Why was the Catholic Church under pressure to reform itself?

Answer 1

Frankly, the common people thought so because their leaders told them to think so.

During the time of the reformation, the pope had a much different role than he has today. In addition to being a spiritual leader, the pope was the ruler of a whole country in central Italy called the Papal States. (Today the pope still rules his own country, the Vatican, but it is really, really small -- just 110 acres!) This made the Pope prone to political corruption because he had the same concerns as a secular ruler would have while ruling the church. Some really corrupt men who did not care much for religion as they did for the political power and wealth that came with the papacy became pope. They did terrible things like promote superstitions and sell indulgences and positions in the church for profit.

These abuses gave the ideas of Luther and the subsequent reformers a lot of traction. Princes who opposed the Pope politically could rebel and join protestant countries to avoid submission to papal authority.

Thus the corruption of the Roman Church and the power of the papcy made many people want to rebel against it. The leaders used the (rather silly in my opinion) ideas of the protestant reformers as a pretext to get out from under the yoke of papal control. It wasn't hard to convince people to go along with the changes because the Roman Church was so publicly and extravagantly corrupt.

Answer 2

The problems that brought about the protestant revolt were very real, although time and the repeated litanies of errors have blurred the real problems. But they still had to be addressed and righted, the education of the clergy, the woeful lack of had caused the original problem - nearly all those who led the protestant revolt were clergy.

Answer 3

Roman Catholic AnswerThe question as stated doesn't make sense, as the Catholic Church is the Mystical Body of Christ (read St. Paul) and as such is perfect. It can not "get reformed". If, however, you are referring to its individual members, who are all sinful, then the Church is always reforming, and has throughout Her history. There have been over twenty Ecumenical Council, each of one can be considered as reforming the Church in some way, in modern times, particularly notable have been the Council of Trent and the Second Vatican Council.

Answer 4

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. Martin Luther issued his "95 Theses" which are a remarkable demonstration of complete ignorance of basic Catholic theology. They are actually painful to read and think that the author styled himself a professor. But finally his true colors came out, we have his own writings to substantiate this: his big problem was with the Church asking him to lead a moral life. He objected strongly, he left his Order without permission, violated all of his solemn life-long vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, without so much as even seeking permission to be relieved of them. He left his Order, married an ex-nun and proceeded to lead a life of drunkenness and debauchery, somehow thinking that Our Blessed Lord would look kindly on all of this. He threw out books of the Old Testament which disagreed with him, and altered books of the New Testament to agree with himself - as well as throwing some books out of the New Testament. Altogether an extremely sad case.