The Reformation

During the 16th Century there was a religious revolution in Christianity throughout Europe. Martin Luther, a German monk, revolted against the Church because of what he saw as hypocrisy of the Catholic clergy and authority against Biblical beliefs. This was counter acted by the Catholic Church in an internal, peaceful and reform minded Catholic Reformation and by a conflicting and fighting Counter- Reformation to stop the spread of his teachings. Martin Luther believed the Clergy’s blatant disregard of duties and rules and the selling of indulgences justified his revolt while the Catholic Church disagreed both internally reforming the Church though rules and regulations and by counteracting and fighting though enforcement to stop it.

Martin Luther revolted against the Catholic Church because of what he saw as hypocrisy of the authorities and clergy with their disregard of duties and rules which was against Biblical beliefs. The Clergy of the 16th Century was considered to be very corrupt. Clerics were very immoral. Priests were often involved in prostitution and had concubines. Clerical ignorance was also widespread. Many priests could not read and simply repeated the Latin Mass. Pluralism, the holding of one more than one Church office at a time, was constant. Many bishops would often try to gain more bishopric offices just to gain their salary rather than to help spread the message of Christ. They would often hire a priest to do his duties there, paying him much lower than he was paid for the office. This led to absenteeism, being absent from a diocese, district, or church one was holding office for but not doing those duties. All of these factors, clerical immorality, ignorance, pluralism, and absenteeism, all led to widesprea...

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...s. The Holy Office, Roman Inquisition, and “Index of Forbidden Books” were the main tools to combat the spread of Luther’s ideas in what became known as the Counter Reformation.

During the 16th Century there was a revolt against the Catholic Church because of hypocrisy of the Clergy and Church leaders. This revolt was counter acted by internal, peaceful, and reform minded Catholic Reformation and by the combating Counter Reformation. Martin Luther believed the Clergy’s blatant disregard of duties and rules and the selling of indulgences justified his revolt while the Catholic Church disagreed both internally reforming the Church though rules and regulations and by counteracting and fighting though enforcement to stop it. Martin Luther revolt was caused by corruption and religious problems of the Church which fought by religious enforcement and by religious reform.