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Reformation History
The history of The Reformation started when Western European Catholics opposed what they believed to be false doctrines and ecclesiastic malpractice within the Catholic Church. The movement’s famous leaders include Martin Luther and John Calvin.
1,691 Questions
What two reasons lead to the Protestant reformation?
Catholic Answer
The one basic cause of the protestant revolt was sin, which played out in various ways. One of the biggest contributing factors (see below) was the Great Schism or the Schism of the West also known as the Avignon Papacy. Another huge factor was the breakdown of the medieval synthesi, also see below.
The proximate cause was Martin Luther and others not really understanding their own Church and attributing men's sins to the Immaculate Bride of Christ, His Mystical Body, the Church. That, and their stubborn pride and thinking that they knew better than Our Blessed Lord, Himself.
It wasn't so much the conduct of the Church, although the conduct of individuals - from Popes to laity - certainly played a part in it. But it was a whole host of factors including several major famines, the Black Death, the Avignon Papacy (The Great Schism), the heresy of Conciliarism, according to which a Church council was a higher authority than the pope. Then there was the coldness that was seeping into religious life, which was first noticed by St. Francis of Assisi. The collect from the Tridentine liturgy for the Feast of St. Francis on September 17 refers to this growing coldness:
O Lord Jesus Christ, Who, when the world was growing cold, didst renew the sacred marks of Thy passion in the flesh of the most blessed Francis, to inflame our hearts with the fire of Thy love, graciously grant that by His merits and prayers we may continually bear the cross and bring forth fruits worthy of penance.
There, of course, are many more reasons in these two centuries that led to the protestant revolt, I would suggest that you pick up Diane Moczar's book, Ten Dates Every Catholic Should Know, and read chapter the chapter headed 1517 AD The Protestant Catastrophe.
Probably the single biggest behavior that effected the Church in the Late Middle Ages was the Great Schism, which ran from 1378 to 1417. This was known as the Avignon Papacy, when the Pope moved to Avignon, and no one knew who the real Pope was. For most of this period there were two claimants to the Papal throne, near the end of it, three. This threw Christendom into crisis with the end result of greatly weakening the Papacy and contributing to the protestant revolt a hundred years later. That and the rise of heresies including those of the Bohemia, John Hus, the heresy of Nominalism. And then there was the rise of Renaissance thought. Originally Renaissance thought saw the good in the Greek and Latin classics and tried to bring them into the Christian present. Thomas Aquinas has done a magnificent job of this earlier in the 13th century with Aristotle, on whom he based his classic Summa Theologiae which is still used to this day in teaching theology. But later Renaissance intellectuals had a whole different mind set and through their fascination with pagan ideas, they adopted the worldly outlook of their writers. Finally there was the rise of the business culture and the love of money - the root of all evil according to the Sacred Scriptures. The love of money and business became prevalent in this era wiping out the great Age of Faith that had just ended.
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from A Catholic Dictionary, edited by Donald Attwater, Second edition, revised 1957
The Great Schism, otherwise know as the Schism of the West was not strictly a schism at all but a conflict between the two parties within the Church each claiming to support the true pope. Three months after the election of Urban VI, in 1378, the fifteen electing cardinals declared that they had appointed him only as a temporary vicar and that in any case the election was invalid as made under fear of violence from the Roman mob. Urban retorted by naming twenty-eight new cardinals, and the others at once proceeded to elect Cardinal Robert of Geneva as Pope Clement VII, who went to reside at Avignon. The quarrel was in its origin not a theological or religious one, but was caused by the ambition and jealousy of French influence, which was supported to some extent for political reasons by Spain, Naples, Provence, and Scotland; England, Germany, Scandinavia, Wales, Ireland, Portugal, Flanders and Hungary stood by what they believe to be the true pope at Rome. The Church was torn from top to bottom by the schism, both sides in good faith (it was impossible to know to whom allegiance was due), which lasted with its two lines of popes (and at one time three) till the election of Martin V in 1417. It is now regarded as practically certain that the Urbanist popes were the true ones and their names are included in semi-official lists; moreover, the ordinal numbers of the Clementine claimants (who, however, are not called anti-popes,) were adopted by subsequent popes of the same name.
