Nothing Was the Same

580 Words2 Pages

In history, tradition played a huge role in the way people lived. They believed that since it was tradition it was the correct way to live. Some took the initiative to step forward and fearlessly opposite societal standards. This would eventually change laws and religions among many other things. Because of these influential people, the world began to change into what it is today.
Lady Mary Wortley Montague was an English aristocrat in the early eighteenth century. She was diagnosed with the commonly fatal disease smallpox in 1715, which her younger brother passed away from. Smallpox killed tens of thousands across the world at that time. Montague was left badly scarred from the disease. In her post-recovery years, she traveled to Istanbul with her husband and found a new way to prevent smallpox from spreading. In a letter, Montague explained the technology of inoculation to a friend. Inoculation is the introduction of the agent that causes the disease into the body. (Montague, 1717) The idea sounds silly, but this is done to promote immunity from the disease. When Lady Montague discovered this new approach to treating smallpox, she was fairly impressed. She talks about how the patients drastically get better and how sure she is about this approach. (Reilly, 2013)
A famous figure in the popular Protestant Reformation was Martin Luther. Before he joined the movement, he practiced Catholicism for many years. His doubts started shining through when he thought that Catholicism made it seem that no one could enter the Kingdom of God because it is so easy to give into sin. He began teaching that since everyone is born in sin and bound to sin again; the way to gain admittance into heaven is to become “saved”. To become “saved” one would...

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...andonment of Christianity leads the government to regulate Buddhist Temples. (Reilly, 2013)
These people had influenced the world in extreme ways. Through their actions, some persuaded their countries to change the official religion while others created an entirely new denomination of Christianity that eventually gained a world wide following. This is evidence that you can change the world and its people when you confidently stand by your beliefs and won’t stand down when people try to tell you are wrong.

Works Cited

1. Lady Mary Wortley Montague, Letter on Turkish Smallpox Inoculation, 1717 752
2. Anna Bijns, Unyoked Is Best! Happy the Woman without a Man, 1567 701
3. Japanese Edicts Regulating Religions, 1645 and 1665 663
4. David Hume, On Miracles 1748 770
5. Kevin Reilly, Worlds of History, 2013
6. Robert Tignor, et. al., Worlds Together, Worlds Apart 2011

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