Catholic Church Reformation Research Paper

On October 31 of 1517 in Wittenberg, Saxony, a thousand years of Catholic unity are about to be undone. Martin Luther, an Augustan monk and professor of theology at Wittenberg University has written his 95 Thesis which within weeks will spread all across the Holy Roman Empire and beyond. Of all the trials that had faced the Catholic Church over the last two centuries, none was more damaging then the Reformation. Faced with the spreading support of Lutheranism by the people and princes of the Empire, the Church required an overhaul unheard of since the Council of Nicaea. After a long delay caused by the inaction of Pope Leo X and conflict with France and the Holy Roman Empire, Pope Paul III (1534-49) called for what becomes known as the
However, the Council also meets to re-affirm the Churches positions on doctoral questions posed by the Protestants, marking the first firm stand the Church makes against the tide of Protestantism.
Before any talk of reform can be made, it is necessary to understand the reasons why people felt it was needed. It is also necessary to understand the position of the Church on the eve of the Reformation. The 16th century Church was still recovering from the Great Schism (1378-1413) between the papacy’s claimants in of Rome and Avignon. At its height, the Schism had three pontiffs all claiming the papacy and a diplomatic crisis forming as nations lined up behind the different claimants. Although the Schism ended in 1413 with the election of Martin V (666), the dispute shocks the faith of much of Western Europe’s population, especially since this is when many of the worst Church problems emerge. At the lowest level, there were the parish priests and the monastic orders that people were exposed to every day. Before the rise of the Jesuit Order in the mid 16th century,
It may have done more, but it was cut short by the defeat of Emperor Charles V by a Protestant force under Maurice, Elector of Saxony in the neighboring region of Tirol. It was further held up by the death of Marcellus II, and the election of the staunch arch-Catholic Paul IV, who does not re-convene the Council. As it only came up with few reaffirmations. They upheld the importance of the Eucharist as a sacrament, and in the same way, they would uphold the doctrine of transubstantiation. This is another example of the Church clarifying its position in comparison to the Protestants, making reconciliation close to