Essay: The Reformation

The Reformation was a characteristic feature or rather a description given to the fore figures who championed for change during the era when Catholic religion took control of religious activities in the entire Europe. Hence, the Protestant Reformation can be seen a reformation of the European nations. Key players during the reformation movements include Martin Luther, Jeanne de’ Jussie, Huldrych Zwingli, John Calvin and others. They played an important role in shaping the direction of Christianity in Europe. Many believers presently still follow the ideals that were brought forth by the early reformists. Reformation started in the 16th century when Martin Luther published the Ninety-five Theses and Treaties on Marriage and ran all the way until the end of the Thirty Years’ War in 1648. In as much as reformation led to diversity of culture, learning and incorporation of new concepts into different cultures, it created a big rift within the European or Western Christianity. Different confessions emerged like the Catholic, Lutheran, Reformed, Anglican, Anabaptist, and the Unitarian. Initially, Western Christianity was only a practice controlled by the Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor. Under this hierarchy, were also significant dignitaries like Lollards in England and Waldensians in Italy and France, however they were oppressed together with the minors. Such issues influenced reformist like Martin Luther to rebuke Catholicism and come up with movements to fight for justice and protect the minority groups in the society. In fact, there had been earlier attempts by other reformists but they did not gain much success. For instance Jan Hus, Peter Waldo, John Wycliffe, and Girolamo Savonarola  had tried to reform the Roman Catholic Church but failed. Martin Luther picked on the fight later. These reformations gained much success and soon became a threat to the Roman Catholic Church. This was worsened by the various Anabaptism movements it gave birth to. Besides forming communities outside state sanction, radical reformers also significantly changed the doctrines such as the rejection of the tenets of the councils of Nicaea and Chalcedon (Ferguson, 2016). The Catholic Church also came with a counterattack reformation movement which worsened the situation since religious strife gained political affiliations as well. The reformation movements of the 16th century shaped the lives of Catholic Europeans creating new churches, imposing new methods of worship, redefining social structures, and creating strife at the local and international levels. Martin Luther King talked about the nature of marriage in the Roman Catholic Church while John Calvin talked about many institutions of the Roman Catholic Church. Jeanne de Jussie talked about the evil acts of the leaders and members of the church and rebuked them. The aspects of reformation movements were radical in the 16th century because they criticized the way the affairs of the Roman Catholic Church were ran in Europe and changed the ways of worship, although they caused religious wars both locally and internationally.
The reformation movements of the 16th century were radical because they were counteraction to what was believed as corruption of the Roman Catholic Church at that time in the entire Europe. Reformists like Martin Luther King and John Calvin observed the manner with which the affairs of the Roman Catholic Church were being run in the entire Europe. Of course they were not happy with the way believers turned the affairs of the Roman Catholic Church into personal affairs. People broke the laws of God and made and followed their own laws. The church which was supposed to emancipate the masses, or be an example or a standard of codes to the people, or a beacon of hope and happiness to believers, instead, the church was turned to satisfy the specific needs of people (Luther, 2016). The church became toxic and could no longer be valued as a holy place or gain the respect it deserves due to the actions of people. Reformists of this time rebuked error, challenged the leaders and members of the church to do that which was right before the laws of God. During the late medieval Roman Catholic Church, the office of the papacy controlled the church affairs. The church, or rather this office became involved in political life of the Western Europe. As such, serving a high seat, it controlled and manipulated all political decisions in Europe. The church thus became political instead of serving its religious purpose. Due to political influence, the Roman Catholic Church amassed wealth and status which was marked by bankrupting of the church as a spiritual force. Several abuses such as the sale of. indulgences by the clergy became rampant. The church became so much corrupt that reformist like Martin Luther could not withstand by just sitting and doing nothing. The level of corruption influenced them to counterattack the leadership and management of the affairs of the Roman Catholic Church. The church’s spiritual importance and authority was sold out to corruption, mockery and evil. Catholic reformers who later introduced Protestantism attacked the popular superstitions in the church and urged the imitation of Christ as the supreme moral teacher. The Ninety-five Theses of Luther attacked corruption in the life of the church by dealing first with the theological root of the problem. Such theological aspects included the doctrine of redemption and kindness. Luther argued that redemption was by grace and not by works or deeds of an individual as it had been in the Roman Catholic beliefs. He sought to make it clear the confusion that the Church had raised about God’s free gift of grace through a complex system of indulgences and good works. The pope at that time assumed control of the purgatory. The pope championed the doctrine of the merits of the saints. Luther fought against these confusing doctrines with zeal through his writings. This distinguished him from other reformist since the rest did not tackle the root cause of the problem.
