Why Did The Reformation Fail

The Reformation, a schism that took place around the start of the 14th century, occurred due to people being fed up with the Catholic Church’s misuse and exploitation of power. The Church had run into this power through issues that occurred centuries earlier. Following a major disagreement between Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV and Pope Gregory VII over who had the right to appoint clergymen in the year 1075, the church and the state fell into a great power struggle. The conflict, which had tarnished the relationship between the two, was finally resolved in 1122 by Pope Calistus II and Henry V. This resolution was sealed between the church and the state by a peace agreement called the Concordat of Worms. Ultimately, however, the Concordat of Worms failed to fix the outstanding issues between the two parties. In fact, it actually brought more theoretical power to the church. As a result, the Church attempted to restructure their control of

the clergy in Europe beginning in the 13th century.
Unfortunately for the Catholic Church, many individuals despised their misuse and obstruction of power. Led by Martin Luther, the people of Europe rose together to form a schism in order to reform the Catholic Church. Most of the people that participated in the Reformation were priests that were aware of falsified doctrines set by the Catholic Church. Starting off with just a few accusations regarding the doctrine of the merits of saints, the group grew considerably and size and later targeted more practices. They also pointed out corruption with the Church’s ranks. This caused severe amounts of religious friction between members of the Catholic Church.
A mixture of events and revelations that had occurred in the previous centuries ultimately caused the reformation. Many credit the Renaissance era, which brought an abundance of new ideas to the world, as the main inspiration of the Reformation. During that time, many scientific discoveries that were made falsified sections of the Bible; this is said to have eroded the public’s faith in and overall opinion of the Catholic Church. It is also widely believed that previous schisms and the rise of theology, the rational study of the concepts of religion, also helped start the Reformation in Europe.
Politically, the Reformation damaged the structure of the papacy. The devastation of the Black Plague, which killed millions of people during recurring waves, caused many priests to die due to being required to perform funerals and last rites after the declaration of a worldwide indulgence by the Pope. This caused the Catholic Church to hire under-educated personnel to serve as replacement priests. This damaged the Church’s standing with the surviving public. The 1338 Italian Invasion was also damaging to the political standing of the Church.
In terms of economics, the Church stayed quite powerful, despite pleads from many Reformation participants. This was a result of the Catholic Church’s strong sales of indulgences. These “indulgences”, which were sold to people dying of the Bubonic Plague, were popular sellers for being marketed as tickets to heaven. The revenue that was collected following the sales of these indulgences continued to fund the Church’s activities. Ultimately however, they would also contribute to the Catholic Church’s political, religious and cultural downfalls.
In a majority of Europe, the Reformation led to the openings of new churches that were customized in terms of belief and practice, all of which were created using the idea of theology.

The Reformation spread quickly throughout the whole of Europe, leaving a predominant impact in central Europe, Switzerland, and Scandinavia in particular. In Germany, the Anabaptists established strong arguments against baptism upon birth, citing that it was un-comprehensible to children and thus wasn’t appropriate. Switzerland was the home of a wide variety of Reformation groups, the most notable of which were run by French attorney John Calvin and Swiss scholar and preacher Huldrych Zwingli. The former’s main belief was that everyone’s life was already pre-determined and that nothing could change the course of your life. The latter believed that mass wasn’t the actual consecration of the body of Jesus. Although the groups that inhabited Switzerland were proud of their establishments, they often disagreed with one another and had very different

views.
Meanwhile, the Reformation that occurred in England was atypical. Instead of being run by a preacher or former Catholic priest, the King of England himself (King Henry VIII) established his own church (the Church of England). This decision to create a new church came after the Pope and the Archbishop of Canterbury prevented Henry VIII from getting divorced (or even annulled) from his first wife, Katherine of Aragon (who had failed to conceive a male heir). As a result, Henry resulted to start a Reformation movement that would allow him to divorce his wife and marry his mistress Anne Boleyn. This move was considered odd mainly because of the strong relationship that the Catholic Church had formed with King Henry VIII in the earlier days of his reign.