Martin Luther’s Reformation

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understand if the rise up against the Church was a success, one has to understand the long lasting impacts on society. Freedom of religion is one of the pillars of the modern civilization and democracy, therefore, the Reformation movement was a success because it made the people question the teachings of the Church and salvation. People realized the Church was selling them false hopes and dreams. Peasants, along with powerful Monarchs also realized the church had too much power and refuse to pay taxes. During the movement, Luther also translated the Bible into many languages and with the help of the newly invented printing press, made it available for mass distribution. This allowed the people to believe what they interpreted as the truth and not only believe in the Church’s interpretations of the Bible. This also allowed people the first opportunity to read the Bible on their own and this is ongoing today. In the short term, the Reformation was successful as his followers begin to practice his teachings and created their own religion called the Lutherans.

There was corruption within the Church from a business stand point. The reformation movement was the cause for many conflicts and violence. One example is the peasant revolt. Peasants used the movement as a reason to revolt by raiding monasteries, pillaging, and burning property including Church scriptures. This time was very violent, the bloodshed and amount of people killed highlights the great amounts of violence of the reformation.

Protestantism was such a threat to the Roman Catholic Church that peasants started to stop listening to their religious leaders by adopting a different faith. This gave the Church less control and power over the people. The church was not collecting money because of the revolts. Without indulgences, there would be less money made by the Roman Catholic Church. There was then a Counter-Reformation to the Protestants. The Church tried to convert Protestants back to Catholicism, which did not work. Although there was a man named Ignatius who was a renaissance man growing up in Luther’s time. He was a man who dedicated his life to Jesus and his religion eventually was improved and was named the Jesuits. His actions lead to the Council of Trent which is said to be built due to the Counter Reformation.

Martin Luther’s Reformation in 1517 still plays a big part in modern-day social life, political and economic climate in Europe and around the world. Luther is the reason why we have developed many of the values we hold dear today. Everyone might be Catholic today without his efforts. He contributed a lot to the freedom being experienced in the world today, most significantly, in the United States of America. The reformation changed people’s perspective on the relationship between one’s spirituality and the connection to the Church. As a result, the Church was limited in its power over the faithful. Martin Luther also made the people re-think about how they are accepted into heaven. The ideas that simply having good faith and belief in God are the only tools required to be accepted in heaven meant the people are no longer under the Church’s discretion. The reformation was successful in many of ways but also caused many problems. Martin Luther’s Reformation had an everlasting effect which still makes people question the establishment and be a promoter of free thinking, religious freedom and equality.