The Main Cause of the Protestant Reformation
A war took place in Germany that killed half the population and changed the way people live (History “The Reformation”). There was a big revolution taking place. It started in 1517 with new ideas that were being born about the church. The Catholic Church was very powerful, like a second government with the ability to charge people money (Open “The Wealth and Political Power of the Church”) and exile people (Open “The Wealth and Political Power of the Church”). They sold indulgences as forgiveness for sins and taught the religion as their beliefs. The church was the main cause of the Protestant Reformation because of their selling of indulgences, the worship of traditions instead of the bible, and their teachings about how to get salvation.
The Catholic Church in Europe sold indulgences or forgiveness for sins. This practice was not accepted by all, especially not Martin Luther, a German monk. This was because of bible verses like Eph. 1:7 7; “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace”. By selling indulgences he believed that the Catholic Church was charging money for something they couldn’t provide (Wittenburg “Martin Luther’s 95 Theses”). This outraged Martin Luther and led him to write the 95 theses (Peterson “Selling
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They did popular practices like worshipping saints and Mary when the bible is against this (History Staff “The Reformation”). Their teaching did not always align with what the bible said. Such as how to get into heaven and have sins forgiven. Since the bible was not widely available until the invention of the printing press people had no way to know otherwise. When the bible and Martin Luther's theses became available to read people learned this. This led people to think of the idea of a new church (Spitz The Age of the Reformation