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Roland H. Bainton's Report

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Christopher Hilber Milligan European History 19 August 2024 Martin Luther 1517 marked the beginning of one of the most paramount occurrences in human history; a transition from the public supporting a single, unified Church under the pope to the beginning of a dissemination of the idea that the pope is not supreme. The leader of this movement was Martin Luther, and with the publication of his ninety-five theses, he became the spokesman for the Protestant Revolt. Roland H. Bainton’s biography, Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther, uncovers Luther’s motives for reforming the Catholic Church. Bainton, writing in chronological order, begins with Luther’s early life. While a young Luther was traveling, a lightning bolt struck near him, throwing him into a panic shouting, “Help! Saint Anne, I will become a monk!”, and so he did (Bainton 5). Through his studies in the monastery, Luther was able to study not only the Bible, but theology and philosophy as well. It appears that Luthers’ largest struggles in these aspects were trying to make sense of salvation. At one point, …show more content…

He figured that only the sacraments of Baptism and Eucharist were valid because they were “directly instituted by Christ” (Bainton 129). The other sacraments, such as Marriage, Reconciliation, Confirmation, etc., because they were instituted by the Church and not Christ, only proved Luther’s point that the Church was of man and not Holy. Luther continued on to make a rather bold claim, saying, “all believers are priests” (Bainton 133). The Church believes that only priests can transubstantiate bread into Body, and by making this claim Luther expresses how it is only by the faith of the recipient that this truly occurs; the goal of this claim is to completely discount the validity of the sacrament of Holy Orders while accepting the validity of the Eucharist, which was instituted by

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His major objection about his church are the indulgences because he knew that they were false. “Indulgences were payments to the Roman Catholic Church in return for pardons for one’s sins and grants of salvation in the afterlife.” Martin Luther stated that he didn’t approve of indulgences because they were false as well as expensive, so he didn’t want people to buy meaningless pieces of papers. Luther believed that getting rid of your sins with paper was not the right thing to be doing and that the church had been receiving money for lying. He said that the people who buy these indulgences will be “eternally damned” with those who taught them.

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Throughout the centuries The Roman Catholic Church has come under attack by staunch opponents of its teachings and practices. Martin Luther a German theology professor and monk was one such opponent. Martin Luther forever changed religious history by writing and publishing the Ninety-Five Theses. Three core topics of the Ninety-Five Theses were selling indulgences to finance the building of Saint Peter’s Basilica was wrong, the salvation is through faith and God’s grace, and finally purchasing indulgences gives people a false sense of security. Of all the abuses of the Roman Catholic Church most offensive to Martin Luther was the selling of indulgences.

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How did the Protestant Reformation shape society in 16th century Western Europe? When looking back at the Protestant Reformation, what caused society to struggle in 16th century Western Europe? The Protestent Reformation changed how people saw religion from the words of the Pope and Council, but also showed how the printing press spread the word of the Bible. The lower levels of hierarchy and the towns outside reach of the Bible were given the word of God and this shaped what is now known as Christianity. From the words of Martin Luther, a German priest, the Pope and Council altered God’s words, but how did this cycle back into the hardships the people faced in these times? Martin Luther, a German priest, author, and professor, brought up a valuable question.

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Luther didn’t believe that the Catholic Church was teaching people about their religion in the correct way. He thought that they were hiding parts of the religion from them, and he wanted to make it clear to the people of what they were to be learning and practicing. In wanting to do this, Luther wrote The Small Catechism. The Small Catechism is a document that highlights the Ten Commandments, the Apostle’s Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, the sacraments, and the daily prayers of the people. He directly writes what each of these texts is, and then he describes exactly what each of them means.

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In the sixteenth century of Europe, religious reform and changes led people away from the Catholic Church. From Martin Luther’s exposition of the church’s corruption to King Henry VIII’s Act of Supremacy, these two religious figures broke away from the Catholic Church in favor of alternative religions. Their lives were heavily involved in their personal and political motives to change the church’s religious practices and beliefs. In the German states, Martin Luther realized that the priests were often unqualified, immoral, and corrupted.

