Political And Social Consequences Of The Protestant Reformation

The Protestant Reformation was the 16th century schism from the Catholic Church in Europe sparked by early Protestant Reformers like Martin Luther and Huldrych Zwingli. The political and social consequences of the Protestant Reformation during the first half of the 16th century benefitted and harmed Europe. Monarchial power expanded and rose throughout all of Europe while the church did just the opposite. Boys, girls, men and women each took on new roles in their social lives and political lives. New religious practices started to rise, and people adopted to never before seen practices. Before the Protestant Reformation, the Pope ruled in all of Western Christendom with a volume of power. Christendom, also known as the Christian Kingdom is the total of all the nations where …show more content…
All over Europe Monarchs observed the power of the church go from almighty to impuissant because of the Protestant uprising. These leaders started to use this power to their advantage. The Church used to be a non-secular place for people to worship Christ. Entering the 16th century, people of the church started to notice peculiarities of the building, in specific, their greed for money. Critics of the Church declared that the papacy had developed into an expenditure trust run by Church clergymen who supervised the papacy’s temporal actions. Europeans claimed that the Church turned into a money making business when it is reputed to be a community of God. These people had reason behind their words. Simony and the selling of indulgences initially rose as a gift from the Church. But, after meticulous realization, buyers of these indulgences realized that the Church just wanted their money. The Church could jack up prices to as high as they desired because everyone rushed to obtain these “tickets” to heaven. The Church claimed that the indulgences were remission of the temporal penalty of punishment in purgatory that remained after sins had been