Martin Luther And The Protestant Reformation

The Protestant Reformation proved to be a major effect on Europe during the 15th century. The Reformation began in Germany from 1517 to 1648. During this time, reformation was occurring throughout all Europe and traditional medieval values disintegrating away. Traditionally, in the 14th century the Church 's power and authority were never questioned. Martin Luther, a catholic monk saw many problems with the Roman Catholic church during the height of it’s power, such as John Tetzel selling indulgences. In the 15th century, religion was the key to reaching salvation. If one was not to attend church or not strive for a religious lifestyle from birth to death, they would be viewed as damned and go to hell. Because of this fear of not reaching …show more content…
He attempted to revert the church back to it’s traditional medieval original values. Luther believed that anyone could get into heaven just by purely believing and having faith in God. H that indulgences were nothing more than false hope on a page. Humans did not have the final judgement or because ultimately God would determine one 's fate. Luther did not find many values of the Church to be valid such as the sacraments because in the end only faith would bring you into salvation. A major foundation of the Church is for a Catholic to complete all the sacraments, but now since Luther had preached only truly believing God, Lutheranism would branch away from this belief. “IV.-If any one saith, that the sacraments are not necessary unto salvation, but superfluous; and that, without them...men obtain of God, through faith alone, the grace of justification;- though all (the sacraments) are not indeed necessary for every individual; let him be anathema.” ( Doc. 5) The church had believed if a person did not think sacraments were applied to the religion, then they are damned because faith simply is not enough. In order to reach salvation by the church’s beliefs, one would have to devote their lives to praising God, being a strict believer in the church, and complete the sacraments. These contrasting opinions made the European people question if the values of the church were even necessary to …show more content…
Due to the new invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg Luther’s ideas and beliefs were able to spread efficiently throughout Europe. The 95- Theses were ninety five reasons as to why indulgences should not be sold to the public and