The Age Of Reformation

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The Age of Reformation During the fourteenth and fifteen century, the people were losing faith in the Church and the Pope. They did not think that they were doing their jobs properly anymore. The Church started to become more and more narcissistic. They were only after their own glory and they lacked the ability to respond effectively to the demands that were made by normal human beings who became concerned with the effectiveness of the government. To solve these problems, a religious reform took place. The latter was greatly influence by three main developments: the search for the freedom of private religious expression, the print revolution, and the northern Renaissance interest in the Bible and other sources of Christian knowledge. Firstly,…show more content…
One of the most important books of that time, the Bible, could finally be mass produced for the public at a low cost and purchase. A lot more people became literate so they could read which in consequence lead to an increase in European universities. With this print evolution, the spread of information was increasing more rapidly than ever and people could finally interpret the Bible in their own way. The people stopped following the Church blindly and took their spiritual entities in their own hands. Also, Martin Luther used printers to spread his ideas throughout Europe. John Calvin stated in a letter he replied to Sadoleto that: “For seeing how dangerous it would be to boast of the Spirit without the Word, He declared that the Church is indeed governed by the Holy Spirit, but in order that the government might not be vague and unstable, He annexed it to the Word. For this reason Christ exclaims that those who are of God hear the Word of God” (Levack, Muir and Veldman, 2013, p.444). What link I am trying to make with this quote is that now that the people can read the unexclusive Bible, they can finally hear the Word of God instead of concepts that the Church would spread. The people could finally “hear” God instead of hearing his words through an…show more content…
The humanist were studying the way words change over time. They wanted to know how accurate the Bible was after being translated In Latin and other languages. They tried to find out if the true meanings of what was written in the Bible. What message did it truly convey? Also, as I stated above, the humanists wanted to set ethical and moral codes of conduct that were within the boundaries of the Bible. A lot of priest were corrupt and asked for money from citizens that were on their death beds. They took advantage of the dying people to get richer. They also received payment for restoring a person’s salvation. Martin Luther invoked that point in a letter he sent to the Archbishop of Mainz: “the unhappy souls believe that if they have purchased letters of indulgence they are sure of their salvation; again, that so soon as they cast their contributions into the money-box, souls fly out of the purgatory”. Priests new about this and they took advantage of it because if anyone had the chance to redeem themselves and escape purgatory they would take it. In consequence of these actions, the clergy wasn’t viewed the same way as before and their morals and code of ethics were questioned which led people to follow influential humanists like Erasmus and
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