The reformation movements of the 16th century were radical because they were meant to change the affairs of the Roman Catholic Church. It was these changes that resulted to emergence and spread of Protestantism in Europe. Change brought about construction of new churches, adoption of new methods of worship, and redefining social structures. John Calvin, Jeanne Jussie, and Martin Luther King proposed new structures and methods of worship which characterized the protestant movement (Calvin, 2018). He criticized the sale of indulgences. He argued that the Pope had no authority over purgatory and that the Catholic doctrine of the merits of the saints had no foundation in the Bible. As such, the Reformation movements incorporated doctrinal changes such as a complete reliance on Scripture as the only source of proper belief and the belief that faith in Jesus, and not good works, is the only way to obtain God’s pardon for sin. This movements led to people seeing the ideal truth of how corrupt and unrealistic their beliefs and the affairs of the church were. Consequently, they abandoned their initial faith, Catholism and adopted new faith, Protestantism.  Churches which followed the new doctrines, the Protestantism beliefs, flourished in Europe (Luther, 2016). Luther who was a pastor was influential behind construction of the first protestant church in Europe. Changes in doctrines gained much insight in Europe and soon became the talk of the day. These reformers changed the doctrine of redemption by grace. According to them, justification by was by faith and the grace of God and not by individual works. They rejected the Catholics concept of Holy Communion and transubstantiation. John Calvin, in his Institutes of the Christian Religion, he proposed changes not only concerning religion but even his line of profession, advocacy. The reformation of the church had political consequences although it marked reorganization and change which restored dignity of the church and human life. New aspects in the protestant churches were such as recognizing God as the Supreme Being who controls everything in the world and as such, the leaders of the church had no authority to decide on policies which favor them as s rule over other believers.  The Church had become an institution plagued by internal power struggles for popes and Cardinals who lived more like kings than spiritual leaders. Popes were religious leaders as well as political leaders. These are among the many things that reformists changed in the new protestant faith.  In Protestantism, no more did religious leaders command armies, made political alliances and enemies or waged war. Nepotism and tribalism were done away with completely too.
The reformation movements of the 16th century were radical because they created strife at the local and international levels. Since the ideals of reformists did not auger well with some of the leaders and members of the Roman Catholic Church, reformists received some repulsion. Moreover, religious disputes erupted due to differences in beliefs and practices (Ferguson, 2016). The abandonment and adoption of new faith caused religious conflicts among Protestants and Catholics. The Catholic Church at some point also came up with counter attack movements which worsened the religious strife that was already created by the radical reformists. Luther’s reformation ideals about indulgence were rejected by the Roman Catholic Church as the clergies argued that he meant to confuse believers with his personal opinions which were not based on any reasonable evidence. Jessie’s and Calvin’s ideals also did not get a warm welcome from their opposite counterparts.  The reformist movements was a war of doctrines and practices. Despite the challenge of rejection from the Roman Catholic Church, the reformist gained a big population of followers in Western Europe and spread to other places with time including Africa. While reformist spoke about doctrines of grace and indulgences with an aim of doing away with them, the Catholic Church maintained its stands. John Calvin also put on a spirited a fight against the falsehood created by doctrines concerning matters like marriage, life, and grace among others. Moreover, Jeanne and he were disturbed by the way the church had become a political and socio-economic institution instead of the sole role model of the way of life to believers in Europe. According to them, the church had become an entity for the selected few like the office of the papacy and the royals (Calvin, 2018). As such, these parties came up with policies that always maintained them as Supremes at the expense of their faith and freedom.
Overall, it is evident from the above laid facts that reformation movements were radical in the 16th century because they criticized the way the affairs of the Roman Catholic Church were handled in Europe and changed the ways of worship. Reformist like John Calvin and Jeanne de’ Jussie were a category of radicals who fought for the oppressed members of the society in church, homes, and place of work among others. The Church had assumed the political affairs of the state such as control of the army, control of wealth, and control of the nation’s wars and treaties. However, they resulted into religious strife both locally and internationally. The Roman Catholic Church which for a long time had been the epitome of religious cultures in Europe was fast fading and as a result it had to do everything to remain significant. This was worsened by the fact that it had political and economic powers. As such, it was easy to fight against reformists like John Calvin. In summary, the reformist movements rebuked corruption, changed worship, structures, institutions, and marriage among others, and created religious conflicts. In conclusion therefore, it is without doubt that the religious movements in the 16th century were radical.