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The Influence Of The Protestant Reformation

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The sixteenth century was a time of change. The People of the west thrived and devoted themselves to the betterment of philosophy, art, literature and science. These advancements greatly challenged the importance of politics and religion. As the people became educated and aware they began to question what they were told; they realized that if they didn’t agree with ideas or rules, then they could revolt and create a “better” way. This resulted in the Lutheran Reformation that spread into the Protestant Reformation, in turn inspiring the Catholic Reformation, more commonly known as the Counter Reformation. While they were both the reorganization of religious beliefs within the Catholic Church, with the intention of bringing God back to the centers …show more content…

The people, who became the Protestants, saw the exploitation and dishonesty of the Catholic Church and opted for change. Martin Luther, being the first prominent insurgent, rejected the Pope and Catholic ideas. This was because he saw corruption at the Vatican during a trip to Rome. Luther believed everything they did was immoral and needed to change; this is why his movement was about breaking conventions. Luther went straight back to scripture and disregarded all traditions in favour following God the way the bible said to. This outraged Catholics, but also informed them of the corruption they were turning a blind eye to. They too realized that the venality of the Catholic Church could not be tolerated any longer. The Catholics believed, however that the way to restore morality was to adhere to their traditions while changing their ideas. This led to conflicts in theological teachings between Protestants and Catholics. The theological teachings of Catholics were centered around scripture and tradition, whereas Lutheranism focused solely on scripture. Luther believed the scripture revealed that a soul was justified through faith alone, because the sacrifice of Jesus atoned for all sins; one had to only believe to be saved. Yet, he also believed that the elect to be saved were chosen …show more content…

These are the traditions that were mentioned beforehand, that Catholic’s clung dearly to during the Counter Reformation. A few examples of these are the idea of purgatory, prayer to saints and priests in a hierarchy form. None of these conventions or beliefs are proven in the bible and Martin Luther therefore considered them a distraction from the centrality and importance of Christ. (Tarr 45) This is another reason why Lutheranism went to the bible for all answers. This brought about the practice of a decentralized leader for mass services. Believing that everyone has an equal chance of getting into heaven qualifies anyone to be a priest. Something that both reformations have in common however is that they both supported using a vernacular bible. Prior to the emergence of the Protestant sect, the bible was only in Latin so that the lay people were dependent on the priest for interpretation. Nevertheless, Luther rejecting a venerated human leader, believed that everyone should be able to read the bible. In reaction, the Catholic Church allowed a vernacular bible, so that it didn’t look like it was taking advantage of its followers. This is further evidence that the Counter Reformation was simply an act to cover their

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The Protestant Reformation was important in European History because with it came a Counter-Reformation. The Reformation revealed corruption in the Church, such as buying and selling salvation—indulgences—for profit, simony, and the overall battles for power and wealth (within the Church). Martin Luther and John Calvin were crusaders for the reformation and were able to share their ideas and beliefs effectively; they were then accepted/recognized by the people—the educated and uneducated, the middle class and nobility. Luther and Calvin’s beliefs allowed for other people to find a sense of freedom and individualism in religion.

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Plan of Investigation This investigation seeks to identify the qualities and characteristics of Martin Luther, which are truly indicative of The Protestant Reformation in Europe. The body of the investigation describes the significant events in the life of Martin Luther, that impacted the era. The specific characteristics that he exhibited will be identified, examined and analyzed. During the Protestant Reformation society started to question the ideas of the church. Reformers started to expose the church for their acts such as the selling of indulgences, insisting that the Pope had no authority over purgatory and much more.

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The sixteenth century in Europe was a time of change for the Europe. People were starting to question the Church's authority, some people who questioned the Church were Martin Luther, John Calvin and Henry VIII. These people helped to start the Protestant Reformation. The Protestant Reformation was a time when new religions were formed by people who protested the Catholic faith and what it was doing. Many people date the start of the Protestant Reformation with German Martin Luther's

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One of the major European movement during the sixteenth century was the Protestant Reformation. In the beginning, this movement intended to reform the practices and beliefs of the Catholic Church. Before the age of dissent and division, the church was viewed as the sole vehicle for salvation. However, with all the turmoil within the Catholic Church, the people has lost faith in the church’s ability to lead them into salvation. They have lost sight in its very core.

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People began to assert themselves against blind faith and useless religious rituals and began to feel that they could reach God without the intermediary of a priest. Instead of one Pope, two Popes began to be elected one by the French Cardinals and the other by the Italian Cardinals. Solution: With recognition of the reformers criticism and acceptance of their ideology Protestants were able to put their beliefs on display in art.

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The Protestant Reformation began with a movement made by a monk simply to criticize and challenge the actions of the Church. From the disapproval of selling indulgence to the demand of equality, multiple forces have sparked the inception of the Protestant Revolution. Martin Luther’s decision to take public stand against the Church was revolutionary to the society. A movement for religious reforms, known as the Protestant Reformation, was born. Luther’s beliefs were soon adopted by and appealed to every levels of society.

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The Protestant and English reformation were both reforms that took place in the 16th century against the Roman Catholic Church. Comparatively these reformations are alike and different in some sense. For example, Two leaders led these reforms and went against the church’s beliefs for different purposes. For personal reasons , King Henry VIII went against the church, whereas Martin Luther knew the church could not offer him salvation amongst other reasons. Before becoming a monk, Martin Luther was once a law student .

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As a result, Cajetan’s work developed clear differences between Lutheranism belief and Catholicism beliefs. Luther’s reformation was based on the idea of faith. According to Luther, faith was the key to salvation. A person’s faith was the determining factor of weather a person was saved by God

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Them people began to realize that they didn’t have to do what the church did. People weren’t use to not following the crowd, but this was about to change, which eventually led to a new type of Christianity, Protestant. Protestants had many different organizations with similar but different ideas on things. These different groups of Christianity,

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On All Saints Day, October 10th, 1517, Martin Luther wrote a lengthy letter named as “The Ninety-Five Theses” to the Bishop Albert of Mainz (“Martin Luther”). This letter stated that the Bible is the central authority of the Protestant religion and one can attain salvation by their loyal faith to God. “The Ninety-Five Theses” letter became a huge impact for the Protestant Reformation, and it was one of the major reasons why this religion was spread around Europe; however, it also focused on practices from Catholic churches about baptism and absolution (“Martin Luther”). The Protestants used the letter to form their ideas about God and to start their own church denominations. In addition, Protestantism helped a lot during this movement because its belief is that God saved everyone by His faith to Jesus Christ, himself.

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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.

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