The Reform of the Roman Catholic Church in Europe Essay

It says it in the title of the work, “Address to the Christian German Nobility” 2. He wanted them to help in his fight against the clergy. Another possible audience for this treatise could have been the common citizens of the German nation. Luther did not write this in Latin, he wrote it in German. That made it more accessible to the common people of the German nations. Also, if the majority of the people of the German nation wanted the church to be reformed then it might have had some influence on the leader’s decision. It helped Luther get more

During the 16th century, Protestantism emerged as a new sect of Christianity. This process was not calm or peaceful in the slightest. Protestant leaders like Martin Luther and John Calvin fiercely attacked and denied traditional Catholic beliefs, causing much controversy and debate upon religion. Many regions of Europe as a whole were converted to Protestantism, and many more Protestants emerged in areas where Catholicism remained the state religion. The Catholic faith became less and less appealing to people as the abuses of the clergy were now publicly addressed by reformers and a new, personal approach to religion was offered in Protestantism. In addition, rulers favored Protestantism as a state religion because it meant that no power

As the tenth century rolled about, the power of the Roman Catholic Church grew steadily stronger, the church had an argument with the normal Kingdom over who should rule supreme out of the Pope or the King, the church believed that the Pope who is the voice of God on Earth should be the ruler of the world while the peasants thought that the King should, the power struggle eventually ended with the Church coming out as the dominant force in the West. The Church passed a law that stated that everyone (mostly peasants) is forced to pay 10% of their income to the Church. The church had the ability to stop any laws that they did not like or make some new laws that benefited them, they were a very powerful group that could manipulate the peasants and knights in any way they liked, in Church there were photos of people being tortured in hell, this intensified the peoples longing for heaven and therefore extended the power and influence of the church. All Christians were expected to attend the mass and, by the 13th century, were expected to take the Eucharist at least once a year.

Luther was zealous towards the gospel. He felt strongly about the gospel and felt it was unfair only the upperclassmen and well educated could read and interpret the bible themselves. People should be able to read and interpret God’s word themselves rather than trusting the pope’s interpretations. This was unpopular with the Catholic Church because they felt a loss of control over the masses and common people. What is more is the people of Wittenberg were too unintelligent to understand God’s word and this lead to the translating of the New Testament to German in 1529. It was not long before Luther took it upon himself to translate the Gospel in its entirety to German.

In 1522, Luther began to organize a reformed church and was the first to translate the New Testament into German. This New Testament sold almost 200,000 copies and created great appeal for Lutheranism. It allowed many Germanic people to read the Bible because it no longer required the people to know Latin. However, it did not reach everyone as many people were still illiterate. From its beginning, the reformation was tied to political affairs as it was supported by many German

To begin, the Protestant Reformation began in reaction to the Catholic Church’s rather corrupt practices. Prior to the Reformation, the only major Christian denomination in Western Europe at the time was Catholicism, headed by the Pope in Rome. Through many acts of violence such as the formation of the Spanish Inquisition and the slaughter of the Cathars, amongst others, Europe’s Monarchs had wiped out and suppressed any form of religious competition. With the Catholic Church holding a tight stranglehold over Europe, Catholicism was the only option. This allowed

Martin Luther: German friar who believed that only the Bible was God’s word and started Protestant Reformation

-The church was saying that you needed to be saved and you needed Catholic priest to be directly involved in your path to salvation. Luther put emphasis on an individual’s personal relationship with God through Jesus.

Three important changes that Luther made to his 'new reformed ' Church were: writing hymns in German so people could sing praises to the Lord, allowing the clergies to get married, and having Lutheranism taught in the vernacular, also known as the common language.

The period immediately following the Protestant reformation and the Catholic counter reformation, was full of conflict and war. The entire continent of Europe and all of it's classes of society were affected by the destruction and flaring tempers of the period. In the Netherlands, the Protestants and the Catholics were at eachother’s throats. In France it was the Guise family versus the Bourbons. In Bohemia, the religious and political structures caused total havoc for over thirty years; and in England, the Presbyterians thought that the English Anglican Church too closely resembled the Roman Catholic Church. Religion was the major cause of the widespread

By the late 1500s, Christian denominations had been popping up all over Europe. This was in response to the reports of indulgences (selling of freedom from purgatory), clerical immorality, abuse of money, along with many other bad actions that were rampant among the Church. It was these problems that Luther and others rebelled and created their own religions. With the rising of these Reformation movements, the Church needed to make some reforms itself. These reforms took the form of educating the clergy, opening monasteries, the Inquisition, and the organizing of councils. In fact, even though Protestant attacks brought these reforms, many of these reforms were needed anyway. The problems in the Church were so bad that the Church would not

Martin Luther was eager to change the Roman Catholic Church since his beliefs clashed with the church’s practices. He proclaimed that salvation of the soul will come about because of the genuine confidence in God, not simply great deeds. Martin Luther also firmly hated the demonstration of conceding and offering indulgences since he felt that forgiveness came from that person and God.

Fortunately for Luther, when he made his idea and theses public, the German or rather Holy Roman Empire was in such a state that made conditions very well suited for the acceptance and spread of his words. The conditions that I speak of can be mostly

Luther additionally confronted orthodoxy by translating Christian scripture into German giving the layman access to the holy text. Luther’s actions were iconoclastic and sought to expose the corruption existing within the Catholic Church; who was severely constraining access to both religious and philosophical texts. Luther is simply one example of many figures that embodied this Renaissance spirit of challenge and change giving shape to what is known as the philosophy of the

Troubles of the Medieval Church: Disorder in the Catholic Church made people begin to question and lose faith in its teachings.