Protestant Reformation Argumentative Essay

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The Protestant Reformation Argumentative Paper
The Protestant Reformation succeeded in changing the religious and social development throughout Europe in the six-tenth century. However, changing the religious and social developments was not Martin Luther’s main goal. His goal was to only reform the Catholic Church. Even though there are competing views, the Reformation succeeded because it changed the Catholic Church is run. The Reformation also led to the birth of new religions. Another reason the Protestant Reformation changed social developments was because it opened the doors for the lower class people.
The Protestant Reformation led to multiple changes within the Catholic Church. There is the argument that the Catholic Church didn’t …show more content…

One very important change within the Catholic Church was the abolishment of the selling of indulgences. Martin Luther believed that people did not have to pay the church to ask for the forgiveness of sins. He made his point very prominent in his ninety-five theses. Thesis number twenty-one examines this idea, “Therefore those preachers of indulgences are in error, who say that by the pope’s indulgences a man is freed from every penalty, and saved ;”( Luther). Even though the Catholic Church believed that the selling of indulgences was a just act, they lost many people to other religions, like Protestant. The Church got rid of the indulgences, hoping that they would be able to get more people back to the Catholic Church. (Robert). The Church then went on to say that God’s grace and forgiveness was the most important factor in salvation, but a human has …show more content…

Some people believe that the birth of new religions did not succeed because the disputes in the religions led to many wars over long periods of time. The most famous of this time was the Thirty Years’ War in Germany. Though this is true, the rise of new religions, also, gave people the opportunity to believe in something different. Some of the most important religions of this time, other than Catholicism, were Lutheranism, Anglican, and Calvinist. All of these religions branched off of the Protestant religion. These religions gave people a new way of thinking. The Catholic Church taught its followers that only Priest can interpret the Bible and teachings of the church, but the new religions told their followers that believers can interpret the Bible for themselves. The new religions also stated that the Bible is the only source of truth. Unlike the Lutheran, Anglican, and Calvinist religions the Catholic Church stated that the Bible and the Church traditions are both sources of truths. These and many other differences in teachings of religion made people question what they really believed in. Many people who had conformed to another religion would then begin to branch off from that religion and establish another new religion. These new religions absolutely changed religious as well as social development throughout Europe

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