The protestant movement began to grow as a revolt against the Catholic Church that led to the obligation of a reform. This became known as the Protestant Reformation: the protest for a
Reformation means “The act of reforming or the state of being reformed”. The root of reformation is the Latin word reformare, which means to form again or to change. This is why this specific event is called the English Reformation, as it changed the way the church was run throughout England. The Reformation was a series of events in the 16th century, where England broke away from the Roman Catholic Church and the authority of the pope. England saw the decline of feudalism, the rise of nationalism & common law and the downfall of the Roman Catholic Church, with the Pope as the leader.
On the ever fateful eve of All Saints Day, 1517 (October 31st), a rebellious and recalcitrant monk, by the name of Martin Luther, hit his breaking point and posted his famously titled 95 Theses on the doors of the Wittenberg Cathedral. It has long been believed, although possibly inaccurate, that after a near death experience during a rather malevolent thunderstorm, Luther found God and diverged from his father’s ambitious goal of seeing Martin become a lawyer, ultimately flocking to the Church and becoming a monk. Living in the inner workings of the Catholic Church; however, lead Luther to question many of the traditional practices of the early Church. The Propositions Concerning Indulgences, or 95 Theses as they have come to be know, were nailed to the doors of the royal church, adjacent to the Wittenberg castle, as a deliberate act of defiance in protest of what Luther saw to be an immoral and unjust method of reaching salvation. It is a common misconception that the selling of indulgences, which was nothing more than a scam conceived by the Church, which would allow the laity to make monetary donations to the church in return for a reduced sentence in purgatory before finally reaching the Gates of Heaven, was Luther’s true focus in writing the 95 theses.
Martin Luther saw what the church leaders were during and he believed that is was wrong and they needed to change. Martin Luther also had a lot of ideas about what the church was doing wrong when it came to the way they were practicing they religion so he took his ideas and put them into motion. When he put his ideas into motion it was the start of the Reformation. After the Reformation the church changed the way that it performed and carried out tasks this was called the Counter Reformation and it took place after the Reformation happened. The Counter Reformation was how the church responded to Martin Luther’s ideas on the church’s behavior and on his ideas about what was the right way to practice Catholicism.
This secession inspired other reformers like Ulrich Zwingli, John Calvin and Henry VIII. There were many disagreements and beliefs which caused tensions between protestant sects and the Catholic Church and these were displayed by the wars of religion (http://ca.anwers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110212173046AA5DhKR). Luther began by criticizing the selling of indulgences, the Pope had no authority over purgatory and that the Catholic doctrine of the merits of the saints had no foundation in the gospel. The Protestant position came to incorporate doctrinal changes such as Five Solae
It is evident from reading various sources from the course that the Church and the State were closely linked and that this bond was formed from the early outset of the Middle Ages, at the time of the Roman Empire. The object of this essay is to research primary sources from this time to demonstrate the progression of the Church and politics in the Middle Ages. As the Roman Republic was replaced by the Roman Empire, the first Emperor, Augustus reorganised the political system as the Republic had destroyed the political system a result of violence and a lack of law in the Republic.
He was a pamphleteer, poet, historian and author of extraordinary ability best known for his work, “Paradise Lost”. He was shortly after the reign of Queen Elizabeth on December 9, 1608 thus seeing the leadership of both James 1 and Charles 1. Charles 1 political uproars saw Milton’s development of a reputation as a pamphleteer as, the political climate saw the writing of pamphlets such as; “Of Reformation”, “Of Prelatical Episcopacy”, and “Reason for Church Government”. In these, his arguments were mostly around the issue of the closeness of the church and the King at the time. For him, this was stifling the church’s chance of purification.
Today this is a fact that even within a specific religion, there are many sects. For example in Christianity, Protestants and Catholic are major sects. Similarly in Islam, Sunni and Shiyah sects are prominent. These sects even fight against each other. In the history, there is a prominent example that during the reign of Elizabeth I in 1559, Catholic practice was made illegal (Pritchard 3).
In the year of 1517, a German priest by the name of Martin Luther began to recognize corruption within the Catholic Church. Figures who people would look up to as “holy” would take advantage of their positions and their power. The Church began to conduct religious abuses such as selling church positions, selling indulgences, and supporting the luxurious lifestyle of the popes. Even corruption and immortality began to spur within the clergy. Churches charged their dedicated Catholic followers for the sins they committed in order to appease their own selfish
Renaissance scholars were encouraged by the corruptions of the church to explore different avenues than previous medieval scholastics (2). This allowed scholars to “re-birth” their cultural learnings and challenge the authority of the Roman Church, that ultimately led to the Reformation, and resulted in the establishment of Protestant Churches (1-13).