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Effect of protestant reformation
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The political organization and religion aspects during the 16th century influenced Protestant Reformation to occur in Germany. Martin Luther’s writings reflect on his views and perspectives of German politics and religion at the time. Martin Luther’s ideas in the Letter to the Christian Nobility of the German Nation and The Statement of Grievances mentions Martin Luther’s thoughts about how corrupt the church is, why the corruption in the church needs to end, and what Martin Luther’s ideas are to change the way of the church. Martin Luther’s Letter to the Christian Nobility of the German Nation was published in 1520. In the Letter to the Christian Nobility of the German Nation, Martin Luther claims that the Catholic …show more content…
Luther uses harsh words to describe the popes and the bishops by calling them names such as “humbug”, “block head”, and “hypocrite”. According to Martin Luther’s Letter to the Christian Nobility of the German Nation, it states “He might well make a man into a hypocrite or a humbug, and block head, but never a Christian or spiritual man”. Martin Luther believes that the priests, bishops, and popes are not different from the Christian people. Martin Luther points out that Christians were baptized and read the Bible, so why do the popes receive so much authority and power than Christians. In the Letter to the Christian Nobility of the German Nation, Luther questions “Why are your life and limb, your property and honor, so cheap and mine not, inasmuch as we are all Christians and have the same baptism, the same faith, the same Spirit, and all the rest?”. Therefore, Martin Luther believes that the popes, bishops, and priests are given too much authority and power even though the popes, bishops, and priests do not possess that many special abilities. Martin Luther claims that everyone is a priest since the Christian people can interpret and read the Bible, carry the same faith and spirit, and were baptized just like the popes, priests, and bishops …show more content…
Martin Luther’s view on indulgences appears in many of his writings including Luther’s 95 Theses and The Statement of Grievances. Martin Luther believes that the Papacy should not have a role in collecting taxes, indulgences, or any ways of drawing income from the German nation. On number twenty-three in the Letter to the Christian Nobility of the German Nation, Luther states “The brotherhoods, and for that matter, indulgences, letters of indulgences, and everything of that kind, should be snuffed out and brought to an end”. Martin Luther wants the German nation to get rid of indulgences since the indulgence sellings can harm the integrity of the church. Indulgences were not new to the German nation during the 16th century. Indulgences have been around for three centuries prior to 1520 even before Martin Luther’s Letter to the Christian Nobility of the German Nation was published. With indulgences, the German nation pays for their sins to be forgiven. The church makes most of its profits from the public by selling these indulgences. In Carter Lindberg’s The European Reformation, Carter Lindberg states “An indulgence, then, drew on the treasure of the church to pay off the debt of the penitent sinner who would otherwise be obligated to pay off the penance by works of satisfaction either in life or in purgatory”. For example, in
James Kittelson’s biography on the life of Luther is thought provoking and informative. Kittelson does not have a concise thesis, but as it is a biography the central theme of Luther the Reformer is an insightful narrative of Martin Luther’s life from his birth in Eisleben until his death on February 18, 1546 in Eisleben. Kittelson thoroughly and with great detail and sources explains Luther’s mission to reform the catholic church. Luther the Reformer seeks to condense Luther’s life in a manner which is more easily read for those who do not know the reformer’s story well. Luther is portrayed not only as a theologian throughout the book, but as a person with struggles and connections throughout the Germanic region in which he lived. Luther’s theology is portrayed throughout the entirety of the book, and Kittelson approaches Luther’s theology by explaining Luther’s past. The inclusion of
Born in Germany, in 1483, Martin Luther went on to become one of western history’s most significant figure. Luther spent his early life as a priest and a lawyer. He was also the professor of theology. Considering his background it was a total surprise that Luther protested and criticized the catholic church. Even more surprising since he was a priest. However, Martin Luther didn’t want to destroy the church after all he was a priest. He just wanted to reform some of the church’s perceived abuses. There are different reasons that sparked Martin Luther’s protestant reformation, namely. 1) salvation or getting to heaven, was won by faith alone, 2) the selling of indulgences, 3) the bible
Martin Luther was a former Priest/Monk and that saw some corruption in the Roman Catholic Church. Luther tried to bring his concerns to the Church in his writing of the “Ninety-five Theses on the Power of Indulgences.” When these question that Luther proposed to the Archbishop of Mainz went unsatisfactorily unanswered in 1517, Luther started defaming the Roman Church and pushed for the utter destruction of the Roman Church. What started out as an internal reform of Church’s discipline, turned into a war against the Roman Church for their total destruction. This was the intent of Luther’s sermon of 1521.
Martin Luther was a friar very devoted to the Church but after analyzing all these aspects he decided to do something about it. On October 31, 1517 he attached to the door of Wittenberg Castle a list of 95 theses or propositions on indulgences. These theses criticized papal policies and were objections about he church put on hold for discussion.
Luther exemplifies some of the political aspects present in life during the 16th century. Now, the first of these is that the Catholic Church held a large amount of the political power at that time. The church had influence over almost everything. To the people of this time, faith was almost everything to them, and if they were under the threat of excommunication, they were almost certain to give in to what the church wanted. This is apparent because excomm...
