The Catholic Church we know today has been transformed tremendously over thousands of years and, fortunately, for the better. Us twenty-first century Catholics would be so appalled if we went back to the sixteenth century and saw how the Church was. There were numerous problems in the Church, but during this time no one knew any better because that was what they were taught from birth so they didn't think any different about it. The Church obviously had to much power in the world and used it in ways that greatly contradict Catholicism. Not every one was oblivious to the corruption in the Church and one of these people was Martin Luther. His main goal was to start a reformation of the Catholic Church, he did this by writing the "95 theses" and after this the Church created something called the Counsel of Trent.
The major issue with the Church was how powerful it was getting and how much money they were receiving. They were getting powerful and wealthy for all the wrong reasons. The relationship between the people and church was solely based on money. The Church had many schemes to get peoples money. They had people believe that they could get to heaven via the Church. This meaning if you were a big contributor to the Church and donated a fair amount of money than you would be safe on your judgment day. If your family was wealthy you could buy your son into the Church. Thus satisfying the thought you would go to heaven and be on good terms with the Church. This doesn't sound like the Catholic Church we know does it? Unfortunately, this is not all of the corruption the Catholic Church had to offer in this time period. They had many clever tricks to gain power and receive endless money from oblivious parishioners. One more of these tricks were selling something called indulgences. These were certificates signed by the pope that declared that by buying this your