Catholic Reformation

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Recommended: Effects of the Protestant Reformation on the Catholic Church

Catholic Reformation Though Catholicism has been around for centuries it has had to undergo many changes to survive all of that time. The biggest reform being the Catholic reformation, this occurred from 1522 to around 1648. It all started from the Protestants demanding reform, one of the more famous reformers, Martin Luther. Martin Luther wrote the 95 Theses, which he posted on a church door, not long after the Pope excommunicated him. What were the reforms they demanded? One of the main ones was that salvation was “God’s free gift”, at the time churches accepted payment in return for salvation (Young pg.214). After Martin Luther there were multiple other reformers such as John Calvin who preached the fact that “only God knows who are among the elect”, meaning the church has no authority to decide who is worthy and who is not. After many protest and arguments the reforms came, three of the most important ones were, having an educated clergy and reforming monasteries, new religions were developed, and Catholicism became more involved with foreign missions. Educating the clergy and reforming the monasteries was no easy task, there were many things that had long been corrupted. The clergy, who are mainly priest, deacons, or bishops in the Catholic religion needed to become more accepting of the changes that needed to come so the Catholic religion could go on. Martin Luther stated that “the power of the keys had never been given to the pope, but rather to the congregation of the faithful,” by this he meant the Pope nor the priests had been given the authority they used, the church should be ran by a faithful congregation (Luther’s “95 Thesis” pg.3). For so long they had been accepted payment for the forgiveness of sins, they cho... ... middle of paper ... ...igh risk of losing all followers. In a way the Catholic reformation saved the Catholic ways. With all of the corruption among the clergy and monasteries it was quickly losing many of its followers. The only way to keep the religion ‘alive’ was to remove the corruption and reform the church’s old habits. They needed the make the church about faith again. The Catholic reformation did just that; it helped the church go back to its old ways of teaching. Not only did it contribute to that but it also helped educate the clergy, reform monasteries, create new religions, and influence the Catholic religion to go out and help foreign places. Word Count:727 Works Cited Lakeside Publishing Group, LLC. Luther's "95 Theses". Colorado: Lakeside Publishing Group, LLC. Young, W. A. The World's Religions: Worldviews and Contempoerary Issues. Pearson.

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