Response to Religious Revolution in Europe - Essay Example

This is because, through the humanistic approach employed by John Calvin and Martin Luther among others, they were able to go back to the sources with the aim of critically and carefully studying the past documents and texts which they discovered to be governed differently from the Roman church of their time. These studies led to the radical critique of the institutional church and traditional theology. Luther used a new edition in the Greek New Testament in 1516 to attack the practices and indulgences of the Roman church. I feel the protests erupted because the Roman Catholic Church defended themselves by producing a counter-history (George, 40) to come up with a factual interpretation of the bible which later led to conflicts between them and the new protestant church.

The author was not successful in making me think that the Roman Catholic Church attacked the protestant church and the new writings, although I feel that the Roman church defended itself instead of pointing out the weaknesses of the protestant church. Luther’s and Calvin’s goal was to prove that the Roman Catholic Church did not follow traditions the early church had laid for them. Tension grew among these two groups especially in the publication of “Ecclesiastical Annals” written by Italian Cardinal and Historian Caesar Baronius (George, 40) to prove that the church did not follow its traditions. In addition, the use of “Madgeburg Churches” by Lutheran Theologies was also a means of attacking the Catholic Church via writings. Generally, in my opinion, it’s fascinating that the religious revolution in Europe was majorly based on writings although a few persecutions were incurred.