Protestant Reformation

1. Discuss the Causes of the Protestant Reformation. Which do you feel are most important? Why?

During the middle age, the Catholic Church experienced crisis that it had not experienced before, which led to the inevitable protestant movements and reformations. The causes of this protestant movement can be linked to the poor leadership of the church and the ability of people to read the bible on their own. The first reason that caused people to protest was the poor leadership of the Roman Catholic Church. Initially, people believed in the church without questioning and therefore they entrusted the church with all their finance without concern. During the middle Ages, this changed as the people realized that the church took advantage of their faith and misappropriated their finances through corruption (Lecture 13).

Before the beginning of protestant movement, the bible was only available to the clergy and they were responsible for reading and interpreting the bible to the people (lecture 13). This however changed and the people realized that there was a lot that was not according to the bible. In particular, the pope had elevated himself to the status of God and he had the power to forgive sins and the keys to heaven (Gochberg 98). Finally, the clergy lived a hypocritical life whereby they claimed status of holiness that they could not maintain. The clergy was supposed to observe celibacy, but instead some of the clergy members chose to keep mistresses and also marry in secret (Lecture 13). The most important reason that led to Protestantism was the elevated status of pope. After people read the bible, they were determined to know and pursue the truth and therefore they could not withstand something that was against the truth.

2. The Renaissance has been called the "Birth of Modernity." Why?

Renaissance is a major and important period in history since it marked the beginning of