Essay about Protestant Reformation and Indulgences

Submitted By davding101
Words: 347
Pages: 2

For many years, scholars such as Francis of Assisi have found that the Catholic Church was wandering from its beginning origins. This meant that they were not behaving like a church should. However, no major movement had started to change this for over 3 centuries.Why did nothing happen for so long? That is because there are many important events which eventually led up to the Reformation. First of all, European kings were gaining more power. Trade increased because of the Crusades and the tax money went to the kings. Crusaders brought back riches from Muslim lands and traded it. Because the kings had more money, they could control the church. They did not want the church to tax its followers because they wanted the money for themselves. The money and power they had gained were used to force the church to stop taxing. Furthermore, because the church didn’t have money, they started doing things that were considered not right. The church did things like charge people to see relics and selling indulgences. Many people bought indulgences because they wanted to go to heaven faster. The money the church made were spent on the priests and clergy, helping them live a life of wealth. Some priests couldn’t even read the bible. This caused the church to be further corrupted. Because of these things, many were angered and some spoke out about it. Martin Luther was a priest who was shocked by the behavior of clergy in Rome. He wrote 95 theses against indulgences and nailed it to