Martin Luther Protestant Reformation Essays - Pentarchy, Pope

Martin Luther Protestant Reformation The Protestant Reformation: What it was, why it happened and why it was necessary. The Protestant Reformation has been called the most momentous upheaval in the history of Christianity. It was a parting of the ways for two large groups of Christians who differed in their approach to the worship of Christ. At the time, the Protestant reformers saw the church- the Catholic church, or the universal church- as lacking in its ways. The church was corrupt then, all the way up to the pope, and had lost touch with the people of Europe. The leaders of the Reformation sought to reform the church and its teachings according to the Scriptures and the writings of the Apostles. They sought to simplify the church by returning to its roots, roots long lost by the Catholic church at the time, or so the reformers believed. After the fall of the Roman Empire, life in Europe declined rapidly into the Dark Ages. The Dark Ages were a time of misery and darkness. There were only two socioeconomic classes: the very rich nobility or the very poor peasants. Small kingdoms popped up everywhe re, and were constantly at war with one another. Whole libraries were destroyed, and the only people who remained literate were the clergy of the Christian church. Life became such a struggle to survive that, for a period of five hundred years, very little artwork or literature was produced by the whole of Europe. Eventually, around the year 1000, the conditions in Europe began to get better. This marked the beginning of the Middle Ages. The Crusades began as an effort to revitalize the spirits of the people. However, things still weren't very good. Plagues ravaged the land, carried by rodents and destroying whole villages. With this all around, the people began to talk of witches and devils and evil spirits. The religious stories of the time, as seen in the sculpture of every church built during this time period, was of the Last Judgement and the tortures of Hell. This was the time of tall, sweeping Gothic cathedrals adorned with gargoyles and devils. Everywhere the people looked, they saw death, and it became the sole thought in their minds- that and what came after death. With the spreading literacy among the clergy and nobility of the times came new literature. For hundreds of ears the only literature that had existed were those books saved from the destruction of the Dark Ages by the church and the monasteries. Now, scholars began to write new books- all of it, of course, religious in nature. One of the most influential books of the time was The Imitation of Christ by Thomas a Kempis. The book gave clear and simple instruction for modeling a Christian spiritual life on that of Christ (The Volume Library, 1950. However, the way that it did this was to present the mind set of a sober awareness of death and a general view that life is a veil of tears (Carmody, 331). While The Imitation was not the progenitor of the mood for the next several hundred years, it certainly contributed to it. Everything in life became a form of suffering in imitation of Christ. It soon became that even the tiniest act or motion during church service became a holy symbol of p art of Christ's pain. This was also the time of the greatest pilgrimages in history. People all over Europe travelled great distances to experience even the most insignificant of relics. Soon, the possession of relics became a kind of competition between churches and monasteries, denoting their popularity and piety. With the collection of relics came an increase in the size and wealth of the church which housed them. This led to an obsession for money and materialism within the church, which grew tremendously over the next few hundred years. It went so far as the selling of indulgences, which was basically the buying off of one's time spent in purgatory before ascending to heaven. As the Renaissance began, the clergy itself began collecting artwork and lavish decor not only for the church for their private offices. With this trend towards materialism came an obsession with the acts performed during Mass rather