- Martin Luther, 1483 to 1546, and he was from Germany. Protestant reformation would not have happened without him. The protestant reformation began in 1517; this fits in with the Northern Renaissance. This reformation was part of the Northern Renaissance, which was a more religiously oriented movement than was the Italian Renaissance. The reformation was also involved with an increase in education and literacy. Education was growing and by 1500s, there were more literate people in Europe than there had been before. This is related to money and leisure. By 1500, not everyone has to be worried all day about near survival. Some were doing financially well enough that they had leisure time and devoted this time to pursuits such as education. These are the town people; literacy was not spreading among peasants. People became educated for practical reasons such as accounting and communications. At this time also, bibles became a lot cheaper. It used to cost almost a house to buy a Bible back then. By this time, the prestige of the hierarchy of the Catholic church had taken a hit. There had been certain Popes who had bad reputations. During this time when the power of the Papacy was decreasing, the rulers were trying to centralize power. The German dukes also wanted to do the same thing. Plenty of…