How Did The Reformation Contribute To The Rise Of Individualism

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Introduction The Renaissance, Reformation, and the rise of the Roman Catholic were big moments that shaped history. These eras inspired many, bringing about new ideas of individualism, religious devotion, and the arts. People were affected in many ways, and often in different ways. It changed the way people thought and lived from day-to-day. It created new beginnings and new ideologies that have carried into the ideas of today. The church has been a part of each of these movements but viewed in very different ways. The Renaissance, Reformation and Roman Catholic criticisms had separate views and ideas of the church. Renaissance To begin, the Renaissance was a movement that was full of inspiration, individualism, and artistic advancements. …show more content…

The Protestant Reformation was first documented as beginning with Martin Luther’s work being published, “95 Theses”. Martin Luther was born in 1483 in Germany. His father was a Saxon miner and Luther was brought up in training to be a lawyer. The story is told that a lightning bolt struck him from his horse in a thunderstorm so he cried out to St. Anne to save him, and in return he would become a monk. Within the two weeks following, he became a monk at the Augustinian monastery in Erfurt. He began to question the Catholic ways and started preaching protestant ways after traveling and seeing how other Christian denominations followed God. He stood in front of the Diet of Worms and was outlawed, but was protected by the Duke and Prince. During this time, more people were congregating in towns and cities, able to see the church corruption for themselves. People were not being helped to find personal salvation by the Catholic church’s emphasis on rituals. The attacks against the Catholic church grew stronger and made its move beyond Germany. People were breaking out against the Catholic church, turning to Protestant religions. People from several European countries read the “95 Theses” and other writings by Luther and were leaving the Catholic church. There was an uprising in the European countries as the view of the Catholic church changed among many …show more content…

This was the Catholic church’s response to the Reformation and attacks they received during that time. Along with being the response to outward hatred, this was the Catholic church’s way to work on inner renewal and improvement. The response what was termed “Lutheranism” was combatted in several ways depending on the Pope and what they wished to achieve. Some tried to reassert the authority of the Catholic church, preaching against the Protestants. Others attempted to appeal to the governmental authority like kings and princes to win their favor, while others attempted to make Catholicism more accessible to the common people and spread it more so on the ground-level. All these various ways came back at Lutheranism and Protestants that were spreading throughout Europe at the time like wildfire. Popes, even, understood that reform within the Catholic church was needed, so they attempted to do so. However, they still held tight and faithful to the Catholic church. Even though the Protestants came at the Catholic church pretty hard, the Catholics were determined to counter this argument, but did not win many people back to

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