Different Impacts on Religion

Religion played a huge influence in the development of western civilization so a good place to start is the medieval times. Charles Martel, mayor of the franks stopped the Muslim invasion from much of Europe at the battle of tours so there was little Muslim influence to the western civilization. This allowed a very powerful Christian Church to emerge and religion to flourish. Religion was very important for the middle ages and in reality it became the most powerful force in Europe. The teachings and practices played a major part in reshaping the lives of the European Christians. One of the most important achievements of the Church was to Christianize the diverse people in Western Europe. Religion influenced the development of western civilization through Monks and Nuns, power, reforming to change the church, and corruption against other nations.

The Protestant Reformation was an important part of the history of Europe. In the various articles, videos, and passages that were required to be read, we looked at different aspects of the Protestant Reformation and how this affected Europe and the people during that time period. Because of Martin Luther’s ambition and courage to create opposition to the Catholic church, it sparked a revolution within the population of the different countries under the rule of the Roman Empire. In the following paragraphs, the importance and analysis about the Protestant Reformation are explained from readings and videos discussed in this class.

The Protestant Reformation of the Catholic Church devastated the religious unity of Christian Europe, resulting in a great deal of antagonism, which in turn led to the persecutions, denial of civil rights, expulsion, and ultimately the torture and death of many men, women and children. The ongoing conflict was not consigned to one distinct European nation, but was experienced in every European nation that the Catholic Church ruled and reigned. There was no worldview in Europe at that time that allowed for the religious differences of men to coexist peaceably.

Throughout the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries, religion changed through each empire and time. In these times, there were people with the religion of Hindu, Judaism, Christianity, and Muslim (which contained two sects: the Sunnis and Shiites.) Three empires during this time included the Ottoman Empire, the Safavid Empire, and lastly, the Mughal Empire. These three empires between the 16th and 18th centuries were different and similar in many ways, however all three had different outlooks on religion and were very diverse. They were diverse because each ruler had his own opinion about religion and made the whole empire follow whatever he thought, meaning that each empire had a different amount of religious tolerance, if any at all. The Ottoman, Safavid, and Mughal Empires varied in their views about religion.

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.

Religion transmuted rapidly over the years in modern Europe as many key figures spoke out in protest or suggest reform of the system they were acclimated to. This rapid change influenced numerous different parts of life as well. This period in time included not only reformation for religion, but also ordinary life. Change was formed in other areas such as politics, economics, and culture. Political change was greatly affected by religious change in this period.

The 17th century French aristocrat Michel de Montaigne lived in a tumultuous world. With the spark of Luther’s Ninety-Five Theses, the fire spread rapidly to France. The nation divided against itself. The rebellious protestant Huguenots and the traditional staunch Catholics both viewed the other group as idolatrous heretics in time when that crime could justify execution. Consequently, Catholic monarchs throughout Europe felt the impending threat to their reigns, too, because if they supposedly ruled through divine right, what would change concerning the support of their subjects? After the peace-making Edict of Nantes, rehashing the religious conflicts of the century was forbidden, but seeing his country—and even his own family—torn apart, how could one refrain from comment? So in his writings, Montaigne has to write around his actual subjects. This isn’t to say, however, that he conveyed none of his ideas directly. Montaigne criticizes the cultural belief in a correct way of life, opposing the idea with a more relativistic viewpoint, though the way in which he presents it, as mere musings in personal correspondence, fails to effectively convince his readers.

In To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation, the Church has surrounded themselves with three distinct rules. As a result, Luther believes the rules within the Church are merely defending the corruption from reform. Giving a brief summary of his purpose for writing the text, Luther depicts the beliefs of the Church as foolish and unwise. The Roman Catholic Church has put complete power into the leaders of the Church (9). In the final paragraph of his introduction, Luther directly quotes Joshua 6:20, asking for aid in helping individuals reform themselves and attain God’s good grace.

