Protestant Reformation Dbq Essay

1281 Words6 Pages

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

Open Document