Help please...what were the new expectations of the average European during the Protestant reformation?

Question

details please...

Answer 1

Very good question. I believe the truly faithful wanted a closer relationship with God and the bible. They wanted a bible they could read. The Church in Rome had made it illegal to print the bible in the languages of the people. Church officials would burn people for trying to do that. Martin Luther changed this and was fortunate to live. ' Good thing he had protection from local German lords who were tired of local money being sent to Rome. Luther translated the bible from the Latin and Greek to German. Then others translated it into their own languages as the reformation spread particularly in northern Europe. Average people often preferred to hear a church service in a language they could understand rather than only Latin. The ones who could read (admittedly a minority in the 1500s) also wanted to read and understand the bible for themselves rather than depend always on a priest to tell them what they should or should not believe. Religious beliefs are very personal. Some people may wish to simply be told what to think, but in the 1500s people were starting to do their own thinking. That was a key feature of the "Renaissance" or rebirth of thought - - rather than the common superstitious ignorance which the Catholic Church had in some ways exploited for centuries. Not all Catholic priests and high clergy were "bad" people, but in the late 1400s and early 1500s it was common to have popes and cardinals who bought their offices in the Church and fathered numerous children out of wedlock while proclaiming they were men of God and Christianity. Average people also disliked paying the Church in Rome to forgive their sins. Hawkers sold "indulgences" to those who could pay. These "get out of hell free" cards excused any form of sin for a price. The greater part of the money went to Rome to enrich corrupt church officials and the pope. One particularly bad pope was Rodrigo Borgia (1492 - 1503). He admittedly fathered a number of children including Lucretia Borgia and the reportedly monstrously evil Cesare Borgia. Openly admitting children seems ludicrous today for the 'most holy father' - the representative of Christ on earth. Everyone in Rome knew of his children, but popes having children had become old news to the locals. It is amazing that anyone trusted or believed Alexander VI (Borgia) could be holy - except that the average person distant from Rome would not be aware of his many obvious sins. There were no newspapers, no radio or TV news. Most people could not read, and to speak out against the pope, as Martin Luther did, was to risk the most painful death the Church could devise.

Answer 2

The biggest expectation, I think, was that each person could have an individual, personal relationship with God. No longer would there need to be an intermediary in the form of a priest. I think there was also an expectation that people learn how to read (not necessarily how to write) in order that they may read the Bible for themselves.

With people able to choose their relationship with God, it wasn't long before they began to push for the right to choose their own political leaders...and then the Age of Revolutions was born!

Answer 3

I cant give you a detailed answer but I will give you hints:

Individualism. Protestantism makes each person responsible of its own salvation.

the bible was translated to the German language.
Everyone had access to it.

Europeans had to be tolerant with the Jewish population.