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Jeramie Jones Dr. Hermann History 101 Right before the 16th century, there were huge changes in the way people started to think. One major movement that influenced this was the wave of humanist thought, which understood the importance of the study of classical text to emphasize a larger value of the individual, to which the Protestant Reformation owed a lot to. This basis of thought is a huge reason people began to critique the teachings of, and even question the theological foundation of the Catholic Church. The main reason for which religion was so divisive in the 16th century was that people finally began to think for themselves. Despite Roman Catholicism being the dominant in Europe all before the 16th century, a new wave of Protestantism

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Luther saw this and he said this is not what Christianity was supposed to be. He believed that people were supposed to do good to gain the benefits of redemption. Luther believed that everything was dependent on faith, not good work, and that people did not need priests or teachers to access

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The Catholic church became increasingly less reliable, and in the minds of many, the church was getting away from teaching the true message of Jesus. This began to change in 1517 when Martin Luther wrote the Ninety-Five Theses, starting “The Protestant Reformation”. Martin

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The Reformation was a time of change for Europeans in the 16th Century. People’s lives were changed drastically, especially when it came to religion. In fact, many later time periods’ impacts, including the Renaissance, were greatly influenced by the Reformation. The two main figures that had the most influence in bringing about this era of change were Martin Luther and King Henry VII. Even though they both had completely different objectives for this change, these two men had the greatest impact when it comes to the development of life in the 1500s.

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Martin Luther’s reasons for challenging the Catholic church changed after he translated the New Testament. Before the New Testament was translated (document A), Martin Luther had a very respectful tone displayed through his writing. In document A, Luther was bothered by the practice of indulgences, but continued in his letter to say that he was not blaming anyone. 18 years later in Document B, Luther had translated the New testament and realized that the Pope was misinterpreting the scriptures. He was then very disrespectful through his words and blamed the Pope for taking people’s money and by so believing that the person who paid for the indulgence was saved.

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The Reformation is an era that is widely acknowledged as a major turning point marked by substantial change politically and religiously in Western Europe and the world. This change is primarily due to the influence of Martin Luther, a man who played a pivotal role through his writings. There were many reasons for the push for the Reformation, but the main causes were political and religious. The Church was a powerhouse because the clergy comprised the majority of those who could read, the majority of Europe and most of the world believed in Christianity, and the Pope was a figurehead who had the power of excommunication. Eventually, this power would start to afflict the Church, on the outside, the Church preached its teaching, thought to be

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The church promised eternal salvation to everyone who lived accordingly(Overfield). In the 1500s the Roman Catholic Church was very powerful in Western Europe. But other political forces including Italy, England France and more had increased in the previous century and many were anxious to take the opportunity offered by the Reformation to weaken the power of the papacy and increase their own power in relation to the Church in Rome and other rulers. There was also a great deal of corruption of the church thanks the the pope and his abandonment of the people. The corruption of the Church was well known, and several attempts had been made to reform the Church but none of these efforts successfully challenged Church practice until Martin Luther 's actions in the early 1500s.

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134 Words | 1 Pages

Martin Luther, a German professor and monk, made a large impact on society in the fifteen hundreds. His new ideas of Christianity changed the concept of how religion was viewed and practiced in the 16th century. Within his Ninety-five Theses, he questioned the authority of the Roman Catholic Church and brought to light the corruption surrounding the church while stating how Christianity should be practiced in different ways rather than what is being taught. It is important to understand his stances on religion to explain how different groups reacted to his ideas. While some parts of Europe accepted his ideologies into practice, others reject Luther for many different reasons.

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1085 Words | 5 Pages

Starting from the statement that Christians receive salvation through faith and the grace of God. Luther also stated, “The churches rituals did not have the ability to save souls. ”Also Luther talked about how the Church and the Pope make errors often. This had gone from a need for reforming indulgences to a whole

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By questioning the sale of indulgences and arguing that the pope does not have complete authority over forgiveness of sins and, to a larger extent, salvation, Luther established a precedent for the word of the Church to be called into question rather than it having absolute authority. Given that Luther opens his 95 Theses with “out of love and concern for the truth,” it is clear that his intentions are not necessarily to completely undermine the authority of the Catholic Church, but rather to open a dialogue between the Catholic Church and its faithful on what is actually true in regards to God. The collective judgment of the Catholic community, particularly those who did not have positions of power in the Church, would then have a much greater effect on the direction in which the Catholic Church took than it would have before Luther’s 95 Theses.

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