Martin Luther And The Roman Catholic Church

The 16th century was when Christianity branched off into several divisions in Europe, which posed a challenge to the main religion of the world, Catholicism, as well as European politics. There are many historical figures who played a role in this transformation, but Martin Luther is one of the more significant figures. This paper is about how Martin Luther, a catholic German Monk, played a substantial role in influencing the religion of that time and initiated the Protestant Reformation.

Martin Luther was an influential scholar, professor, and monk in the 16th century who transformed the Catholic Church by sparking the beginning of the Protestant Reformation. To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation was written by Luther in 1520. Within the text, Luther challenges the three walls of the Church and instigates an ecclesiastical movement. Luther exhorts and rebukes the authority and ideals of the Roman Catholic Church. Because the walls surrounding the Church are leading to corruption and are hindering transformation, Luther’s argument for completely disbanding all the walls that the Romanists have developed is the best attempt to revolutionize the Church.

The reformation was a major movement in the 16th century aimed at reforming the beliefs of the Roman Catholic Church. Luther’s theses were a response directed to the church in demand of changing the religious views of society but led an immense religious and political division in Europe.

The Protestant Reformation was a large transition in the way people understood and thought of the Catholic Church as a whole. The Catholic Church had always had a sizeable amount of power over the people and way of life. The person who truly began the whole movement was Martin Luther. He began his public move when the indulgence controversy became apparent. An indulgence is a free ticket out of purgatory, and purgatory is the place one goes directly after physical death to undergo purification. That purification will determine whether one is suitable for Heaven or not. Therefore, every person wanted an indulgence so there was no chance of them not making it into Heaven. However, these indulgences were solely to gain funds for army, church, and others. Although it was only for money, people still wanted one because they did not want to take any chances with their personal afterlife. Martin Luther was infuriated that these indulgences existed. Luther believed that forgiveness is only given to those that are truly sorry for their mistakes. Therefore, he wrote the Ninety-Five Theses. These were documents arguing and criticizing against the indulgences. He posted these documents on the Cathedral door for the Pope to read. He wrote the documents in Latin originally, but the Printing Press translated them into German for everyone to be able to read. In response to these indulgences, Martin Luther

The Protestant Reformation was the 16th-century religious, political, intellectual and cultural upheaval that disintegrated Catholic Europe, setting in place the structures and beliefs that differ from Catholic Church and in future triggered wars and fights and persecutions. In northern and central Europe, reformers like Martin Luther, Thomas Muntzer, Ulrich Zwingli, John Calvin and Henry VIII challenged papal authority and questioned the Catholic Church’s practices, such as “indulgence” and “enough good works to merit salvation” (Sayre 263-266). In Who was Martin Luther Whose 95 Theses Helped Spark the Reformation? (October 31st 2017), Anderson Mike Ellis looks specifically at Martin Luther and his belief and why he wrote the Ninety-Five

The Protestant Reformation came during the height of the Renaissance. This movement to reform the Catholic Church was certainly helped by the budding Renaissance idea that the individual holds weight in society, and a man’s words were important. This enabled people to take a stand for something and feel confident in their stance. So when people challenged the Catholic Church for their abuses of power, they could actually speak up on the issue and be heard. While he was certainly not the first person to come up with the idea of challenging the Church to reform, Martin Luther is certainly the most remembered today for his actions and their influence on the Reformation. He was a man who challenged the Church about their abuses of power, and came

The Catholic Church does impose celibacy on its priest. Recently some of Eastern Catholic Church have allowed for their priest to marry. The Latin Roman Catholic Church on the other hand does not waver on this, the only exception would be if a non-Catholic individual decides to become a Catholic priest.

The Protestant Reformation affected religious life in the early 15th century. It was a movement that reformed the beliefs and practices of the Roman Catholic Church. At the time, the church was viewed as a wealthy and powerful institution that was practicing many corrupt ideas such as selling indulgences. Indulgences were letters of forgiveness for one’s sin. This sparked anger causing priests to revolt by calling for reforms to take place. A German priest and monk, Martin Luther became a leader throughout the Protestant Reformation. Luther among his followers known as Protestants protested against the church. Acting on his belief, Luther wrote his “95 theses” to express his questions and concerns against the church. He posted his list on the door of the Wittenberg church, the catholic church reacted by telling him to take his theses back, and recant. But, he refused and his ideas were spread throughout the printing press. He wanted Christians to believe the truth found within the bible. Luther believed that Christians could reach salvation by having faith in God. He disagreed with the thought that the pope or other priests had any special powers, including the forgiveness of sins. Everyone began to acknowledge the truth; no longer did they have to believe in corrupt ideas. Individuals gained a voice in society and could now reject any corrupt moral. As stated by Alec Ryrie “Protestantism has given us not a paradise of free speech, but an open-ended, undisciplined argument. It has continuously generated new ideas, revived old ones and questioned its own orthodoxies.” The Protestant Reformation lead individuals to question the Catholic church and seek for information. They were no longer blindfolded; the bible became available to ordinary people to read in their own language. However, Martin Luther wasn’t the only reformer. John Calvin became a reformer that believed and promoted the idea of predestination. Predestination is seen as the belief that certain people were chosen by God for salvation. As the reformation proceeded, his followers believed they were predestined for heaven. According to Ryrie, “To take the iconic example: slavery, which for centuries Christians had assumed was a necessary evil or

