The Protestant Reformation, occurring between years 1517 to 1648, challenged the Roman Catholic Church’s authority and practices. The most well known practice of the church was the selling of indulgences, a payment taken in order for sins to be forgiven and lessen the time spent in purgatory. The church was corrupt and it didn’t go unnoticed. An Augustinian monk named Martin Luther was appalled. He acknowledged that faith, and faith alone, was enough to grant one through the gates of heaven. Martin Luther then wrote the “95 Theses”, or “Disputation on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences”. This list was nailed on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, initiating the Protestant Reformation. However, Luther was not the only reformer. John Calvin agreed with Martin Luther, but believed that the church should be simple, removed of all icons, and also a stricter lifestyle. With the use of the printing press, Luther and Calvin’s beliefs were spread ultimately leading to religious, political, and social changes. …show more content…
As Martin Luther proceeded to spread word of the Catholic Church’s wrong doing in hopes of reforming the church, he created a new branch of Christianity. Those who agreed with his beliefs broke away from Catholicism and into Lutheranism. John Calvin, a French theologian and pastor, created another denomination known as Calvinism. This branch believes that only a few select will reach salvation, unlike Lutheranism, which all will find peace as long as they have faith. Also, followers of Calvinism lead stricter lifestyles compared to Lutheranism. These denominations not only brought along new beliefs, but also many
Since Pope Leo X created indulgence system to finance the new St. Peter’s Basilica and Johann Tetzel collected the indulgences, he wrote the 95 Theses to indicate the pope’s abuses of power. He nailed this document to the church’s door in Wittenburg, Germany and expressed his opposition to the sale of indulgences. As Luther’s first public resistance to the papacy, this document argued that indulgences were sinful and did not grant salvation. The invention of the printing press spread his works and idea throughout Europe.
The Protestant Reformation unified the people by the printing press which unified the people with their ideas, everybody had the same ideas and beliefs against the church’s practices, and they became more intellectual and literate
1) The printing press, introduced between mid 1400s to early 1500s, allowed for ideas to spread more rapidly as well as impact a larger number of people since it allowed for material to be printed at a faster rate which highly contributed to the Reformation era. Luther wrote primarily in Latin; nonetheless, his writings were printed in German, which was significant because this translation of the New Testament not only promoted literary among the commoners, but it also gave them the ability to understand the word of God (“Luther” n.p.). 2) The important document written by Martin Luther in the early 1500s that outlined his position on the perceived “abuses” by the Roman Catholic Church was titled “The 95 Theses.”
Martin Luther was a Catholic monk at the University of Wittenberg in Germany. Luther was unhappy with the practice of selling indulgences (a pardon releasing a sinner from performing a penalty in exchange for money), so, on October 31, 1517, he nailed his 95 Theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg. These Theses were intended to encourage discussion about indulgences, but, with the help of the printing press, Luther’s 95 Theses gave rise to the Protestant Reformation (Document B).
As Luther is fighting the corrupt Papacy he writes this, “Faith is a living, bold trust in God’s grace, so certain of God’s favor it would risk death a thousand times trusting in it.” Luther writes this to show what true religion is, to show what a truly faithful person should do, believe in their God and give him every bit of faith from someone's person. The Papacy hates Luther not because he is wrong, but because he is right, which means if Luther was right and the masses believed him all the power that was held by the church would crumble into nothing; most importantly though the Papacy members personal power would crumble into nothing. During the early phases of the Reformation, Luther wrote the 95 Theses, which described everything he found wrong with the church at this time. The Theses was the catalyst, which set off the ticking time bomb of corruption and irreverence.
In the early to mid-1500s, church leaders were more focused on worldly affairs such as patronizing the arts, spending extravagantly, pleasing themselves, and fighting wars. In addition, the lower clergy of the Church, to whom were given the responsibility of educating the public by Church leaders, were, in fact, uneducated themselves. The Church leaders’ lack of interest in priests reflected directly on the integrity of their words and made them less credible. During the same time, the Church was giving indulgences as a reassurance of entering heaven, meanwhile, the Bible says one can only enter through faith. Indulgences are a prime example of the people trusting the church, and the uneducated clergy communicated that indulgences were good for the people.
