Tremendous Social and Religious Changes Occurred as a Result of Luther's Actions - Research Paper Example

& No Martin Luther (The Reformation) 17 March Introduction The Catholic Church is the world number one religion in terms of adherents and is one of the oldest religions as well. As such, it had played an influential part in the history and the course of European development as well. This claim of longevity and continuity is based on a claim of apostolic succession, starting with St. Peter. The Catholic Church played a big role in Europe during the Middle Ages (such as the Dark Ages and the eventual Renaissance) when a period of marked deterioration occurred in the intellectual, cultural and economic spheres. It was a time of religious intolerance when a strict theocratic rule existed in most of Europe. An example of the extreme power of the Papacy at around this period was its ability to wage wars against other countries. This powerful papacy launched the Crusades which fought for a period of two centuries against the Muslims who conquered and occupied the Near East, especially Jerusalem. It also fought against other perceived enemies of the faith such as those pagans in the Slavic region, the Jews, the Mongols and other peoples it considered as heretics. In the real sense, the papacy was a power unto itself and exercised both religious and temporal powers. It concerned itself with matters of the state and even kings bowed to it. It was against this backdrop that the Reformation movement begun that was started by a simple act of Martin Luther. He questioned some of the questionable practices of the clergy during his time. He saw how the clerical powers had been abused at the expense of ordinary people and how it strayed so far away from its original religious mandate of saving the souls. It is necessary to give a brief background in order to understand the context in which Martin Luther challenged the papal authority and the manifest abuses of the system (Jacobs 7). Discussion The Catholic Church at around this time can be characterized, to put it mildly, as very corrupt. Candidates for the papacy outmaneuvered each other, engaged in political intrigues, some popes and priests were married and had families (before celibacy was imposed) and the general atmosphere within the Catholic hierarchy was far removed from religious matters. The main protest of Martin Luther was centered on the granting of indulgences. It was the practice of the Catholic Church at that time to give full or partial remissions for those sins committed and their accompanying or corresponding temporal punishment. Indulgences were replacements for severe penances imposed by the early church for sins committed drawn from the supposed accumulated goodwill in the Treasury of Merit. Because the Church was very corrupt and engaged more in temporal matters than what was necessary, it was constantly in need of funds to finance its various projects like building massive cathedrals and to finance its religious wars. Due to this scarcity of funds, the Church decided to raise money through the sale of these so-called indulgences (Somervill 43). It was not originally intended by Martin Luther to split the Church itself but his intentions were just to point out the sheer error in selling indulgences when these were supposed to be free. A very important point raised by Luther was that indulgences cannot save sinners since forgiveness is a power granted by God alone and not from buying and paying for these indulgences. He saw how unfair it was for the pope at that time (Pope Leo) to finance construction of an extravagant St. Peter's Basilica when the papacy itself had so much money. Moreover, he did not like the lavish lifestyle of the pope and the squandering of church funds through the support of extraneous things like art and culture. The pope had designated a short Dominican monk to undertake the sale of indulgences to raise funds; going from town to town, telling the people how they can save the souls of their relatives in Purgatory by buying indulgences. The Ninety-five Theses of Martin Luther – this actually referred to a list made up by Martin Luther, stating point by point his objections to some church practices and in particular why he was against the sale of indulgences to absolve sins. Although discussion of the entire 95 theses is beyond the scope of this paper, a few important points are highlighted in order for the reader to know why the Reformation took on a life of its own and led to the decline of the power and influence of the Catholic Church and in particular, that of the papacy itself. Theses 5-9 - dealt with the concept of true repentance of sin and achieved primarily by God alone and not by buying indulgences from the pope, who has no power to remove sin. It more or less invokes a personal relationship with God by making the sinner repent for sins which is an individual process of redemption through prayers and performing good works. In a nutshell, Martin Luther believed the sale of indulgences is just false assurance that deceived people into believing they had been saved already when in fact they were not. Theses 20-31 – the sale of indulgences merely highlighted the sheer corruption and the level of evil within the Church hierarchy in which important religious matters became subject to the commerce of man. Martin Luther found such practice to be morally abhorrent in which some rich people can commit sins with abandon and then get themselves absolved by buying indulgences. It encouraged people to commit sins (especially the rich who can afford them) to the detriment and neglect of being truly repentant. The sales were for expediency. Theses 40-51 – the sale of indulgences diverted people's attention and money from the real requirements of what it means to be a Christian. People were paying for indulgences and not doing good works anymore. This wrong focus made people spend for indulgences instead of helping the poor or the destitute which should have been the true mark of a good Christian. In a real sense, the sale of pardons perverted the practice of Catholicism which is to love other human beings, do good works for them and help whenever and whichever way by charity. Conclusion Martin Luther originally wanted only to expose the religious frauds perpetrated on the innocent but pious people who really believed in the redeeming power of these indulgences. It was not his intention to destroy the Catholic Church since he was a ranking member of it also. However, although the ninety-five theses were a mild rebuke to the corrupt clerical practices, the effects were very far-reaching indeed. Tremendous social and religious changes occurred as a result of Luther's actions and questions; the results were diminished power of the Church and even caused decline of feudalistic customs and contributed to the rise of commercialism. Success of the Reformation – perhaps the greatest success of Martin Luther's efforts are in forcing the Catholic Church to reform its materialistic and worldly ways. Although the pope himself made a rebuttal to the charges by Martin Luther and pointed out his errors, the Church came out considerably weakened with the loss of political dominion over much of the European continent. More importantly, many people may not realize it but the Reformation as started by Martin Luther lead to the principle of the separation of the Church and state which is enshrined in most constitutions of many democratic countries in the world today. No longer can the clergy exercise political powers as they used to in those previous centuries. There is a new world of religious liberty brought about by this separation principle (Hamburger 19). Failure of the Reformation – the movement started by Martin Luther resulted into the splintering of the Protestant movement, resulting in so many religious denominations today. It failed to unite the people who left Catholicism and instead lead to more divisions and schisms within Protestantism. Today, we have Baptists, evangelicals and other denominations and also many other minor congregations, all proclaiming the one true path to eternal salvation. A new religion like Protestantism breeds newer religions or denominations (Neusner 32) such that a lot of Protestants differ from one another unlike Catholics who are one body only. Works Cited Hamburger, Philip. Separation of Church and State. Boston, MA, USA: Harvard University Press, 2002. Print. Jacobs, Henry Eyster. Martin Luther: The Hero of the Reformation 1483-1546. New York, NY, USA: The Knickerbocker Press, 2005. Print. (This is a re-print). Neusner, Jacob. World Religions in America: An Introduction. Louisville, KY, USA: Westminster John Knox Press, 2009. Print. Somervill, Barbara A. Martin Luther: Father of the Reformation. Minneapolis, MN, USA: Compass Point Books, 2006. Print. Read More