The Influence Of The Protestant Reformation

The sixteenth century was a time of change. The People of the west thrived and devoted themselves to the betterment of philosophy, art, literature and science. These advancements greatly challenged the importance of politics and religion. As the people became educated and aware they began to question what they were told; they realized that if they didn’t agree with ideas or rules, then they could revolt and create a “better” way. This resulted in the Lutheran Reformation that spread into the Protestant Reformation, in turn inspiring the Catholic Reformation, more commonly known as the Counter Reformation. While they were both the reorganization of religious beliefs within the Catholic Church, with the intention of bringing God back to the centers

The people, who became the Protestants, saw the exploitation and dishonesty of the Catholic Church and opted for change. Martin Luther, being the first prominent insurgent, rejected the Pope and Catholic ideas. This was because he saw corruption at the Vatican during a trip to Rome. Luther believed everything they did was immoral and needed to change; this is why his movement was about breaking conventions. Luther went straight back to scripture and disregarded all traditions in favour following God the way the bible said to. This outraged Catholics, but also informed them of the corruption they were turning a blind eye to. They too realized that the venality of the Catholic Church could not be tolerated any longer. The Catholics believed, however that the way to restore morality was to adhere to their traditions while changing their ideas. This led to conflicts in theological teachings between Protestants and Catholics. The theological teachings of Catholics were centered around scripture and tradition, whereas Lutheranism focused solely on scripture. Luther believed the scripture revealed that a soul was justified through faith alone, because the sacrifice of Jesus atoned for all sins; one had to only believe to be saved. Yet, he also believed that the elect to be saved were chosen

These are the traditions that were mentioned beforehand, that Catholic’s clung dearly to during the Counter Reformation. A few examples of these are the idea of purgatory, prayer to saints and priests in a hierarchy form. None of these conventions or beliefs are proven in the bible and Martin Luther therefore considered them a distraction from the centrality and importance of Christ. (Tarr 45) This is another reason why Lutheranism went to the bible for all answers. This brought about the practice of a decentralized leader for mass services. Believing that everyone has an equal chance of getting into heaven qualifies anyone to be a priest. Something that both reformations have in common however is that they both supported using a vernacular bible. Prior to the emergence of the Protestant sect, the bible was only in Latin so that the lay people were dependent on the priest for interpretation. Nevertheless, Luther rejecting a venerated human leader, believed that everyone should be able to read the bible. In reaction, the Catholic Church allowed a vernacular bible, so that it didn’t look like it was taking advantage of its followers. This is further evidence that the Counter Reformation was simply an act to cover their