The beginning of the split between the Roman at Catholic Church was sparked in the first quarter of the sixteenth century (Burrell, 105). The loss of credibility and split of the Roman Catholic Church is more popularly identified as the Protestant Reformation. The Protestant Reformation was set in motion by many factors. The most fundamental components of the Protestant Reformation were Martin Luther and the printing press. The result of Martin Luther’s actions and the utilization of the printing press left the Roman Catholic Church with no choice but to respond to the out break of new ideas. Martin Luther is regarded as the founder of the Protestant Reformation (Martin Luther’s Ninety-Five Theses). Luther entered the monastery in 1505 on …show more content…
Luther’s time in the monastery was spent trying to win God’s favor and forgiveness for his sins. Luther often self mutilated himself in his desperate attempts for forgiveness (Martin Luther’s Ninety-Five Theses). Eventually, throughout his study and personal practice Luther concluded that God forgave those who asked and worked for it (Martin Luther’s Ninety-Five Theses). Luther’s insights and study of God allowed him to think critically about the practices of the Roman Catholic Church. It was at this time that Luther started to criticize the Church’s actions. In 1517 the Roman Catholic Church started the sale of Indulgences. An indulgence was a “ticket to heaven” sold by the Catholic Church. The Church was in search of funds to continue the construction of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome (Gritsch 9), and used the profits made from the indulgences to aid the building (Gritsch 9). The sale of these “easy routes to salvation” (Tingle 16) contradicted Luther’s deeply rooted belief, that individuals needed to secure the remission of God through repentance on their own by studying the Bible. The use of the indulgences enraged Luther. The profit form the indulgences were …show more content…
Before the use of the printing press the clergy was responsible for the production and spread of literature. Prior to the utilization of the printing press there were very few books available. This was due to slow manufacturing rates, and text that was accessible was in Latin and the cost was high (Howard 47). The high price and lack of available text in the vernacular of the lay people made them completely reliant on the church. The printing press allowed new texts to be printed and shared quickly without the permission of the Church. The church’s loss of control over what was published allowed for rapid spread of new ideas. Common people were no longer reliant on the Church to provide the message of God that they lived by. The contents of the Bible was no longer only available for a specialized priest class, but all individuals (Howard 47). Therefore, common people no longer needed the Catholic Church. The new ideas made possible by the printing press challenged the Roman Catholic Church promoting the Protestant
All of Europe used to be united under one religion, Catholicism. Europe started inching away from Catholicism during the 13th - 15th centuries. The church leaders started to only think about money and the power they held, instead of the real reason they were supposed to be there, God. This caused an uprising of people who no longer wanted to be a part of the Catholic church, nicknamed Protestants because they protested the ways of the catholic church. The Protestant Reformation was caused by corruption in the church, Martin Luther and John Calvin’s ideas, and the clergy and their preachings.
The Reformation was full of war and inventions that many had never seen before, affecting the religious and social political systems in positive and negative ways. The first event in the Reformation was the Printing Press. The Printing Press enabled the circulation of the bible, starting the spread of Christianity and the Catholics. The Printing Press was created by Johannes Gutenberg in 1450. Before the Printing Press the bible had to be printed by hand, which meant that the copies had to be written word for word. Because they had to be written word for word only the important people had them such as Popes and other religious leaders. Therefore everyone would gather together somewhere and listen to the one man with the bible preach the word. This limited some from learning the word because of the language barrier. At the time all the bibles printed where in the Latin language. So they had a translator and copies of the bible in many other languages. Technological advantages of the 15th century enabled the spread of the word all over Europe, serving as a catalyst for reform leaders of the 16th century.
Having a religion change, many times, takes a toll on those who follow. This would include the hardships of the Protestant Reformation and the Catholic Reformation. Religious tensions were spreading throughout Europe, starting from the Protestant Reformation. Some of those who followed the Catholic church began to question how much was true and how many lies they were told to believe in. Many important Leaders of the Reformation stated their opinions about that Catholic church. These opinions would then be evaluated in the Catholic Reformation, The Council of Trent. Beliefs would be revised and practices would be evaluated. The core beliefs would still be Catholic, thus still different from a protestant beliefs. This led to officials of states
After entering monastery he sought to be acceptable to God but as it may be for anyone, it was hard because what he saw in himself was sin. After reading from St. Paul, St. Augustine, and the gospels, he discovered that God was filled with mercy and compassion. Luther was exceptionally upset because the Church, at the time, was engaged in the practice of indulgences. This practice was very prevalent and frequent in the Church. Martin Luther ignited many people who believed that the Church had fallen away from the teachings of Jesus and the original meanings. They also believed that the Church was overly obsessed with money. With these beliefs, it compelled Luther to take action. In 1517, on the eve of All Saint's Day, Luther posted up on the doors of Wittenberg Cathedral, ninety-five problems with the Church. They are more popularly known as the Ninety-five
The indulgence was offensive to Luther since it was misleading people into the thought that they didn’t need to confess their sins to god. Luther wrote 95 theses in Latin and posted them on the chapel door which refuted the selling of indulgences. The church was trying to silence Luther, but Luther became more convinced of himself against the church. Also, Luther produced many pamphlets against the church and hierarchy by printing press in 1520. As a result, Pope banished Luther from the
with his 95 Theses. A strict father who most likely did not accept “no” as an
Martin Luther was not fond of the practices the Roman Catholic church of indulgences. Indulgences are a practice where worshippers would pay their priest which granted remission for their sins (“Indulgences."). This practice became increasingly corrupt. In the 95 Theses, Luther, became prominent in the Protestant Reformation due to its humble and academic tone (A&E Television Networks, LLC.). For example, in the second theses he states, “The word cannot be properly understood as referring to the sacrament of penance, i.e. confession and satisfaction, as administered by the clergy.” This means that only god can give salvation, not a priest. He is questioning why we must pay to re...
