Martin Luther's Reforms - Essay Example

However, during the time, the Protestant Reformation created confusion and a sense of chaos among European Christians. Immediate effects of the Protestant Reformation included a division among European Christians. “The protestant reformation also generated resistance and hostility, not least from the institutions of the traditional church and its defenders” (Greengrass, 1). Prior to the Reformation, European Christians lived in a more conformed society; religion was a very large aspect of their lives and with their religion they had an understanding of their place within their communities and their world.

When Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the door of a church in 1517, he sparked not only a reaction from the Catholic Church but a reaction from monarchs and citizens across Europe. Some monarchies, such as in Germany, Holland, and England, eventually embraced the idea of reforming the Catholic Church and allowing for the progressive views of Protestantism to reorganize their churches and religious practices (McKay, Hill, and Buckler, 12). Other monarchies were not as accepting. France and Italy, for example, clung tightly to the history and roots of the Roman Catholic Church (McKay, Hill, and Buckler, 12).

Reformists faced multiple hurdles as both the Roman Catholic Church and sympathizing monarchs worked to extinguish the Lutheran movement. Citizens were often accused of heresy or witchcraft, and they were sometimes burned or tortured for their refusal to once again accept the Papal authority of the Pope and the Catholic Church: In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, a frenzy spread through Europe that witches in allegiance with the Devil were combining forces to destroy the Christian faith…The panic of the masses, from those of the elite to the humble peasantry working together, resulted in thousands of men and women undergoing