During the Reformation in Europe, many changes were brought about. Among these changes included people such as Erasmus, Martin Luther, the peasants of Swabia, and King Henry VIII. These people brought about some of the most important changes in European history. Without these individuals Europe would be a completely different country than what it is today. In the Northern European Renaissance lived a scholar by the name of Erasmus. Erasmus was particularly concerned with the corruption going on within the Church. Since he was so intrigued by the abuses of the church, he decided to write an essay titled, “In Praise of Folly”. In this essay, Erasmus describes many different hypocritical actions and thoughts played out by the church. One of these included looking for guidance and intersession through statues, relics, specific prayers, idols, and saints. Erasmus did not this was necessary because it was only distraction someone from finding Jesus. One of the things the church did that Erasmus thought was hypocritical was being a part of Holy Orders. Erasmus saw this at hypocritical because though you were supposed to be humbled and help others, being a part of this typically only made one more self-absorbed. Most of the people in Holy Orders got consumed in the power and wealth received from being in this position, and forgot why they became a part of Holy Orders in the first place. Another issue Erasmus saw within the church had to do with the Pope. The Pope was supposed to be the leader of the church and a complete representation of Christ, yet the Pope was holding huge parties and spending ample amounts of money. Erasmus believed the church needed to reevaluate what it was doing and use the Spirit as guidance and defense instead... ... middle of paper ... ...gan questioning the church’s hierarchy. Since many people were questioning the church, this led to what people refer to as the wars of religion. Henry was one of the 16th century kings of France. He was the first protestant king. He was later converted to Catholicism, but continued to let the protestant people worship, though they were very limited. This was the one of the first times both religions were allowed to be practiced in Europe. Furthermore, Europe has almost completely changed from the beginning of the Reformation to the end of the Reformation. Many different people have influenced this change. Most of the changes brought about had to do with religion. Though religion does not seem like a huge ordeal to a country, it is one of the main building blocks to a place such as Europe. Without these changes, Europe would not be the place people know it today.
All of Europe used to be united under one religion, Catholicism. Europe started inching away from Catholicism during the 13th - 15th centuries. The church leaders started to only think about money and the power they held, instead of the real reason they were supposed to be there, God. This caused an uprising of people who no longer wanted to be a part of the Catholic church, nicknamed Protestants because they protested the ways of the catholic church. The Protestant Reformation was caused by corruption in the church, Martin Luther and John Calvin’s ideas, and the clergy and their preachings.
Martin Luther is known to be a key initiator to the Protestant Reformation, although he had no intention of doing so. He was going to become a monk, so he read deeply into scriptures, but this only led him to discover inconsistencies between traditions and the Bible. These inconsistencies lead him to demand changes in the Catholic Church; however that did not include
First we will talk about Martin Luther. Martin Luther was born on November 10th, 1438 and died February 18th, 1546, but his actions throughout his life leave a mark in the history world. Luther was a Catholic priest and professor of Theology from Germany. He attended the University of Wittenburg, and there, not only did he earn a doctorate, but he also gained "religious enlightenment". He is, to this day, a very influential person of the past and he changed history forever, but why? The answer is the Protestant Reformation.
The period immediately following the Protestant reformation and the Catholic counter reformation, was full of conflict and war. The entire continent of Europe and all of it's classes of society were affected by the destruction and flaring tempers of the period. In the Netherlands, the Protestants and the Catholics were at eachother’s throats. In France it was the Guise family versus the Bourbons. In Bohemia, the religious and political structures caused total havoc for over thirty years; and in England, the Presbyterians thought that the English Anglican Church too closely resembled the Roman Catholic Church. Religion was the major cause of the widespread turmoil that took place throughout Europe between 1560 and 1660.
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
with his 95 Theses. A strict father who most likely did not accept “no” as an
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.
Martin Luther was a representative during the 16th century of a desire widespread of the renewal and reform of the Catholic Church. He launched the Protestant reform a continuation of the medieval religious search.
The renaissance and the reformation were two of the most significant changes in history that has shaped our world today. Both of these great time periods are strikingly similar in some ways and totally different in others. This is because the renaissance was a change from religion to humanism whether it is in art or literature; it is where the individual began to matter. However, the reformation was,” in a nutshell,” a way to reform the church and even more so to form the way our society is today. The first half of this paper will view the drop in faith, the economic powers, and the artistic and literary changes during the renaissance, while the second half will view the progresses and changes the church makes during the reformation.
All men of Erasmus’s recent history are more preoccupied with making as much money as they can rather than actually serving the people of the church. They, especially the popes and priests, shirk their responsibilities in hopes that someone else will do the manual labor, so to speak, while they are free to languish in the delusion of their own splendor. They are more concerned with war and desire times like the crusades where Christianity was fought for with the sword and not with service of good deeds to the needy. It is for these reasons that Erasmus claims that there is no one more deadly to the church than those of impious
The Reformation changed England in many ways. To understand the Reformation fully, we must look at how it began. The English Reformation started in the 16th century with the reign of Henry VIII. Henry’s wife, Catherine of Aragon, was unable to produce a son, who would become the next heir to the the throne. Henry decided that he needed to move on to another wife who might provide him with a male heir, since Catherine of Aragon was unable to produce a male heir. Henry already had another woman in mind who he wanted to marry, Anne Boleyn. However, in order to get rid of Catherine of Aragon, Henry would need to divorce her. The Roman Catholic Church believed that marriage should be for life, and you could not simply remarry someone else. Pope Clement VII refused to allow Henry to divorce his wife.
...the church. In conclusion, because of the Reformation, churches have greatly changed, and are continuing to change to this day.
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.
The Effects of the Reformation on European Life European society was divided from the word go, people all around Europe were dominantly Catholic before the reformation. This time was bringing change throughout Europe with a heavy influence on art and culture because the Renaissance was occurring; a religious revolution was also beginning, which was known as the Protestant Reformation. The Protestant Reformation was the voicing of disagreements by a German Catholic priest about the Catholic Church; this priest was Martin Luther and was excommunicated from the church for his actions. The Protestant Reformation helped to influence and strengthen the Renaissance that was just arising in England.