What was the cause of the reformation; Who was Martin Luther?

Question

I'm working on a history project and it is due in two days.

Answer 1

The reformation has a lot of sides and contributing factors..I suggest you read about it on wikipedia..here is the link for the Protestant reformation:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protestant_Reformation

Also try this link that has the biography of Martin Luther:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_luther

Hope that helps, now get working on that project!

Answer 2

Don't be beguiled by the concept that Martin Luther started the Reformation. The Reformation movement was well underway long prior to Luther. You can look at Dante's INFERNO, or the DIVINE COMEDY of which Inferno is a part, and find proto-reformation information there. Martin Luther is said to have hatched the egg that Erasmus laid.

The pope wanted to build the Sistine Chapel and was collecting funds by selling indulgences - you pay your way out of Hell or Purgatory. That did not set well with Luther and he posted what was his 95 Theses ont he Church Door at Wittenberg. This was not a strange move, the Theses were only talking points to be discussed, they were not a revolt against the church. Luther did not want to break with the Catholic Church, he, like Erasmus, wanted to reform it within itself.

Answer 3

Gee - nothing like waiting till the midnight hour to do your research, huh?

Martin Luther was a deeply religious man who believed that many of the pratices of the church were not in harmony with the Bible and he sought a reformation of belief and practice that would bring the church back into correct practices.

Causes of the reformation are also included on the webpage indicated as well as in subsequent links.

Good luck!

Answer 4

Luther did no longer effectively project the RC church. while he published the ninety 5 Theses on the Wittenburg door, he totally envisioned to have a civil debate between different priests and priests approximately his strategies. no person might debate him. Luther have been given close out of the church and excommunicated. So he married and started a clean life. He and his successors (all priests or priests) based the Reformation. the lengthy term effects might incorporate something related to Protestantism, to which some characteristic cutting-area democracy, capitalism, and individualism.

Answer 5

Martin Luther was a Catholic Priest in the early 16th Century. During this time, there was a movement within the Catholic Church to reform some of its practices and disciplines. So, it was in this atmosphere that Martin Luther began to aggressively call for reform. At the heart of Luther's resentment, was a desire to get married and have children, which was contrary to the requirements of catholic clergy. Luther's resentment soon grew into hatred, and he became openly hostile against the Church Hierarchy. Luther was excommunicated for his heretical teachings, but he responded by founding his own church, the Lutheran Church.

Answer 6

German theologian and leader of the Reformation. His opposition to the wealth and corruption of the papacy and his belief that salvation would be granted on the basis of faith alone rather than by works caused his excommunication from the Catholic Church (1521). Luther confirmed the Augsburg Confession in 1530, effectively establishing the Lutheran Church.

Answer 7

Not much that I can add on top of what Bill P has already stated.
I would like to point out that Dante in his work Inferno of the Divine Comedy places Pope Nicholas III, Pope Boniface VIII and Pope Clement V in the 8th Circle of Hell. I don’t think that Dante was a cause of the Reformation, but it does show that there were people well before Martin Luther and the events of October 31, 1517 discented with the Papal See and Rome. I would suggest looking at John Wycliffe as well.
Eric Gritsch in his book “Fortress Introduction to Lutheranism” states it well,
“The time of Martin Luther (November 10, 1483 to February 18, 1546) was one of restlessness, and Martin Luther embodied the spirit of his time. Christianity had been divided in 1054 into a Western church led by the pope in Rome and an Eastern church led by the patriarch of Constantinople. A rebirth (renaissance) of pre-Christian art and a concentration on earthly life (humanism) challanged old traditions in the West. European explorationof the lands across the oceans opened up new ways of thinking, trading and comparing life-styles. The rise of Islam in Sourthern Europe threatened established Christendom, despite the many terrorizing crusades led by Christians against the followers of Mohammed. The invention of tan efficient printing press by Johann Gutenberg in Mainz in the 1450s had radically changed old ways of communicating. The Fugger bank in Augsburg had put Germany on the map of economic superpowers; the printing press created the world of paper money.
Papal power in Rome had been severly curtailed by schism between 1309 and 1415. For more than a century, one pope in Rome and one in Avignon, France competed for jurisdiction. Papal power, though bruised and weakened, returned to Rome when the council of bishops and reform movements like those of John Wycliffe in Oxford and Jan Hus in Prague gained influence in the church. Once more established in Rome under a single pope, the papacy now demanded greater obedience from both clergy and laity; the distance between church leaders and the people widened. The laity sank into a mire of supersitition, often fueled by fear of punishment after death. The sacrament of penance became the principal tool by which the hierarchy ruled. Confessors in oral confession kept penitents in line by citing the church as the only means of escaping eternal punishment for earthly sins. As a result, life was based on the “if-then” condition: If I do such and such for God- that is, for the church- then I will endure less punishment, both now and after death, for sins I commit. The church first tolerated, then gradually encouraged, the popular belief in purgatory. Purgatory was located somewhere between heaven and earth; it purified, by means of fire, all sinners on their way to eternal life.”

Answer 8

Good Luck with the project.Though am not sure if its gonna be good.U ve nly two days and u dont even know the cause of reformation.Read up the 7th grade hostory book or since u r anyway online just check out Wikipedia.Here's the link
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reformation.

Answer 9

Christians criticized the Catholic Church for what they saw as false doctrines, malpractices and selling indulgences. Martin Luther challenged the church eventually leaving and starting the Lutheran religion.