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Factors that caused the protestant reformation
Factors that caused the protestant reformation
Causes of the Protestant Reformation essay
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Henry VIII's Reformation
In 1529 Henry VIII started to reform the Catholic Church in England,
however there are different opinions as to why he began these
controversial changes. The orthodox view concurs that there was a vast
anti-clerical feeling in 16th century England; the corrupt church was
unpopular with the masses. However the revisionist view claims that
the reformation was actually due to politics. Henry needed a male heir
and therefore needed a divorce. The needs and wants of the masses were
not taken into consideration. In this essay I am going to look at
England pre-reformation and reach my own opinion of whether or not
England was actually in need of a reformation in 1529.
There were lots of anti-catholic movements going on at the time such
as the Lutheran movement and also Lollardry. This suggests that people
were growing tired with the Catholic Church and therefore looking
towards other religions. The Lollards were an active group based in
England. Lollardy appealed to the lower and middle classes and its
idea's closely matched those of Luther. They denied the existence of
purgatory, rejected the pope and spoke out against war. It wished to
see a reduction in church wealth and the bible translated into
English. They encouraged new ideas and criticism of the church.
However it is difficult to interpret just how much Lollardry actually
influenced the reformation. It undoubtedly helped to weaken the church
and open peoples eyes to new ideas, yet it was also relatively small
scale and wouldn't have affected many people.
However there was generally an anti-clerical feeling amongst people.
The clergy of that time a...
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...ay or another, none of the were indicating that the church
needed to go through a full scale reformation but rather that the
church needed to reform itself, they were calling for a reformation
from within the church, they wanted the clergy to improve themselves.
The Catholic Church in England deniably did have some faults, but
generally people were content and satisfied with it. It wasn't the
institution in decline as it is often portrayed but actually just as
popular as it had always been. People were happy with what they knew
and therefore didn't like the idea of a new church and religion, which
is why there were protests after the reformation. Henry VIII and his
parliament undoubtedly exaggerated these faults in order to reform the
church for their own political needs, rather than the needs of the
ordinary people.
Firstly and the biggest impact is that now people can get divorced and now around 40-50% of people get divorces were as before the church of England came to be no one got divorced. The Church of England might not be here. Since Henry VIII left the roman church he made the bibles in English and he made the church services in English if Henry VIII didn't split from the catholic would the services and bibles still be in Latin? King Henry VIII also impacted people's decision on what religion they wanted to be before the reformation most people in Europe were roman Catholics or had no religion whereas now around 40% of the world are Catholics (roman catholic church) and around 37% of the world are Anglicans (the church of England) which is quite close seeing the church of England was only founded in 1534 and the roman catholic church was founded way before
The Small Amount of Opposition to the Henrician Reformation The Henrician reformation brought many changes to the religious and secular ways of life in England. It stripped the nation of many of its traditional Catholic ways and forced new and unheard of customs into its religious life. The monasteries were dissolved deceitfully and effectively and a once cherished tradition was brought to an abrupt end. Henry agreed to have an English Bible in his churches, something that had previously been considered an act of heresy. Other Catholic traditions such as holy relics and the belief in purgatory were discouraged in the newly revised faith.
The Opposition to the Henrican Reformation The English reformation is widely discussed amongst historians; it was a process that saw the removal of the longstanding Papal influence and the beginnings of a new English Church. The reformation was believed to be a quick process, imposed upon the country from above. The decrees, acts and events of the reformation forced drastic changes upon both the English clergy, masses and the Papacy. These changes were unpopular and discontent was widespread. In spite of such feelings the reformation experienced little delay and monarchical power over the English Church continued to increase.
The Reformation occurred all over Western Europe. It was mostly set in Germany where various parts of corruption in the Church happened. Martin Luther started the process of the Reformation, he was German so he understood how the Catholic Church took advantage and didn't think this was fair. The Catholic Reformation took place between 1450-1650 which was the biggest revolution in Germany, although the understanding of Luther's actions weren't taken notice of until he put the 95 Theses on the Church's door. Luther felt that Bishops and Priests didn't understand the bible correctly. Luther wanted the Reformation to help fix this by helping the uneducated and powerless. Some of the movement of this was
The Protestant Reformation was a period of time (1500-1700) where there became a change in Western Christendom. This reformation was caused by the resentment from the people because the Catholic Church abusing their powers for political and economic advances. In this time the church was selling pardons for sin and indulgences to forgive sins, decrease days spent in purgatory and save the dead from damnation. The reformation was when people became more aware with the back hand dealings with the church and men like Martin Luther and John Calvin created their own churches to what they believed was not corrupt unlike the church. Unfortunately there many consequences as far at the Roman Catholic church attempting to bring people back to the church,
and undermine the Pope. This shows England moving away from the Catholic faith, but not yet Protestantism. In January 1534 the Second Act of Annates was passed, this said that future abbots and bishops were appointed by the King and not the Pope. This shows that Henry is assorting his authority and moving away from... ...
