Martin Luther And The Corruption Of The Roman Catholic Church

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In the early sixteenth century, Martin Luther highlighted some of the key problems that he and others found with Roman Catholic traditions and doctrine in his 95 Theses. This act brought to light some of the corruption in the Roman Catholic Church’s traditions and doctrine which the Protestants would soon attempt to correct. Such a correction would take a huge amount of effort and time, so the question arises: Why would the Protestants work so hard to create their own doctrine and tradition if in the end they remained believers of the same religion as before? But while followers of both the Roman Catholic and the Reformed doctrine are considered “Christians,” these doctrines differ drastically on essential details having to do with Scripture, man’s relationship with God, and the way that man receives his salvation. …show more content…

The Roman Catholic Church taught that they and they alone had the authority to read and interpret the Bible. This was so because going by their beliefs, if the common people attempted to understand Scripture for themselves, they would misinterpret it; only the church could be trusted with such a task as being spoken to by God. Furthermore, the common people were unable to participate in mass whatsoever, since church rituals were carried out in Latin. The Protestants found these traditions corrupt, on the grounds that they kept the people from having any sort of personal relationship with God. Reformed doctrine changed these habits of the church by printing vernacular copies of the Bible which were made available to the people, and also by making church services entirely in the language of the common people. This way, the people would begin to know God and build a relationship with him, which is the way Christianity is supposed to