The Catholic Church and Reformation

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In 16th century Europe the Catholic Church had become extremely powerful, and with this power came corruption. Two men stood to change the direction of Europe forever. The first Martin Luther was the decided leader of the Protestant Reformation and St Ignatius de Loyola was the leader of the Counter Reformation. These men did not know the impact they were to have on the Europe and the world, but in this essay I will explain who these men are and their impacts on the world as we know it.
Martin Luther was born in 1483. He was born a Catholic as that was the religion of the time. Marin Luther’s life was predetermined to become a lawyer, but instead he chose the path of becoming a monk. He toiled over questions and his relationship with God. It was thought that a person had to build up enough “good deeds” in order to be saved and to enter heaven. The church had a practice of “selling indulgences” which meant that the church was selling from the overabundance of good deeds that the saints had themselves accumulated. The church sold access to this bank of good deeds to the people, and led them to believe they were buying their access into heaven. These indulgences could be purchased for your past and future sins. The selling of indulgences, to Martin Luther, exposed the churches’ corruption. Martin Luther began to debate the choices the church was making and began to question the limits of papal authority. Martin Luther was banished from the Roman Catholic Church. Martin Luther then wrote Against Catholicism in 1535. Martin Luther begins this text by explaining his disagreement between the pope and himself. He wrote this to explain his debate on why the papacy has lost their way and to explain what he believed the r...

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... Reformation and was lead by Martin Luther, who initially just wrote a theses which he exposed some of the Church’s corruption. Martin Luther’s writing, Against Catholicism was a great catalyst for the Reformation, and a complete change of Europe, which is still evident today in our economic methods and the followings of the Protestant faith. The Counter Reformation was lead by St. Ignatius who headed the Jesuit order of Catholicism. St. Ignatius was trying to restore the Catholic faith and to lead the Catholic people and church back on the right path. These writings were so consequential and very bold for their time, with Martin Luther blatantly exposing the corruption of the Catholic Church, and St. Ignatius creating a new Catholic sect in order to curb the Church back to the righteous path. These two men, with their writings changed the course of history.

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