Western Civilization Reformation Martin Luther

Western Civilization

Reformation

Martin Luther was born into a world that was dominated by the Catholic Church. When he was a young boy, he was caught in a thunderstorm, he promised God that if he survived her would become a monk. After entering the monastery, Luther became increasingly uncertain that the Church could actually offer him salvation. His views took shape even further with a trip to Rome, where he found that Catholicism was swamped in corruption. Heavy with despair Luther found solace in the s of the Bible, when he discovered that it was in fact not the Church, but his own individual faith that would guarantee his salvation. This realization of humanism helped Luther prepare for the Protestant Reformation. It was with this revelation that Luther turned on the Church. His biggest dislike was with the practice of selling Indulgences. "When an obscure monk named Martin Luther nailed 95 Theses - 95 stinging rebukes - attacking the mighty Catholic Church, and its head, Pope Leo X to the door of Wittenberg Cathedral he unleashed a tornado" (About Martin Luther, 2003).

During this same time King Henry VIII decided that he wanted a divorce. The Pope would not grant him one, so he led England in breaking away from the Roman Catholic Church. The vast majority of the population in England was very angry at the way the Roman Catholic Church had used them as a source of money. They felt that they Church was getting richer and the poor were getting poorer. And as a result, there were no great protests when the King broke away from the Church, because many felt that Henry would ease up on taking money from them. Henry knew of the Catholic Church's unpopularity and used this to his advantage (Truman, 2009).