1 Luther attacks the second wall, that the pope alone can interpret scriptures, by citing scriptures himself. He says that there is no basis for the pope’s power in the Bible, rather, only incidences of the people’s power. The equality of all Christian believers was first stated in the first wall when arguing that temporal powers should be able to punish those clergy who do wrong, but Luther adds more to this in the second wall when quoting

Religions have changed constantly throughout history, beginning with the Egyptians and continuing through current day. Most of all new religions begin as polytheistic. This most likely developed because the people of the ancient world suspected that one god could not take care of all their needs. Therefore, they created several gods to take care of everything in the natural world such as water, fire, animals, etc. The first evidence of written religion was on the Sumerian tablets, around 3,500 B.C. The Egyptians demonstrated the first progression of religion in the area, during the time period around 4,000 B.C. The Egyptians believed humans ranked as partners with the gods to maintain order; it characterized similarly to the Mesopotamian’s religion. After a while, a change in religion transpired.

Life in France during the Seventeenth Century was volatile in that there were many changes to the central ideology of society. Focusing on the time immediately before and during King Louis XIV’s reign, intellectual curiosity peaked. People began to wonder about the world and even questioned religion. Right before King Louis XIV was officially crowned, Europe was just coming out of the Thirty Years war. This war occurred in the Holy Roman Empire between 1618 and 1648 and was a war between the Catholics and the Protestants (Wilson). Although the war didn’t occur directly in France it definitely had an impact on the way France would be ruled since it was a Catholic nation (Damerow 2009). As a direct result of the closer examination of religion,

In 1517, a former Augustinian monk by the name of Martin Luther posted his famous “95 Thesis” on the door of All Saint’s Church in Wittenberg, Germany. Although his goal was to bring about change in the catholic church, unknowingly he would be the spark that would ignite the powder keg that would become the Protestant Reformation. However, many still see Luther and his ideas as controversial, but could the reformation that he wanted really reform the church in Germany? His text “An Open Letter to The Christian Nobility” explains his ideas in detail.

Luther was against the Catholic Church and the Romanists who he claimed specifically built three walls around themselves. Of the first wall Luther criticized their claim that nothing within the earthly realm had sway over them. Through this belief their spiritual place on earth, assigned by God, was of greater importance and held absolute power over the temporal. He also disagreed with the Catholic belief that only the pope could interpret the scriptures and that for one to commune with God one must do so through ecclesiastical members of the church. Furthermore, Luther believed that the Romanists evading an assembled panel through claiming that only the pope could call together council was unjust. Through these three intricate and carefully established walls Luther claims “the Romanists have cunningly stolen our three rods from us, that they may go unpunished”9 as they are untouchable by the people. By being unable to dismantle these protective walls and engage the papacy in questioning of their actions “they have settled themselves within the safe stronghold...so that they can practice all the knavery and wickedness”10 which was seen to be populating the lands and living within the populace. Luther also observed that the Word of God was all a soul needed for salvation and the need of Works was not required nor justified. It was through knowing “that all you need is

This year is a special year in particular as of the year 2017 on October 31st celebrates the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. It started in Germany but then spread all across Europe. The Reformation was needed to help modernize Christianity but it also created divides in the Protestant Movement. What is interesting is that there were other movements within the Catholic Church that predated 1517, so what made Martin Luther so special. This paper will go in depth on the accounts of the reformation and how it shaped our western world. Some theorists just look at when the Lutheran Augsburg Confession was printed or even the Treaty of Westphalia ending the Thirty Years War or even in the long run until the 18th century with all the options of a person to pick from for their religion from just being a catholic to now a Lutheran, Calvinist, or Anabaptist or be a member of the church of England. Martin Luther, John Calvin, and King Henry VIII all contested the authority of the catholic church and split up Europe.

The attendant effects of Martin Luther’s reformation in the early period of the sixteenth century occasioned by his posting of the 95 theses that raised objections to some of the then prevalent practices of the Roman Catholic Church eventually led to a significant breakaway from the church of a relatively more liberal Christian sect known as the “Protestant”. It is worthy of note however that the Roman Catholic Church tried albeit unsuccessfully to placate the breakaway by instituting a “counter-Reformation” but this only achieved a cleansing of the church internally without achieving much in its most important mandate to prevent the protestant breakaway. Consequently, Europe was enmeshed in bloody religious war largely between forces loyal to the papacy in Rome and those who sympathized with the runaway protestant movement. As a result, the Roman Catholic Church invariably began to lose its pole position in the scheme of things in an already divided Europe.