Essay On The Protestant Reformation

The Protestant Reformation of the Catholic Church was a movement of separation from the church lead by Martin Luther in the 16th century, however the roots ran all the way back to the of it the 14th century with the Devotio Moderna. The biggest characters in the Protestant Reformation are Gerard Groote, Erasmus, and Martin Luther.
The foundation for the Protestant Reformation was laid in the 14th century with the movement known as the Devotio Moderna (Modern Devotion) by Gerard Groote. “The son of a prominent merchant, he lived in a worldly manner until, in 1374, he had a conversion experience, which caused him to adopt an ascetic way of life. From 1379 he became a preacher of repentance, criticizing the clergy so severely that some of them caused him to be officially silenced.” (Gerbert) Groote believed that people

should be educated when they read the bible so it would be a more personal experience to religion. In 1381 Groote founded a lay community called “the Brethren of the Common life” that supported Devotio Moderna and humanism. The Brethren of the Common life set up schools throughout northern Europe that was “a major influence in the development of German humanism.” (Britannica).
In the late 15th century Erasmus, the son of a priest, attended one of the schools in the Brethren of the Common Life founded by Gerard Groote (Dawson).

Erasmus became a great humanist who used his humanistic techniques on the Bible called Biblical Humanism, which sought to reform religion back to its original sources. Erasmus did that by writing New Greek editions of the New Testament which raised questions that were influential in the Protestant reformation. “Erasmus paid little attention to the study of dogma and concentrated his attention on the moral wisdom on the Gospel, what he called “philosophia Christi”” (Dawson). Erasmus directed his criticism towards the Catholic Church because the Church stopped the evangelical teaching for pious teachings including the cult of saint and relics which Erasmus saw as nonessential. By Erasmus’s appeal to scripture, his depreciation of devotions, pious practices, and monasticism he was rejected by the Catholic Church. Most of Erasmus’s works were forbidden reading to Catholics. (Gerbert) Although Erasmus’s appeal did not make a big splash, the ripples of his appeal to Scripture paved the way for Martin

Luther.
Martin Luther a at the age of 21 left his family and studies to become a monk, and became outraged by the Church’s selling indulgences which made the bishops, cardinals, and pope wealthy, while the priests and monks were struggling. The only way remedy to that corruption was to enforce the code of cannon law; however the people that had the power to do that did not want to enforce it because they were the ones benefiting from the corrupt system. (Dawson) Martin saw this a as a sign as the Catholic Church has lost its way so he takes matters in his own hand, writing his 95 Theses to express his anger towards the Church abusing its power. In 1521 Luther is summoned by the Holy roman emperor Charles the 5th , who with Pope Leo’s permission declared Luther a heretic and banished him, this event was called the Edict of Worms. After that Luther continued his rebellion by translating the Bible into German (Staff). The German people already resented the Church because the Church had the power which reduced the power of the state. Martin Luther being a German full of energy took this perfect opportunity to split from the Church and stated the Lutheran religion.