Christians today believe similarly, but not every group believes what the others believe. Lutherans believe in consubstantiation, yet Catholics believe in transubstantiation. Orthodox Christians have a different lifestyle and set of worship ethics than do Anglicans. Why do we live in such a very specific society of multiple variants of the Christian beliefs? To answer this question, we must delve into the history of the division of the church and the birth of new Christian options. Such individual factions that we notice today have thrived for centuries with primary thanks to a single spiritually enlightened man known as Martin Luther, the father of Protestantism.
The dividing of the church became known as the Protestant Reformation, an event that changed the world for centuries. No variants collapsed in the process, so although it was thought of as a revolution, there were no overthrowing. The cause of the Reformation was the Catholic Church’s own evident corruption, Martin Luther’s background as a monk, his legacy against the church, and the support of the German people in response. The papacy had become corrupt and burdensome to the Catholic peasants in Germany. In around the year 500 AD, Pope Gelasius foresaw the horrors of popes behaving like kings and kings behaving like popes, warning his people against such atrocities (Wiker 51).
It is unfortunate that leaders one millennium later behaved as so. For example, in the 1300s, Philip IV of France manipulated the new Catholic Church for political reasons, creating the first economical national church. He wished to utilize a dependable source of revenue and funding Knoch 5 for royal enactments or wartime, such as the Hundred Years’ War (Wiker 106). To gain more political support, he sacked the papacy, filled it with Frenchmen, and forced them to elect the French Clement V. Clement refused to reign in Rome, so he left for Avignon, where the church became ever worldlier (Wiker 60). In the fifteenth century, the clergy became stronger than ever.
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Secular leaders commonly sought help from religion as a valuable partner in politics and economic assistance. However, weak rulers made room for a strong clergy in such a partnership, causing it to grow and extract powers or even territories for itself, creating a resilient religious monopoly (Becker 11). In order to maintain their monopoly, the Roman church had to maintain their claim on purgatory. And so it did with a vengeance. Beliefs regarding indulgences and fear of extended residence in the cleansing fire were exploited through provocations of the people’s guilt and heavy fund collections, telling hypothetical stories of loved ones spending centuries in purgatory, such as family and friends.
According to the belief of indulgences, an action was needed to cover extended time in purgatory, especially distribution of money. Such an effective propaganda led to horrific corruption and greed within the clergy until the sixteenth century (Becker 12). Naturally, a coalition formed to oppose the current church, instigated by none other than the legendary Martin Luther. Martin Luther’s background explains his radical modus operandi in the Reformation. As a monk, Luther was taught the traditional beliefs of a God able to be won over by a righteous life. Consequently, he engaged in an endless quest to please this God to no avail. He wrestled with the devil in insane rants of profanity and attempts at physical “brawls” with the devil.
Luther’s Augustinian superior, Johann Staupitz, a famous preacher and the very reason why Luther believed the way he believed in the end, satiated this quest with valuable teachings. He Knoch 6 opening Luther’s eyes by informing him that Jesus’ love cannot be bought, but he must be convinced to love Jesus. Jesus already cherished him, and his wounds on his hands and side proved it. In return, Luther must learn to reciprocate, a task he neglected to do his entire life. With that, he cast Luther to the University of Wittenberg to share the lessons he had learned to other students.
Those sermons created great spiritual healing within him, and he eventually learned to cherish God (Collinson 53). However, this was not the only significant aspect of his enlightenment. One day, Martin Luther became spiritually inspired and aware of the new future Protestant view of God in the most humbling of places—his bathroom, or the Cloaca. This significant, although comical and therefore humbling, experience created the emphasis of Jesus’ humiliating birth and the great sacrifice. This was later nicknamed the Cloaca Experience (Metaxas 97).
Luther’s resulting ideology was that God is our savior, not us, justification is by faith alone, and good works are only to give thanks for the grace of God (Collinson 56). Also, true ideology can only be found in the Scripture, which must constantly be taken literally and in context without corruption or manipulation (Cahill 172). As quoted in Luther’s On the Bondage of Free Will, “…I should not want free will to be given me…I could not stand my ground and hold fast my ‘free will,’ (for one the devil is stronger than all men…)…Furthermore, I have the comfortable certainty that I please God…by reason of His merciful favour promised to me; so that, if I work too little, or badly, He does not impute it to me, but with fatherly compassion pardons me and makes me better (Sherman 21).”