Extracted from What Every Catholic Wants to Know Catholic History from the Catacombs to the Reformation, by Diane Moczar, c 2006 by Our Sunday Visitor Publishing Division
The five key elements that made up the "medieval synthesis" were:
- The harmony between Faith and reason.
- The balance of power among nation-states as parts of Christendom
- The balancing of the authority of the king with local self-government.
- The harmony between the goals of individual self-fulfillment and those of society.
- The equilibrium - and an uneasy one, it is true - between Church and state.
In the fourteenth century everything started to fall apart beginning with famine and plague. Cold, wet weather between 1315 and 1322 brought ruined crops in northern Europe and the resulting famine produced mass starvation, the mortality rate was as high as ten percent. But within 25-20 years the Black Death struck Europe. Between 1347-1350 an estimate average of thirty percent of the population on the continent died. In some cases, the death toll was much higher. It returned again in 1363 and would recur periodically for the next three centuries. All of this caused social friction and rebellions, not to mention some bizarre heresies. In addition to all of this the Hundred Years's War began, the Ottoman Turks began their onslaught of Europe, and the Papacy was going through many troubles beginning with the Avignon papacy. All of this set the stage, so to speak for the protestant catastrophe.
What were the social effects of reformation?
the reformation had both catholic and protestant martyrs.....villages and families were divided.In the reign of mary ....many protestans of all ranks into exile....
How did the posting of the 95 Theses began the Protestant Reformation?
Martin posted a list of theses on which he disagreed with the Roman Catholic policy, and offered to debate any of them. He initially hoped to reform the church of Rome, but ended up starting a separate church.
What did Martin Luther do to break up the Catholic church?
Martin Luther did to break up with the Catholic church in the time of October 31,1517 in Wittenburg Germany.He made the 95 thesis to stamp it in Wittenburg church castle.The 95 thesis was his allegation against the teaching of the Catholic church.
What are some economic problems in the Protestant Reformation?
"All the causes" would fill a whole library. The word 'reformation' indicates that we are talking about the efforts of (at the time) Roman Catholic priests and scholars to reform the ills of the Roman Catholic church from within. Those ills differed depending on who was complaining: Luther alone had 95 issues he wanted to have reformed within the Church. Things to be reformed that were most often mentioned: the enormous riches of bishops and convents; scandalous private lives of bishops and priests; the interpretation given by the Church to Bible texts and the validity of the doctrines of the Church itself.
What is the definition of reformation?
Please note the the answer below was NOT written by James Hough, and is not endorsed by him, as well.
There were many great men involved in the Protestant reformation.
John Wycliffe is known as the "morning star of the reformation". And then we have:
- John Huss and Jerome
- Martin Luther
- William Tyndale
- Hugh Latimer
- Thomas Cranmer
- The Ridleys
- Zwingli
- John Fox
- John Knox
- John Calvin
- John Wesley
And many more men who stood up against Roman Peoples Nutsszzzzz
The reformers believed that the Pope represented that "man of sin" in the Bible and believed the Papacy to be the antichrist system (little horn of Daniel 7).
How did the Catholic and Protestant split lead to political rivalries and wars in Europe?
In the sixteenth century when Martin Luther first led his revolt against the Church, it was accepted practice that everyone (save Jews) in Europe were the same religion as the prince of that particular country. The Peace of Westphalia tried to stop the political wars by saying that if the prince of a territory left the Church, then any who wanted to remain Catholic had to leave his territory and immigrate to a territory ruled by a Catholic prince.
Who did Martin Luther marry in 1522?
Martin Luther married Katharina von Bora on June 13, 1525. He was 41 years old at the time of the wedding and she was just 26.
