Henry VIII And Martin Luther's Corruption In The Roman Catholic Church

While both Henry VIII and Martin Luther identified corruption in the Church, Martin Luther sought to purify it when Henry VIII was only driven by his desire for an heir. Martin Luther did many things to try to please God such as constantly repent, fast, and bow down in humble reverence to his Creator, but Luther found the forgiveness process to only get more difficult, because truly, not one human being is without fault. Luther began noticing corruption in the Roman Catholic Church, and was soon convinced it had fallen away from many key truths of the Bible, perverting others and leading them astray with many unethical sources including the grotesque sale of indulgences. Henry VIII was also well aware of the Church’s critical situation,

but he only felt it necessary to overthrow the pope. He saw that the Church was taking a severe turn, but wasn't willing to bring about reform or bring it back to its original standards of following the Bible’s much needed key truths. Luther perceived that the Roman Catholic Church had some issues that needed to be fixed. In contrast, Henry VIII struggled with his own life problems, and he wanted to see the Church fix them. Both of these men had extremely differing motives, however, each of them initiated a movement that altered the Church forever. Luther saw the negative effect indulgences had on his congregation (of people purchasing forgiveness rather than showing genuine and sincere confession and repentance toward God), and so he preached three sermons regarding the damaging effects and condemned them. Henry VIII thought that the only way to receive forgiveness in Heaven was to lead a good life on earth. He once said, “Whoever leads an auspicious life here (meaning on earth) and governs the commonwealth rightly, as my most noble father did, who promoted all piety and banished all ignorance, has a most certain way to heaven.” All this led Luther to compile his extraordinary Ninety-five Theses, which he nailed to the Church doors on October 31, 1517. The Church was becoming corrupt, and although both Martin Luther and Henry VIII wanted to do something about it, Henry VIII desired to do it for personal purposes that were worldly, when Martin Luther wished to purify the Church for eternal purposes, simply to glorify God.