Who Was Martin Luther Responsible For The Reformation?

The Reformation was essentially a campaign to reform the Roman Catholic Church and its teachings. There were many factors as to why there was an outbreak of Reformation such as political factors, social factors and religious factors. One main factor for the outbreak was the many abuses of the Church like absenteeism, lack of education within the clergy, sales of indulgences for Church benefit e.g. the rebuilding of St Peter’s Bascilla. People like Erasmus, Thomas More, Zwingli, Martin Luther and John Calvin saw this corruption and tried to do what they could in their power to see change within the Church. Their actions led to a schism within the Roman Catholic Church. There is also evidence that Martin Luther was a key figure and was responsible

Some historians have researched and evaluated if Martin Luther was the sole reason for the outbreak of Reformation. For example, V.H.H. Green reviewed these time period to write the textbook ‘Renaissance and Reformation’ in the 1960s. V.H.H. Green’s textbook will not be subjective but objective increasing its validity. V.H.H Green was writing this textbook during 60s which brought the Vietnam War and Civil Rights Protests. These major events may have influenced V.H.H Green. Throughout the extract, V.H.H Green makes use of traditionalist viewpoints and theories. A notable example of this is when he states that Martin Luther was “responding to a widespread discontent” with the Church. This suggests that the reason for the outbreak of the Reformation was the Catholic Church’s abuses and failures and inability to recognise the obvious and evident abuses of the Church such as simony, nepotism, clerical marriages etc. However, V.H.H. Green also Luther a role in the Reformation so his analysis could be said

Scott Dixon. C. Scott Dixon is a senior lecturer at Queen’s University in Belfast. He has released a series of book on religious history e.g. The Reformation and Rural Society (1996), The Reformation in Germany (2002) and Protestants: A History from Wittenberg to Pennsylvania 1517-1740. C. Scott Dixon wrote his specialist textbook ‘The Reformation in Germany’ written in 2002. The specialist textbook would avoid subjectivity as it would have to be objective. Its objectiveness makes it more valid and the content more reliable. Due to the time, he wrote this, he would be classed as a revisionist historian which meant that Dixon would have looked at any new facts or evidence that may have surfaced to create a revised history. Dixon also would have used other historians’ viewpoints to come to a conclusion. Dixon suggests that Luther “was not the first [person to direct] criticism” at “scholastic theologians.” Which in turns means that the Reformation stated much earlier than Luther and Luther was simply “a figurehead” in a grand scheme of things. Perhaps Dixon believed that Luther was not the single cause of the Reformation, rather, Martin Luther was one of many reason to why there was an outbreak. It can also be said that Scott Dixon believed that the Reformation and Protestantism didn’t end after Luther. We can