Who was the leader of the religious reformation?
the question should really say leader(s)
Henvry VII - Reformation of theEnglish Church to get his way
Luther- Fought against the Catholic church for the Protestant values/ Lutheranism
Calvin- Followed in the foot steps of Luther providing calvinism/ predestination
Anabaptists- Set up the first religious toleration with their ideas
check out also Knox, Zwingli and some others too.
Why did reformers oppose the spoils system?
Reformers opposed the spoils system because it was inefficient and unfair.
What events prompted Catholic leaders to begin the Catholic reformation?
Catholic Answer
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This is a huge subject, I shall try to highlight some things that you can look for, but WikiAnswers is hardly the suitable place to fully answer such a question. First of all, I would suggest two books, both excellent, Diane Moczar's book, Ten Dates Every Catholic Should Know, and James Hitchcock's book, History of the Catholic Church From the Apostolic Age to the Third Millennium.
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There is much background material covered in both, especially concerning the "coldness" which had settled into society and religion for two centuries before the protestant catastrophe.
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It wasn't so much the conduct of the Church, although the conduct of individuals - from Popes to laity - certainly played a part in it. But it was a whole host of factors including several major famines, the Black Death (starting around 1350), the Avignon Papacy ( 1378 - 1417: The Great Schism when the Pope moved to Avignon, and no one knew who the real Pope was. For most of this period there were two claimants to the Papal throne, near the end of it, three. This threw Christendom into crisis with the end result of greatly weakening the Papacy and contributing to the protestant revolt a hundred years later.
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That and the rise of heresies including those of the Bohemia, John Hus, the heresy of Nominalism. And then there was the rise of Renaissance thought. Originally Renaissance thought saw the good in the Greek and Latin classics and tried to bring them into the Christian present. Thomas Aquinas has done a magnificent job of this earlier in the 13th century with Aristotle, on whom he based his classic Summa Theologiae which is still used to this day in teaching theology. But later Renaissance intellectuals had a whole different mind set and through their fascination with pagan ideas, they adopted the worldly outlook of their writers. Finally there was the rise of the business culture and the love of money - the root of all evil according to the Sacred Scriptures. The love of money and business became prevalent in this era wiping out the great Age of Faith that had just ended.).
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Then the heresy of Conciliarism (following the Great Schism, Council of Pisa 1409 (which did not end the Schism), Council of Constance (1414-1418 which did end the Schism but claimed superiority over the Pope), Council of Basel (1431-1449), according to which a Church council was a higher authority than the pope (this Council "fell apart") and finally the Fifth Lateran Council (1512-1517) which ended the heresy of Conciliarism and started modest Church reform. Then there was the coldness that was seeping into religious life, which was first noticed by St. Francis of Assisi. The collect from the Tridentine liturgy for the Feast of St. Francis on September 17 refers to this growing coldness:
O Lord Jesus Christ, Who, when the world was growing cold, didst renew the sacred marks of Thy passion in the flesh of the most blessed Francis, to inflame our hearts with the fire of Thy love, graciously grant that by His merits and prayers we may continually bear the cross and bring forth fruits worthy of penance.
There, of course, are many more reasons in these two centuries that led to the protestant revolt, I would suggest that you pick up Diane Moczar's book, Ten Dates Every Catholic Should Know, and read chapter the chapter headed 1517 AD The Protestant Catastrophe.
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Probably the single biggest behavior that effected the Church in the Late Middle Ages was the Great Schism, which ran from 1378 to 1417. This was known as the Avignon Papacy,
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from A Catholic Dictionary, edited by Donald Attwater, Second edition, revised 1957
The Great Schism, otherwise know as the Schism of the West was not strictly a schism at all but a conflict between the two parties within the Church each claiming to support the true pope. Three months after the election of Urban VI, in 1378, the fifteen electing cardinals declared that they had appointed him only as a temporary vicar and that in any case the election was invalid as made under fear of violence from the Roman mob. Urban retorted by naming twenty-eight new cardinals, and the others at once proceeded to elect Cardinal Robert of Geneva as Pope Clement VII, who went to reside at Avignon. The quarrel was in its origin not a theological or religious one, but was caused by the ambition and jealousy of French influence, which was supported to some extent for political reasons by Spain, Naples, Provence, and Scotland; England, Germany, Scandinavia, Wales, Ireland, Portugal, Flanders and Hungary stood by what they believe to be the true pope at Rome. The Church was torn from top to bottom by the schism, both sides in good faith (it was impossible to know to whom allegiance was due), which lasted with its two lines of popes (and at one time three) till the election of Martin V in 1417. It is now regarded as practically certain that the Urbanist popes were the true ones and their names are included in semi-official lists; moreover, the ordinal numbers of the Clementine claimants (who, however, are not called anti-popes,) were adopted by subsequent popes of the same name.
