During the Reformation who was right and who was wrong?

Question

I have to write two different editorials for a debate in my class. One should be for the Reformation and one should be against it. This is for a tenth grade history class. I need some help with what to write. I will choose a best answer. Thanks!

Answer 1

There is no right or wrong to it, really.

The Catholic Church had become one of the most dominant forces in Europe by that time and Power tends to corrupt. The Church exerted tremendous power over the lives of people across Europe and many of the nations had grown tired of the Church's meddling in their affairs. This is one reason why so many nations embraced the Reformationists, such as Germany, Great Britain and Switzerland. Yet much of Eurpoe remained solidly Catholic (e.g. France, Italy and Spain), yet small inroads were made in those nations also.

The Pope had far more power over sovereign nations than even the rulers of those countries, being able to depose a monarch by excommunicating them, for example. Plus. the Papacy was often interfered with by political intrigue on the part of powerful factions within the Church. Behind closed doors, factions fought over who the next Pontiff would be, despite the Papcy being a "holy office" and it dimished the religious significance of the Church's highest office.

The Reformation's effect would have severe effects upon religious minorites which lived across Europe. In countries with a Protestant majority, Catholics faced persecution on levels ranging from land confiscation to expulsion to outright extermination. Protestants faced similar problems in Catholic countries. In Great Britain, the fighting between Catholics and Protestants caused centuries of civil strife which Britain had to crawl out from and its effects in Ireland are felt to this day.

Given that some of the Reformists, especially Martin Luther, were fanatical haters of the Jews, the Reformation set the stage for the Holocaust in the 1930s and 1940s. It is not a coincidence that Martin Luther was from Germany, where he wrote "The Jews and Their Lies" and that book was a horrific attack on the Jewish people, calling for their expulsion from Christian lands and the burning of their books. It is in Germany where the Holocaust began a systematic and organized effort to erase the Jewish people from Eurpoe. While Jews had not had an easy time in Europe before the Reformation, things got much worse for them afterwards.

As far as good or bad, right or wrong: The Catholic Church had grown too big and powerful for its own good by that time. Technology was slow in developing and science was impeded as heresy. Yet, for all the cost in human suffering and destruction of property that resulted from the split between Catholics and Protestants, we can only guess as to how much of that might have been avoided if the Reformation had never happened.

Answer 2

Both sides were right and both sides were wrong - it all comes down to which side you as the writer of these editorials decide to write for your class. It should really be easy to write from the views of thoses who supported the idea's of Luther and those who supporter the Roman Catholic Church - it just means you have alot of research ahead of you. I hope you don't think someone here is going to write these editorials for you. Just do a websearch and I am sure you will find plenty of articles on the subject.

Answer 3

The reform was necessary, and to a degree the reformers could be considered to have been "right". This is evidenced by concessions that were later made by the catholic church. However if anyone was "righter" it was the Anabaptists. The reformers held short on their reform for political reasons, the anabaptists insisted on full reform. For this they received brutal persecution from the catholics and the reformers.
Of course after the anabaptists established themselves as a movement, they began and continue to suffer the same fate as catholics and reformers and are in need of reform again! It is as if the only true church is the persecuted church. The complacent church loses its focus.

Answer 4

Both sides believed that they were right. This always happens when two religious groups fight. It happens in the Middle East, it happened in Northern Ireland, it happened in the British Civil War.

Martin Luther saw real problems in the Catholic Church and tried to do something about it.

The Catholic Church, on the other hand, saw him as a heretic who did things like throw out books of the Bible saying that they weren't the holy word of God.

They were both right -- they were both wrong.

The link below may help.

The following link

Answer 5

Well, Catholics, was the first religion after Christ! Even the Holy Ghost help the Apostols start it. then what 500 years later came Martin Luther, and started the protestant religion. Today we have probably over 300 religions. Some of them is just a scam for the money. Several years ago a TV Minister, said: "God told me, to gather (I think 100 million dollars) or he is going to take me home!! They just want to brainwash you!!!

Answer 6

incredibly there is no "actual" answer to that query. for sure, the Catholics will say they have been suitable and the protestants will say they have been suitable. yet i think of any rational Catholic or Protestant would admit that the magnitude of Christianity is previous trivial alterations and the similarities between Catholics and Protestant a techniques outnumber the alterations. whether, here in u . s . a . the Reformation is regularly very poorly taught, and you will see that judging on people's solutions. while conversing approximately Martin Luther, no one ever brings up his essay titled, "with reference to the Jews and Their Lies," no one ever factors out how conservative Luther grew to become into while comparied to Catholic reformers like Ignatius Loyola. no one ever factors out that a large majoraty of Europeans remained Catholic and that Catholicism remains the biggest Christian faith interior the international. and no one ever factors out that interior a century dosens of Protestant faiths, like Calvinists, Anabaptists, Hugonauts, Puritans, Anglicans, Prybespaterians, Menanites, Quakers ,,,etc. split off of Luther's ideas. Im no longer asserting Luther grew to become into incorrect, he had many amazing ideas, yet he's purely approximately exclusivly studied for his sturdy attributes, and intensely not often does somebody get a balanced examine out him and his ideas. you will discover this in many peoples solutions. case in point many people have faith Luther grew to become into purely against indulgences, and that the Catholic Church replaced. properly you would be able to get an indulgence interior the Catholic Church, and formerly people moist themselves over this, permit me ask, Do the have something incorrect with donating to a Church? what's he distinction? I hear Protestant churches soliciting for funds each and all the time, yet its ok while they do it. while Catholics do it, they are evil. we've a very British custom of coaching historic previous contained in u . s . a . and the British custom is especially anti-catholic.

Answer 7

They both was wrong