What were the causes and effects of the Reformation?

Answer 1

Causes included:

A: Disillusionment caused by the Widespread corruption in the Catholic Church including simony (sale of Church offices), nepotism (appointing relatives to offices), indulgences (payment to the church in return for forgiveness of sins) and by resentment at the wealth of the Church. Local rulers especially in Germany resented the money flowing out of their territories to the Vatican.

B: Local rulers in Germany, Scandinavia and elsewhere wanted the right to appoint the clergy themselves instead of the Pope.

C:The printing of the Bible in the vernacular rather than in Latin caused many to question how reflective the Church's teachings were of the Bible e.g. number of sacraments, priestly celibacy etc.

D: The Renaissance undermined traditional Church teachings on issues like whether the world was round or flat and this contributed to a questioning of other Church teachings.

Effects of the Reformation:

A: Most of Northern Europe became Protestant while Southern Europe remained mostly Catholic.

B: Wars between Catholics and Protestants for hundreds of years. Civil wars e.g. France, Germany, Scotland, England fought in power-struggles between religious factions.

C: Sectarianism which remains in Northern Ireland and to a lesser extent in parts of Scotland today.

D: A proliferation of Christian religions.

Answer 2

That is a very broad question. There were many causes of the Protestant Reformation--I'm assuming that's the Reformation we're dealing with here. There were extremes and excesses within the Catholic church. Many had felt for years, decades, centuries that something needed to be done to reform the church. The problem was agreeing what needed to be done, and who needed to do it. Should the reform start with the bottom and work its way up the hierarchy? Should the local priests be the ones lobbying for a change or should the focus be on the few in powerful positions? One of the issues of the day was the Bible. Should the Bible (and other religious texts) be printed and/or available in the vernacular of the region? Should the 'common' man be able to read, listen, and understand the Bible in his native language? Or should everything be kept in Latin. Should the 'common' man be told or commanded what to think or should he be given the chance to think for himself? Was giving the Bible to the people in a language they could understand a threat to the status quo? They must have thought so. They treated it like it would be a dangerous weapon. When owning particular books becomes an offense worthy of jail time or even death...you've got some pretty big issues going on. Some of the excesses were the wealthy and powerful taking advantage of the poor and exploiting them. When church appointments (who gets to become bishop, archbishop, etc. and so forth) is determined by who is really to pay the highest price for it. When the wealthy can bribe their way into anything. When the church becomes about power, owning lands, controlling governments, fighting wars, building fancy churches, instead of preaching the gospel, helping the poor, caring for the needs of the 'common' person, etc. it is excessive and very much in need of reform. And I think there were definite cases of abuse. Where everyone was self-obsessed and only cared about becoming wealthier. So the church ended up disgusting some people. And when enough people felt like this they were able to rally around a leader such as Luther and made a difference. The effects would be a restructuring of the church, of Europe, wars being fought, turmoil within countries politically and economically, etc. There were revolts and riots, etc.

Answer 3

The protestant reformation arose out of dissatisfaction with the fairly some practices of the Catholic church. between those have been the sale of indulgences, the finding out to purchase and promoting of positions interior the church, what many felt have been the classes of fake doctrines, the Catholic place of purgatory, corruption interior the hierarchy, and the classes of devotion to Mary and the saints. the outcomes of the protestant reformation have been the formation of the Anglican and Lutheran churches, the emergence of rival protestant communities at the same time with Presbyterians, Calvinists, and Reformed. The protestant reformation faded the possibility of the Pope over all Christians and replaced into the gas for many wars and inquisitions throughout Europe.

Answer 4

Here are some sites that mayb help you:

http://www.angelfire.com/ill/reformation/ce.html
http://www.hyperhistory.net/apwh/essays/cot/t2w08countereform.htm
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04437a.htm
http://www.web-books.com/Classics/Nonfiction/History/Catholic_History1/Contents.htm