Protestant Reformation Dbq Essay

I. The Protestant Reformation in Europe was a reform movement that occurred during the sixteenth century which divided the Western Christian church into Catholic and Protestant groups. Although the Reformation occurred in the sixteenth century earlier events of the late fourteenth and fifteenth century created the environment for the Reformation to occur. The Reformation was started by Martin Luther, who was a monk and professor who lectured the Bible (Duiker, World History, 421). There were four major factors that lead to The Protestant Reformation in Europe: The Great Schism which caused discontent among people and damaged Christian faith (Duiker, World History, 377), The Renaissance that opened up new growing opportunities for the lower

During this period the Renaissance Popes failed to fulfill the churches spiritual needs, and they were often involved in worldly concerns such as Pope Julius II who was a “warrior pope” leading armies into battle. Christians were disgusted, they viewed the Pope as their spiritual leader, someone to lead them spiritually not into battle with the enemy. The church failed as many of the church officials were ignorant of their spiritual duties and more concerned with accumulating more wealth, and the use of their position within the church offices to their advantage to further advance their careers and fortunes. (Duiker, World History, 421) While the spiritual leaders of the church were failing their responsibilities many of the people were looking for some sort of meaningful religious expression and most importantly salvation after death. Many of these people sought salvation through the veneration of relics (bones and objects associated with saints), many of these relics were attached to indulgences, which was a form veneration. Indulgences were said to reduce a person’s time in purgatory after death from punishment due to sin by nearly two million years. Johann Tetzel was a monk who was great selling of indulgences with the slogan “As soon as the coin in the coffer rings, the soul from purgatory springs” meaning that as soon as someone pays, and the coin is in the money box the person or their loved ones would be saved from purgatory. This led to a lowly monk named Martin Luther who lectured the Bible to take action on behalf of the people, he was very upset with the selling of indulgences because he believed salvation was not obtained through good works but by grace and faith alone, (Justification by faith). This became the main doctrine for the Protestant Reformation. Deeply angered Martin Luther wrote indictments of the abuses