The Protestant Reformation: Political And Economic Change In Europe

The Protestant Reformation was the splitting of Western Catholic Christianity in the 16th century. Corruption started to become evident in the Catholic Church and reformers such as Martin Luther and John Calvin set out to change the church. Once Luther had seen this major corruption, he started to travel through Europe proclaiming his beliefs and criticizing the papacy. Pope Leo X and Charles V worked together to punish Luther but the Germanic states helped to hide Luther. Protestantism quickly spread to these Germanic states and throughout the rest of Europe. This marked the beginning of a huge religious movement that started the development of a new era. Although the Protestant Reformation was initially a religious schism of the Catholic Church, it actually brought political and economic change to Europe. The Reformation contributed to the increase of literacy, political changes as a result of religious wars and economic advances because of improved values. One of the largest changes that the Reformation brought to Europe was the improvement of literacy, especially through the innovation of the printing press. Luther wrote the 95 Theses which were criticisms of the Catholic Church. The printing press made publishing the 95 Theses more efficient and much faster so that many people could read about the beliefs of Protestantism. In the 95 Theses Luther stated “Christians should be exhorted to be diligent in following …show more content…
Because of the increase in literacy and the efficiency of the printing press, people were being educated just by writing and reading. The bible translated into the vernacular also encouraged education because many protestant schools were opened up to teach children and educate them on scripture. Since these children were now educated, they were driven to participate in the economy by investing and making