Reaction To The Protestant Reformation

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To begin, the Protestant Reformation began in reaction to the Catholic Church’s rather corrupt practices. Prior to the Reformation, the only manager Christian denomination in Western Europe 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 many decades ago, Europe’s Monarch’s had wiped out and suppressed any form of religious competition. With the Catholic Church holding a tight a stranglehold over Europe, Catholicism was the only option. This allowed them to get away with many practices that would be considered unsavory. To begin, the common folk had to pay Tithe’s (or taxes) regularly to the Church. This is where the Church…show more content…
In 1517 Luther, a Professor of Theology at the time, grew angry at the selling of indulgences and produced 95 theses against them. He sent them privately to friends and opponents and nailed them to a church door, a common method of starting debate. These theses were soon published and the Dominicans, who sold many indulgences, called for sanctions against Luther. As the papacy sat in judgement and later condemned him, Luther produced a powerful body of work, falling back on scripture to challenge the existing papal authority and rethinking the nature of the entire church. Luther’s ideas and style of preaching in person soon spread, partly among people who believed in him and partly among people who just liked his opposition to the church. Many clever and gifted preachers across Germany took on the new ideas, teaching and adding to them faster and more successfully than the church could keep up with. Shortly after Luther a Swiss preacher called Zwingli produced similar ideas, beginning the related Swiss…show more content…
Martin Luther’s revelations opened the eyes of many to the Catholic Church’s corruption and it is no surprise that many wanted change. Some, like the German Princes, merely took advantage of the situation to further increase their power, while others like the Protestants of England truly believed in Luther’s teachings and wanted to lessen their persecution at the hands of their Catholic Monarchy. Certainly though, whatever their reasons/motives the Protestants of Europe made their mark and the changes they enacted still exist
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