The Reformation was a large, unique movement away from the Catholic Church in 16th and 17th century Europe. Starting with Martin Luther being the first to officially oppose the theology of the Catholic Church, he posted his work, 95 Theses, to the door of the Wittenberg Castle Church. This act allowed for multiple movements away from the Catholic Church, consequently creating multiple new religions, some of which remain today. Some movements began with the sole idea of rectifying the Christian religion, while others were seen as an opportunity for gain of power or in umbrage of a political adversary. Due to the unmitigated diversity of each distinct reforming sect, the Reformation as a whole is to be considered as both a religious …show more content…
Martin Luther, the father of the reformation, was not the first to officially turn from the Catholic Church. However, he was the first to turn away based on problems with theology. Before Luther, the only reason men rose question within the church was for corruption, which is an internal political issue (https://www.britannica.com/event/Reformation). Luther thought of his own concepts on religion that disagreed with the church, which in turn caused him to desire a change and for people to know his ideas and to follow them. In fact, most new Christian factions were based solely on permeating their newly founded ideas and ways of life. This perspective implies that The Reformation was a religious …show more content…
Even Luther had to use the power of the German Princes to spread his religion, which then made these princes more powerful (Britannica). This is a key example that even these new denominations based completely on religious intentions, utilized power and politics advantageously to propagate their new ideas. The greatest example of politics in The Reformation is the Church of England. Comparatively, masses in The Church of England were basically identical to that of a Catholic procession. If there are no differences in theology, that implies that the church was started solely on politics (http://anglicansonline.org/resources/essays/whalon/AngRC-diffEng.html). The story of the creation of this Anglican Church is actually quite heinous. The church was created by Henry VIII when the pope would not grant the rights to get married to another wife who could bear a male heir (http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/Christianity/cofe/cofe_1.shtml). This is solely political, the man who was in charge, the pope, would not grant something to someone else in power, therefore the other man created his own entity. This exemplifies how The Reformation was both a religious and a political movement.
The Reformation was a holistic movement including all of the initial separations from The