How Did The Reformation Affect Western Europe

The reformation was the most important and tragic event in European history. The reformation led to the creation of Protestant Christianity with major political, economic, and religious changes in Europe. The reformation shattered all Christian unity. This movement led to a major shift in European power and influences. A major impact was the Roman Church lost most of the control of Europe during this period.

Martin Luther had written a series of pamphlets explaining his position and in these, he articulated three "Protestant Principles". The first, as I mentioned earlier, was that salvation is by faith alone. The second was that the Bible is the primary authority a Christian must obey. Not the pope or the tradition of the church. and the third was that every Christian has a direct relationship with God and that they don 't need the church or priests to act as mediators (Frankforter, pg. 384). These words, written by Martin Luther will later reverberate in

The protestant reformation happened at the moment that it did because the Catholic Church was very a powerful force in Europe. It controlled people lives both spiritually and temporally. The church had so much power that it maintained political control over a large portion of Italy. The fact that the church held so much control over countries and governments became a point of contention among European countries such as the Holy Roman Empire, Italian city-states outside of Rome, England, France and Spain. The power of the rulers of these areas had greatly increased in the 14th century and they were eager to take the chances offered by a Reformation to weaken the grip of the Catholic Church in Europe and also to develop their own powers across the European continent. For quite some time the Catholic Church had been an institution rampant with internal struggles. Such as the Avignon Papacy from 1309 to 1377 when seven popes opted to live in Avignon, France and not reside in Rome which was and is the traditional home of the Papacy. The Pope and other high ranking church officials often lived opulent lifestyles rather than a more austere lifestyle that should befit a spiritual leader. Many church leaders and Popes maintained political powers. They led armies, waged wars and made many political decisions. Church offices were sold, and many Popes and bishops practiced nepotism to fill church offices. With all of these worldly issues for the Pope

Worldview is comprehensive view or philosophy of life, the world and the universe. The Middle Ages view on the world was that humans were evil and must be controlled; therefore, the feudal system was formed with obedience being the most important virtue of life. Progress was not possible because of humanity’s fall from grace and the Pope and church oversaw everything. The Middle Ages lasted from 500 A.D to 1500 A.D and consisted of war, famine, plague, rebellion and social and political change. The Reformation of the Church led by Martin Luther who wrote the 95 Theses impacted society’s belief about the main source of knowledge from the church to science and the Reformation made people's opinions develop and be known and allowed them to voice what they think.

Absolutism The Protestant Reformation was the time when people started protesting against the actions of the Catholic Church. This had a great impact on Europe during both the 16th and 17th century. This caused several branches of Christianity to spread. Because the peasants were trying to overthrow the pope, chaos broke loose, and several people were killed in the process.

One point that Luther made has to do with the hierarchy of the church. Luther believed that there was

Luther’s devised the doctrine of justification - “by faith” (sola fida) and by “scripture alone” (sola Scriptura). (4) To this day, Martin Luther is recognized as the founder of Protestantism which represents a number of Christian faiths that do not believe in the role or office of the Pope, but only in the absolute authority of the Bible. (5) There were many other causes which played a part during the Protestant Reformation, including; the rise of nationalism; the Western Schism erosion of people's faith in the Papacy; perceived corruption of the Roman Curia; impact of humanism; invention of the printing press; and, the Renaissance which questioned traditional thought. (6)

Sixteenth century Europe was amidst the most prominent religious changes, stemming from a single German priest who started the domino effect now known as the Reformation. Embraced by Northern Humanism, a Renaissance ideal that spread to the Holy Roman Empire, Martin Luther picked out the major corruptions of the Catholic Church and began his own branch of religion known as Protestantism. Protestants and Catholics became stone-cold enemies. The battle for legitimacy of Protestantism was a strenuous battle, but finally came to the light at the end of the tunnel in 1555 when the Peace of Augsburg was signed and issued, giving German princes the power to choose between Protestantism and Catholicism (Coy). Yet, just when the worldwide feud began

The main reason I think most people disagreed with Luther was due to fear. They did not want to listen to Luther’s ideas as he may prove the ideologies they were living by were false or incorrect. Others, such as Zwingli, a reformer himself may have had fear of Luther prospering in reforming the Church while the people looked at him as less influential. Most people of Western Europe exclusively lived by Christianity taught by the Catholic Church. It was said that at the last supper before Christ was crucified he broke bread and drank wine and called it his own blood and body. Because of this, one of the main beliefs brought by the Church was that the bread and wine given at the services was representative of Jesus’ own body and blood and was

As regarded in the text, Reformation was the start of Protestantism inspired by ideas of Martin Luther. Martin Luther firmly believed that one who has faith in God and is right in his deeds will achieve salvation. It would be God and not the Pope make that decision. According to Martin Luther, God created all Christians n equal and therefore all Christians should have equal rights to decide on their deeds.

Luther was adamant that the church must begin and end with the Word of God and that Jesus was the Word made flesh.2 Luther believed that Jesus Christ created the Bible and the church and therefore it was impossible for the church to create the Bible because it was the inspired Word of God.3  The Bible was the one and only authority of the Church and nothing else compared.  His beliefs lead him into conflict with the Catholics who believed that they had the authority over the church.  Out of this belief in the Word of God came all of His other theological teachings such as salvation by grace, the sacraments of the church, the law and the gospel, and the cross.4  His belief that he did not have to work for God’s approval but that it was given to him freely by grace and this was a starting point for all of his other views to really take shape. In so doing this he found a boldness to stand up for his beliefs and went down in history when he nailed the Ninety-Five Thesis to the door of the Church at Wittenburg.5 There was new technology taking place namely the invention of the printing press and the world was growing and moving forward.6

Luther separated from the pope and the council and replaced them with “the priesthood of all believers,” then the church would rely inwardly upon Christ and depend outwardly upon secular rulers for its safety. Luther believed that through Christ, Christians had been given direct contact to God, just like a priest. Many believed that giving up the church’s political power to the secular rulers would give the temporal rulers a monopoly on power. Luther argues that there should be some power of the government to that of the church. He saw the political order as one of God’s gifts. Luther also knew that the state could also fall into tyranny and persecute the faith and preaching of the gospel. Thus, Luther confirmed that the role of independent political power. Basically, his idea was to force the politics out of the church and set the church’s primary focus on the purpose of enhancing the peoples’ relationship with God and creating a single, unified,

After Martin Luther decided to stand up to the Catholic Church in the 1500's, Protestant religions began to multiply extremely quickly. This explosion of new faiths began all because of one man, who believed that what the Catholic Church was doing was wrong. Martin Luther defied the church, wrote of ninety-five theses, got excommunicated, and triggered a Protestant Revolution. Even though this man stood up for his beliefs, not everything he did was right, and it's important to point this out, to show that everything, no matter how good, has its flaws.

Luther had a first hand knowledge of how God's truth triumphed through him as he gradually abandoned his allegiance to the uncontested authority of the pope, the Church councils and traditions. Like John Wycliffe and John Hus before him, he committed himself to the final authority of Holy Scripture alone as the only reliable and therefore authoritative written record of God's Word to His people (i.e., historic Protestantism's commitment to sola Scriptura). From that time on he would find himself engaged in a series of heated debates with the defenders of the Roman Catholic tradition.

An international phenomenon, the Protestant Reformation brought many cultural changes, as well as new ideas, ideologies, and philosophies. The first major developments were educational and economic growths. Before the Reformation, books were hard to come by because each had to be handwritten. However, with the invention of the printing press, books were made more available, thus spreading ideas to more people, including the lower class. The overall effect being the dawn of a new cultural age that creates Modern Europe.