Causes Of The Protestant Reformation

In 1517, Martin Luther posted his 95 Theses on a Church in Germany and began a change Europe. Many people second guessed how the Catholic Church was practicing religious teachings and this grew in Germany. After years of battling for religious reforms, a new religion was formed named Lutheranism. Between 1524 and 1526, German peasants began to revolt the Holy Roman Empire. The peasant revolts were caused by greed and wanting to get rid of serfdom and corrupt leaders in the Holy Roman Empire, and both positive and negative responses were seen. Most positive responses were seen by peasants while most negative responses were shown by some religious leaders and Holy Roman Empire leaders.

The reformation was a drastic event in the early modern period that launched Europe into a massive conflict of widespread violence, through both political and religious factors. The political scene had remained very much the same before the beginning of the reformation in 1517, with many philosophers sharing similar ideas on how to handle the issues of sovereignty and private property. Religion was a long debated factor before the reformation however was brought inadvertently to the forefront of most political works in the early years of the Protestant Reformation. This event completely changed the way in which philosophers constructed their political discourse as seen with More and Martin Luther, who although despite being placed on

Inhabiting the Holy Roman Empire in the 16th century, the upper class considered peasants a mere subhuman. Conversely, Martin Luther, a German professor of theology, influenced reformation to the German state. This reformation focused on the peasants, especially the peasant revolt of 1524. As the revolution continued, the Peasant Parliament formed to coordinate activates and strive for optimistic results of the revolt. Consequently, peasants offered moderate reforms that were supported by the towns, but condemned by the nobility and the leading Protestant reformer, Martin Luther. This would be known as the largest uprising in Europe before the

The Protestant Reformation was a major 16th century European movement aimed initially at reforming the beliefs and practices of the Roman Catholic Church. The Reformation in western and central Europe officially began in 1517 with Martin Luther and his 95 Theses. This was a debate over the Christian religion. At the time there was a difference in power. Roman Catholicism stands with the Pope as central and appointed by God. Luther’s arguments referred to a direct relationship with God and using the local vernacular to speak to the people. Luther’s arguments remove the absolute power from the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church in general. The revenue from the taxes paid to the Church would be reduced with Luther’s ideas, in part because of

The Protestant Reformation was a pivotal time of European history that occurred during the 16th century. The Protestant Reformation was comprised of people called “reformers” that challenged papal authority and questioned the Catholic Church’s ability to define Christian practice (“The Reformation”). The Protestant Reformation was revolutionary due to the fact that the reformers preached against everything the Catholic Church had been teaching. Some famous reformers are John Calvin and Martin Luther. However, Martin Luther-- to some--- is named the most successful and influential reformer of the 16th century. Martin Luther was tremendously effective and influential due to how resourceful he was, and his teachings spread across Europe swiftly.

The protestant reformation was a significant turning point during the 16th century that completely revolutionized the Roman Catholic Church. The “reformation” was launched in 1517 when a German monk by the name of Martin Luther posted his “95 Theses” on the door of Castle Church in Wittenberg. The main ideas of this publication was that selling and buying indulgences was wrong and that the pope has no power over purgatory. These 95 revolutionary opinions formed the basis for the protestant reformation which revolutionized western civilization over the next three centuries. Although most people believe these reforms only affected religion, the reformation also impacted political life. Politics played an enormous role in the reformation due to the fact that political rulers wanted to extend their power and control using the church. Throughout the course of the protestant reformation, political authorities such as Emperor Charles V and Henry

In the early 1500s religious reforms were constant throughout all of Germany, including the ideas of Martin Luther. Martin Luther brought the idea of equality to the peasants (1,3,6) , which in term started the revolts. In document 1 Leonhard van Eck states that the peasants were

Between 1524 and 1526, Europe is coming out of the Renaissance and entering a stage of religious reformation.  Many theologians have protested the Catholic Church and have decided to break away from it.  The new religions formed inspired many different peoples and resonated with them.  The peasant revolts in the German states was caused by the peasants’ new sense of faith in the new protestant religion of Lutheranism and the reformers boldness to break away.  This lead to a very negative response by their German leaders.

