Protestant Reformation Essay

Have you aver questioned authority or superior forces than yourself? Martin Luther and John Calvin, two famous theologians deeply questioned their times authority, the Catholic Church. These two had created a new way of thinking and voicing it out, especially when it comes to religion. Questioning the Catholic Church and the works that came with that made both of them landmark points in the world’s history but the question relies on why they attacked the fundamental principles of the church. The strong opposition to selling indulgences and that anyone could make its way to heaven if they had the right amount of money was what ignited the reformation, including Martin Luther 95 theses against indulgences. Later on came John Calvin’s work against the Catholic Church including the Geneva reform and his idea of predestination, the idea that God is willing all of the events that can happen in one’s life. Both of these theologians had intentions of creating a truer version of the Christian religion and created their own form and version of Catholicism, Calvinism and Lutheranism. Some viewed these new branches/forms of Christianity as a new way of interpreting the religion and some; according to Prentice Hall world history thought it would be a chance to “throw off the rule of both the Church and the Holy Roman Empire.” (Ellis and Esler 64) In a whole, both of their works were a way to challenge and attack the Church and to voice out their ideas, which differed from those of the religious authorities. In this time period, late 15th through the end of the 16th century, the Catholic Church was the predominant authority and religion in most of Europe, it had a set of rules, in theory based on the bible, that everyone had to follow. However, these so called laws from the bible were modified and made to arrange the leaders, especially rich individuals. One of the main laws was flagrantly unequal and people understood that but couldn’t voice it out fearing the superior