Bubonic Plague: Causes Of The Catholic Reformation

The Causes of the Catholic Reformation Before the Reformation, there were plenty of events that were influential on the Reformation. One of these events was the Black Death or the Bubonic Plague, which shifted the economic and social status of the world. Another previous event was the creation of the printing press making information more available. The causes of the Reformation were caused by the economical issues caused by the ideologies of Martin Luther, the technological advancement of the printing press, and the political issues caused by the Bubonic Plague. Along with the causes of the Reformation, the impacts on Peasants, Germany, and the Roman Catholic Church are also important. A main cause of the Reformation was the writings and

Among these theses, Luther disliked one more than the rest, the sale of indulgences. Indulgences are the forgiveness of sins from God, and church officials would use these to exploit the working and peasants, to gain even more wealth. The people loved that Luther brought these issues up and protested the corrupt church, but the Roman Catholic Clergy and Pope Leo X thought that these theses were nonsense saying “some drunken German who will amend his ways when he sobers up.” (Spielvogel et al. 173). This quote reveals that the church needed the ideas and theses of Luther to stop as a way to maintain exploiting the poor for money. Luther believed that the church shouldn't be allowed to pardon the sins of people as people's faith should be the only way for them to make it into a desired afterlife. The people agreed with this idea and protested the church alongside Luther. The upside of the 95 theses caused the downfall of selling indulgences. The stopping of indulgences hit the pockets of the Roman Catholic Church, they did not like this so they needed to stop Luther one way or another. An article from History.com said that “Although he [luther] had hoped to spur renewal from within the church, in 1521 he was summoned before the

The printing press was invented around 1436, around the same time as the reformation, by Johannes Gutenberg. This invention and production of the printing press created a glut in the availability of information, giving the less fortunate people the ability to learn. The World History Encyclopedia said that “Gutenberg's press changed all of that by providing the means for mass production on a larger scale and distribution of reading material” (Mark). This strengthens the idea that the press was a huge step for the reformation, by demonstrating the ability to quickly and efficiently spread information with this new invention of the Printing Press. The printing press was created in Germany, making it around the same place as where Luther created the 95 theses. This shows significance to the Reformation because if Luther wasn't so close to the creator of the press he may not have been able to spread his ideas as quickly as he did. Some could say that the printing press wasn’t significant to the cause of the Reformation, because the information could have spread by word of mouth or other ways. This may be true but the ideas spread by the press could never have spread as far and fast as they did without the printing press. So, this important invention of the printing press by Gutenberg indicates that it was a cause of the Reformation. This is shown