Martin Luther And The Protestant Reformation

Words: 284
Pages: 2

The Reformation was a movement made to reform or change certain church practices. The Reformation is also called the Protestant Reformation, as Martin Luther, the founder, was excommunicated and founded the Lutheran Church. They believed that believed that paying money for Church pardons, simony, and nepotism should be abolished, and divorce allowed. They also believed that everyone should be able to read the bible and form their own interpretations. From Germany, it spread to Switzerland, Scotland, Holland, England, and France.
The Reformation was bound to happen. There are three reasons to this. One reason is power and land. A lot of people were upset over the fact that the Roman Catholic Church has so much power over everything. They were rich by way of taxes paid by people and they had vast
2 / 2
…show more content…
Rulers in particular wanted money and land to both expand and strengthen their territories. Another reason is the Renaissance. Particularly Renaissance thought. The Renaissance emphasised the freedom of thought and expression. This caused Martin Luther to write his Ninety-Five Thesis, which protested against numerous Church practices like nepotism and simony. The third and final reason is instability in the Church. One example of this is the Great Schism of 1378-1417 where two Popes competed for supremacy. People saw this and thought that this is a chance to