The Roman Catholic Church: Scandals Of The Church

The 95 theses are a list of things that is wrong with the Catholic Church. The Ninety-Five theses questioned the Catholic Church’s practice of selling indulgences. Luther argued that Christian were being falsely told that they could obtain absolution for souls by buying indulgences. The 95 Theses, which would later become the foundation of the Protestant Reformation, were written in a remarkably humble and academic tone. Luther criticized the pope, extreme wealth of the church, and indulgences in the 95 theses. Luther realized that only faith, not

At the beginning of the sixteenth century the church was promptly losing respect due to the corruption and simony within the church. However when Johann Tetzel began to sell indulgences, many felt that the church had reached rock bottom. Due to this sale of indulgences, Martin Luther issued his 95 Theses which sparked a religious reformation movement that spread throughout Europe. During the reformation, religious, political, and social aspects were associated with the changes in the church, significantly affecting Europe.

Through different inspirations, the Protestant Reformation and Age of Enlightenment sought to change the stagnant traditions of European thinking in the 15th and 16th centuries. Began by German priest named Martin Luther in 1517, he was one of the first people to publicly call out the Catholic Church and their bargaining of indulgences by pasting the 95 Theses on the door of the Wittenberg church for everyone to see. The 95 Theses was a short list of the 95 flaws of the Catholic Church revolving around the use of their indulgences. Luther believed that people should not be scammed by the church and pay for fake indulgences for salvation, but rather come to a new understanding of salvation that came through faith alone. The other change of tradition was not getting your source of beliefs from the Catholic Church, but solely the Bible, which was a

The Reformation was a split in the Catholic Church during the fifteen-hundred. This schism had major economic, political, and religious implications and caused the creation of Protestant Christianity. It began when Martin Luther wrote the Ninety-Five Theses, where he argued for reform of the Catholic Church. One of the issues that bothered Luther the most, was the sale of indulgences. Church officials sold forgiveness for people's’ sins. While this was just the beginning, there were many factors which led to the beginning of the Reformation.

The protestant reformation was a significant turning point during the 16th century that completely revolutionized the Roman Catholic Church. The “reformation” was launched in 1517 when a German monk by the name of Martin Luther posted his “95 Theses” on the door of Castle Church in Wittenberg. The main ideas of this publication was that selling and buying indulgences was wrong and that the pope has no power over purgatory. These 95 revolutionary opinions formed the basis for the protestant reformation which revolutionized western civilization over the next three centuries. Although most people believe these reforms only affected religion, the reformation also impacted political life. Politics played an enormous role in the reformation due to the fact that political rulers wanted to extend their power and control using the church. Throughout the course of the protestant reformation, political authorities such as Emperor Charles V and Henry

There are approximately eight hundred million Protestant Christians currently in the world with it being the second largest Christian domination (Fairchild). However, there are over a billion followers of the Roman Catholic faith and it currently stands as the Christian domination with the most followers (Fairchild). If it were not for the German monk, Martin Luther, most Christians would have been Roman Catholic in the present. Martin Luther is famous for “95 Theses” that critiqued the practices and beliefs of the Catholic Church and it was written on Halloween Day, 1517 (Ellis and Esler 423-427). Other people agreed with him and shared their perceptions, which led to the birth of the Protestant Reformation (Ellis and Esler 423-427). In the documents written by people who either supported or were against the Protestant Reformation, the main idea of them is that the Catholic Church supported the idea of paying indulgences and competing with others for power.

One complaint that was outlined by the Protestant Reformation is the selling of indulgences. The Church did a horrible job addressing the problem and instead did absolutely nothing to change or fix the issue at hand. For example, in Document 4, it includes," They reaffirmed the usefulness of prayer and indulgences in shortening a person's stay in purgatory." This proves that the Church did nothing to fix the error. The word 'reaffirmed ' means that they liked it and wanted to continue with the idea of indulgences. An indulgence is like a free Monopoly Get-Out-Of-Jail

Before the Catholic Reformation, there was a Protestant Reformation. One of the leading factors that contributed to the Catholic reformation is Martin Luther. Martin Luther angered the church by writing the ninety-five thesis and posting it on the church door in 1517, he was irritated with the church because they were encouraging people who sinned to purchase indulgences to be forgiven (“Counter-Reformation”, Britannica). Martin believed that when indulgences were purchased they were not holding people accountable for their wrongful actions. The Protestant Reformation led to the rise of Protestant sects that recognized the corruption in the Roman Catholic church and began to convert others.

