He believed the selling indulgences was wrong, and even the pope, Pope Leo X, did not have the authority to abolish sins through payments. Luther recognized that at this time, the Church was more focused on accumulating money than saving its people and spreading the word of Christ. Luther believed that only God has the ability to take away the sins of humanity. Martin Luther published his opinions in a document titled Ninety-Five Theses. The monk's writing spread quickly around Europe, and he soon posed a serious threat to the Catholic Church.
In regards, politics go, the Puritans had some interesting views. As John Winthrop, in “a modell of Christian charity” said, the Puritans believed their moral and divine cause, i.e. creating a community of righteous Christians gave them justification to defeat violent “heathens” often times without fair treaty, negotiation, or any other semblance of normal politic. Indeed, they truly believed themselves to be a model for Christianity that the whole world would watching, as is exemplified in the “modell of a Christian charity”. Leaders of the Church were given excessive power.
Luther and Henry VIII’s motives for reform sprung from entirely different sources. Luther disagreed with the Catholic church over the doctrine that allowed the selling of indulgences to lay people. After study of the Scriptures, Luther decided that salvation was achieved not by indulgences or even good works, but only by faith alone. Henry VIII’s reasons for his break with the church came from his desire to divorce his wife at the time, Catherine, and marry Anne Boleyn. He asked Pope Clement VII to announce that the king’s previous marriage to Catherine of Aragon was invalid.
Simony was the buying and selling of anything considered spiritual (Miller 15). He believed that the appointments of church leaders by kings, in this case Henry IV, was an act of simony because the men that the kings were closest to were granted offices. Pope Gregory VII felt that this was a heresy in the church and the ability to appoint men to high positions should be stripped of the kings and emperors powers. During the reform, the holiness of kings was more directly attacked by the reformers who insisted that kings were only men, like all men (Miller 5) which helped Gregory VII find a backing for his revolt against the
These were people who protested against the Catholic church. They felt the Pope had too much power and control over England. They also complained that the Catholic church was corrupt - shown by the wealthy monasteries. Henry did not really agree with all the complaints against the Catholic church, but was determined to have a male heir. Henry used Parliament to push through his changes.
The man who first rebelled against the Catholic Church was a man named Martin Luther. He did this by creating the 95 Thesis. Thesis number 32 states that “Those who believe that, through letters of pardon indulgences, they are made sure of their own salvation, will be eternally damned along with their teachers”. The 95 Thesis were reasonable and fair to all of England, unlike the Catholic Churches new rules. Henry VIII thought of the idea to challenge the church from Martin Luther.
Why do we need a king that’s so selfish and disrespectful to rule our country? Religious conflicts permeated Charles’s reign. He married a Catholic princess over the objection of our parliament and public opinion. He also allied himself with controversial religious figures like Duke of Buckingham and Archbishop Laud. As his subjects, we think that this brought our Church of England too close to Roman Catholic.
How far does the evidence of sources 1, 2 and 3 suggest that the early sixteenth century church exploited people’s religious faith to increase its own wealth? Explain your answer, using the evidence of sources 1, 2 and 3. The 3 sources all differ in the extent to which they suggest that during the sixteenth century the church exploited people’s religious faith to increase its own wealth. Source one agrees with this idea, which we immediately deduce because we are told the writer of the source, Anti- cleric, Simon Fish, attacks the church in his pamphlet making us conclude that the source will be from biased viewpoint, against the church. By describing the priests as ‘ravenous wolves’, suggests hatred towards the church, and due to how bold and vivid this description is, implies really negative connotations of how severe the exploitation was.
The ideas of the Reforms came from the side of Martin Luther and the common people of the Catholic church who had started to question the clergy of the Catholic Church such as the pope. The theories of Luther scared the Catholic church and the trusted followers of the pope which
The Puritans wanted to remove all practice and rituals of Catholicism from Europe. John Winthrop and fellow Puritans were frustrated with religious activities in England, “All other Churches of Europe are brought to desolation and or sinnes”. He believed that the Church was corrupted and that the lord “Frowned upon us, doe threatens us fearfully”. Winthrop believed that England was invaded by evil and ran by a corrupted Government, and that the roots for religious learning were being disturbed. They feared to live in such sinful society, because they believed that God predestined people to salvation and others were damned for the rest of time.