Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
The spread and influence of the Protestant Reformation
A short conclsion on protestant reformation
Essays on the protestant reformation
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
There are many types of protestant churches existing today including Baptist, one of the largest denominations in America. This was not always the case before the 16th. To understand how it all began, it is important to go back in history when the Roman Catholic Church was the only church in Western Europe. This paper will look at the history of the protestant reformation movement, its causes, and how it changed the church (Cameron, 2012).
During the 1500s, the Roman Catholic Church was very powerful in western Europe. The church controlled both spiritual and political matters, although there were a number of other political forces at work. Initially, the reformation began as an effort to reform the church by a number of priests who were not in agreement with what the felt were false doctrines as well as ecclesiastic malpractice. Reformers were particularly in opposition to the selling of indulgences in addition to the selling and purchasing of the clerical offices, which they perceived as corruption within the church.
Between the 1300s and 1400, the church was plagued by internal power struggles, and was ruled by 3 popes at the same time. Popes, who claimed temporal and spiritual powers would command armies, make political alliances and even wage war.
With the corruption and power struggles, the church did little for the people, which resulted in a number of attempts to reform the Roman Catholic Church by a number of individuals who included John Wyclif as well as Jan Hus among others. However, it was not until martin Luther, a German Augustinian monk, posted 95 theses on the door of the church in the university town of Wittenberg that the movement began gaining adherents in Scandinavia, Scotland, German states as well as some...
... middle of paper ...
...astated Germany and many lives were lost.
On the positive side, the reformation had a lot of influence on the personal life of many, and resulted in the formation of the protestant churches of today.
Works Cited
Brake, mary jo; weaver, david (2009). Introduction to christianity (4th ed.). Belmont, calif.: wadsworth. Pp. 92–93. Isbn 978-0-495-09726-6.
Cameron, euan (2012). The european reformation (2nd ed.). Oxford university press.
Simon, edith (1966). Great ages of man: the reformation. Time-life books. Pp. 120–121. Isbn 0-662-27820-8., popular and well-illustrated
Spalding, martin (2010). The history of the protestant reformation; in germany and switzerland, and in england, ireland, scotland, the netherlands, france, and northern europe. General books llc.
Bradshaw, brendan. "the reformation and the counter-reformation," history today (1983) 33#11 pp 42–45.
A 16th-century movement in Western Europe that aimed at reforming some doctrines and practices of the Roman Catholic Church and resulted in the establishment of the Protestant churches. The world of the late medieval Roman Catholic Church from which the 16th-century reformers emerged was a complex one. Over the centuries, the church, particularly in the office of the papacy, had become deeply involved in the political life of Western Europe. The resulting intrigues and political manipulations, combined with the church’s increasing power and wealth, contributed to the bankrupting of the church as a spiritual force.
While numerous theological issues had been brewing for some time, the Reformation was officially began in 1517 by a man named Martin Luther. Martin Luther was a professor of biblical theology who had several issues with the Catholic Church. His complaints or disputes with the Catholic Church are known as his 95 Theses. In his 95 Theses, Martin Luther argued that God offers salvation through faith alone and that religious authority comes from the Bible alone which posed a challenge to the authority of the Catholic Church. After sparking the Reformation, Martin Luther made it his goal to incorporate the church congregation in the praise and worship part of church service. A detrimental and vital aspect of Christianity, Martin Luther believed this needed to be done. Along with his followers, Martin Luther made continuous...
The 16th century was a time of social, political, and religious change in Europe. The Protestant
Theological Context." Reformation & Renaissance Review: Journal of The Society For Reformation Studies 7, no. 2/3: 337-346. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed March 24, 2014).
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,
A reformation is often defined as the action of change for improvement. The Protestant Reformation is a movement that began in 1517, which split the unity of the Western Church; and later established Protestantism. The three main factors that impacted the reformation were political, sociological and theological. Martin Luther and John Calvin, two protestant Reformers who reformed Catholicism, strived to define salvation and impact the church as a whole. How do Martin Luther’s reforms compare to John Calvin’s through their struggle to define salvation, how people viewed them, and how the church was affected as a whole? Martin Luther and John Calvin both had a huge impact on the reformation and were both regarded with great respect; however, Martin Luther’s strive for salvation and the reformation of the church was more successful than Calvin’s.
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
In spite of religious controversies the Reformation is a period of economic revolution, as mercantilism and commercial capitalism gains strength. Science and mathematics come to influence nearly every fact of life. The unity of Christianity was now broken up into the Protestants and the Catholics. Protestantism was the religious background for nationalism and, each nation became independent and the power of the rulers was increased.
Roper, H. R.. The crisis of the seventeenth century; religion, the Reformation, and social change. [1st U.S. ed. New York: Harper & Row, 19681967. Print.
The protestant reformation of 16th century had both: immediate and long term effects. Thus, we can see that it was a revolution of understanding the essence of religion, and of what God is. The protestant reformation is said to a religious movement. However, it also influenced the economical, political and social life of people. The most global, short term effect of the reformation was the reevaluation of beliefs, and, as a result, the loss of authority of the Holy Roman Empire. The long term effects were: the emergence of new heretical movements, the declining of papacy, thus the reevaluation of people’s view on the church and life values.
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.
Greengrass, Mark. The Longman Companion to The European Reformation, C. 1500-1618. London: Longman, 1998. Print.
The Reformation was a decisive period in the history not only for the Catholic Church, but also for the entire world. The causes of this tumultuous point in history did not burst on the scene all at once, but slowly gained momentum like a boil that slowly festers through time before it finally bursts open. The Reformation of the Church was inevitable because of the abuses which the Church was suffering during this period. At the time of the Reformation, a segment of the Church had drifted away from its mission to bring Christ and salvation to the world. Throughout the Middle Ages, the Church had gradually become weaker because of abusive leadership, philosophical heresy, and a renewal of a form of the Pelagian heresy.
Gonzalez, Justo L. 1984. The early church to the dawn of the Reformation. San Francisco: Harper & Row.
Ullmann, Walter. A Short History of the Papacy in the Middle Ages. 2nd ed. New York City, NY: Routledge, 2003.