“Out of love for the truth and the desire to bring it to light, the following propositions will be discussed at Wittenberg… [Works, 29]” wrote Martin Luther, a 16th century theologian and philosopher. The Roman-Catholic church was corrupt as ever, it seemed their power stretched beyond religion, and into politics and even economy. Pope Julius was responsible for funding the construction of the St. Peters Basilica, he did so by selling, and signing, indulgences. Martin Luther, exasperated by the actions of Roman Catholics, would start a war with the church. Luther would start by publishing his 95 theses to the Castle Church in Wattenberg on October 31st, 1517 [Khan, “Ren-“]. The printing press would allow Luther’s words to spread throughout Germany, and much of Western Europe, from this a new age of ideals would be born; as would many variations of Christianity.
The periods during the Reformation, Industrial Revolution, and the World at War all experienced religious and church conflicts. During the Renaissance and Reformation (1330 – 1650), the fundamental practices of the church came under fire. The church at this time was the largest and most political body. The pope, himself, was the most recognizable political figure. It was due to this authority that the church and its pope were more interested in political issues and less with the spiritual needs of the people (McGraw-Hill, p. 76). Many of the Roman Catholic Church’s high priests had bought their way into position and had very little religious experience. Often the only members of the community that were literate were the clergy thus adding to their control of the common people.
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.
This corruption took the forms of actions by the Catholic Church such as: the selling of Indulgences for money as a means of attaining salvation, the buying/selling of Church relics (Simony), and the placement of poorly trained people in positions because they knew employers (Nepotism). Luther had also come to believe that the Catholic Church was wrong in their ideas and beliefs. In 1517, Luther posted his 95 theses which expressed his beliefs and thoughts on the corruption of the church, demanding the Catholic Church to reform. He wrote about “sola gratia” as the justification of sinful humankind “by grace… (as) the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8). He expressed his thoughts on “salvation through faith in Christ” (2 Timothy 3:14-4:2) as “sola fide”, opposed to the catholic belief of salvation through faith and good
The Protestant Reformation: What it was, why it happened and why it was necessary. The Protestant Reformation has been called "the most momentous upheaval in the history of Christianity." It was a parting of the ways for two large groups of Christians who differed in their approach to the worship of Christ. At the time, the Protestant reformers saw the church- the Catholic church, or the "universal church- " as lacking in its ways. The church was corrupt then, all the way up to the pope, and had lost touch with the people of Europe. The leaders of the Reformation sought to reform the church and its teachings according to the Scriptures and the writings of the Apostles. They sought to simplify the church by returning to its roots, roots long lost by the Catholic church at the time, or so the reformers believed. After the fall of the Roman Empire, life in Europe declined rapidly into the Dark Ages. The Dark Ages were a time of misery and darkness. There were only two socioeconomic classes: the very rich nobility or the very poor peasants. Small kingdoms popped up everywhere, and were constantly at war with one another. Whole libraries were destroyed, and the only people who remained literate were the clergy of the Christian church. Life became such a struggle to survive that, for a period of five hundred years, very little artwork or literature was produced by the whole of Europe. Eventually, around the year 1000, the conditions in Europe began to get better. This marked the beginning of the Middle Ages. The Crusades began as an effort to revitalize the spirits of the people. However, things still weren't very good. Plagues ravaged the land, carried by rodents and destroying whole villages. With th...
The Protestant Reformation, also known as the Reformation, was the 16th-century religious, governmental, scholarly and cultural upheaval that disintegrated Catholic Europe, setting in place the structures and beliefs that would define the continent in the modern era (Staff, 2009). The Catholic Church begun to dominate local law and practice almost everywhere starting in the late fourteenth century. The Catholic Church held a tight hold on the daily lives of the people invading just about every part of it. Some people of this time would decide to stand up to the church and attempt to change the way it operated and make it release some of its control. These people who spoke out against the church came to be known as Protestants. The Protestants
During Luther’s early life he faced a severe inner crisis. When he sinned he looked for comfort in confession and followed the penance, the fasting, prayer and observances that the church directed him. But, he found no peace of mind and worried about his salvation. But reading St. Paul’s letters he came to believe that salvation came though faith in Christ. Faith is a free gift, he discovered, it cannot be earned. His studies led him to a conclusion that, “Christ was the only mediator between God and a man and that forgiveness of sin and salvation are given by god’s grace alone” (Martin Luther, 01). Historians agree that, “this approach to theology led to a clash between Luther and the Church officials, precipitating the dramatic events of Reformation”.
In 1517, when reformist Martin Luther wrote an indictment of the abuses of the Roman Catholic Church called the 95 Theses, he appealed to many people across Europe. In his indictment he greatly criticized and addressed the selling of indulgences above all. At first, a person would have to do “work of satisfaction” like fasting, prayer, almsgiving, retreats and pilgrimages in return for an indulgence. But when the empire was in need of money to fight off the Ottoman Empire and rebuild St. Peter’s in Rome, the pope allowed indulgences to be sold for money where he would receive half the proceeds and the other half would go to funding. This is when Luther was even more angered by the selling of indulgences since he already believed that salvation could not be obtained by man’s own effort, but more the fact that man would be saved only if God willed it. It was that event that prompted the German monk to post his ideas and beliefs as the 95 Theses and address the abuse of selling indulgences in it.