The Catholic Church in 1500 was very powerful because many people moved to this holy land in order to fight for their beliefs. Church controlled their lives by falsehood. Church frightened the people by introducing those wrong beliefs. Church was very powerful because of the following reasons:
No, Martin Luther was not intended to become the priest/Monk. Martin Luther was born on 10 November 1483 in the town named Saxon. His father was a miner and not very rich person he was very hard worker because of his hard work he owned the six foundries. Martin Luther parents wanted that the Luther should become a lawyer due to this reason he was enrolled into the university of Erfurt and earned the bachelor’s degree in 1502 and in 1505 he earned the master’s degree. He set his mind full to continue his study in law but one day in 1505 when Luther was going to the Erfurt University from his home he was attacked by the horrible thunderstorm and Luther was scared from the death of lightning therefore he prayed to the patron saint of miners and uttered these words “Help me, St. Anne, and I will become a monk.” That was the turning point in the Martin Luther life and after the two weeks of this incident in a party he announced that he would join the monastery and Luther gave away his master caps and all the books of law. He joined the monastery on July 17, 1505, (Weaver).
Martin Luther always considered the church as a holy place where lot of people has belief and Rome is a city of prayers. But when he entered into Rome he found that everyone was doing the business and was playing with the beliefs of the people in the church .Priest were only doing drama of prayer and were making the money. Instead of a city of prayers and alms, of contrite hearts and holy lives, Rome was full of mocking hypocrisy, defiant scepticism, jeering impiety, and shameless revelry. (Gillis, 2016)
On 31st Oct 1517 Martin Luther posted 95 theses at Wittenberg All Saints Church by the thought of changing the world that was the criticism of the indulgences.Luther was worried after seeing the Rome but he confirmed to write the thesis after John Tetzel empowered by the pope to sell an indulgence for restoration of the buildings. Initially it was believed that people had been forgiven for their sins (The 95 Theses, 2016).Martin Luther theses were written in the Latin that later translated into German and the other languages.
The reformation in the church had created the spirit of independence. The first reaction was the Counter Reformation by the Roman Catholics .Counter reformation was very useful in the Europe and Austria recovery and also Southern Germany parts. Counter Reformation achieved the great success because controversial spirit grew among Protestants, Evangelical Enthusiasm among the Protestants lost; Papacy had advantage of thoroughly organized system, Roman church also benefited by this reformation of Protestants because church only made them to attempt the reform. Reformation also led the Catholics to do something for the internal corruptions or the corruption found within the organization. Index that was the list of books banned for the Roman Catholics to read by means of this reformation the Calvin and Luther writings were kept from the Roman Catholic people. Reformation also brought Inquisition success in Italy and Spain. (Arnold) Protestant reformation also divided the Europe into two parts south remained catholic whereas North became protestants. It increased the intolerance level because everyone was trying to destroy the other’s religion. Education became the important part because reformation wanted everyone to read the Bible.
What is his reaction to the social upheaval that follows? Martin Luther addressed his writing/appeals to Christian Nobility of the German Nation. His writing intended for the peasantry or the nobility. Romanists have made three walls around them that were First, Temporal power according to this wall they have maintained or affirmed that spiritual power is more important than temporal power and temporal power has no jurisdiction on them. Second, they objected on scriptures that only pope may interpret the scriptures. Third, If Romanists are threatened by the council then they pretend that only pope can call the council no one else can. Martin Luther formulated the ways to overcome from these walls formed by the Romanists he believed that the first wall was overthrown God should have the power or to differentiate between the goods and the bad temporal power has become the part of the Christian body. For the second wall Martin Luther Believed that all are priests all have one faith, one Sacrament, one Gospel then why need to be dependent on one person and why we do not have powers of judgement about right and wrong in the case of faith. For the third wall Luther found that pope has authority to take the decisions if he is the faithful member of the whole body. (Monica Banas, 1996)
Martin Luther was the holy person had great belief in the fact that faith in god is the step to the heaven he was not intended to start a revolution. The factors that forced the Martin Luther to start the revolution are as follows (History Revision - Reformation & Counter-Reformation ):