Martin Luther's 95 Thesis: Explaining The Protestant Reformation

Explaining the Protestant Reformation: The most important aspects of the Protestant Reformation are Martin Luther's 95 thesis, those who supported Martin Luther and why, diet of worms, importance of Huldrych Zwingli, Catholic counter-reformation, and Council of Trent. These are the most important aspects of the Protestant Reformation because they are the key events or elements that lead up to and helped complete the Protestant Reformation. Martin Luther's 95 thesis is a list of abuses Martin Luther posted on the church in Wittenberg, Germany appealing to the local bishop to seek correction to the abuses which Martin claimed the Catholic Church made. Martin Luther's 95 thesis is very important to the Protestant Reformation because Martin Luther was not a rebel, he didn't want to start his own religion. All Martin Luther was trying to do was to stop the Catholic Church from condoning practices that he believed were unchristian and sinful. Martin Luther had a big problem with the church selling indulgences, indulgences are a redemption of punishment a sinner would have received in purgatory, usually granted by renaissance priests in order to pay for Church expenses. Martin Luther didn't believe that the church had such authority to grant these indulgences. He believed that the only real way to get to heaven was faithfulness to Jesus and his teachings. Martin Luther probably would not have wrote the 95 thesis if the indulgences were actually free. In 1517 pope Leo the tenth decided that he wanted to rebuild Saint Peter's basilica in Rome, but he didn't want to pay for it with his own money. Leo began offering indulgences in exchange for donations to rebuild the basilica. While these donations technically counted as religious works Martin Luther saw it as the church selling salvation. Martin Luther had read the Bible, which not many people could do at his time, he believed that there was nothing in the Bible that gave the Church the right to sell salvation to people. So Martin Luther went on to write 95 complaints all about the Catholic Church's greediness. On October 31st, 1517 Martin Luther nailed his 95 thesis to the door of the church in Vinton Berg Germany then sent copies to higher up Catholic Church authorities. Martin Luther's posting if the 95 thesis is considered by some to be the birth of the Protestant Reformation. But it is important to remember Martin Luther was not trying to cause harm to the church he was just trying to break through to them about their greed and get them to stop making money off of others salvation. The 95 thesis spread around Europe very quickly which drew a lot of attention to the conflict. Suddenly Martin Luther found himself in the center of the greatest conflict of his time. Pope Leo was not happy with Martin Luther and at being exposed with his scam at getting money to rebuild the basilica. He then accused Martin Luther of heresy. Later in 1520 Pope Leo wrote a letter the Martin Luther basically banning any further distribution of the 95 thesis and demanded that Martin Luther take back what he said or he will be excommunicated. Being excommunicated was and still is a very big deal. Since everyone at that time believed in order to get to heaven you needed to belong to the Roman Catholic Church, however since Martin Luther did not think that he needed papacy to get to heaven or achieve salvation he did not care if he was excommunicated. Martin Luther then publicly burned the pope Leo's letter and broke all ties …show more content…
It would have taken longer, but it would have happened. Before and after Martin Luther the Catholic Church had been experiencing Catholic Reformation and heresy. Martin Luther wasn't the first one or the last one to have this idea. By the sixteenth century, a few years after the Protestant reformation, there were a lot of Catholic's such as Erasmus of Rotterdam that were unhappy with the church. When you look at all of the dissatisfaction with the Catholic Church among the lay people such as, Zwingli, Calvin, and Henry VIII; it is quite obvious that this topic would have blown up even without Martin Luther