Furthermore, The Protestant Reformation saw a major European movement that challenged the religious practices and beliefs of the Roman Catholic Church. With the rise of religion attracting many individuals, intellectuals began to challenge religious teachings and expose the corruption of the Church. Rather than offering salvation, the Church became corrupt and stingy for control, power, and money, in which German theologian Martin Luther, highlighted. Luther argued that people only achieve salvation by God through faith alone and criticized the use of indulgences, wealth, corruption, and other religious practices within the Catholic Church in his 95 Theses. For example, one of Luther’s theses says, “Ignorant and wicked are the doings of those priests who, in the case of the dying, reserve canonical penances for purgatory.” Luther believed papal authorities utilized the people to their own advantage in gaining wealth by fostering beliefs that indulgences relinquished sins. The immorality surrounding the Church made it unfair to people of all social groups who “devoted an enormous amount of their time and income to religious causes and foundations” – only finding themselves fooled into bribery (A History of Western Society 402). Luther’s arguments served a pivotal role in influencing others to fight for their own beliefs and redefine the meaning of religion. The common good of the people and their opinions mattered as Protestant thought grew. In the “big picture” of European

Corruption in the Catholic Church was real; the Church has always had a strong present in Mexico since the beginnings. For instance, those in the strong circle of the Church who are not part of the clergy have always been men of power who hold swayed over the government. They have passed laws that benefit the Church, such as the example I pointed out before of Title 1. Precisely, for this reason, was why the Mexican liberals hated the clergy. The main problem and reason why the anti-clerical liberals wanted to remove the clergy in Government was “Fueros”, which means corporate immunities. For the Church, corporate immunities meant that if there was a transgression in the clerical power they were subjected to a different form of justice than the Mexican people. The Liberals saw it as the highest form a corruption because basically those part of the clergy circle who were men of power could get away with corruption. Laws like the example that was given were what ultimately what triggered the anti-clerical liberals to fight back, and that is why by 1861 when Benito Juarez re-established the Mexican government. Once Benito Juarez establishes the Federal Constitution of the United Mexican States of 1857, the Catholic Church was slowly starting to lose the control it had over the Government.

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

At the time of the Reformation the Papacy was very corrupt and had a lot of issues from the Middle Ages. The church did not provide spiritual comfort, leadership, or answers during the black death, which weakened the people's faith in the church. The church also could not prove its authority when the Great Schism occurred after three popes who supposedly were all the one Pope, but disposed in favor of another Pope. Moreover, Indulgences were extremely over used by those who could afford them, while the poor could only live with the burden of knowing they would suffer more in purgatory. Not only did this oppose doing good works to repay sins, most indulgences were bought in advance and the the church gained wealth from selling indulgences. Therefore,

The Reformation started with the ideas and concepts of Martin Luther, all explained in his Ninety-Five Theses. Luther believed that God’s gift of faith was freely given to the unworthy, and the righteousness is passive and is not active or based on our good works or deeds. These ideas clashed with the Roman Church, which in turn created the “Indulgence Controversy.” To raise money to help rebuild St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, Pope Leo X issued the offer of indulgences as a penance for parishioners to buy. This penance acted as a way to pay as a remission of temporal punishment due to the sins of the person whose guilt has already been forgiven. Luther caught wind of the issue of indulgences happening within his own church and went ballistic

At the time Luther wrote the “95 Theses on the Power of Indulgences” he presumed that reforms could still be made by the Pope and the church's hierarchy; however, after Luther received the papal bull excommunicating him, Luther’s ideology became diametrically opposed to the pope and the whole Roman Catholic structure (shilling 142). This break was a defining time

The Protestant Reformation was a time period where the Catholic Church was majorly questioned and people began to rebel and protest the church. Several things caused the Protestant Reformation such as an unequal distribution of wealth. Poor people couldn’t even afford food at times. With the addition of the poor, many people could not pay the indulgences. Indulgences were payments that people would make out to the church so that they could lessen their time spent in purgatory, the boundary between heaven and hell. Humanist ideas were also able to spread at this time so people knew what the church was doing to the people.The Catholic Church had several problems within as well. The Church needed to raise an abundant amount of money so they raised