Martin Luther and the Amazing Reformation

The Protestant Reformation Introduction The Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century is one of the most complex movements in European history since the fall of the Roman Empire. The Reformation truly ends the Middle Ages and begins a new era in the history of Western Civilization. The Reformation ended the religious unity of Europe and ushered in 150 years of religious warfare. By the time the conflicts had ended, the political and social geography in the west had fundamentally changed. The Reformation would have been revolutionary enough of itself, but it coincided in time with the opening of the Western Hemisphere to the Europeans and the development of firearms as effective field weapons.

During the Reformation in Europe, many changes were brought about. Among these changes included people such as Erasmus, Martin Luther, the peasants of Swabia, and King Henry VIII. These people brought about some of the most important changes in European history. Without these individuals Europe would be a completely different country than what it is today.

Kittelson, James M. Luther the Reformer: The Story of the Man and His Career. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2003.

Martin Luther: Reformer Martin Luther was born in Eisieben, Germany, on November 10,1483, St. Martin’s Day. He was the son of Has Luther, a coal miner, and Margarethe. Martin’s parents were of the middle class and were unbending in their disciplinary acts. He attended the best schools in his region but all of them held to the barbaric discipline system of the times. This had a big impact on Martin’s personality.

Besides the impact of humanism, one of the impacts that the Renaissance era helped out was the questioning of their traditional thoughts. And those traditional thoughts were of religion, in which led up to the ideas of Protestant. And one of its main influencers was Martin Luther, who then began the Protestant Reformation. At the time, the Protestant Reformation was an attempt to reform the Roman Catholic Church. However, that did not end well in the end, as it was kept in isolation, never again revealing to the public. That is until it was once again revealed to the public and soon began to influence many people. One of those people was King Henry VIII, whose main reason onto why he began Protest was because of his marriage streak, in which

Protestant Reformation The practices of The Catholic Church during the sixteenth century caused a monk named Martin Luther to question The Church’s ways. Luther watched as families suffered physically, emotionally and economically by the hands of The Church. Luther saw no basis for The Church to charge people for their sins or prevent them from learning to read The Bible themselves. He watched as the money built up The Palace, yet tore apart the fundamental and spiritual reasons one goes to church in the first place.

Martin Luther is considered one of the most instrumental individuals in Christian history for his role in the sixteenth century Protestant Reformation that severed the powerful religious, political, and social grip the Catholic Church had upon European society (1). Luther did not set out to be a revolutionary, but simply questioned the church 's marketing of indulgences that offered the buyer or their deceased loved one absolution from the penalty of sin (2). Luther’s famous “Disputation on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences,” or “95 Theses” argued against the sale of indulgences, but Luther also ultimately disagreed with many of the fundamental religious philosophies of the medieval Catholic Church. The religious ideas of Martin Luther differed from late medieval Catholicism on key elements of theology: spiritual authority, justification of sin, free will, and the sacraments.

Monarchs started to increase their power and mainly it was not for the good.They wanted huge armies,the thing was that,they couldn't afford big armies so..the raised the taxes and that made the people mad because they couldn't afford that so..the peasants revolted and that made they wonder if the peasants could hurt them so they figured they couldn't lose to the peasants so they needed a bigger and better army so how do they get that?They raised taxes again and that just made it worse because now the peasants definitely couldn't afford anything so they didn't have anything to lose so..almost all the peasants were revolting now.Later once the peasants couldn't do anything the monarch finally had complete control and that’s what they wanted the whole time,was to be bigger and better than everyone.

“Under the outward appearance of the gospel, they honor and serve the devil, thus deserving death in body and soul ten times over.” Luther’s brutal words against the rebelling peasants of Germany in 1525 reveal the complex reality of the Reformation. Suppression of the rebellion by the German aristocracy was swift and violent, leaving over 70,000 German peasants dead. The rebellion targeted the social and political oppression of the peasantry in the early 16th century. The peasants found new justification for revolt in the promising words of Martin Luther. Luther proclaimed a new kind of freedom for the Christian soul and the peasants applied his idea to their own circumstances. However a dichotomy emerged between spiritual freedom and worldly freedom. Luther argued that good Christians were spiritually free but still subject to temporal laws. The kingdom of God and the kingdom of man were separate spheres. Luther rejected attempts to integrate spiritual freedom into the temporal sphere [Luther turned against the peasants’ revolt of 1525 because the demands of the peasants went against his doctrine of Christian freedom, which stressed the spiritual freedom of Christians and concordant obedience to temporal authority. By using scripture as a justification for rebellion, the peasants not only blasphemed God’s name but also acted against the natural order mandated by God.

Michael Bassey Johnson, a Nigerian author, once said, “Change does not surface when you are not ready to the catalyst.” Luther’s rebellion against the teachings of the Catholic church was sparked amidst a climate of cultural upheaval and change; additionally, Luther’s beliefs rapidly diffused across Europe. The Reformation finds its roots in a variety of sources as well as multiple causes for its spread. Europeans were dissatisfied with the state of religion evident in the reformulation of beliefs, changing social structures through an increasing middle class, and political dealings like the rising of German princes to gain control of their states and subsequent weakening of the Holy Roman Empire.