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The cause and impact of reformation
The causes and effects of church reformation
Cause of reformation: social
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The parish priests were very close to their parishioners and they had much influence over the population. In addition to their religious duties they were also responsible for keeping records of births, marriages and deaths. And also drawing up legal contracts in regions where there were no notaries. Kind of like a lawyer in the modern world.
This corruption led to people losing faith and believing the church was unimportant, resulting in the Reformation. Both these diseases led caused very important movements to be put into action.
The Reformation was a time in Europe in the 1500s in which people questioned the beliefs of the Catholic Church. There were many changes made by the catholic church. The people that were responsible were Martin Luther, John Calvin and King Henry VIII. The Protestant Reformation of 16th century Europe was primarily the result of three men and their disagreements with the Catholic Church; Martin Luther, John Calvin, and King Henry VIII forever changed the religious landscape of Europe.
The public criticism also started the Protestant Reformation. It was written in Latin so only the church leaders could read it. It criticized the power of the pope and the wealth of the Church. What really sent red flags in the air for the Catholic priests were when Martin Luther said that indulgences had no power to get rid of sin and get people less time in purgatory. Martin Luther also kind of scared people by saying “selling indulgences was sinful”.
In the 1500s, the Catholic Church headed by the pope with its central institution located in Rome was very powerful and one of the wealthiest church in Europe. It united most of the people across Europe and had a major political role in every decision making that concerns the state. But, as the church gained more power and wealth, its hierarchy of top officials also became corrupt and greedy. Eventually, people started to get angry and frustrated over its corruption and started a religious rebellion against the church. The conflict among the people and the church began to escalate therefore causing a ripple effect throughout the world.
These stopped the tyrants of the church in their tracks and paved a new route for the Protestant Reformation to begin. He had become the savior of religion. He helped hundreds if not thousands of people find God without having to pay a toll. People could now fix their fate and create their own through the bible, and not through a man who claimed to be God himself. He was the hero to religion itself, and this is how he was meant to be remembered.
The principle causes of the Reformation were the collapse of the church’s bureaucracy and the widespread criticism of the church’s practices, specifically the sale of indulgences. During the Middle Ages and Renaissance, the church became increasingly more bureaucratic, including the creation of papal courts, legislation, and organization of power, however as the internal church structure was beginning to break down, many of the hypocrisies and problems of the church were exposed. The issues started with complaints about Bishops and clergy members. Due to the long entrenched benefice system, clergy positions were sold to highest bidder, leading to spiritually ill equipped and corrupt clergy members. Moreover, many of the clergy didn’t live in
This also caused literacy rates to go up. People misinterpreted Martin Luther’s writings and believed freedom of religion meant freedom from their feudal lords. All this led to the start of the Protestant Reformation. The Church is split into two. One side was the Roman Catholics, and the other side was the Protestants.
Reformation created the protestant and reformed churches. Doing the 16th century were a lot of riots. These riots were mostly roman catholics and other people who wanted their religion. In this time a the age they were going through
The spark that ignited the Reformation was the propositions Luther posted. Luther attacked the papal authority. The papal had the wrong motives and only for their gain.
With these new missionaries traveling across the world, they were able to convert many people to Catholicism, and gain back the followers the church had lost during the Protestant-Reformation in Europe.
Intense criticism of the Catholic Church, and in particular of the Pope, resulted in a swell of reformist thought. The religious aspects of the Reformation were accompanied by ambitious political leaders who sought to manipulate the Reformation as a means through which to expand their power and influence. Arguably, the Reformation was initiated by Martin Luther’s ninety-five theses on a church door in Wittenberg, Germany, in the year 1517. These theses were highly controversial in their nature due to the questioning of Roman Catholic doctrine as well as a number of practices that had been followed by the church for centuries.
By the end of the Middle Ages, the church was sorely in need of reform. The papacy was corrupt and church leaders were more dedicated to living luxurious, powerful lives than to preaching the gospel of the Lord. Change eventually came about through courageous people, “shining lights,” as Stiansen puts it, who were unafraid of being ridiculed and even martyred for their convictions. Pre-Reformers like John Wycliffe and Jan Hus prepared the way for the Reformation through their writings, lifestyles, and deaths.
New ideas about religion, politics, and culture, swept across Europe in the sixteenth century. The cultural norm began changing in ways that have affected even modern day society. People began questioning powers, especially in church. A major part of the Reformation was the call to purify the church. Many important and notable people drove this cause, and they acted as reformers.
Main Causes of the Reformation There are many reasons why the Reformation occurred and what the main causes were. Many priests were illiterate and did not teach the same values to people that were contained in the Bible. Indulgences were widely disputed because some religious figures deemed them arbitrary and to others it seemed ridiculous that you could pay money and be absolved of sin. Additionally, many people became more skeptical of the church after several popes turned out to be incorrect on matters of faith.
