The Reformation Lesson 7 Text Structure

Martin Luther was born into a relatively wealthy German family. His father prospered in the copper mining business. His family had enough money to send him to good schools and eventually to the University of Erfurt, one of the best universities in Germany. Luther was an excellent student and earned two degrees. In 1505 AD, at age 21, he decided to pursue a third degree, in law. But six weeks later he had a sudden change of heart.

What type of informational text structure is this paragraph written?

• Compare and Contrast
• Problem-Solution
• Cause and Effect
• Chronological

What happened? As Luther later told the story, he was walking home one night when a terrible storm came. Thunder boomed and lightning blazed across the sky. Suddenly a bolt of lightning struck dangerously close, knocking Luther to the ground. As the storm raged around him, the terrified Luther vowed that if he survived, he would give his life to God and become a monk.

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• Problem/Solution
• Sequential/Chronological
• Compare/Contrast
• Cause/Effect

The practice of issuing indulgences in exchange for money became intolerable for Luther when he heard about a Dominican friar named John Tetzel. Tetzel not only issued indulgences, he proclaimed that as soon as a coin was received by the Church, a soul was released from purgatory. It was essentially saying you could buy the way of a soul into heaven.

Outraged, Luther decided to act. He composed a list of 95 objections to the practice of issuing indulgences and sent it in a letter to his superiors.

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• Chronological Order
• Problem and Solution
• Cause and Effect
• Compare and Contrast

As you can imagine, not everyone was pleased about the stir Luther was causing. In 1518 AD, the pope summoned Luther to Rome to explain his actions.

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• Cause and Effect
• Problem-Solution
• Compare and Contrast
• Chronological

As Luther traveled back to Wittenberg, the elector arranged for masked horsemen to pretend to kidnap Luther. Frederick did not believe Luther was guilty of any crime that warranted death. Luther was whisked off to a castle where he remained in hiding under Frederick's protection for 10 months.

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• Cause and Effect
• Chronological
• Compare and Contrast
• Problem-Solution

Martin Luther continued to write about his religious ideas for the rest of his life. In the 1520s, he got into a debate with Desiderius Erasmus, a Dutch Renaissance humanist and scholar. Like Luther, Erasmus wanted to see reform in the Catholic Church. Unlike Luther, he did not break away from the Church and respected many of its teachings and traditions.

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• Problem and Solution
• Cause and Effect
• Chronological
• Compare and Contrast

One reformer in particular helped usher in the Reformation. His name was Martin Luther. Luther was a German monk and a devout Catholic.

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• Compare and Contrast
• Sequence
• Problem and Solution
• Description

The idea that the earth was at the center of the universe seems to have had its start in ancient Greece. The Greek philosopher Aristotle wrote about it as early as the fourth century BC. During the second century AD, a Greek astronomer and mathematician named Claudius Ptolemy expanded on Aristotle's ideas.

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• Cause and Effect
• Chronological Order
• Problem and Solution
• Compare and Contrast

Copernicus studied the movements of the planets and stars. What Copernicus observed happening in the heavens, however, it didn't really match Ptolemy's geocentric model. He concluded that Ptolemy and the ancients were wrong. Earth does not sit still t the center of the universe. Instead, Earth and other planets revolve around the sun! Copernicus's findings supported a heliocentric, rather than a geocentric, view of the universe.

What type of informational text structure is this paragraph written?

• compare and contrast

• Problem and Solution
• cause and effect

• Chronological Order

Copernicus had made a great discovery. But he did not run out and shout it from the rooftops. In fact, he kept quiet about his work. Why? for one thing, he did not have enough evidence to prove his ideas beyond all doubt. Copernicus may also have feared what would happen to him if he publicly contradicted the Church's beliefs about the nature of the universe and the earth's place in it.

What type of informational text structure is this paragraph written?

• Chronological Order
• Problem and Solution
• Compare and Contrast
• Cause and Effect