Protestant challenge to Catholicism’s hegemony in Northern Europe
Protestants and Catholics have been fighting for centuries. Most of us, even some of them, have no clue as to what they are fighting about. In the 1520s a religious stirring began, where people were starting to get frustrated and angered by how the church was conducting itself. Northern European weather can be very cold and harsh at times, because of this, it made it very difficult for people to leave their homes to get to church. What these people saw were their church priests dressed in very ornate, warm, robes and living in nice warm homes eating very good meals. Half the time these people couldn’t understand what the priest was preaching because he spoke in Latin and they could only speak German or English. On top of all of this the people had to pay if they wanted to be forgiven for their sins, indulgences they were called, which basically provided absolutely no hope for people who didn’t have much. These were not the only things stirring feelings in northern Europe, the fact that the church was based in Rome, such a long way from their home, contributed to the restlessness of the people. People were starting to think that the church had no clue about their lives up in the north and how difficult it could be, they felt removed and unconnected with the church. The two major focal points for the reformation were Martin Luther and his ninety-five theses and also King Henry the eighth. Neither of these two men began the movements in their respective countries, they simply gave the people a focal point and a way to get organized.
Martin Luther was a monk who taught at a Wittenberg University in the 1500s. Martin Luther had questioned the practice of selling indulgences and the fact that the church said that you could only speak to God through a priest for sometime in his mind. In 1517, when an archbishop had a sale on these indulgencies to raise money, Martin Luther decided to write a question and argument paper about the church’s questionable practices, to get some debate going at the University. The paper was called the ninety-five theses and it sparked many people’s interests in Germany and other parts of northern Europe and made Martin Luther a focal point for people who felt the same, and an enemy of the church.