"95 Theses," a paper which spoke against the pope using Indulgences for the Sacrament of Reconciliation. His paper spoke of how the Bible should be the main guide for Christians and that faith rather than good deeds was the way to Heaven. He nailed the paper to the door of the Church, making the topic up for debate. Within years Luther had gathered enough followers to begin their own churches in Germany.
The Protestant Reformation had a huge impact in all Europe in the sixteen century, but which ones were the factors that lead to it? It is very important to highlight that the European Christianity was falling into a noticeable corruption of its popes and some other high position members. Robbery, and even warriors were among of some factors that took the Cristian Church to a declining path. One of these examples was the Pope Julius II, which one won the nickname “the warrior pope” because he led armies against people. Furthermore, the church was not the only factor promoting this reformation, some other social changes were occurring with the masses in Europe; many of the peasants were being free especially in the western Europe.
Protestant Reformation Protestant Reformation was a European Christian movement. This movement, led by Martin Luther reformed the Roman Catholic Church practices and begin Protestantism. The reformation started because of the corruption of Roman Catholic Church. The corruption that begin the protestant reformation was phony relics and indulgences. The church priests would sell these relics to poor people knowing that they were fake and build on lies only to make money for the church.
The Protestant Reformation began with a movement made by a monk simply to criticize and challenge the actions of the Church. From the disapproval of selling indulgence to the demand of equality, multiple forces have sparked the inception of the Protestant Revolution. Martin Luther’s decision to take public stand against the Church was revolutionary to the society. A movement for religious reforms, known as the Protestant Reformation, was born. Luther’s beliefs were soon adopted by and appealed to every levels of society.
The spread of Calvinism was a challenge to the Roman Catholic Church which led to many wars across Europe. John Calvin also inspired John Knox who was a Calvinist, John Knox returned to Scotland with great ideas which led to him setting up the Presbyterian Church and overthrowing the Catholic Queen. This summarizes how John Calvin had a great impact on the Reformation period religiously. In the Renaissance there were many great impacts, such as Johannes Gutenberg and his printing press, the Medici family, or
In the 1500s, there was a movement called the Reformation, which basically changed the thinking about the churches. There was a man named Martin Luther, one day he visited Rome, and what was happening there digusted him, the people of Rome were buying indulgences. The people were told that if you indulgences, then that was your get out of hell free card, meaning you didn’t have to go to purgatory or anything. Also you had to visit religious artifacts which also helped with your sins. Now that didn’t seem right to Luther, because according to the bible, the only way God could forgive was through faith.
The Middle Ages were the era of Reformation. The Renaissance, the Protestant Reformation, and the Catholic counter-reformation were all major reform movements that brought about much needed change. However, these three movements strongly disagreed with each other. Why did they disagree? Because they had different perspectives concerning Christianity and the church’s authority.
Martin Luther was strict about these rules of the Protestant Reformation. He felt that people should confess their sins, and depending on how bad the sin is, he thinks that God should judge it. Simultaneously, he didn’t believe that “indulgences,” or state of satisfaction, can pay off the price for one’s sin because he believes that it is not holy nor righteous (“Martin Luther”). In the end, this movement was spread to many countries of Europe such as Germany, Switzerland, Spain, and many
Unquestionably, the most prevalent causes of the Reformation were indulgences, the changing values of the Renaissance, and, above all, corruption within the church. Indulgences involved the selling of soul blessings to go straight to heaven rather than to purgatory, and individuals could buy them for themselves or family members. The selling of indulgences generated dispute and disagreement between the people and the clergy. Martin Luther and many other people who were opposed to the selling of indulgences claimed that because indulgences were not mentioned in the Bible, they were considered invalid.