Catholic Church: A Path from Corruption to Reformation

Since its beginning, the Roman Catholic Church had been progressively corrupted. In its attempt to reunify the empire, it decided that quantity was better than quality; a decision that set the church up for much corruption in the succeeding years. In the twelfth century under the leadership of Pope Gregory VII, who's decision to reform monasteries, promote crusades, and demand priestly celibacy helped turn Europe into a theocracy. However, by the fourteenth century during the Great Schism, the church found a successful method to gain revenue through indulgences. More people were educated through the Renaissance, which led them to doubt the validity of sacraments to realize the open corruption of the Catholic Church. By Luther’s time, the Catholic Church stressed above all else not the growth of the Christian, but how to avoid eternal damnation in Hell. After a close encounter with death, he soon determined that joining the monastery was the best way to assure his salvation from Hell, but as he earnestly fasted and spent nights in sleep-deprivation, Luther did not feel that the “self-help” approach taught by the Church had helped. While he was in Rome, he began to doubt the validity of many Catholic teachings. Luther obtained his doctorate and became a teacher of the Bible, which allowed him to discover the Truth: that man’s salvation

Seeking to reform Christianity by using the Bible alone as his source of instruction, Zwingli promoted the abolishment of the veneration of images, and priestly celibacy. He and Luther agreed on many issues like the reliance on scripture alone and the rejection of papal authority, but they disagreed on issues such as the use of militancy and aggression to advance the faith. Zwingli’s aggression divided Switzerland so much that the Swiss resorted to war. Zwingli lost his life and the war foreshadowed the coming division of Europe between Catholics and