The Tale of Martin Luther and the Reformation

Once upon a time in the land of not America (or Europe), the Reformation was about to happen. However, it could not happen on its own. It was only able to happen because of three things:
               
1.) Immorality
            During this time, a lot of priests were not so "priestly". They did not follow the laws laid down by the church and committed sins such as sexual transactions, drunkenness, gambling, and the absolute worse of all the indulgence in fancy dress. Sorry, father, no designer outfits for you. These sins often scandalized the educated who were faithful to the religion.

2.) Ignorance
           Most priests at this time were not at all educated. They could not read or write let alone say the masses in Latin. With these uneducated clergymen running churches and masses, the Renaissance humanists with their concern for learning often turned away from the ignorance of those uneducated, fancy dressing priests.

3.) Pluralism
          Pluralism was basically the practice of one priest holding many jobs and being paid for all of them but not doing any work. Usually these priest that held these jobs would pay a poor priest a fraction of what they made to do their work. One archbishop only entered his cathedral for the first time at his funeral.

So pretty much most of the church was corrupt at this point. Whether it was a small parish priest getting drunk or a high ranking bishop not doing his job the church was a mess. However, this mess set the perfect stage for Martin Luther to take his stand.

Instead of going into detail about Martin Luther, here is a link to a wonderful video Papal Bulls, Indulgences, and Transubstantiation. In general however, Martin Luther wanted to reform three things in the church: papal bulls, indulgences, and transubstantiation.

1.) Indulgences

           Indulgences were given out by priest to relieve people of sins. However, people had to buy them. They were sort of a get of hell free card except they weren't free. Martin Luther disagreed with this and wanted to get rid of them. 

2.) Transubstantiation

            Transubstantiation is the belief that the bread and wine are the actual body and blood of Jesus. Simply, Martin Luther did not believe this.

3.) Papal Bull

            A papal bull was a degree from the pope that was supposed to be taken as the word of God. Again Martin Luther did not believe in this.

Martin Luther did not believe in many of the churches teachings. But what he did believe in was that salvation comes from simple faith in Christ which attracted many others who were tired with the  excessiveness of the church. Even higher class people favored this plainer faith for it meant they no longer had to answer to the Church and its rules. 

Martin Luther may not have been the only one to act against the church but when he did the timing was perfect. The world was ready for the Reformation and Martin Luther gave it the push it needed to begin.