Protestant Reformation Dbq

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The Protestant Reformation; a movement in the early 1600’s by citizens across Europe, was a movement that originated for the main purpose of purifying and reforming things such as beliefs and values of the Roman Catholic Church. Little did they know though, that through all the chaos brought about the reformation, would the beliefs and values those citizens created for themselves be those in the modern era. With not one, but many men including Martin Luther and John Calvin, playing an important role in such a big movement did the Protestant Reformation bring many challenges to the Catholic Church. These challenges include struggles amongst the monarchs, the common people and the overall society. Catholic and Protestant monarchs were in a …show more content…
Even thought the challenges may have not been obvious at the time, they were seen through the shift in religion effecting all aspects of life whether it be the clergy, monarchs, legislation or peasants. With Martin Luther branching off and starting his own form of Christianity, Lutherism, other such as John Calvin decided to form their own churches too. Not only did Calvin start his own church due to his religious views but he gained political power and under his political power did he establish a religious government. This form of government didn't make sense to many in society and caused challenges. The major result of these challenges was the attempt many called the Counter-Reformation to fix all these problems. This only caused society to pull away from each other and split apart essentially breaking apart Europe and labeling people in society with different religious groups. Whether it be the different monarchs trying to maintain their power and receive approval by the Pope, the common people taking the brunt of the reformation or society drifting apart and assigning labels to themselves due to men like Luther and Calvin, the Protestant Reformation can be seen as an event which in the end, allowed individuals have the freedom in choosing there religion. If it weren't for the reformation, religion today could potentially have an important role