One of the most influential revolutions of all time was the Protestant Reformation. Martin Luther, a german priest, saw flaws in the corrupt Catholic Church during his pilgrimage to Rome. Martin Luther witnessed the selling of indulgences (paying the Catholic Church to forgive sins), priests getting involved in prostitution, simony (buying and selling of church positions) and finally, the expensive, excessive spending habits of the pope. Luther felt like the basic laws and foundations of the Christianity were being violated and he was enraged and he knew he needed change something before his religion would fall. With so many things wrong with the Church, Luther posted his 95 theses, in 1517, which pointed out all of problems in the Catholic Church. The Catholic church immediately took action to prevent …show more content…
The nation was in a state of turmoil and under a rule of an absolute monarch, King James II. There were many things going wrong in England. First of all the King was catholic, but the country was protestant, and people feared that the pope would rise up once again and regain power. The priests and archbishops needed to get rid of James to prevent any more religious turmoil. Also, James II had absolute power and this system of government blatantly ignored people’s opinions. The citizens of England were fed up with the ignorance and misdirection that their king was leading them, so the English leaders plotted with William of Orange, the dutch king, to overthrow James II. William successfully took control of the government and marched to the capital of England without shedding a drop of blood. After centuries of absolute monarchs, England finally established a constitutional monarchy and created the English Bill of Rights. Parliament and the people still have power in the United Kingdom's today, and this rebellion has influenced many other nations to uprise against oppressive
Martin Luther is known to be a key initiator to the Protestant Reformation, although he had no intention of doing so. He was going to become a monk, so he read deeply into scriptures, but this only led him to discover inconsistencies between traditions and the Bible. These inconsistencies lead him to demand changes in the Catholic Church; however that did not include
Social and economic stresses of The Protestant Reformation age were just among few of the things that impacted the ordinary population of Europe. The Protestant Reformation was the 16th-century religious, political, and cultural disorder that divided Catholic Europe, setting in place the structures and beliefs that would define the continent in the ordinary population. In northern and central Europe, reformers like Martin Luther, John Calvin and Henry VIII challenged papal authority and questioned the Catholic Church’s ability to define Christian practice. In 1555 The Peace of Augsburg allowed for the coexistence of Catholicism and Lutheranism in Germany; and in 1648 Treaty of Westphalia, which ended the Thirty Years’ War. The key ideas of the Reformation, a call to purify the church and a belief that the Bible, should be the sole source of spiritual authority. However, Luther and the other reformers became the first to skillfully use the power of the printing press to give their ideas a wide audience.
People started to see the logic in his words and they started to break away from the Catholic church and in the process starting the protestant reformation. In his theses Luther believed that Faith not good deeds could save a person. People were convinced when they were told that if they pay so much money that their loved ones would be able to get out of purgatory and make it to heaven. Indulgences such as this was one of the major things that made Martin Luther so angry and adamant of writing his 95 theses because he wanted to see a change in the Catholic
Through the tumultuous years between 1350 and 1750, a surge of lust for change clawed at the hearts of Europeans. This yearning for stability translated in different ways throughout Europe, however, it undeniably reformed the mindset of Europe's kingdoms. While some turned to a strong monarch to carry the burden of their anxieties, others filled their hearts with fervent nationalism, others still, placed their discontentment solely on the evils of the Catholic Church. As would be expected, the Catholic Church did not respond well to this push against their time honored authority, though ultimately a reformed mindset took grip of European society.
...ning of one small but powerful man, Martin Luther. Luther was a holy person himself and he began noticing the corruption in the Church. He tolerated everything till the last straw in which he saw a priest, Johann Tetzel selling indulgences. Tetzel said that for a certain amount of money, he said that he would assure their entry to heavens and as well as their dead relatives as well. This final outrage lead Luther into writing his 95 theses about indulgences. This would lead to the questioning of the Church and soon it would lead to the exposure of the Church throughout Europe by one powerful weapon that Luther had. And that was the printing press. Within a few nights, all of europe came to know the truth about the Church and many people were happy that finally, someone had told everyone about how the Church really was. Many changes occurred during this period.
In 1517, Martin Luther nailed a scroll known as the Ninety-five Theses onto the Catholic church. This list criticized many concepts of the Catholic church. For example, Martin Luther attacked the sale of indulgences, amount of power held by the Pope, and wealth of the church. Ultimately, the church was outraged and excommunicated Luther. This started a rebellion and a revolution. Luther’s goal was not to tear the church apart, but to try and reform the corrupt areas. “Luther did not intend to form a new religion; his struggle had been with Rome. Before he could build, he had to tear down- his religion was one of protest.” After being excommunicated, Luther created his own religion called Lutheranism. Lutheranism relates closely to the Catholic
The Reformation, created by King Henry VIII, greatly affected the Roman Catholic Church. In attempts to reform the Roman Catholic Church and develop the Protestant Churches, the Reformation had far reaching consequences in Tudor England. The Roman Catholic faith believed in marriage for life. It did not believe, let alone support, divorce (Trueman). Women who were widowed were free to remarry but men could not simply decide that their marriage was not working, divorce their wife and re-marry (Johnson).
