Why Is The Protestant Reformation Important To The End Of The Middle Ages?

It is widely understood that the Protestant Reformation of Europe in the 1500’s, and the subsequent events and changes that cam about thereafter, span many decades and even centuries. The Reformation is characterized as a deeply religious and politically based movement, beginning in central Europe, and lasting for up to one hundred and fifty years. This chain of events is vital to the course of European and World History as it truly ends the “Middle Ages” and ushers in a new era in the history of Western Civilization. Often, the Reformation is thought of as the shifting of ideals and ideological power, when in actuality, it severed religious unity across Europe and sparked over a century of vicious religious warfare. After some resolution
There are two important events that become bookends of the era, acting as the beginning and ending, chronologically. The first is the posting of Martin Luther’s “Ninety Five Theses”, his protest against the indulgence system of the Roman Catholic Church, in 1517. The second in 1648, is the Peace of Westphalia, a set of treaties that solidify the end of both the Eighty Years’ War and the Thirty Years’ War, ending the domestic disruptions caused by the political and religious movement. From the perspective that there were a number of individual events that led to the creation of the Reformation as an era, there are ten worth acknowledging as important, with three investigated further
Four main actions taken by the council include condemning Protestantism, attempting to right any corruption within the Catholic Church, solidify the analysis of the Bible, and clearly define the relationship of good works and faith to gain salvation. The Council served as the ultimate wedge between the Church and the ever-rising challenge movement. Because of the Council, Roman Catholic statements virtually jettisoned the chance for a sort of resolution between the Catholic Church and the Protestant movement. Many do not know that the vast enormity of this council’s yield effectively changed the perception of Catholic doctrine for the following four hundred years, even leading to the forming the Tridentine period of Roman