Why Did The Corrupt 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

The Catholic Church during the early 16th Century was rooted throughout Europe. The Church influenced every country and its respective monarchs through the Church’s wealth and power. The Catholic Church placed a tight hold on the general populace with individuals who went against the Church being branded as heretics and excommunicated. The wealth and power of the Church eventually caused the quality of the clergy to deteriorate. Priests became corrupt and subjected to their physical desires. They frequented taverns, gambled and kept mistresses. The reputation of the clergy were horrid as the general populace was relieved that “their priest [kept] a mistress” because it “[secured] their wives from seduction” The knowledge of the clergy degenerated as well as they were no longer required to learn and teach the Holy Scriptures because the Church dictated their actions. The pinnacle of the Church’s corruption was the sale of indulgences. An indulgence was the “extra-sacramental remission of the temporal punishment” sold by priests as a temporary relief from sins. The indulgences were then sold to the general populace for money as the monetization of a priest’s services. Johannes Tetzel was a prominent preacher of indulgences who relied on the money from the sales to subsidize the rebuilding of St. Peter’s basilica in Rome. The corrupt sales did not go unnoticed as Martin Luther, in an effort to stop the corruption of the Church, posted the 95 Theses on the door of a Castle

Peter’s Basilica. Then on October 31, 1517 it is speculated that Martin Luther nailed the 95 Theses on the front doors of a university door. The reason for the massive spreading of the 95 Theses is because of the printing press. The printing press quickly spread the document throughout Germany. This was the start of what is known as the German Reformation. Martin Luther was eventually excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church. Luther would always refuse to take back what he has said in his documents against the Roman Catholic Church. At the Edict of Worms, Martin Luther was declared a heretic and made him a wanted man. Martin Luther is one of the most important figures of the medieval Europe. This may be another reason the 95 Theses and other doctrines spread so well throughout Europe. The Roman Catholic Church was ringing Martin Luther’s names all throughout the public’s ears. The old saying “any publicity is good publicity” applies in this situation. People could see that Martin Luther was onto something. The 95 Theses were put into vernacular so that anyone could read them for their selves. He gave a voice to many people that would never have a voice and spoke out against the corruptions of the Roman Catholic Church. He gave way to reform throughout the church. Martin Luther and the 95 Theses also gave way to his own form of religion called Lutheranism.

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.

He would sell items from churches and often the churches themselves; this would later provide funding to go to war. Although Henry’s involvement in the reformation appeared to derive entirely from self-interest, it later proved to be useful and resulted in many of the same changes in England as Luther had brought about in the Holy Roman Empire. But Luther mainly disagreed with the selling of indulgences in the church and then later on added ideas of "salvation by faith alone" and how to live as our savior Christ did. The purpose of the 95 Thesis was to invite local scholars to a disputation on indulgences. He addressed a lot of hierarchy issues within the church. According to the 95 Theses, Martin Luther mainly focuses on no longer God but was men, some of which shouldn't have been in the positions they were in. The other main focus was that people were thinking they didn't have a direct link with God but that there were middlemen whom they had to approach to reach God. Finally, the Popes at church were not paying enough attention to those outside who were suffering and poor.

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

Towards the end of the Middle Ages and into the duration of the Renaissance, the Medieval Church’s social and political power dwindled. Centuries prior the Catholic Church gained a surplus of control, largely due to the stability it maintained during the chaotic breakdown of the Western Roman Empire . Yet toward the end of the Middle Ages the Church set in motion factors that would ultimately lead to its downfall as the definitive figure of authority. However, despite political and social controversy surrounding the church, the institutions it established cleared a path for a new way of thinking, shaping society in an enduring way.

During the 1500’s a movement away from traditional Catholicism started to take hold. The most notable figure during this time was Martin Luther. He had ideals that, at the time, were extremely radical. As Gerald Strauss put it, “His doctrine of the two realms- the kingdom of Christ and the kingdom of the world, derived directly from Augustine – entailed the strictest segregation of things spiritual and things material” (22). He did not believe that the people of the church had any right to control the population at large. He believed that they were meant to be spiritual guides, not rulers, and that they wielded way too much control over the common people. One of the most radical things that he did, which was also the most influential

As one knows today, there are many Churches around the whole world. Although there are many today, back in the 1500’s, there was only one Church, and that is the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church was a corrupt church back at the time but no one really knew about it. One reason is because peasants and other lower-class people didn’t understand Latin so they couldn’t read the Bible except for the priests. This gave the pope and the whole church administration an idea to get huge wealth. They used relics,sacred items, to their advantage to give false hope to people, gave indulgences, a ticket to heaven, for money, and with this money the Catholic Church grew more powerful than the king. Then a man named Martin Luther started practicing the

With his new findings, this led Luther in challenging what the Catholic church enforced, such as the matter indulgences or the practice of confession. This influenced him in making his 95 theses which also addressed how the Catholic church is

The 95 Theses was a letter that Martin Luther wrote to his bishop that listed 95 things that he didn’t think were right in the Roman Catholic Church. Why did he write it? Martin wrote the 95 Theses because he could clearly tell something wasn’t right in the church. Luther disagreed with this quote given by Johann Tetzel “As soon as the coin in the coffer rings the soul from the purgatory springs”.

Martin Luther’s 95 theses were 95 things that he did not agree with the church on. Martin Luther was a monk and professor at the university of Witenburg where he lectured on the Bible in Germany. He put these 95 theses on the doors of the Catholic church and on the castle in Witenburg. The Catholic churches would not give the people bibles so they could tell the people whatever they wanted to and the pesants could not disagree with them. So, if they say you have to pay the church 1,000 dollars a week or more, you had to do it and whatever else they told you to do. This was one of the things that Luther did not agree with.

The 95 theses were written in 1517 and it was a list of 95 things of wrongdoings that Martin Luther didn’t like and that he thought was wrong in the Catholic Church; Luther didn’t like the wealth of the church. He also dint like the pope. Luther nailed his 95 theses on Wittenberg castle church doors. Luther was inviting academics for the disputation the power and efficacy of indulgences.

Luther wanted his beliefs to be known and accepted. Luther decided to continue his effort beyond the original 95 Theses. Political cartoons, copies of the 95 Theses, and a collection of other writings helped spread Luther’s beliefs to the common people. Luther had gotten to take advantage of the printing press, allowing his works to be created faster. With works being created faster more people could see his works and become familiar with his beliefs. Discussion was stimulated in universities, whether or not Luther’s views were acceptable. In 1519 Luther moved toward a more official break with the Church. Luther began to emphasize the ideas of faith bringing salvation, the Bible as the authority instead of the Pope, and priests not being

The attendant effects of Martin Luther’s reformation in the early period of the sixteenth century occasioned by his posting of the 95 theses that raised objections to some of the then prevalent practices of the Roman Catholic Church eventually led to a significant breakaway from the church of a relatively more liberal Christian sect known as the “Protestant”. It is worthy of note however that the Roman Catholic Church tried albeit unsuccessfully to placate the breakaway by instituting a “counter-Reformation” but this only achieved a cleansing of the church internally without achieving much in its most important mandate to prevent the protestant breakaway. Consequently, Europe was enmeshed in bloody religious war largely between forces loyal to the papacy in Rome and those who sympathized with the runaway protestant movement. As a result, the Roman Catholic Church invariably began to lose its pole position in the scheme of things in an already divided Europe.