What evidence convinced Luther that the Catholic Church needed to be reformed?

Answer 1

Actually, there was no evidence to convince Martin Luther that the Catholic Church needed to be reformed. Martin Luther came up with a list of problems that he thought he saw in the Catholic Church, and point blank refused to see the evidence or listen to those who tried to present it. He enumerated his problems in his 95 Theses. The Bishops, and even the Holy Father sought to sit down and discuss this with him. Martin Luther absolutely refused under any circumstances to talk reason, refused to listen to anybody and convinced himself that he was right - on, as I say, no evidence, and without even listening to those who could have explained to him where his problem was. He even made a grand show out of not listening to the Bishops and the Pope. Altogether a horrible example of how ignorance at work can really result in disastrous consequences.

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This was an extremely confusing time in Church history. The world had been changing for over a century and becoming much less Christian. Another big problem in the Church at that time was the extremely poor education of many of the clergy. Martin Luther was an Augustinian friar, and, supposedly, a professor of theology. He took issue with the "sale" of indulgences, but the most recent research has shown, that, although there were problems. There was nothing on the scale of what he was complaining about.