Extracted from What Every Catholic Wants to Know Catholic History from the Catacombs to the Reformation, byDiane Moczar, c 2006 by Our Sunday Visitor Publishing Division
The five key elements that made up the "medieval synthesis" were:- The harmony between Faith and reason.- The balance of power among nation-states as parts of Christendom- The balancing of the authority of the king with local self-government.- The harmony between the goals of individual self-fulfillment and those of society.- The equilibrium - and an uneasy one, it is true - between Church and state.In the fourteenth century everything started to fall apart beginning with famine and plague. Cold, wet weather between 1315 and 1322 brought ruined crops in northern Europe and the resulting famine produced mass starvation, the mortality rate was as high as ten percent. But within 25-20 years the Black Death struck Europe. Between 1347-1350 an estimate average of thirty percent of the population on the continent died. In some cases, the death toll was much higher. It returned again in 1363 and would recur periodically for the next three centuries. All of this caused social friction and rebellions, not to mention some bizarre heresies. In addition to all of this the Hundred Years's War began, the Ottoman Turks began their onslaught of Europe, and the Papacy was going through many troubles beginning with the Avignon papacy. All of this set the stage, so to speak for the protestant catastrophe.
Which brings us to the Fifth Lateran Council (1512-1519) the first serious, official attempt to reform the Church. Giles of Viterbo, the general of the Augustinians was the most prominent Church member and he took the popes to task for most of the current abuses in the Church, although he put great hope in Leo X (1513-1521) who had succeeded Pope Julius II (who had called the Council).
The Lateran Council issued a whole laundry list of abuses that they wanted to end, including "worldly prelates, bishops neglecting their responsibilities, and cardinals living away from Rome. The Council Fathers castigated the clergy for irregular ways of attaining benefices, nepotism, and unchastity. It condemned Averroism . . and even established Catholic pawn shops under Church auspices, to provide affordable loans to the poor."
For a complete detailing of the Catholic reformation please see Chapter 9 from Hitchcock's book History of the Catholic Church.
How did the Bible and early Christian writings lead to to the Reformation?
in the ancient texts of the new testament, renaissance scholars rediscovered a form of Christianity unconcerned with worldly power and material goods. they learned how early church leaders had made personal sacrifices and cared for the sick and the needy. the humanity and charity described in the ancient texts seemed very different from the renaissance church leaders desire for wealth and power.
A what led the Reformation movement in England?
The reformation movement was fueled by an attempt to reform the Catholic Church. There were a lot of false doctrines and malpractices going on in the church.
Who was the Catholic pope that sold indulgences?
Pope Leo X was accused by Martin Luther of selling indulgences or allowing the sale of indulgences.
Why did Martin Luther start the Protestant Reformation?
The Augsburg Confessions of 1530 (Diet of Augsburg) established the Evangelical Church of Germany (EKD), by way of a charter established through the Electors of Saxony, of the Holy Roman Empire.
The Triglota Concordance of 1580 officially established the Lutheran doctrine of faith and the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Germany was established, well after Dr. Martin Luther's death.
Dr. Martin Luther received his degree under the Order of Saint Augustine of Hippo, of the Catholic Church. His education and multilingual skills with translations enabled him to conform to a more pure teaching of Catholicism without the political influence of the Holy Roman Empire into the Church of Rome and the authority of the Papacy over the Catholic Council of Bishops (conciliarism).
