September 25, 2011
Reformation DBQ
During the Protestant Reformation in Germany around the 16th century chaos ensued. This was lead by Martin Luther, who brought the churches lie out in the open for all to see. He told the people of the corruption within the Vatican, and how they shouldn’t have to pay indulgences. Secularism spread throughout the lands, people began turning on the church. This all went on while the Renaissance was still affecting the European nations.
The Roman church fell into a great deal of corruption, under Pope Leo X who began spending more money than the church had in its treasury. The German people had grievances, brought before the diet, they felt that the church was heartless using people’s sins against them. (D4) The economy of the time was a mix of prospering upper and middle class, and poverty struck peasants. At this time people were looking to the church for salvation from the evils of life, this is where indulgences came into play. A short tempered German monk named Martin Luther, talked of feeling week and insufficient, under the control of the church. (D1) He studied the Latin and the Bible, knowing one helped him understand the other. After studying the original text Luther came to find that many things were not sufficient, such as the Seven Sacraments he ended up only keeping only two-baptism and the Lord’s Supper. The church declared that for salvation people must obey the Pope, this was defined under the rain of Pope Boniface VIII, a tyrant of his time in 1302. (D10)
At this time in history people started to shy away from the church, separating themselves from the Pope. According to Ulrich Zwingli, times changed, the word of God became confused with the human ambitions. They have been lead astray by the people who say they speak the word of God. (D5) People like John Calvin, who later started his own religion Calvinism, agreed, saying that we must resist the lust of material goods, but be