Starting in 1517, there was a schism between people and their minds. These people fought for what they believed no matter how similar or how different, however, the battles fought between the factions were justified by any means necessary. The battles took great tolls on both sides, over fifty million people were killed. This discrepancy in belief was called the Protestant Reformation, started by Martin Luther. The main two factions of the Reformation were the Protestants and the Papacy; the Papacy having the backing of Spain and all of the corrupt rulers that wanted power and Martin Luther and his Protestants having the backing of princes and rulers looking for opportunity in political and financial front, though some of Luther’s backers did …show more content…
The Reformation caused many who were born into lower classes to question the social caste system as Luther had questioned the church, which eventually lead to the Peasant Revolt of 1524. This Revolt spawned The Twelve Articles of the Swabian Peasants, which stated, “It has been customary for men to hold us as their property [as serfs]. But since Christ redeemed us all, it accords with Scripture that we should be set free.” This shows the peasants were slaves of that time as they were “held as property” by the people in power, however, even with the peasants best efforts they were “shut down” swiftly by the lords and princes. At the beginning of the Revolution, Martin Luther gave his sympathies to the peasants, but once the peasants began to pillage, burn, and kill he decided to side with the princes and lords. It is under scrutiny whether Luther truly believed joining the lords and princes was the right course of action or if Luther sided with them simply because they were his only backers for his Reformation. After the Revolution was ended people started to create their own branching religions, creating their own rules for them and for the people who followed those religions. This meant that peasants could join these religions and be backed in their ideals …show more content…
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. The church tried with all of the power it had gained to stop Luther, but power hungry men and pious fools thought him worthy of protection. Luther may have been correct in his Theses, but the actions his allies took to accomplish his ideals were extreme; extreme to the effect that order was sacrificed for many years for a goal that would
In 1520, he was threatened with excommunication by the Pope if he didn’t recant his 95 Theses. However, Luther didn’t care and stood with his beliefs and was eventually excommunicated. Luther was eventually declared a heretic and an outlaw with Charles V’s Edict of Worms. The German people would however, protect Luther for twenty five years. Also, in the year 1522, Lutheranism was created as the first Protestant religion.
The English Reformation lead to a drastic change in England based on a single King’s wishes. King Henry VIII desired to begin a new church that would allow him to divorce his wife. He began the Church of England and demanded that his kids follow in his footsteps. Anyone who disagreed with King Henry was executed and the politics of England changed too. Rebellions over this new Church began and many were killed and unhappy.
The influence of religion during the Reformation was a manifestation of the conflict of criticism toward the Catholic Church that shaped the events of the age. Although the peasants were primarily motivated towards economic and political justice, the Reformation introduced the German peasants to independent ideas and generated a movement against the nobility, as well as tying into the countermovement of the German peasant revolts of 1524 and 1525. Instead of seeking refuge in feudal authority, the peasants of Germany reflected religious ideas in their revolution by appealing to God’s authority. As the hold of the church's influence over society declined from the conflict of the Reformation, the leaders of the revolts optimized the growing animosity to generate support for the revolts. Correspondingly, religion expressed the
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).
During the 16th century in Europe, the beginning of a reformation occurred that still affects us to this day. This shift in ideas and action caused wars, persecutions, and brought about a counter reformation. This event is known as the Protestant Reformation. Although many people attribute the reformation beginning with Martin Luther nailing his 95 theses to the church door in 1517, there were signs of reform stirring in the church before that.
I. The Protestant Reformation in Europe was a reform movement that occurred during the sixteenth century which divided the Western Christian church into Catholic and Protestant groups. Although the Reformation occurred in the sixteenth century earlier events of the late fourteenth and fifteenth century created the environment for the Reformation to occur. The Reformation was started by Martin Luther, who was a monk and professor who lectured the Bible (Duiker, World History, 421). There were four major factors that lead to The Protestant Reformation in Europe:
Historians argue that there were many causes of the Protestant Reformation, but there was one main issue that instigated its formation. Economically, resentment of the Church’s wealth and taxes influenced the drive for reformation and particularly, other European leaders. In the same respect, the Church’s growing political authority and push for power troubled such leaders. Despite the perceived supreme power of the Church in Europe, the religious affairs and corruption amongst the Church’s leaders were more important causes of the reformation. An increased disdain and mistrust of the Church dominated the opinion of the public and further supported the idea of reformation.
October 31, 1517 was a historic day that sparked 3 Reformations some believe. It was the start of the Protestant Reformation led by Martin Luther who nailed his 95 Theses on the door in a church in Wittenberg that day. Some historians believe that led to the Counter Reformation along with the Catholic Reformation while others think that both Reformations were really one and that the Catholic Reformation had already begun before the Reformation itself. I am going to be viewing these Reformations as two distinct and different reformations each with a different purpose.
The opposition Luther took against the Church soon had an instant impact on peasants. Individuals began to form opinions on both political and religious fields, but they had failed to interpret the beliefs of Luther correctly.
Reformation Propaganda The Reformation in the early 16th century started with Martin Luther questioning the authority of the Catholic Church by condemning the Pope for selling religious offices, letting religious leaders go against their vows, and selling indulgences; indulgences were contracts sold by the church to the people, to reduce people’s punishment for their sins. Luther proceeded to publicly confront and challenge the church and started his religion, Lutheranism, which only followed the Bible, not the Pope. At the time, people couldn’t read the Bible for themselves so they did not question the Catholic church’s supremacy and saw the clergy as delivering the word of God (Iordache 64). However, Martin Luther wanted people to read the
The Protestant and English reformation were both reforms that took place in the 16th century against the Roman Catholic Church. Comparatively these reformations are alike and different in some sense. For example, Two leaders led these reforms and went against the church’s beliefs for different purposes. For personal reasons , King Henry VIII went against the church, whereas Martin Luther knew the church could not offer him salvation amongst other reasons. Before becoming a monk, Martin Luther was once a law student .
Martin Luther didn't agree with many of the practices and beliefs of the Catholic Church. He didn't agree on some of the practices of the clergy like simony, the sale of church offices, nepotism, the giving away of church offices to family members, and pluralism, the holding of more than one church office at a time. He also was really against the sale of indulgence, documents sold by the Catholic Church lessening penance or time in purgatory. He thought that the church was only selling indulgences to earn more money and that indulgence didn't really do what they promised. He also didn't like the fact that people didn't read the Bible and thought that
Essentially, the top positions of the church fooled people into debt, making them believe they would have salvation when, in actuality, they were being robbed for no apparent reason. Luther wanted to stop corruption in church and wrong judgment and beliefs in this system. When people suddenly became aware of these wrongdoings through Luther, the peasants in Germany gathered a strong hatred towards the high class. As peasants struggled through hardships, they were being placed into an undesirable state of serfdom unless they paid to their “lords” (Doc 5). With the realization of this oppression placed upon them by the rich class and nobility, the peasants felt that a revolt was necessary to turn around an unjust behavior and to stop the influx of folk to the serfdom; the peasantry revolted against the unfair nature of the lords, who forced them to execute “more services and other dues…without compensation”.
“Every man must do two things alone; he must do his own believing and his own dying.” This was one of the many quotes proclaimed by the infamous Martin Luther, founder of the Protestant Church. Luther was known for breaking away from the corrupted Catholic Church, and creating a whole new branch of Christianity called Protestantism. His actions caused a major strife within the religious world. These events caused many to choose a side between the Catholics and the Protestants.
Luther then wrote his radical which called “95 Theses”. 95 theses was actually his concern to the corruption inside the Church. Many European join his protest