How Did Martin Luther Impact The Renaissance

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Martin Luther played an important role in The Renaissance causing people to question and turn away from the church. Martin Luther was born on 1453 in Germany. He was a strong follower of Catholicism. In 1505 he quit law school to become a monk. A few years later in 1511, he received his doctorate from the University of Wittenberg and began teaching many aspects of the Bible. The more he taught, the more he started focusing on salvation. He believed in achieving salvation by having faith in God and by asking God for forgiveness. This was called sola fides. However he did not believe in buying indulgences from the church to relieve all of your sins. After further lecturing, Martin Luther began questioning the power of the church. There were …show more content…

According to popular legend, on October 31, 1517 (the eve of All Saints' Day; now called Halloween), Luther defiantly nailed a document titled "Ninety-Five Theses or Disputation on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences" to the door of the church at the University of Wittenberg.” (Martin Luther, 1997 by Mark A. Noll) This impacted the church greatly. To retaliate, the church excommunicated Martin Luther in 1520. When he received the document he burned it in front of many showing that he did not need the church to achieve salvation. Soon after he was called upon the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V. He wanted Luther to step down but he declined so the Emperor arrested him, but a friend of Luther kidnapped him and let him stay at his castle for 11 months. During his time there Luther translated the Bible into German so he could appeal to a larger group. Little did Luther know his ideas would soon start one of the biggest splits between the church in the history of Europe. This was known as the Protestant Reformation. This caused people to either split between Protestants and Catholics or question the church and turn to science and medication which is part of what the Renaissance is