After King of England, Henry VIII (1491 – 1547) separated the Church of England from the authority of the Pope, the Crown took control of the church in the country. As such, after the English Reformation in the 16th century, the Crown ordered...
The protestant reformation of 16th century had both: immediate and long term effects. Thus, we can see that it was a revolution of understanding the essence of religion, and of what God is. The protestant reformation is said to a religious movement. However, it also influenced the economical, political and social life of people. The most global, short term effect of the reformation was the reevaluation of beliefs, and, as a result, the loss of authority of the Holy Roman Empire. The long term effects were: the emergence of new heretical movements, the declining of papacy, thus the reevaluation of people’s view on the church and life values.
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.
In these Thesis’ Luther basically criticized the church’s wrongful practices and exposed the church’s corruption in order to bring about change in the church. Luther is quoted in Document 3 from his 95 thesis’ “Christian’s should be taught that he who gives to a poor man, or lends to a needy man, does better if he bought pardons.” Luther believed that actions, such as helping others did way more toward saving a person’s soul than buying a pardon did. He saw through the idea that one could by their way into heaven. He brought about new ideas such as God’s grace is the only way into heaven, not buying indulgences, or simply participating in church activities. His ideas eventually spread out all over Europe and his followers formed a group calling themselves Lutherans. This eventually became a protestant denomination, where Luther preached ideas, and his version of christianity. Also other reformist such as John Calvin had their own ideas, like predestination, and that everyone was full of sin until they were saved by christ. “We must resist the lust of the flesh, which, unless kept in order, overflows without measure.” (Document 6) Calvin believed that everyone was filled with this sinful “lust” that could not be kept in order without the power of christ. Calvin also started a sect of christianity nicknamed Calvinist after their leader. Both Luther and Calvin inspired others such as George Fox, who created quakerism, and Ulrich Zwingli who started anabaptism. Overall a huge force that drove the Protestant Reformation was reformers such as Martin Luther and John
However, the reformation did see some religious change from the Protestant influence from both Cromwell and Cranmer. It is clear that whilst flattering Henry with political and financial benefit they managed to force religious change into the reformation. In conclusion Henry used religion as an outward motive but inside the King wanted what was beneficial for himself.
Social changes after the Reformation progressed and the power occurred. The local rulers and nobles collected after the clergy began to lose authority. Peasants revolted and resentful, the actions were condemned by Luther. The freedom the attempt from oppression and even death for some reason. The Reformation seemed to calm the peasants opportunity to challenge their place in the structure classes. One of the effects was when the lessening influence the Catholic Church and the rulers wanted to be less involved in matters of states. Clearly in England as Henry VIII break from papal authority and
The Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century is one of the most complex movements in European history since the fall of the Roman Empire. The Reformation truly ends the Middle Ages and begins a new era in the history of Western Civilization. The Reformation ended the religious unity of Europe and ushered in 150 years of religious warfare. By the time the conflicts had ended, the political and social geography in the west had fundamentally changed. The Reformation would have been revolutionary enough of itself, but it coincided in time with the opening of the Western Hemisphere to the Europeans and the development of firearms as effective field weapons. It coincided, too, with the spread of Renaissance ideals from Italy and the first stirrings of the Scientific Revolution. Taken together, these developments transformed Europe.
When one thinks of Henry the eighth the first thing that comes up is fat, wife-killer, meat eater, old, mean and overall horrendous. But almost no one refers to him as misunderstood, manipulated or young man who was not meant to be King of England. This is how Suzannah Lipscomb portrays Henry VIII in her book, 1536: The Year that Changed Henry VIII, King Henry faces many tribulations in 1536 that shaped the rest of his reign; from his marriages, injuries, heirs, to his influence in the European spectrum.
Henry VIII and Queen Elizabeth I may have been the English Reformation’s greatest benefactors, all because of self interest. Henry VIII was not originally Protestant, but after the pope denied him of his divorce, Henry VIII took things into his own hands. Due to the power kings had in the Middle Ages, Henry VIII was able to control Parliament and force it to do whatever he wanted. So in 1534, Henry VIII forced Parliament to pass a law he made known as the Act of Supremacy. The Act of Supremacy stated that the king ought to be the head of the Church of England. This law gave the king complete power over the Church of England, instead of the pope. However, the type of church and state relationship did not change. Rather all the Act of Supremacy did was take power from the pope and give it to the king. Surprisingly, the Catholics did not retaliate against this strong change. The pope had always been the head of the church, but now the king had taken his position. This serves as an example of nationalism. The Catholics did not think about how removing the pope could harm their religion in any way. However, instead the people blindly followed Henry VIII because he was the leader of the nation and they assumed he was right. Also, by imposing other laws that punished Protestants, Henry VIII did not give the people much of a choice. Fortunately, for Henry VII, nationalis...