The Protestant Reformation: A 16th-Century Upheaval

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The Protestant Reformation, also known as the Reformation, was the 16th-century religious, governmental, scholarly and cultural upheaval that disintegrated Catholic Europe, setting in place the structures and beliefs that would define the continent in the modern era (Staff, 2009). The Catholic Church begun to dominate local law and practice almost everywhere starting in the late fourteenth century. The Catholic Church held a tight hold on the daily lives of the people invading just about every part of it. Some people of this time would decide to stand up to the church and attempt to change the way it operated and make it release some of its control. These people who spoke out against the church came to be known as Protestants. The Protestants …show more content…

There were many people and attempts made to change the way the church functioned before the Reformation, but they had always been crushed by the inquisition. There were many factors political, religious, and economic, which had been developing for centuries that would make it possible for the Reformation to come about. There were quite a few practices of the church that were in question at this time. Some of these practices included simony, indulgences, excessive papal wealth, and clerical violations of church and biblical rules of behavior (Fide, Scriptura, Solus, Sola, & Soli, 2014). The one that was the biggest concern to the people looking for church reform, was the selling of pardons from the pope to lessen the time a person’s soul would be in purgatory, these pardons were also called …show more content…

The contemporary notion of standard education that, education is for everyone first arose in Europe during the Protestant Reformation. Along with some of the greatest art and literature, the Reformation brought about the greatest industrial developments and wealth ever experienced in history. The Protestant work ethic, which is a concept in theology, sociology, economics and history which emphasizes hard work, frugality and diligence as a constant display of a person 's salvation in the Christian faith, in contrast to the focus upon religious attendance, confession, and ceremonial sacrament in the Catholic tradition (Weber, 1905), helped to bring about great prosperity in Western Europe and North America. This way of perceiving work and living arose mostly through the Protestant Reformers particularly John Calvin. In the area of science, it is possible that there would have never been modern science were it not for the Reformation. All scientific endeavor before that had been controlled by the church. These are of course not all but just some of the most notable results of the Protestant

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