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the spread and influence of the protestant reformation
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There are many types of protestant churches existing today including Baptist, one of the largest denominations in America. This was not always the case before the 16th. To understand how it all began, it is important to go back in history when the Roman Catholic Church was the only church in Western Europe. This paper will look at the history of the protestant reformation movement, its causes, and how it changed the church (Cameron, 2012).
During the 1500s, the Roman Catholic Church was very powerful in western Europe. The church controlled both spiritual and political matters, although there were a number of other political forces at work. Initially, the reformation began as an effort to reform the church by a number of priests who were not in agreement with what the felt were false doctrines as well as ecclesiastic malpractice. Reformers were particularly in opposition to the selling of indulgences in addition to the selling and purchasing of the clerical offices, which they perceived as corruption within the church.
Between the 1300s and 1400, the church was plagued by internal power struggles, and was ruled by 3 popes at the same time. Popes, who claimed temporal and spiritual powers would command armies, make political alliances and even wage war.
With the corruption and power struggles, the church did little for the people, which resulted in a number of attempts to reform the Roman Catholic Church by a number of individuals who included John Wyclif as well as Jan Hus among others. However, it was not until martin Luther, a German Augustinian monk, posted 95 theses on the door of the church in the university town of Wittenberg that the movement began gaining adherents in Scandinavia, Scotland, German states as well as some...
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...astated Germany and many lives were lost.
On the positive side, the reformation had a lot of influence on the personal life of many, and resulted in the formation of the protestant churches of today.
Works Cited
Brake, mary jo; weaver, david (2009). Introduction to christianity (4th ed.). Belmont, calif.: wadsworth. Pp. 92–93. Isbn 978-0-495-09726-6.
Cameron, euan (2012). The european reformation (2nd ed.). Oxford university press.
Simon, edith (1966). Great ages of man: the reformation. Time-life books. Pp. 120–121. Isbn 0-662-27820-8., popular and well-illustrated
Spalding, martin (2010). The history of the protestant reformation; in germany and switzerland, and in england, ireland, scotland, the netherlands, france, and northern europe. General books llc.
Bradshaw, brendan. "the reformation and the counter-reformation," history today (1983) 33#11 pp 42–45.
Because of all of these issues, the German monk Martin Luther criticized the church and its nepotism and corruption. His first objection was to Johann Tetzel von Wittenberg, who was offering the sale of indulgences to help rebuild St. Peter Cathedral in Rome, so he pos...
Roper, H. R.. The crisis of the seventeenth century; religion, the Reformation, and social change. [1st U.S. ed. New York: Harper & Row, 19681967. Print.
The Protestant Reformation was a period of time (1500-1700) where there became a change in Western Christendom. This reformation was caused by the resentment from the people because the Catholic Church abusing their powers for political and economic advances. In this time the church was selling pardons for sin and indulgences to forgive sins, decrease days spent in purgatory and save the dead from damnation. The reformation was when people became more aware with the back hand dealings with the church and men like Martin Luther and John Calvin created their own churches to what they believed was not corrupt unlike the church. Unfortunately there many consequences as far at the Roman Catholic church attempting to bring people back to the church,
The Reformation was the 16th-century religious, political, intellectual and cultural upheaval that splintered Catholic Europe, setting in place the structures and beliefs that would define the continent in the modern era. It was important because it divided the continent between catholics and protestants. New ideas were introduced and was the subject of tension between catholics and protestant for the next centuries. On Oct. 31, 1517, Martin Luther posted on the door of the castle church at Wittenberg his 95 theses, inviting debate on matters of practice and doctrine. Luther's action was not as yet a revolt against the church but a movement for reform within. It was, however, much more than an objection to the money-grabbing and secular policies of the
Reformers within the medieval church such as St. Francis of Assisi, Valdes (founder of the Waldensians), Jan Hus, and John Wycliffe addressed aspects in the life of the church in the centuries before 1517. In the 16th century Erasmus of Rotterdam, a great humanist scholar, was the chief proponent of liberal Catholic reform that attacked popular superstitions in the church and urged the imitation of Christ as the supreme moral teacher. These figures reveal an ongoing concern for renewal within the church in the years before Luther is said to have posted his Ninety-five Theses on the door of the Castle Church, Wittenberg, Germany, on October 31, 1517, the eve of All Saints’ Day—the traditional date for the beginning of the
The Protestant Reformation began in the early 16th century, and was a religious, political, and cultural movement to expose the corruption of the Catholic Church. It all began in Germany with Martin Luther and his 95 Theses. Luther didn’t like some of the things that the Catholic Church were doing such as selling indulgences, and being the middlemen between God and the people. Therefore, Luther posted his 95 Theses, which were tweaks to the way the church operated. Luther never wanted or expected it to become a major religious revolution against the church, rather he simply wanted the church to make the changes. Regardless of Luther’s intentions, the Protestant Reformation had significant short-term and long-term causes and consequences for western civilization.
