Religious Reformation in early modern Europe

Reformation

The Protestant Reformation was a full-fledged ideological, political, and social revolution. Efforts to reform the Catholic Church were directed not just at the religious institution itself: its theological doctrines, rituals, and practices. Martin Luther and other pioneering religious reformers were motivated by the corrupt relationships between the Church and the prevailing political bodies. By the 16th century, the fabric of medieval and feudal European society had begun to show signs of wear. The Bubonic Plague, or Black Death, killed indiscriminately and thus altered the demographic of Europe significantly enough to offer opportunities for a middle class of merchants to grow. The bulk of the sixteenth century Reformation was centralized in North and Western Europe: Martin Luther was German and John Calvin was French.

Primary causes of the Reformation include dissatisfaction with ecclesiastic operations: the hierarchy of the Church and the method of bestowing power upon the clergy. The relationship between religious authority, political clout, and economic power was at the heart of the Protestant Reformation. The Catholic Church had grown so vast and powerful that it was interwoven with state affairs and integral to the dissemination and distribution of social power. One of the primary complaints voiced by Martin Luther in his Ninety Five Theses was that the Church had been issuing indulgences to the highest bidder. Indulgences were basically official pardons. Similarly, Luther accused the Church of selling seats of power. The Catholic Church had essentially become an aristocratic organization dominated by the ruling classes. Martin Luther suggested that the Catholic Church and its ecclesiastic operations were therefore antithetical to the teachings of Jesus.

Martin Luther posted his Ninety Five Theses on the door of a church, a symbol of the budding power of the media in social, political, and economic affairs. Later aided by revolutions in mass-scale printing, reformers and Protestants transformed the Christian religion into one with an egalitarian ethical code. However, a large portion of Luther's Ninety Five Theses focused on theological issues ranging from a critique of Marianism to a rejection of the sacraments. The critique of Catholic ritual and theology was remarkable considering the scope of the Church's power over religious doctrine.

Of course, Luther was excommunicated and began his own Christian sect that later blossomed into a diverse set of Protestant denominations. The consequences of the sixteenth century Reformation include a diversification of Christianity. The religion had been relatively monolithic, even after the Great Schism. Within the Holy Roman Empire, only the Pope was vested with supreme ecclesiastic authority. Martin Luther and other reformers harshly criticized the authority of the Pope, representing a radical revolution in the European consciousness. In many ways the Reformation was an ideological precursor to political revolutions like those in France as well as the New World.