Major Causes and Effects of the Protestant Reformation There were several causes of the Protestant Reformation that effected society, politics, and religion in Europe during the 16th century. In my opinion, the immediate cause that started the reformation was Martin Luther’s act of posting the 95 Theses on the door of the Wittenberg Cathedral in the Roman Empire. Luther was unhappy with the Catholic Church, and posted the Theses due to the sale of indulgences that was going on to raise money for the renovation of St. Peter’s cathedral from people who wished that their souls go from purgatory to heaven. Luther believed that an indulgence was justified for a person’s wrongdoing. By selling indulgences, the Church was giving forgiveness to …show more content…
It also allowed for mass production which put the Bible and other literature in the hands of a much larger audience. The effects on society were that common people were getting more educated on their own, and didn’t need the Church for guidance to run their lives. It also encouraged more people to learn how to write because there was a wider market for their words and opinions. Religion became more accessible to the common people. This allowed for people to come up with their own opinions on the translation of the Bible. The people began to challenge the Church’s authority because they no longer needed a Priest to translate to them. This would end up causing the Catholic Church to lose power. The next major cause of the Protestant Reformation was the creation of Lutheranism and the Lutheran Church. The Lutheran Church changed the entire culture in Europe. It caused society as a whole to live more wholesome lives by cutting down on sinful acts and criminal offenses. The Church began to draw the line on what was acceptable and what was not. People began to live more holy lives. Since religion had so much to do with the government and politics at the time, it affected how governments had to be run because they could no longer pay off the Church to get their way. This caused a major political effect on the Catholic Church. Power struggles began to influence how rulers would deal with the Church. Luther’s
The Reformation affected the European civilization in many ways. Protestant and Catholic had a huge impact on the European civilization. The Reformation happened in the year 16c . Some causes of the Reformation was church corruption, Avignon Papacy, Conciliarism, Marsilius of Padua, Development of personal devotions, Papal need for money, and greed of secular leaders land. There was also few characteristics described in this civilization. The law in order was one of them. Kings were the highest leaders over everybody. People believed they were put in position by god and that it was god's will over their people. They had created the laws. Other characteristics were heredity, slide support from the middle class (towns), and organize their finances into reliable order. Rulers would want family members to continue the bloodline of a ruling of their people. Some families even fought because they wanted to be rulers. People separated by their class because they had a social class system. People at a high class relied on lower class people for support.
The Protestant Reformation is when Lutheranism and other Protestant religions split from catholicism. This happened by Martin Luther posting 95 themes all over churches to bring attention to how wrong the catholic church has turned. Some examples of Protestant religions are Lutheranism, Anglican(church of England), and Calvinism. The underlying causes for the Reformation is: the people of power in the catholic church wanted a lot of money from the people, the pope had too much power, and the catholic church did not like how the Protestant churches were being run.
The Protestant Reformation that occurred in Europe during the 16th century was caused by the overall corruption of the church and wrong use of papal power. The Reformation affected the power of the church and prompted the rest of the world to question their church’s authority.
The Protestant Reformation, followed by the Catholic Reformation, was an attempt to cleanse the Catholic Church of all corruption and blind teaching. As presented in the documents provided, the Protestant and Catholic Reformations represented great change in the life of Europeans. Whether positively or negatively, almost every European citizen felt the impact of the Reformations on their lives. This was due largely to the fact that the Catholic Church struggled to defend ideas, affecting the clergy, peasants, and nobles all in different ways.
The Protestant Reformation forever changed the religious, social, and political aspects of the world. These changes forever altered the world and paved the way for revolutions to
The Protestant Reformation was a major 16th century European movement aimed initially at reforming the beliefs and practices of the Roman Catholic Church. The Reformation in western and central Europe officially began in 1517 with Martin Luther and his 95 Theses. This was a debate over the Christian religion. At the time there was a difference in power. Roman Catholicism stands with the Pope as central and appointed by God. Luther’s arguments referred to a direct relationship with God and using the local vernacular to speak to the people. Luther’s arguments remove the absolute power from the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church in general. The revenue from the taxes paid to the Church would be reduced with Luther’s ideas, in part because of
The Protestant Reformation was a pivotal time of European history that occurred during the 16th century. The Protestant Reformation was comprised of people called “reformers” that challenged papal authority and questioned the Catholic Church’s ability to define Christian practice (“The Reformation”). The Protestant Reformation was revolutionary due to the fact that the reformers preached against everything the Catholic Church had been teaching. Some famous reformers are John Calvin and Martin Luther. However, Martin Luther-- to some--- is named the most successful and influential reformer of the 16th century. Martin Luther was tremendously effective and influential due to how resourceful he was, and his teachings spread across Europe swiftly.