Lutheranism trends along Evangelical-Protestant theology, while other competing doctrines trend along Reformationist-Reform theology.
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Answer
Martin Luther dreamed up his own religion out of thin air to suit himself, as Christianity was too hard for him to abide, so he made up his own religion which he, himself, said that God would save him no matter how much he sinned because he had made up his mind. To try and bolster his position, he threw books out of the Old Testament and tried to throw books out of the New Testament as well. In other words, he couldn't abide the Church's teaching, so he based his version of Christianity on the Bible alone, then adjusted the Bible to agree with himself:
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In one incident he translated Romans 8:28 as "We hold that man is justified without works of the law by faith alone." (The word "alone" is in none of the original texts) His answer to Emser's exposition of his perversion of the text was: "If your P*pist annoys you with the word [alone], tell him straightway: Dr. Martin Luther will have it so: P*pist and ass are one and the same thing. Whoever will not have my translation, let him give it the go-by: the devil's thanks to him who censures it without my will and knowledge. Luther will have it so, and he is a doctor above all the doctors in Popedom." (Amic. Discussion, 1, 127). {Please note that the WikiAnswers computer will not allow me to quote Martin Luther's word for Catholics, so I have replaced it with P*pist you have to supply the "a" yourself.}
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Other reformers at that time did not agree with him on the New Testament and they put those books back in their Bible. The Council of Trent reaffirmed the Church's constant teaching on the Bible and all the books it contains.
Why was Martin Luther important in the Reformation?
Martin Luther was the one who wanted to reform the Roman Catholic Church. In other words... Change some things... He watched there was a lot of corruption and he as a But as at that time there was so much corruption, he wrote a letter to the Priest and nail it to the door of the church. He thought that the Priest didn't knew about this (but actually he was the one behind all this).
The Thirty Years War became a battle over?
the right to impose religion on people in ones realm who did not want to follow said religion. The first and only holy war pitting catholics and protestants agaisnt each other. It was also partly caused by a power grab by France in hopes to dimish the power of the waning but effective holy roman empire
How did the catholic church help the challemagne gain power?
they always were there for them and always helping them.
German priest whose protest against the Catholic Church started the Protestant Reformation?
Martin Luther was the leader of the Protestant Reformation.
Why did Martin Luther object to the state of the Catholic Church?
A:
There were few periods in the long history of the Catholic Church when corruption was more openly present than during the Renaissance period. The sale of indulgences was becoming a prime source of personal income for popes, cardinals and bishops, as were the sale of ecclesiastical offices and the imposition of many corrupt fees and charges.
In 1514, Albrecht of Brandenburg had been raised to the archdiocese of Mainz, but since he intended not to surrender his previous diocese of Magdeburg, and was also under the canonical age to be a bishop, the pope was able to insist on a considerable fee. He agreed in return that 50 per cent of the monies raised from the preaching of the indulgence in Albrecht's two dioceses could be set against this sum. This shoddy deal, made more offensive by the vigour and lack of sophistication with which the indulgence was preached around Magdeburg by the Dominican friar Tetzel, spurred Luther to action.
Catholic AnswerMartin Luther objections to the state of the Catholic Church were primarily through ignorance. Attached at the link below is a list of Martin Luther's 95 Theses. A casual glance through all 95 Theses reveals a startling ignorance in Martin Luther. Many of his requests are actually (and were at that time) perfectly valid Catholic theology. Others were totally off the wall, and made no sense. Martin Luther, unbeknownst to himself, was a primary illustration of the problem in the Church at that time - abysmal education of the clergy. This was the first problem that the Council of Trent addressed. At the second link is a list of the 95 Theses to which the Pope objected. Reading through the entire 95 Theses is quite enlightening as the theses to which the Pope did NOT object are actually quite offensive to modern protestants!What practices and conditions in the Catholic Church were the protestants protesting?
