How Did The Roman Catholic Church Reformation

The Reformation: Catholicism As Madonna Ciccone once said, “Catholicism is not a soothing religion. It’s a painful religion. We’re all gluttons for punishment.” Roman Catholicism arguably had the most decisive spiritual role in the history of Western Civilization. Its origins can be traced as far back as Jesus Christ and the Apostles. Today, the Catholic Church amasses over 11.1 billion members and has developed a sophisticated theology and hierarchy led by the papacy. By examining the Reformation, it is clear that the Catholic Church was the cause and, therefore, greatly influenced by it. The Roman Catholic Church was highly criticized due to past events such as the Babylonian Captivity and the Great Schism. In the sixteenth-century, large groups of people called for reform. Some argued that church doctrines, such as the veneration of saints, were incorrect. However, the most prominent criticism was the widespread anticlericalism, or opposition to clergy, based on immorality, ignorance, and pluralism. This attacked corrupted clergy members, like greedy priests and lustful nuns. People also resented that clergy members
Martin Luther was a member of the Augustinian friars, whose main purpose was to attend to the poor, and an ordained priest. He used his professorship at the University of Wittenberg as the main reason for his reforming work. Because he felt he lacked the ability to meet God’s demands, Luther felt much anxiety until coming to the understanding of Christian doctrine as “faith alone, grace alone, Scripture alone”. This means that only faith could guarantee salvation not human effort and that God’s words were in Scripture not in church