While numerous theological issues had been brewing for some time, the Reformation was officially began in 1517 by a man named Martin Luther. Martin Luther was a professor of biblical theology who had several issues with the Catholic Church. His complaints or disputes with the Catholic Church are known as his 95 Theses. In his 95 Theses, Martin Luther argued that God offers salvation through faith alone and that religious authority comes from the Bible alone which posed a challenge to the authority of the Catholic Church. After sparking the Reformation, Martin Luther made it his goal to incorporate the church congregation in the praise and worship part of church service. A detrimental and vital aspect of Christianity, Martin Luther believed this needed to be done. Along with his followers, Martin Luther made continuous...
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
Protestantism, a new religion separated from the Catholic Church, spread around Europe. Sovereign could increase power because of Protestants. Protestantism was helpful for the government to separate from the Catholic since Protestant leaders taught people to obey godly rulers while Catholic Church believed that the religion is more powerful than government. In Germany, Luther’s Bible words became the linguistic standard for all separated regions. In England, reformation fostered a sense of nationalism. In the Catholic Church, Counter Reformers changed the system dramatically, but it had less finance than before, less power than the government, and lost millions of worshipers to Protestantism. Both Protestantism and Catholicism influenced not only Europe but also across the new world and Asia.
Martin Luther is often noted as the most prolific of the Protestant reformist. . “Luther was also not a Church reformer in the strict sense of the term. He did not set out to attack monasticism or abuses in the life of the Church (Steinmetz 1979).” However, what became known as the Lutheran movement, sparked the protestant reformation. Also, his conviction of unethical practices of the Catholic Church is a renowned act of study across all discipli...
Greengrass, Mark. The Longman Companion to The European Reformation, C. 1500-1618. London: Longman, 1998. Print.
The protestant reformation of 16th century had both: immediate and long term effects. Thus, we can see that it was a revolution of understanding the essence of religion, and of what God is. The protestant reformation is said to a religious movement. However, it also influenced the economical, political and social life of people. The most global, short term effect of the reformation was the reevaluation of beliefs, and, as a result, the loss of authority of the Holy Roman Empire. The long term effects were: the emergence of new heretical movements, the declining of papacy, thus the reevaluation of people’s view on the church and life values.
The Reformation was a decisive period in the history not only for the Catholic Church, but also for the entire world. The causes of this tumultuous point in history did not burst on the scene all at once, but slowly gained momentum like a boil that slowly festers through time before it finally bursts open. The Reformation of the Church was inevitable because of the abuses which the Church was suffering during this period. At the time of the Reformation, a segment of the Church had drifted away from its mission to bring Christ and salvation to the world. Throughout the Middle Ages, the Church had gradually become weaker because of abusive leadership, philosophical heresy, and a renewal of a form of the Pelagian heresy.
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.
Klauber, Martin I. "Reformation on the Run." Christian History Vol.20. Aug. 1, 2001: pg 21.