Around the early 16th century B.C the roman catholic church was the most dominant form of
Christianity. The roman church owned around one-third of the land in Europe and therefore was immensely rich and powerful. The Pope claimed control of all the kings in Europe because he was thought to be the successor to the roman emperor. People who stood up against the church were usually executed to be made an example and deter others from challenging them. The catholic church was believed by everyone to be able to control people's souls and send them to heaven or hell, so they were very influential with the peasants. The church also had ways to make money off the public like paying for indulgences and pay to visit ancient relics and bones of apostles. Parish priests were also
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This meant that the commoners were unable to challenge the teachings of the priests and therefore accepted the idea of things like the sale of indulgences. People also did not believe it necessary to challenge the church because they provided lots of good works for the people like distributing money and food to the poor.
During this time Martin Luther who was born on November 10, 1483, in Eisleben, Saxony was sent by his father to study law at the german university of Erfurt. On July 2, 1505, Luther was caught in an enormous lightning storm. After being knocked to the ground by a nearby lightning strike Luther prayed to saint Anne claiming that if he were saved he would become a monk, Luther was afraid of
Gods justice and decided that by becoming a monk he would become closer to god and his sentence would be lesser. Luther lived and fulfilled his promise and became a monk at the Black
Monastery in Erfurt. Luther had been studying at the monastery for almost two years and still did not feel much closer to god. Luther at age 27 was given the opportunity to be a church delegate