Protestants In 1517, a monk named Martin Luther has just finished his 95 theses and nailed it to the Catholic Church to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany. He did not intend on starting a revolution but he started what is now known as the Protestant Reformation. A broadsheet, marking the 100th anniversary of Luther’s actions was published in 1617. Many Catholics did not like this and started to speak against the protestants. One hundred years after Luther nails his 95 theses to the church door, people are starting to notice his ideas and are starting to follow them.
People don’t need priests to gain access to God’s mercy
The Roman Catholic Church is corrupt
The invention of the printing press sparked an outburst of the 95 Thesis and more people became aware of what the Catholic church was up to behind their backs. That sparked controversy between a lot of people and their religion/priests. The catholic church was against Martins claims because Martin exposed that the priests were lying to the folk by making up the words in the Bible because it was Latin and nobody was literate. This means that Martin knew how wrong they were translating it and he knew they were doing it for their own benefits. This really did not impress the Catholic Church and they started to really push against Martin Luther’s theses. This is how the protestant revolution started.
Roman Catholics In the 1500 the Roman Catholic Church was powerful in western Europe and the reigning monarch would favour or decide in a religion, which then everybody had to follow as well.The Church was very protective of its high position and therefor, if anybody were to go against it would be burnt at stake. People were afraid to speak up about the church as in the 1500 it was a way of life and nobody knew a different way. Any deviance from its teachings would be an indication that you were “soft” or weak and then be exploited by the church.The power of the church gradually built up over the centuries have mainly relied on the ignorance and superstition of the people as the population had been told that you would only be going to heaven through church. The Church had also said that if you wouldn’t be going to heaven you are most likely to go to hell. The local priest had a huge amount of power as the people would view him as their only way into heaven as that’s what they were told since their birth. Keeping the priest happy was very important to them. The people’s relationship to the Roman Catholic church was truly based on money, which leads to the massive wealth of the Church. Richer families were able to buy their sons a high position in the Catholic Church to satisfy their beliefs that they would go to heaven and attain salvation.Peasants had to pay for their child to be christened, as non-baptised children could not go to heaven. You also had to pay to get marry and to bury a family member in holy ground.Another way the Catholic Church received money was at the end of each service through the collection. The Church had done this as it was a way for God to see if anyone would cheat (not showing equal belief) on him.Each year a tenth of the income you earn had to be given to the church. This could be in the form of money or animals, seeds etc. Each week for a number on days, depending on where you lived, you very expected to work on church land for free. This was especially hard for peasants as they would not be able to produce or prepare their family for next year, as you weren’t allowed to grow or farm whilst working at church.Relics were “sanctioned by the Vatican, that were bought by the people. They were pieces of straw, hay, white feathers from a dove, pieces of the cross etc. They were all know to be the closest things to Jesus on Earth. The population would buy these as it was sought to be a way of pleasing God and showed that you honoured him enough to spend money on him, like the collections at the end of service. All the money that had been collected by this would go to the Vatican and the Church. Indulgences were certificates that were created in masses and had already been pre signed by the pope, forgiving people for their sins and allowing them continues access to heaven. If you knew that you had sinned, you would wait until a pardoner was in the region selling these indulgences. You would purchase them and the pope, Gods representative on Earth would pardon and forgive you. This method had later been expanded to also allow the people to buy indulgences for the dead that they fear were in hell. This procedure would be seen highly and it would increase your status in Gods eyes.Pilgrimages were similar to the relics as the church made money by selling badges, holy and certificates.
Peace of Augsburg In 1555 all of the powers of the Holy Roman Empire got together at Augsburg and established the peace of Augsburg after fighting amongst themselves for a long time. They established the principle of key use reg know they use religio. They had the choice whoever reigns his religion and if they want to be Lutheran they could be it and if they wanted to be Catholic that was also allowed but you were not able to be a Calvinist. This didn’t matter because the Calvinists didn’t care if their religion was illegal or not, as they would anyhow continue their religion.