How Did Martin Luther Reform The Roman Catholic Church?

Martin Luther is a German monk that is most famous for his challenging of the Roman Catholic church in the early sixteenth century. He protested the churches policies regarding the sale of indulgences and how the popes thought they had high religious authority. Consequently, Martin Luther reformed the Christendom and created the Protestant religion. Luther also translated the Bible into other languages, causing the newly created mechanical type printing to go widespread.

Martin Luther discredited the sale of indulgences in Roman Catholic churches. Indulgences were bought because they were said to excuse people from their punishments of sins, therefore granting the person access to heaven. The churches thought that indulgences were great for

He thought that “the Bible was the only source of Christian religious authority” and that no human can disregard sins and allow permission into heaven (Bentley et al, pg 509). Luther thought that the only way to gain salvation was to have faith in God and his promises and not via good actions or through prayers of other people.

The consequences of Martin Luther’s challenge of the Roman Catholic churches are very important. One example is the creation of the Protestant religion and Lutheran branch of this reformed version of Christianity. After Luther was debarred from the church, he began to hold religious services for his close followers. This soon began to blossom into the religion that has more than 900 million members. The Protestant Reformation also contributed to the making of powerful centralized states.

Another result of Martin Luther’s dissent against the Roman Catholics was the rapid spread of mechanical type printing. Because of Luther’s wish to translate the Bible into the German language, the printing and distributing of religious and nonreligious pieces of literacy grew popular. The writings about the religious conflicts made the public eager to read