Luther clearly describes a pure relationship with God and the receiving of grace to create a pure heart in an individual. The grace of God, being introduced, was a radically new and refreshing alternative to the dry Catholicism. Knoch 7 Martin Luther was a devastating weapon against the Catholic Church in the Reformation. A once insecure and timid monk transformed into a raging literate machination against the church and their corrupt claims to power throughout his whole career. In the Ninety-five Theses, the start of his conquest, he humbly stated his opinion on indulgences and evidence that it should be overthrown. In some of his other works, he claimed that the Pope was a fraud, and they became salesmen in prostitution and the like, soiling scriptural sacrament of marriage. He also claimed that the people had no need of a priest, for every man could be his own priest (Cahill 178).
Such writings accused the church of falsely claiming power and even committing forgery against the Bible. In response to the Theses, the papal bull, or the Exsurge Domine of 1343, was released by the Pope himself. It demanded that Luther shall recant or be excommunicated, a punishment nearly equivalent to a death sentence, and his teachings erased. Cardinal Cajetan, a representative of the pope, commanded Luther to meet with him in the House of Fuggers, a powerful institution in its time, to state his response to this ultimatum. Cajetan presented accusations and heresies against Martin Luther, expecting him to recant, but Luther demanded to be convinced.
They argued back and forth on the credibility of the Bull, but Luther prevailed. To Luther’s horror, he confirmed that the religious leaders cared not an iota about scripture and only was given the rights of one simple answer: would he recant or not? After a day’s consideration, he refused, and the rest is history, saving the spiritual lives of billions to come (Collinson 63). Many people supported Luther’s reformation by morality and economic advantages. One surprisingly important incentive to the spread of anti-indulgence movements was Johannes Gutenberg’s printing press. Gutenberg was a Catholic inventor who wished to create a greater Knoch 8 means of spreading indulgences, but this idea backfired as people started using it, in fact, to refute indulgences. This inadvertently drew the blueprints to condemn the Catholic Church, creating cheap, easy, and affordable attacks on the enemies of the authors (Wiker 149).
In addition to the support of the common people, valuable political leaders took charge at this opportunity as well in the very beginning. Since the Diet of Augsburg in 1518, the princes have been addressing accusations against the Church on the subject of corruption, abuses on money, and indulgences. “Let the Holy Pope stop these abuses,” they cried in the Diet of Augsburg (Metaxas 143). Once the princes claimed their new wealth and power, they embraced Protestantism and enacted their new decrees on taxation laws and labor. The peasants felt an obligation to use Luther’s teachings about every man being his own priest, so they thought that they should be free from any leaders obstructing their daily lives.
In 1524, they revolted against the princes, refusing to pay their taxes and taking up arms in revolution. Luther was disgusted at the misuse of his instruction. His largest fear paralleled such a gruesome event. Out of horror, he appealed favor to the princes, encouraged them to wipe the peasant army out, and relinquished his theory of an individual priest (Wiker 141). The Protestant Reformation arose in response to a traditionally corrupt church, Martin Luther’s powerfully inspiring background, his mind-altering conquest, and the support of the many as a result. The effects of the Reformation are impossible to miss for the experienced Christian, as many in this community of three billion certainly are discernible from the others, for nobody believes the same thing.
This was a scrambling of beliefs within the great belief, causing healthy arguments and intense studying of the scripture, just as the Lord wished it to be. New questions sprout out from these debates, and the ultimate truth is craved and sought out. If the Reformation did not happen, Christians would not even be half what they are now. They Knoch 9 would hypothetically be robotically adhering to tradition, and a highly corrupt church would rule until the Day comes. It is amazing how a lowly monk can create such a lasting impact on society from centuries to come. Many Christians to this very day owe a great debt to Martin Luther.
