Martin Luther: The Most Influential Person

A widely debated question in all of history is who is most influential person. Well, this can be broken up into two parts, who is the most influential of their time and who is the most impactful on modern day. Four big time periods with important people in each were the Renaissance, Reformation, the Scientific Revolution, and the Enlightenment. The Renaissance was a time of “rebirth” for how everything was ran. An example of this was the printing press, this revolutionized how books were made and made getting ahold of books easier. The Reformation was a time of “rebellion” against the Catholic Church. It started with Martin Luther created his Ninety Five Thesis and eventually led to the Catholic Church not having as much power over the government

This is because Martin Luther did a lot. Martin Luther was born in 1483 and he became a monk but then he did not like the way the Catholic Church was ran so he decided to speak against the Catholic Church. Luther created the Ninety Five Thesis. This was just simply Ninety Five things Luther thought was wrong with the Catholic Church and he posted it on the doors of the Wittenberg church. This Ninety Five Thesis was an important part to start the reformation because the Ninety Five Thesis educated the majority of people who were able to read it about what the church did wrong and what he thought should be fixed. This started a “revolution” purly against the Catholic Church so that they would change the way they were ran, and they did change. If it was not for Luther’s Ninety Five Thesis, the Catholic Church would have stayed the rulers and it would have not let other people come in during the Scientific Revolution and make discoveries. Luther made people feel better about disagreeing with the church and he caused people to be able to live more of an independent life. He was the match and by making the Ninety Five Thesis, he started the fire, which caused a domino effect and led to the church being brought down it’s

Voltaire was born in 1694 and he went to prison in 1777 for mocking the French regent’s name. Voltaire was a big believer in freedom of speech, so that is what he fought over. “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” Was a famous line associated with Voltaire because Voltaire wanted people to have freedom of speech. This led to more modern times where in 1791 the first amendment was passed. The first amendment is simply freedom of speech, inspired from Voltaire. Even today, the first amendment is quoted for many cases such as court trials, so if it was not for Voltaire, people nowaday would not be as free in America as we currently