The questioning of the authority of the catholic church and the Pope with the rise of modernity is called as ‘Religious Reformation’.

1. Dr.AGHALYA.,M.A.,M.Ed.,M.PHIL.,Ph.D.,
Head & Asst.Professor
Department of History
Bon Secours College for Women
Thanjavur

2.  The questioning of the authority of the catholic church and
the Pope with the rise of modernity is called as ‘Religious
Reformation’.
 Pope started leading a life of luxury and churches became
greedy and exploited people.
 Martin Luther of Germany started a huge people’s
movement against Pope and catholic church.
 This movement not only created division in the
Christianity, it also forced the chatholic church to
contemplate and start ‘counter reformation’ movement.

3.  1. Many members of the Christian clergy and the Popes
instead of leading a chaste life, indulged in materialistic
pleasures.
 Many of them committed immoral acts. The Popes, instead
of reforming the religion, showed interest in politics.
 Italy’s Bocacchio, Holland’s Erasmus and England’s John
Wycliffe condemned these acts.
 2. All the clergy were not scholars. They stayed away from
the study of Bible. They also became part of the misdeeds
of the church.

4.  3. Clashes during the Middle Ages between the
Emperors and the Pope, wounded the pride and self
respect of the Emperors.
 They supported reformation movement.
 4. Nationalism grew in strength.
 They did not like the intervention of Roman Catholic
church or the Pope in the internal issues of countries.

5.  5. Scientific approach and curiosity inspired by
Renaissance made Europeans to contemplate
application of these approaches to religious problems
also.
 6. The church opposed the translation of the Bible
which was originally in Latin to other languages.
 By translating Bible to people’s language, reformation
movement reached the people.

6.  Martin Luther is the founder of religious reformation
movement.
 He was born in Isabel as the son of Hans and
Margreat.
 He took into monkhood and started studying Bible at
Augustus church.
 Later, he became the professor of Thelogy at
Witsenberg University.

7.  As he was curious to see the church and the Pope at
Rome, he visited Rome.
 He became unhappy with the luxurious and immoral
life of Pope and Rome.
 There were a lot of differences between the teachings
of Christianity and the actual behaviour of Pope.
 The religious movement started by Martin Luther was
called as ‘Religious Reformation Movement’.

8.  Martin Luther rejected the preachings of Catholic Church.
 In 1517 he opposed the ‘Sale of Paradon Letters’ by the
church.
 Catholic church had opined that ‘‘the God has empowered
them to lessen the punishment of the sinners.
 This power is the result of good deeds done by Jesus Christ
and the clergy.’’
 In order to achieve this Paradon, the sinner was expected to
engage in good deeds.

9.  But in many occassions they would simply pay the church
and get the ‘Letter of Paradon’ instead of doing good deeds.
 Martin Luther opposed the sale of these letters of Paradon
strongly.
 The followers of Martin Luther were called as ‘Protestants’.
More than half of the Germans became Protestants.
 The religious reformation movement created internal
disturbances in Europe and distrubed the religious
environment.

10.  Many Europeans lost their lives for their religious faith.
Many were imprisoned or their property was confincated.
 Roman Catholics harrassed Protestants wherever they were
in majority.
 Similarly, wherever Protestants got support from the
government, harassed the Catholic followers.
 The famous Thirty years war is the war between protestants
and Catholic.

11.  1. As a result of the religious reformation, the solidarity
of Christian religion received a severe blow.
 Christianity was divided into three sects: Catholic
church, Orthodox church and Protestant church.
 2. Many of the European kings got liberated from the
hold of the Church and the Pope.
 3. Religious reformation led to rise of nationalism.
 .

12.  4. The confiscated wealth of the Church was utilized for the
economic development.
 5. Patriotic feelings became strong and the kings of Europe
developed religious tolerance. Martin Luther

 6. Due to this movement, the literary field saw progress.
Local languages influenced the European minds.
 7. The Catholic church itself underwent reformation and
this came to be known as Counter Reformation.

13.  JAI HIND