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.
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
The protestant Reformation was a significant event in Christianity. It took place over the years of 1517 to the year of 1648. The Protestant Reformation was a 16th century movement that occurred throughout Europe. The Protestant Reformation was the event of a significant figure challenging the Roman Catholic Church, there teachings and religious way. There were earlier protests about the certain ways and aspects of the Roman Catholic Church but it wasn’t until a monk called Martin Luther that these became successful and led to major changes. Also Martin Luther challenged some of the techniques that were being used to extort money off people, an example of this is the sales of indulgences. This then lead to the end of the dominant figure of
The protestant reformation happened at the moment that it did because the Catholic Church was very a powerful force in Europe. It controlled people lives both spiritually and temporally. The church had so much power that it maintained political control over a large portion of Italy. The fact that the church held so much control over countries and governments became a point of contention among European countries such as the Holy Roman Empire, Italian city-states outside of Rome, England, France and Spain. The power of the rulers of these areas had greatly increased in the 14th century and they were eager to take the chances offered by a Reformation to weaken the grip of the Catholic Church in Europe and also to develop their own powers across the European continent. For quite some time the Catholic Church had been an institution rampant with internal struggles. Such as the Avignon Papacy from 1309 to 1377 when seven popes opted to live in Avignon, France and not reside in Rome which was and is the traditional home of the Papacy. The Pope and other high ranking church officials often lived opulent lifestyles rather than a more austere lifestyle that should befit a spiritual leader. Many church leaders and Popes maintained political powers. They led armies, waged wars and made many political decisions. Church offices were sold, and many Popes and bishops practiced nepotism to fill church offices. With all of these worldly issues for the Pope
During the Baroque period, religion, politics and socioeconomic were influenced by the Reformation and Counter-Reformation movements. The reformation revolution took place at the Western Church and was led by Martin Luther during the 16th century (1517). The revolution resulted in the founding of Protestantism, which is today one of the major branches of Christianity. During the revolution, chaos aroused between the Catholic and the Protestant church because the Protestants are against some practices of the Catholic Church like the selling of indulgences and relics. The Reformation forced the masses to create a choice of religion ‒ to be Catholic or to be Protestant. It was a choice that had to be made and there were no alternatives. The revolutionaries noticed the corruption and the misused authority of the leaders of the church and they believed that things had to be changed and be put back in the proper order of the bible.
The Protestant Reformation and European expansion have both left political, social and economic impacts throughout history. The Protestant Reformation which was started in the 1500’s, by a Catholic man named Martin Luther caused political instability and fragmented the Holy Roman Empire. It economically caused the church to go bankrupt and socially allowed for the rise of individualism among the people; Luther gave the people of Europe the long needed reason to break free of the church. The Protestant Reformation and the need for new converts lead to the rise of European expansion. European expansion into the west resulted in a political increase of power for Europe, the social increase in slavery, disease and racism, as well as the
During sixteenth century Europe a wave of religious dissatisfaction swept the European continent. There were cries for the restructuring of the Catholic Church. These cries grew into more than just a simple remodeling of the Catholic faith they grew into the Protestant Reformation. Martin Luther is credited for the reformation movement against the Catholic Church that began in 1517.
The underlying causes of the Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century were social, political, and economic in nature. Financial burdens, humanist ideas, and corrupt popes set the stage for a change which was welcomed by Europe. These changes gave power to the people. Both negative and positive consequences followed the reformation. One action was the Counter Reformation in the Catholic Church. Negatively, however, persecutions of Protestant persisted for many years causing thousands of people to flee their homelands in search of religious freedom. Overall, the Protestant Reformation opened new avenues of thought in Europe.