Historical Misunderstandings between the Church and Protestants During the Reformation

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Through the eras of the Middle Ages, many Protestants demanded to have a personal relationship with God without the influence of the Catholic Church. The Protestants started to think for themselves as a religion, and Martin Luther first paved the way. Martin Luther first visited Wittenberg, Germany, and made a list of complaints that he had with the Catholic Church. A short while after, he published his list of complaints to the door of a German church, and they were called the Ninety-Five Theses. In response, Pope Leo X excommunicated Luther in 1521. The Catholic Church conflicted with the Protestant religion, because the Protestants sought an individual relationship with God. Through the contrasting ideas of the Church and Protestants, a major conflict between the two emerged. The church minister had spoken the Bible in Latin, where the congregation could not understand what the priest was saying. Furthermore, the Catholic Church started to sell indulgences during the Middle Ages. When one bought an indulgence for a certain amount of money, it guaranteed that the individual would not have to go through purgatory for a long time to reach God in heaven. Many Protestants disagreed with this idea because they thought that the idea of indulgences were “a bribe” to get into heaven. Another teaching that the Protestants disagreed with the Church was the teaching of being saved by good deeds. The Protestants believed in that one is saved by God’s grace and not by works. Moreover, the Protestants first peacefully talked about the problems in the Church but the Church were ignorant and did not want to respond to the Protestants. However, the Roman Catholic Church sought to seek out the reason why many individuals were leaving the Ch... ... middle of paper ... ...d Europe and Asia to share the Catholic faith to everyone who was willing to hear them speak. The most dominant change that the Roman Catholic Church made was the establishment of Jesuit schools. The Jesuit schools organized catechism classes in Italy in the early sixteenth century and taught kids about the fundamentals of the Catholic Church. The Church made many improvements to persuade all individuals to accept the Catholic faith. The Protestants contradicted the ideals of the Roman Catholic Church and ultimately turned against it during the Reformation. To have a personal relationship with God meant that the Protestants would do anything to have the freedom to exercise their faith in God. In conclusion, the Roman Catholic Church tried to change its rituals after the Protestants left but they did not come back and give the Roman Catholic Church a second chance.

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