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Similarities Between Martin Luther's Letter And 95 Theses

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During the late medieval world a crisis prevailed and because of it, Western Europe had to take new directions. Specifically, one can find evidence of the crisis and new directions by studying a letter Martin Luther wrote to the Archbishop of Mainz as well as the 95 Theses he nailed to the door of the Catholic Church. Martin Luther did both of these things specifically to protest the sale of indulgences that the Archbishop had authorized as well as stop the finances of the cathedral the Archbishop wanted to build. Based on these two important documents, Luther argues about the crisis of the Late Medieval world and how new directions needed to be taken in areas of religion, politics, and economics. Martin Luther’s letter and 95 Theses focused …show more content…

Martin Luther was a strong believer in faith and Luther believed faith alone saved you not by actions. As for the Catholic Church, they believed that you were only rewarded with faith if one was doing good deeds and spreading love; Martin Luther disagreed in many things over all with the church and church leadership which is why he wrote this letter and hung the 95 theses on the doors of the church. Another huge disagreement Luther had with the church was the belief in absolute authority of the Pope of Rome in the Catholic Church. Martin Luther disagreed with this because he felt the obvious head of authority was Christ alone and that no authority figure from the church was needed. God might have given some authority to some people in leadership but overall God was the divine leader. These opinionated statements Luther had was a strong factor in writing the two documents to the Catholic …show more content…

The archbishop was the one who was in charge of financial and political aspects involving the Catholic Church. There were many issues with economics like a total lack of funding for things that were necessary. Luther’s main reason for nailing the 95 Theses on the door of the Catholic Church was his belief of corruption coming from the Archbishop. The Archbishop was offering indulgences to the people claiming that if they paid for them, they would be forgiven of their sins entirely. This was why Martin Luther wrote what he did to voice his opinion on how the financial and political aspect of the Catholic Church was so corrupt. At this point in time, this was the first real start of the Protestant Reformation as a whole and the citizens were sure to spread it quickly. The citizens were sick and tired of the corruption of the pope and the demand that God could only be realized through direct communication. The Reformation opened up their minds to new beliefs and understandings and Martin Luther’s letter really opened up peoples’ eyes to the corruption that was taken

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