Germany during 16th century was a petri dish of religious reformation. The small independent states that comprised Germany began to move away from the catholic church towards the belief of Lutheran ideals. This change in religion and ideals towards everyone being equal in the eyes of God and the dissatisfaction towards their place in society caused the peasants’ revolt of 1524-1526, which was met with force by nobles because they under minded the peasants’ and saw them as an economic transaction who were witless, outliers and middle men attempted to save their own skins and would say anything that might help them.

14. ’05 Compare and contrast the motives and actions of Martin Luther in the German states and King Henry VIII in England in bringing about religious change during the Reformation.

“Under the outward appearance of the gospel, they honor and serve the devil, thus deserving death in body and soul ten times over.” Luther’s brutal words against the rebelling peasants of Germany in 1525 reveal the complex reality of the Reformation. Suppression of the rebellion by the German aristocracy was swift and violent, leaving over 70,000 German peasants dead. The rebellion targeted the social and political oppression of the peasantry in the early 16th century. The peasants found new justification for revolt in the promising words of Martin Luther. Luther proclaimed a new kind of freedom for the Christian soul and the peasants applied his idea to their own circumstances. However a dichotomy emerged between spiritual freedom

The Peasant’s War began after Martin Luther nailed his “95 Theses” to the doors of his local church in Germany. His theses discussed how the church needed reforming and how many of their methods, such as indulgences, were not supported by Scriptures. However, these ideas conflicted with what the church had taught for years on how faith should be. This made people begin to question what was true about their religion. Ultimately, this lead to a war between the nobles and peasants, called the Peasant’s War.

What happens when people start to break away from the entity that bound an entire civilization together for over a thousand years? How does one go from unparalleled devotion to God to the exploration of what man could do? From absolute acceptance to intense scrutiny? Sheeple to independent thinkers? Like all revolutions preceding it, the Protestant Reformation did not happen overnight. Catholics had begun to lose faith in the once infallible Church ever since the Great Schism, when there were two popes, each declaring that the other was the antichrist. Two things in particular can be identified as the final catalyst: a new philosophy and simple disgust. The expanding influence of humanism and the corruption of the Catholic Church

As I read the paragraph about the peasant revolution I found it interesting that the peasants saw Lutheranism as an opportunity to use it as a political move rather than a religious movement It seems that everyone except Luther used it as a political force rather than that of a religion. They used it as an excuse to revolt against the rule of the princes and in the process got 130,000 of themselves killed. I also find it interesting that Luther sided with the Princes. I think this may have been due to the fact that he believed that without the support of the princes his new Religion would die out

During the Protestant Reformation, three groups of people contributed to this 16th Century upheaval. First, the common people/ laborers. They considered their local priests and bishops their direct connection to God. However, the commoners considered these priests part of the gentry, causing an “endemic dissatisfaction” (Palmer 77) among the commoners. Their religious desire for a reformation, combined with a desire for social reformation. This particular group found meaning to their cause in the great peasant rebellion of 1520. Secondly, the middle class, a group of better-educated men who did not believe in the hierarchy of the church. Most of them came from little autonomous republics in which they managed their own public and social affairs and wished to also manage their own religious affairs. They believed the Roman Catholic Church fixated itself too much in the feudal and monarchical system which they did not agree with. Lastly, the princes, and sovereign rulers. 16th Century Europe always had a dispute for power, while the Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor fought to see who had the final authority, the princes, and the monarchs wanted to have total power over their territories. Eventually, power defined what religion should prevail in such territories. While these three groups of people aided to the cause of the Protestant Reformation, there would not have been one, or at least not soon enough, if people like John Wycliffe, John Huss, and Desiderius Erasmus had not