The Reformation
What happened during that time period?...
By Savannah Lapp Published on March 12, 2014 at 9:57 AM
The Reformation was a period of religious change and revolution in Europe. It brought about many new leaders and it was the start of the Protestant Church. The Reformation brought about wars, changes in religious beliefs among people, and it set the stage for the modern religious world.
The Reformation lasted from about 1500 A.D. to about 1600 A.D. It was started by a German Catholic Monk named Martin Luther. Luther was fed up with how the church was being run by the pope and the lies the leaders of the church were telling people. He saw right through the lies and started a protest. He wrote the 95 theses, which was a paper with 95 different things that were wrong with the church written on it. He wrote it to educate the public, and shortly after the paper went public, he was excommunicated from the Catholic Church and all the books he had written were to be burned, but Luther didn’t fail to gain followers. Although Luther didn’t mean to, he started a revolution. Many fights broke out among Luther’s followers and dedicated Catholics. Luther’s followers, called Protestants, fought for their beliefs, but they were ultimately the underdogs in the battle. A famous battle between Protestants and Catholics was the Peasants’ Revolt. In 1524, a group of Protestant peasants rose up against the Catholic Church. They claimed their leader to be Luther. Disgusted by the violence, Luther ordered all of them to be killed immediately as to teach people not to use violence to get their point across. Many people were angry with Luther after that, but he still didn’t fail to gain followers. The Reformation didn’t only bring about the start of the Protestant church, but it also presented the start of many other churches such as the Church of England and the Anabaptists. These churches started shortly after Luther started the Protestant church. With all the changes in religion, the Reformation set the stage for the modern religious world. People nowadays believe in all different things, and that is excepted. Even though the Reformation may have ununited Europe, it may people more aware of other’s and allowed people to believe what they wanted to believe in. |
Information Retrieved from: Beck, Roger, Linda Black, Larry Krieger, Phillip Naylor, and Dahia Ibo Shabaka. World History: Patterns of Interaction. 1st ed. Evanston, Boston, Dallas: McDougal Littell, 2003. Print.