Martin Luther's Views On The Protestant Reformation

In 1517 Marin Luther nailed his Ninety-Five Theses on the Wittenberg’s Castle Church’s door, that highlighted the corruption of the Catholic Church, especially the Pope . Using the printing press this document spread with a remarkable speed. It then sparked an entire change in Western Europe that was later called The Protestant Reformation. Consequently, it broke apart the historic Catholic Church and gave way for rulers to reform under a new religion. It impacted the not only the spiritual part of life at the time but also education and reshaped the family arrangement. (Ruler sentence + one last sentence)
One of Martin Luther’s main critiques against the Catholic Church was the belief that one could earn salvation by the good actions which
would then earn the person the indulgence of God nonetheless with the corruption so in the Church by the 14th century people were able to buy indulgences . As a result, Luther countered this by changing the idea of how to obtain salvation. H proclaimed that faith alone, when based upon the sure promises of God, must save us; as the Bible proclaimed . He dismantled a massive and lucrative practice the Church had and gave common people true hope that they could attain salvation solely through their faith. In doing so he created new forms of Christianity that didn’t depend on a massive organization like the Church and that certain branches such as the one John Calvin supported never created the hierarchy the Church so dearly protected. An additional change in belief was instead of believing in transubstantiation, the idea that the elements in the ritual literally become Christ, Protestants upheld the consubstantiation view where Christ coexist with the bread and wine but doesn’t become one with it . (Additional summary sentence)
Following the change in spiritual beliefs was the shift of views on marriage and the transformation of the family life.
In Martin’s lecture on Genesis he explains that when he was a boy, marriage was considered so infamous because of impious and impure celibacy that he thought he could not think about married life without sin; for all were convinced that if anyone wished to live a life holy and acceptable to God, he must never become a spouse but must live a celibate and take the vow of celibacy . He defied that by getting married to Katharina Von Bora a nun and in marrying each other both broke their spiritual vows. This act paved the way for married clergy to be not only included but at the front and center of the new churches in the Reformation. Although his own wife was a powerful leader in his family the Protestants upheld the view that the male was the head of the household, but the ideal holy woman was no longer the virginal nun but instead the married and obedient Protestant goodwife . In doing so sex was no longer something to abstain from unless convincement but celebrated if it was marital sex. Luther viewed women as more lustful than men and they were therefore encouraged to marry young to be kept in line by their husband. This created a rift though because on the other hand men were expected to marry older when they had reached a certain status therefore brothels and other legal ways for men to satisfy their craving until marriage were approved at the time.
Neither Protestants nor Catholics wanted to seem like they upheld such sinful beliefs which led to a massive shutdown of brothels and the outlawing of prostitution and far stricter governmental supervision on private life than Western civilization had ever seen .
Although there was suppression on private life, education at the time flourished and the expansion of school and colleges were quite rapid. Both in the Protestant and Catholic Reformation we see education being openly available to all levels of society and no longer reserved for clergy or nobles. The fathers of Protestantism wished to reach the state where any Christian would be literate, able to read the Bible in the original so that to find God’s will in regard to people and how far the tradition of the Church has strained from the divine commandment . To be successful in that goal one had to know the language it was written in, so we see the revival of the learning classical languages and a push for universal education to help increase the literacy rate. Luther delivered the first translation of the Bible into German, from which a standardized written language emerged but as illustrated before one would need to be literate first for the translation to be of any use . The legacy of these institutions set up during this time are still relevant today and many of them are still active.
When the Protestant Reformation was gaining ground rulers at the time saw the political advantages of either defying or defending the pope and they chose sides accordingly .
Since most Germans and central Europeans had no representation in Rome, they flocked to Luther’s religious movement with the idea of being liberated from a foreign pope. Luther encouraged German rulers to seize the Church’s wealth and in doing so they were able to regain full authority by appointing their own religious officials, stopping the payment of fees to Rome and limiting the jurisdiction of Church courts . In addition to being liberated from a foreign church an added bonus to supporting the Reformation was that Luther preached that one must obey even an ungodly king and tolerate it because life was about enduring suffering. A country who used this belief to their full advantage was England. In 1534 Henry VIII declared that he was the final authority over the Church when the current pope wouldn’t annul his marriage. Therefore, he dissolved England’s monasteries to confiscate their wealth and worked to place the Bible in the hands of the people . Although England continued to have Catholic traditions by the time of Queen Elizabeth it was no longer possible to be equally balanced between both religions due to her sister’s practice of executing heretics, Catholicism shrunk in follower’s in the country and gave way to the Protestant England we know
today.
The Reformation had lasting effects on Western Europe in every aspect of their culture dur to the theological changes of the reformers.