Gina Tangelo

10/7/16
World History II

Martin Luther and Henry VIII Compare and Contrast Essay

Martin Luther was a protester that challenged the Church in Rome. VIII
was the king of England and challenged the Church of England. Though they
did not start off the same, they still had some similar motives for challenging
the Church as well as the methods they used to challenge the Church. These
two men are key examples of how the Reformation was started. These two
challenged power and authority because they didnt think that the Churchs
rules were fair nor acceptable.
Both Martin Luther and Henry VIII challenged the Church to reform the
Church in some way. Henry challenged the Church because the pope would
not annul Henrys marriage. Henry was furious and decided to challenge the
church because of this. Henrys original goal was to increase Englands
prestige among the countries of Europe. He also wanted to secure a male
heir for the throne since he only had a daughter from his first wife. Luther, on
the other hand, wanted to let people all over know that they could have a
direct relationship with god without having to go through the Church or a
priest. He was upset with how the church was running the things and wanted
that to change, and he wasnt the only one. Though both of them had
somewhat similar reasons for challenging the church, Henry challenged the
Church more for himself and just because he was the king and could do
whatever he wanted instead of because of what was happening to the
people around him like Luther.
The methods that they used to challenge the Church were very
different. Luther was a bit more practical since he didnt originally have much
power to begin with. He took a pilgrimage to Italy to protest against the
selling of indulgences, the tipping point. He taped 95 theses of why he didnt
like the Church to the front door of the Church. He also created a new sect of
Christianity called protestants that still exists to this day. When he heard that
the Church didnt like what he was doing, he just created more extreme
practices just to make the Church even more mad. Henry was almost the
opposite. He asked the Parliament to pass a series of laws that would take
the power away from the pope and the Church so that he would be the one
to control it instead. Once this was done he could finally get a divorce and
marry the other woman he was already in love with. He also relies on
Thomas Crowell to help him with ruling the new church. Though the only
method he used to challenge was by taking over it, Henry actually
strengthened the Church and kept most of the Catholic forms of worship. He
was against protestants like the Church was and not really changing the
Church at all. While Luther wanted for the Church to change its ways and for
there to be a change in how people were treated, Henry just wanted to get a
divorce and taking over the Church seemed to be the only way for him to get
that.
Both Martin Luther and Henry VIII had some history with their fathers
that lead to their challenge. Henry was left with his fathers kingdom with no
resources to rule it. He wanted to keep the legacy and the great land that his
father left it to be. Having a male heir for him would secure the fate of the
kingdom, hence why he wanted one so badly. Luther had a terrible
relationship with his father. His father didnt think that what Luther wanted to
do was a stable job and though that he should go into humanism or
something like that. There was also a storm that happened where he was
very scared and prayed to God to stop the storm. He said that if it stopped,
he would become a monk. And that is exactly what happened. This incident
is the reason for why Luther challenged the Church by saying that anyone
can have a close relationship with God and be forgiven without having to go
to a priest about it. Luther and Henry both had somewhat extreme motives
for challenging the church based off of incidents that happened in the
childhood.
 In conclusion, both men challenged authority in many ways. With both
of their challenges came positive and negative outcomes and well as
outcomes that they didnt expect to come with their challenge. They also
managed to achieve the goal that they were planning. All in all, they did
what they wanted to do as well as leaving a legacy for those to come.