The general abuses of the Church.
Lutherans didn't want bishops, because they believed in the 'Priesthood of all believers', aka it is not only Bishops who can communicate with God, it is everyone.
Also they didn't want the Pope, because he claimed the was divinely appointed by God. However as this was not written about in the Bible, Lutherans disagreed with this.
Mostly they disagreed with the sale of indulgences, because the Church said giving money would go towards ensuring salvation. Lutherans believed salvation could only be achieved through 'sola fide', or faith alone.
(Of course, the money the Church collected went to immoral things that were not to do with religion.)
Also they wanted the Bible to be available in all languages so that everyone could read it because they believed in 'sola scriptura', faith alone.
Overall, the Church believed in making people pay for indulgences and keeping the pesants illiterate.
Protestants didn't want indulgences, just the reading of the Bible and the simple belief in God.
Roman Catholic AnswerActually, the common people who ended up in the protestant church were not protesting anything, they were fine where they were. It was a few malcontents who could not deal with sin in their private lives who were blaming the Church for their problems. Two that come to mind are Luther and Henry VIII. In Luther's case, he had a horrible upbringing and the resulting psychological problems caused him to fear that he was damned to hell for his sins. He refused to hope in God, and so rewrote Scripture and theology to say that he could go right on sinning and God would save him anyway. He got the princes in northern Germany to go along with him as they wouldn't have to send money to Rome. Henry VIII had big problems with sex (actually the same problems that Luther had) and he wanted another wife, so, since the Church wouldn't allow him to put away his lawful wife, he got a new Church. However, there were some problems in the Church that they both uses as an excuse, they are covered in the article below:from A Catholic Dictionary, edited by Donald Attwater, Second edition, revised 1957
The Protestant Reformation: the revolt from the Catholic Church in Western Europe begun and carried to its height in the 16th century. It differed from all previous heretical movements in that it was not concerned with one or a few definite points of doctrine but was directed against the whole complex and system of Christianity as then understood; it gave licence to the human self in the spiritual and religious order. Its principal causes were: the excessive temporal power, wealth and privilege which accrued to the higher clergy, the wicked, worldly and careless lives of many of the clergy, secular and regular, and the decay of philosophy and theology (these resulted partly from the Renaissance) with consequent low standard of spiritual life among the people generally; the weakening of the authority of the Holy See, following the Great Schism, increased by the humanistic corruption of the papal court; the parallel insurgence of secular princes. Its principal motives were: desire for the purity of religion and godliness of life which, from the state of the clergy, precipitated a violent and unreasoning anti-clericalism which degenerated into contempt for all spiritual authority; the national ambitions of secular princes which flourished in the break-up of the Catholic integrity of Europe; an appetite for spoil and, as in England, fear of having to give up looted ecclesiastical wealth; in some, a hatred of the Church and Faith which can be attributed only to the direct working of the Devil. The principal results of the Reformation were: the true reform of the Church "in head and members" effected by the Council of Trent and the revivification of Catholicism so thoroughly achieved that it remains vital to this day (The Counter-reformation); the putting of countless souls, notably in Great Britain, Scandinavia and the German parts of the Empire, in enmity to the Church and consequently outside those means provided by Christ for man to know and attain to God; the disappearance of any "higher unity" holding together the diverse peoples and nations of Europe, the inoculation of men with naturalistic and humanitarian (as opposed to theocentric) philosophy which is now the chiefest enemy of Christianity.
What conditions led to the reign of terror?
Factionalism between the Girondins and the Jacobins led to the reign of terror.
Where did the Protestant Reformation first take place?
Germany. it began in 1517 when martin Luther became a monk and then turned against the catholic church when he believed that what they were doing was wrong and he rebelled and many agreed with him and it spread from there.
How did the social structure change in the late 1800s?
By the late 1800's, a strong middle class had developed, and wealth was no longer only held by aristocrats. Mainly because of the Industrial Revolution and professionals like doctors and lawyers, a prosperous middle class became a very dominant part of society.