The Protestant Reformation was a period of time (1500-1700) where there became a change in Western Christendom. This reformation was caused by the resentment from the people because the Catholic Church abusing their powers for political and economic advances. In this time the church was selling pardons for sin and indulgences to forgive sins, decrease days spent in purgatory and save the dead from damnation. The reformation was when people became more aware with the back hand dealings with the church and men like Martin Luther and John Calvin created their own churches to what they believed was not corrupt unlike the church. Unfortunately there many consequences as far at the Roman Catholic church attempting to bring people back to the church,
The Reformation occurred all over Western Europe. It was mostly set in Germany where various parts of corruption in the Church happened. Martin Luther started the process of the Reformation, he was German so he understood how the Catholic Church took advantage and didn't think this was fair. The Catholic Reformation took place between 1450-1650 which was the biggest revolution in Germany, although the understanding of Luther's actions weren't taken notice of until he put the 95 Theses on the Church's door. Luther felt that Bishops and Priests didn't understand the bible correctly. Luther wanted the Reformation to help fix this by helping the uneducated and powerless. Some of the movement of this was
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. It coincided, too, with the spread of Renaissance ideals from Italy and the first stirrings of the Scientific Revolution. Taken together, these developments transformed Europe.
Martin Luther’s (1483-1546) actions and teachings have had a profound influence on Christian faith. His crucial decision to go on a pilgrimage to Rome (1510) enabled him to witness and act against the objectionable corruption of the Catholic Church. Luther’s teachings developed through his work at Wittenburg University where his revolutionary theology evolved from the examination of the New Testament. On 31 October 1517 Martin Luther posted the controversial 95 Thesis, condemning the corruption of the Church and sharing his beliefs and ideas such as the 5 solas. Luther started a religious revolution that resulted in the formation of a new variant of Christianity that had changes to the expression of faith and key beliefs. This Protestant Church
The Protestant Reformation: What it was, why it happened and why it was necessary. The Protestant Reformation has been called "the most momentous upheaval in the history of Christianity." It was a parting of the ways for two large groups of Christians who differed in their approach to the worship of Christ. At the time, the Protestant reformers saw the church- the Catholic church, or the "universal church- " as lacking in its ways. The church was corrupt then, all the way up to the pope, and had lost touch with the people of Europe. The leaders of the Reformation sought to reform the church and its teachings according to the Scriptures and the writings of the Apostles. They sought to simplify the church by returning to its roots, roots long lost by the Catholic church at the time, or so the reformers believed. After the fall of the Roman Empire, life in Europe declined rapidly into the Dark Ages. The Dark Ages were a time of misery and darkness. There were only two socioeconomic classes: the very rich nobility or the very poor peasants. Small kingdoms popped up everywhere, and were constantly at war with one another. Whole libraries were destroyed, and the only people who remained literate were the clergy of the Christian church. Life became such a struggle to survive that, for a period of five hundred years, very little artwork or literature was produced by the whole of Europe. Eventually, around the year 1000, the conditions in Europe began to get better. This marked the beginning of the Middle Ages. The Crusades began as an effort to revitalize the spirits of the people. However, things still weren't very good. Plagues ravaged the land, carried by rodents and destroying whole villages. With th...
The Protestant Reformation, also known as the Reformation, was the 16th-century religious, governmental, scholarly and cultural upheaval that disintegrated Catholic Europe, setting in place the structures and beliefs that would define the continent in the modern era (Staff, 2009). The Catholic Church begun to dominate local law and practice almost everywhere starting in the late fourteenth century. The Catholic Church held a tight hold on the daily lives of the people invading just about every part of it. Some people of this time would decide to stand up to the church and attempt to change the way it operated and make it release some of its control. These people who spoke out against the church came to be known as Protestants. The Protestants
Thesis statement: Martin Luther was responsible for the break-up of the Catholic Church Martin Luther was a representative during the 16th century of a desire widespread of the renewal and reform of the Catholic Church. He launched the Protestant reform a continuation of the medieval religious search. From the Middle ages, the church faced many problems such as the Babylonian Captivity and the Great Schism that hurt the prestige of the church. Most of the clergy lived in great luxury while most people were poor and they set an immoral example. The clergy had low education and many of them didn’t attend their offices.
During the Age of Reformation people were greatly against the abuses that existed in the Roman Catholic Church. A couple of abuses that were greatly stressed were the selling of indulgences, simony, and nepotism. It was some of these same abuses that prompted German reformist Martin Luther to write his 95 Theses. And for the Council of Trent to later address them in a series of meetings.