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Similarities Between Martin Luther And The Praise Of Folly

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Martin Luther’s Concerning Christian Liberty and Desiderius Erasmus’ The Praise of Folly are about the different lines of attack on the Catholic Church. Martin Luther was a North German Augustinian friar, a Catholic priest, and a professor of theology who protested the abuses in the Church and called for reform. Erasmus was German by birth, interested in acts of good, wanted to find common factors between reason and Christianity, focused on the bible in its original papal form, believed in human correct ability, and did not believe in original sin. He highly criticized the Catholic Church at this time and called for reform, as well. They both attacked the Roman Catholic Church in their works; however, Martin Luther wanted reformation in practice and doctrine, while Erasmus wanted a moral reformation in the Church. Concerning Christian Liberty and The Praise of Folly were written in the early 1500’s and they both focused on the subject area of religion.
Martin Luther poked at the Church practice of the sale of indulgences, which was the full or partial grant of the forgiveness and pardoning of the penalties of sin. He did this with the 95 Theses. The 95 Theses were ideas that Luther posted on the Church doors in Wittenburg, Germany stating that he wanted the Catholic Church to change their current corrupted ways. “To Luther, the sale of indulgences made a mockery of God’s gifts, so he took a stance against the abuses of the Church with his work.” The situation surrounding the theses were the activities of the Roman Catholic Church. The Catholic Church was highly criticized by Luther in his work because it became too powerful and there was corruption in the system. The Church became less religious and became more of a political entry, making the Church ruthless. Luther believed that the Church should become concerned about the general well-being of the Catholic people and that salvation should be for everybody, not for the people who buy their way in using indulgences. In Concerning Christian Liberty, he discussed the wrongs, like corruption, of the Catholic Church to Pope Leo X. “You see, however, which is called the Court of Rome, and which neither you nor any man can deny to be more corrupt than Babylon or

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