One of the leading factor that contributed to the protestant reformation was the corruption of the Catholic church. The church had control of not only religion but politics, money, music, arts and etc. Eventually, the church slowly began to take advantage of everyone. They began by selling indulgences to people so they could pay to be forgiven of sin.

Before the Reformation, the church was riddled with abuse. The church was very corrupt throughout the middle ages and it ended all acts oppositions against its authority and religious doctrine. At this point, the people questioned its views and wanted change. The Protestant Reformation all began with Martin Luther. Martin Luther, a German monk and professor of theology protested abuses in the Church and called for reform. He started by attacking the practices of Indulgences. Indulgences were a payment for the lessening of sins that popes would sell, people would essentially buy these tickets if they committed a sin. They were also referred to as “tickets to heaven.” He exposed and attacking the Indulgences by publishing the 95 Theses and was focused on dismantling the doctrine of indulgences. He first published in Latin, but it was soon translated into German and published even more widely. From Luther writing this, it open and created many more causes that led to this reformation. The creation of moveable printing press was invented due to the popularity of Luther’s ideas and help spread other ideas as well. From that point, on reformers decided something had to be done and they called for a change.

Many ideas had originated from the events of the Reformation. For instance, the event of the publication of the 95 theses by Martin Luther would be a great example of an event which had led and caused the shifts of ideas, practices and teachings during the current time period as the ideas had been achieved through Luther’s theses, where he declares numerous ideas in relation to the church’s corruption. The ideas which had risen were related to repentance and indulgences, Luther had established the idea that the benefits provided by Christ was achievable even without the use of indulgences and that the indulgences only promoted greed Luther had also established the idea that true repentance was greater than buying indulgences, thus providing

The Reformation was a religious predicament within the Catholic Church where people started to request and demand reforms. These people were unhappy with the ways of the church so they either demanded change or they broke off and created their own type of Christian faith. A monk in Wittenberg, Martin Luther was offended by the selling of indulgences and actions of the clergy so he wrote a 95 Theses that outlined his complaints. This theses made the church leaders angry with him when he started having his teachings printed for everyone to read. Between the reformation and how Martin Luther was involved in the change of the Catholic Church, this was a major change that that started on October 31, 1517.

By posting his 95 theses on the church door Martin Luther started the domino effect for the beginning of Lutheranism which would make citizens also quest the integrity of the church as well as the authority of the pope giving the ground to new ideas after Lutheranism. At the time that Martin Luther was spreading his teachings the church refused to recognize Lutheranism as an official religion. Although Lutheranism wasn’t seen as a religion by the church it gained popularity with the citizens more so the peasants. The peasants that believed the Lutheran teachings that they began riots so they could keep their religion.

The Catholic Church viewed Martin Luther as a threat to its existence. During the early 1500s, Martin Luther began to question the Catholic Churches practice of “works”. Through the Catholic Churches “works system”, the church was able to exploit its followers of their personal money. The Catholic Churches reasoning behind “works” was to ensure the Catholic follower a ticket into the Gates of Heaven. Martin Luther saw the corruptness of this financial gain and posted a written argument of this practice on the doors of various Catholic Churches. In addition, this written argument sparked controversy all throughout Europe as well as the Catholic Church.

The reformation was a key factor in the transition of medical to modern Europe. During the end of the Middle Ages, the Church became corrupt and started focusing on money instead of power. Therefore, many reformers emerged onto the scene to help stop these corrupt methods. Martin Luther was the first to go against the church, and he was followed by many other reformers soon after. Luther, along with other reformers, marked a change in the way religion was in Europe. They formed their own ways of religion against the church, and formed a modern way of religion in Europe. Before, there was one main religion, and if you were not Catholic you were not accepted. Yet after the Reformation, more religions emerged in Europe. Although they were not all accepted everywhere, the people were able to practice their religion without being persecuted. Through the Reformation and the acceptance of other religions, Europe shifted from medieval to modern.