The main purpose of Martin Luther to write his thesis was to protest against the selling of indulgences. On the other hand, the Romans full heartedly supported the selling of indulgences, as they considered this as a way to raise
First of all, the Catholic Church taught that spiritual authority originated from the Pope; however Luther maintained that the word of God as recorded in the Bible was a higher power that overruled the authority of Rome (3). Luther declared: “The ungodly papists prefer the authority of the church far above God’s Word; a blasphemy abominable and not to be endured; wherewith, void of all shame and piety, they spit in God’s face” (4). Catholic priests served as
Luther believed that the Christian Faith was being exploited. The leaders of the Roman church were abusing their monopoly over their Christian followers for their benefit. Luther wrote The Ninety-Five Theses in response to the sale of indulgences by the Pope. He wanted to make the people aware of how a true Christian should act and how the Pope was violating them: "The treasures of indulgences are nets, whereby they now fish for the riches of men." (Luther, The Nine-Five Thesis, p.5) He felt that giving to the poor and needy would make them far better off than if they bought pardons. The Romanists had set up barriers so that no one could condemn their actions and power. They thought that the temporal power had no jurisdiction over the spiritual power. Secondly, the only person who could interpret the Scriptures was the Pope. Therefore, he decided what was right and what was wron...
Martin Luther was a German man who insisted a change in the Catholic church's restrictive and unfair regulations. Martin Luther was born to a miner and grew up in a working class family that was very religious (“Reformation”). Martin Luther studied law, but switched to theology and eventually entered a monastery (“Reformation”). On October 31, 1517, Martin Luther nailed his “ninety-five theses” on the Catholic church door. This document proclaimed he was against the church’s policies. Martin Luther was against the church’s law that sinners should have to pay for redemption like a “business transaction” (“Reformation”). Martin Luther
Martin Luther is an educated man and a pious one too; however, his recent attacks on the Catholic church are injurious. He has written a letter to the German princes in hopes of a rebellion or spiritual revolution, if you will, against the you, Your Holiness, and your church. He calls the ruling of the Pope destructive and his teachings false. This man, is a self-proclaimed heretic and he is trying to ally Christians to fight with him. Not only is he a joke, Your Holiness Leo x, but a danger to the power you hold and the word of the Lord.
The sales of indulgences was an idea that the church created to help fund papal projects such as, the ceiling paintings of the Sistine Chapel. Essentially, the idea of the sales of indulgences was that it assured that the purchaser would be allowed entry into Heaven. Luther saw this as a corrupt scam, he claimed that the Pope and Church didn’t have control over how long people would stay in purgatory and their sins. People finally came to their senses and stopped buying indulgences, causing a fall in sales of indulgences.
Martin Luther is viewed as of Western history’s most significant figures in his fight for equality and civil rights.Initially, Luther, born in Germany spent his early years in relative anonymity where he was a monk and also a scholar. However, it is his contribution and scholarly work in 1517 that Luther is mostly renowned for. He wrote a document that was attacking the then Catholic Church’s corrupt practice. This practice was in the form of selling different indulgences to absolve sins that the church believed was a common attribute in the society (Ziegler and Bentley 55). His scholarly document was named the “95 Theses”. The document provided and discussed two central beliefs. One of the central
Luther com-posed his “95 thesis” when he went to the university lecturer in Wittenberg. He was able to translate the bible to German because he wanted the people to really understand what was inside of it. The way they would understand it is if they would read it for themselves. Luther makes two claims, the first one is that we should rely on scripture alone. The second is our salvation depends not at all on our works but on our faith alone, Luther is saying that we depend on the grace given to us by god. With this it has changed the way some of the people has practiced their faith. Luther was a formidable writer. The Lu-theran Church had to take on many forms, and their loving mercy of the Divine Being. What Luther is saying could give the congregations a new way to practice their faith. In one of the many thesis Martin Luther states, one sticks out to me the most. Thesis 62 Luther states “The true treasure of the Church is the Most Holy Gospel of the glory and the grace of God”. This is very true to what he believed. That we are saved by grace and that is a key factor in the church. By the end of the Reformation, Lutheran-ism had become the state religion throughout much of
From an early age Martin Luther was drawn to the ways of monastic life, but Luther’s father had other plans for his son. In 1505, Luther graduated as a young lawyer from the University of Erfurt. Later that year, Luther was trapped in a horrifying thunderstorm in which he was nearly struck by lightning. He viewed this near-death encounter as a divine message from God and on July 15,1505 he entered into the Augustinian Monastery. In 1517, Martin Luther, a then unrecognized monk and scholar, released his “95 Theses”, also known as“Disputation on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences”, protesting many of the seemingly corrupt acts practiced by the Catholic Church. Acts such as the selling of indulgences, “holy” priests who possessed concubines, and the idea that people could reach the salvation of God with deeds and not their faith in the Almighty. The word spread quickly throughout Germany and rapidly moved into Rome with the use of the new Gutenberg printing press. It was now extremely easy to have multiple copies made, and thus the Gutenberg press became a key factor in the reformation. Lutheranism and its followers became quite provocative among the common people and throughout the Catholic Church, quoting such things as”why does not the pope, whose wealth today is greater than the wealth of the richest Crassus, build the basilica of St. Peter with his own money rather than with the money of poor believers?”(history.com). On April
Luther’s most important criticisms had to do with the Catholic Theology. His argument was this: The Church had gotten away from the fundamentals of the...