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Christianity Protestant Reformer Research Paper

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Christianity: Protestant Reformer Martin Luther
Martin Luther, born into the Catholic Church in 1483, is considered to be the father of Protestantism. 1 Luther was a devout man who dedicated himself to the study of the bible; in addition to being a Professor of Biblical Studies at the University of Wittenberg, he was also a priest and a monk. He spent a lot of his time focusing on what one could do to earn eternal salvation as it was written about in the Bible. This was especially troubling to him given the actions of his colleagues at the University of Wittenberg and his fellow priests and monks. He felt the actions of many of those in the Church that he loved were both immoral and corrupt, and especially in the midst of his own struggles with the idea of salvation, these actions troubled him deeply. 2 …show more content…

He had issues with abuses of power amongst clergy, especially with regard to church finances. He disliked the idea of indulgences, which involved members of the congregations paying priests and other leaders for abolition of their sins, effectively bribing church leaders for their own salvation. More than this, spiritual merit was attached to donations made to the church, and masses were able to be purchased for the dead. The University of Whittenberg held many sacred relics, including hairs said to have been from the Virgin Mary and the “crown” of thorns placed on Jesus’ head during crucifixion. Rather than cherishing these items for their religious worth, they were sold. 3
Because of these things, Martin Luther was “raged with a fierce and agitated conscience”. 4 After intense study, Luther followed the traditional method of protesting within the Catholic church—he nailed his complaints to the Church door and invited them to meet with him. Because of his refusal to take back these complaints, and despite his intention to stay in the church, he was excommunicated in 1521.

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