The German Reformation

The German Reformation

The Reformation of the Catholic Church was always going to happen; it

was just a question of when? For centuries the Church had been

fighting off herises. In Germany between 1513 and 1530, it just so

happened that a number of key factors for the Reformation co-insided.

The clearly corrupted church and papacy; the development of printing;

the arrival and actions of Martin Luther and public opinion; the

absence of the Emperor in the 1520’s and the way Erasmus and his

writing had opened up the criticisms of the Papacy, these were all key

factors of the German Reformation. I will examine these key factors.

In the 1420’s the people of the Holy Roman Empire were encouraged to

believe in the second coming of Christ; they were worried about their

day of Judgement and what would be thought of them. The Papacy took

advantage of this and point so encouraged people to buy indulgences.

It was in 1517 when the friar John Tetzal went to Germany in order to

sell them. It was believed that buying indulgences reduced the amount

of penance one had to do. This would eventually lead to spending less

time in the torture of purgatory. Indulgences could also be brought

for the dead, on order to reduce their time in purgatory. The money

gained from this was used to re-build St Peters in Rome, and it was

one of the factors, which allowed the Papacy to live in luxury. It was

also used to pay off the debts for the Archbishop of Maice who had

bought the Archbishopric (simony).

In 1517, Martin Luther a theologian at the university of Wittenberg

condemned the idea of indulgences. He questioned the power of the

Pope, because if he had...

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...his support from the common

people spread his name across Germany.

The absence of the Emperor in the 1520’s was a great factor, which

helped the Reformation. Charles V left Germany and went to Spain in

1522, for seven years. He appointed his younger brother Ferdinand to

act as his regent but was reluctant to grant him the necessary

independence of action to crush Lutheran challenge.

Overall the Reformation took root so easily between 1513 and 1530,

because Luther was used as a catalyst. He joined together the

corruptness of the Church with the development of printing to spread

his message quickly. Without the use of printing or the support of the

public, Luther would have been ignored, excommunicated or executed

like some of his predecessors. Without all the factors the Reformation

would not have taken place.