, a religious revolution began that was known as the
Protestant Reformation
. The word protestant comes from the word “protest.” The word
reformationmeans that leaders or founders of different religious groups split from the
Catholic Church. These leaders reformed and restructured their churches and corrected
what they thought were
abuses of the Catholic
Church. Today, there is one
Catholic Church andmany
Protestant religions, most of
which are Christian.
Many of these Protestant
religious groups were
persecuted
and not tolerated
in their European homelands.
When people are persecuted
and treated badly, it is only
natural for them to seek a
safe haven from the
persecution. As a result, when
people of persecuted religious
groups heard of a place in the
American colonies where they
could worship according to
their religious beliefs, they
wanted to
emigrate
, or move,
to this place.
LESSON
8
KEY
WORDS
P
ENNSYLVANIA
B
ECOMES
A
R
ELIGIOUS AND
C
ULTURAL
H
AVEN
F
OCUS
Q
UESTIONS
1. What was the Protestant Revolution?
2. Which ethnic and religious groups emigrated
to the Pennsylvania colony?
3. What were themajor contributions of religious
and ethnic groups that moved to Pennsylvania?
4. What are some aspects of Pennsylvania’s cultural
identity?
heretics
reform
Protestant
Reformation
persecuted
emigrate
haven
ethnic
Holy Experiment
immigrant
pioneers
abolishing
culture
ethnicity
population density
census
ancestry
ethnocentrism
tolerance
prejudiced
stereotyping
KEY
PLACES
England
Germany
Switzerland
Scotland
Ireland
Martin Luther
Martin Luther began
the Protestant
Reformation, leading
the way formany
people to come to
Pennsylvania for
religious freedom.
Luther nailed 95 ideas
for reform to the door
of a Catholic Church.
34
Understanding Pennsylvania
