Zachary Chen Mr.

Travers European History AP 27 September 2011 The Reformation The Protestant Reformation had emerged out of a combination of fervor for religious reform, a sincere departure from Church doctrine, and social as well as political considerations. While each one of the three were important to the Reformation, the latter, social and political considerations, was critical to the success of the Reformation. The fervor of the people for religious reform revealed the underlying problems of the Catholic Church at the time and laid the foundation for the Reformation and a sincere departure from the dogma of the Church sparked the Reformation. Without the social and political implications of the Reformation, however, it would have quickly fizzled out. During the period of time leading up to the Reformation, the Church had been filled with corruption and problems that led to the desire of the laity to reform the Catholic Church. The complaints of the masses helped to highlight the corruption and immorality that had permeated throughout the Church. One issue was the selling of Church offices for a price, allowing many popes, such as the Medicis, to buy into the papacy for personal gain rather than any piety. As a result, the Church was viewed as a kingdom ruled by a prince, the Pope. Due to the medieval practice of benefice, the selling of ecclesiastical offices to the highest bidder, many members of the clergy lived away from their parish. The people of the parishes soon became frustrated by having to pay taxes to a high-ranking clergy member who had little to no interest in their problems. Another issue was that the bible was left in Latin, which a majority of people could not read. That allowed high-ranking Church officials to claim that

whatever they said was allowed in the scriptures with the laity none the wiser. To raise money, the Church also sold indulgences to people, by paying a fee someone could reduce the time they or a loved one spends in purgatory after dying. The money raised through the selling of indulgences were given to the pope and used to build St. Peters Basilica As a result of its increasing secularism, clergy and laity together sought to reform the Catholic Church and return it to its former symbol of religious piety. The Reformation was brought about by Martin Luther, who sincerely believed that the Catholic Church had overstepped its authority in its teachings. Martin Luther believed in justification by faith alone, which denied that good works and religious ceremonies could get someone into heaven but only by believing in Christ were they saved. This belief of Luthers famously clashed with the Catholic Church when he posted his 95 Theses against indulgences. Luther was excommunicated and was placed under imperial ban by Charles V at the Diet of Worms. He was protected by friends and supporters of Lutheran. Martin Luther and his true followers believed that the Catholic Church was beyond redemption and started anew. The Reformation had started in the Holy Roman Empire, a conglomeration of hundreds of independent regions with their own princes operating under an empire. As its Roman Catholic identity kept the Holy Roman Empire unified, many princes recognized the social, political, and economical value of rejecting the Catholic Church in favor of the new Protestant faiths. These newly converted Protestant rulers were also the ones who protected Luther from harm, keeping the leader of the Reformation safe. In England, King Henry VIII passed the Act of Supremacy in 1534, declaring himself the head of the Church of England. As the Anglican Church mirrored the Catholic Church closely, it reveals that Henry VIII simply used the English Reformation as an excuse to divorce Catherine of Aragon and marry Anne Boleyn. In France, two-fifths of the nobles, including the Bourbons and the Montmorency-Chatillon, two of the three major noble families, and one-fifteenth of the population of France had converted to

Calvinism and formed a Huguenot army within France. The excuse of the Protestant Reformation to oppose the Catholic Church and its supporters allowed Protestant faiths to spread throughout Europe, ultimately the kingpin in preventing the Protestant Reformation from failing. The desire to want to reform the Catholic Church had been around for a long time before, yet no action was taken by the Church to actually reform the problems until the Council of Trent. An excommunication and an imperial ban were the answer to Luthers 95 Theses. An excommunication meant that any contract or obligations made with Luther were null and void. In a time where it was common enough, Luther could have been easily assassinated, completely censored, or simply outdone in propaganda had he not found the support of the German princes looking for any excuse to elevate their own positions while lowering the power of the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. While it is true that the foundations for the Reformation were laid by those who wanted to reform the Church and those who honestly disagreed with the Church over its dogma, the political machinations of many leaders kept the Reformation alive.