Protestantism versus Catholicism

Protestantism versus Catholicism

Catholicism was the religion in ancient Rome. In Rome, there was no separation of church and state like the United States. The Pope basically was in charge of the Roman people. Martin Luther was in the monastery, but he began to see some flaws in the Catholic Church. Martin Luther believed that certain things the Catholic Church were teaching were not morally correct. He then went to preach a different religion called Protestantism; this caused a big problem between him and the pope. Roman Catholicism and Martin Luther’s Protestantism have moral differences, religious belief differences, and caused a lot of conflicts.

Martin Luther realized morally that there was a lot wrong with the Catholic Church. For one thing, it was wrong that only the people high up in the church could read the scripture. He believed that everyone should be able to understand it and interpret it for themselves; this is why he translated it from Latin to German while he was living in Germany because his life was in danger. He also did not agree with celibacy and married a former nun. A big moral conflict for him was the fact that the Catholic Church sold indulgences in place of sin. In his words, “Christians are to be taught that he who gives to the poor or lends to the needy does a better deed than he who buys indulgences.” This was a dominate practice in the church and they used the indulgences to make the Church extravagantly beautiful.

Roman Catholicism and Protestantism have quite a few religious belief differences. A major difference is the Catholics believe that if you sin you can pay indulgences to the Church to help keep you out of purgatory. However, Luther did not agree with this, he believed, “salvation was by faith rather than by works and to denounce the Church’s practices of selling indulgences.” He did not think it was necessary for the pope, priests, saints or Mary to intervene and that everyone can have their own personal relationship with Christ. Martin Luther claims, “The bible is the sole authority for Christians. All of this infuriated the Catholic Church and made them excommunicate Luther from the Church. They claimed, “He committed heresy against the Church which could be punished by death.”

Although Luther was under the impression he was in the right that does not mean this did not cause a lot of conflicts not only between himself and the Roman Catholic Church, but also for the Western European Culture in general.