Every student of history learns throughout the course of their education about the Protestant Reformation. One of the most well-known events in the history of the Western world and of the Christian Church, the Reformation introduced many changes in religion and the general view of how to live a Christian life. Nowadays, 36.7% of Christians in the world identify as Protestant (Sahgal). In America, 46.6% of the population is Protestant (Religious landscape Study). Though they have their differences, most Protestant denominations came out of this Reformation. So how did this happen? Well, the Protestant Reformation was not the first split in the church. The Eastern Orthodox church had already divided from the Rome-based Roman Catholic church in a process called the Great Schism. However, the Reformation happened much more suddenly and radically than the Great Schism, almost like the difference between a gradual change in leadership and a sudden revolution. The Reformation had a profound impact on today’s world and changed the church forever.
The Reformation happened as a result of the tendencies of the church at the time toward corruption and worldliness. For many years, many high church officials had been more intent on power, wealth, and things of the world than concern for the believers they should have been shepherding. The common people had become almost estranged from God’s Word; many of them were illiterate and could not understand church services in Latin. The practice of selling indulgences had become popular. Indulgences were sold by priests as an alternative to penance, so that by paying the priest to intervene with God, one’s sins could be forgiven. This came out of the sacrament of penance, by which church members would do certain actions such as fasting, visiting a shrine, or repeating the Ave Maria. Because penance was often painful or inconvenient, many would choose instead to buy an indulgence in order to atone for sin (Petry). Men would often spend their money on indulgences instead of giving to the poor or even buying food for their families in an effort to free their souls from purgatory. These practices did not sit well with many students of scripture, including a young German priest, Martin Luther. Luther, an extremely devout young man, wished to be free from sin. As a monk, he practiced extreme forms of penance in an effort to come closer to God and later became a theologian and priest. Throughout his studies, Luther became deeply troubled by the corruption in the church, the selling of indulgences, and the behavior of many important priests (Petry). He formed the famed 95 theses, statements about faith and the church’s errors, and posted them on the university door in Wittenberg, Germany. The movement that grew out of these 95 theses exploded throughout the world of the church, changing it completely forever.
In Martin Luther’s time, the distinction between the affairs of politics and religion was somewhat dubious. In 1516, the seat of the Archbishop of Mainz, one of the highest positions in the empire, was empty. The Hohenstaufen family “was eager to place one of their own in the position,” and made a deal with Pope Leo X to place Albrecht Hohenstaufen there, even though he did not qualify for the seat (Petry). They promised to “allow access to papal indulgence sellers in their area,” with a guarantee that all the money would go to the Pope. So when Luther wrote his 95 theses, he sent a copy to Albrecht of Mainz, who was now the most important ecclesiastical leader in the region. The archbishop, enraged at the threat this posed to his source of income, sent copies to theologians in his area and to Rome, launching a heated debate over Luther’s statements. Several church officials came to interview Luther, but he refused to renounce the theses he had written, so he was unsurprisingly excommunicated in 1520, and his books were sentenced to be burned. At the Council of Worms in 1521, Luther was declared a heretic and sentenced to death. At this point, the Reformation might have ended with the death of its first leader, but Luther’s prince, Frederick, spirited him away to Eisenach, where he wrote the first German translation of the Bible. Meanwhile, those who agreed with his views continued spreading the ideas over Europe, using the Gutenberg printing press of 1463.
Luther’s ideas of reform spread quickly, and other passionate reformers took up this cause and spread it over Europe, facing much opposition and even persecution by Roman Catholic leaders. They formed their own beliefs and doctrines, which led to more denominations. John Calvin and Ulrich Zwingli spread Protestantism rapidly, turning Geneva, Switzerland into the “Protestant Rome” (History of Switzerland). They formed the Reformed Church in 1536, which led to John Knox’s Presbyterianism and the Church of Scotland. Conrad Grebel and Thomas Muntzer founded the Anabaptist denomination in 1525, and later, in 1537, its leader Menno Simons led many to North America, where they formed the Mennonite Church. Another surprising reformer was Henry VIII, the notorious English king of six consecutive wives. Though his was not the same kind of reform, the Church of England made at least a ceremonial and political break from the Catholic Church with the excuse of reform. All over Europe, reform spread quickly, though Church authorities tried hard to quash it.
The Reformation certainly had immense importance in the history of the Church, perhaps more importance than any other event since the resurrection and ascension of Jesus. However, it created a bitter aftermath of resentment, violence, and discord between Protestants and Catholics for centuries. The church should, whenever possible, make up differences through love, prayer, and studying of scripture, but when the practices of the Church had veered as strongly away from Christ as they had in the sixteenth century, reform became necessary and all consequences unavoidable. Christians should always seek to examine their actions and ask themselves if their Lord would be pleased and change their approach if something is wrong.
Works Cited
“Denominations.” Introduction to Protestantism, Protestantism.co.uk, protestantism.co.uk/denominations.
Petry, Yvonne. “Why 1517? The Ninety-Five Theses in Context.” Luther College, www.luthercollege.edu/university/academics/impetus/winterspring-2017.
“Religious Landscape Study.” Pew Research Center, 2014, www.pewresearch.org/religion/religious-landscape-study/.
Saghal, Neha. “500 Years After the Reformation, 5 Facts About Protestants around the World.” Pew Research Center, October 17, 2017, www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/.
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