How did Protestant Reformation challenge ideas of Papal Authority?

Answer 1

The reformation challenged the ideas of Papal Authority in one simple way, it defeated it in the minds of some people. Up to then, the Pope was able to use excommunication to keep people in line. The reason that worked was peer pressure. If the whole village shunned the ex-communicant and other villages did as well, the ex-communicant couldn't function very well. Back then, people needed the support of the village to live.

Martin Luther was able to convince enough people of his points that he had a support structure. And then the domino theory took over. Once one group saw the success of Luther, other groups followed. In modern times, it would be like the break up of the USSR. Once Poland threw off the yoke, the other countries followed.

There is one thing about what biblestudent07 answered that bothered me. True, Jesus is the mediator between people and God. But a couple of things to remember, Jesus told us to pray for each other. The other - how to you explain the statement "Thou art Peter and upon this rock I build my Church"? Isn't Jesus telling Peter that as he is leaving, it is time for Peter to take over? So if Peter set up the organization and the way to make changes in the organization, how is it the Catholics are so against Jesus? Jesus told Peter to take over.

Answer 2

Although Martin Luther did chastise the church for moral corruption and the selling of indulgences, what really broke the back of the Papal Authority was common language Bibles.

When people began to read the Bible in their own language, they started finding the errors in church doctrine and realized they did not need the Catholic church to find salvation. They also began to understand what Jesus had said and what he had taught and became closer to God than they had in the Catholic church.

Even today there are Catholics who go to Bible studies in other churches so they might understand the Bible. That has not changed.

On a slightly different subject, take a hard look at Muslim religion. You have imams (priests) who teach only selected passages of the Koran to their students--which the students learn by rote. Because these students are not encouraged to read the Koran for themselves and interpret it for themselves, they are easily led wherever the imam wants them to go. The same situation existed before the Protestant Reformation in Europe. People learned only what their priests and the church wanted them to know. Blind obedience was the major lesson.

Answer 3

There were three ways.
1. One was the argument that if the Pope were selling indulgences, failing to govern the moral and ethical behavior of those in holy orders, he could not deserve to be Supreme Head of the Church--infallible deputy of a deity on Earth and final decider without proofs of all conclusions, demanded practices and obediences.
2. The second was that unless practices in a Church riddled with corruption, venality, sin and misbehavior were address and corrected, its priests and nuns would not deserve men's respect, nor attract the right sort of men and women to the church, and even the most saintly Pope would be betrayed by their worldliness.
3. The third was that it was only by practicing, advocating and enforcing puritanic virtue upon those taking holy orders could the Church be cleansed and be what it was supposed to be--a retreat from the corrupt world, a community of believers, a moral order.

The problem was the Popes did not acknowledge their moral failings no mis-administration, nor did they accept responsibility for cleansing the Church of sins, bribery
and other crimes, and the Pope refused to give up this world, being too busy telling secular kings and others
how they should behave instead of chastising and regulating his own.

This caused them to go from being protestors--protestants--to secding from the Cathlic Church.
And it led to the creation of the pietist worldly Catholic nsestors of Democrats, and the creation of Knowisn Luthersn-Franklinite ancestors of Repubicans.

Answer 4

Because the Protestants rejected the authority of the Roman Catholic pope in matters of faith and no longer recognized him as the infallible head of the church.

Chow!!

Answer 5

the protestant reformation grew from several sources. but mainly it came when people began to study the scriptures and see what it had to say.Such things as " there is one mediator between GOD and man, the man Christ Jesus" and so they began to think. hey. wait a minute, if Jesus is the only mediator then I dont need a pope to mediate for me...Also, scripture says " Jesus is the head of the church " so they began to realize that hey, if Jesus is the head of the church then the pope isnt. And so it began, the reformation, and the pope didnt like it, and the rest is history