Consequences of the PROTESTANT Reformation

Religion has been an essential element in the history of humanity, being used to justify wars or to divide entire peoples just by the words of powerful men. The Christianity, as the predominant religion in the Western world, has been of great importance in these matters and, therefore, we must speak of the strong changes that the world suffered when reform of catholicism caused Protestantism. Therefore, in this lesson from a TEACHER we are going to talk about the consequences of the Protestant Reformation.

The Protestant Reformation, sometimes just call Reform, was a religious movement inside of the Christianity that had its origin in Germany in the 16th century, being its main promoter the German theologian Martin Luther. The relevance of this movement is so enormous that it changed the political situation in Europe forever, dividing the Catholic Church and raising the call Protestantism which caused a great religious struggle in Europe.

The figure of the Pope and the Church It had been a question that had been widely criticized for years, and there were numerous thinkers and theologians who expressed their opinion on the need for a

profound change in the customs and ideology of the members of the Vatican, since it was considered that corruption had become too common in high religious circles.

On November 10, 1517, Martin Luther published a work called Las ninety-five theses against the sale of indulgences in which critualized the sale of indulgences, blaming mainly the Pope and the Church. Luther considered that divine salvation was achieved through acts related to faith and therefore the Pope and the Church could not give salvation as if it were a commercial element. Luther defended the lutheran religion, which should be based on the principles of the traditional Church.

The influence of Luther's work was enormous, he being condemned by a Bull of Pope Leo X and the theologian being defended by the German governments, who welcomed criticism of the Vatican. After this the influence of the reform changed Europe forever.

To continue with this lesson from a TEACHER we must talk about the main consequences of the Protestant Reformation. The great importance of these consequences causes us to have to explain quite broadly the relevance of all of them.

The Pope ceases to be the center of religion

Luther argued that spiritual authority must come from God and of the spiritual acts performed by man, which were much more important than the decisions that the Church or the Pope will make. The influence of the Pope and the Catholic Church diminished, causing the power of the European monarchs to increase. This in part also benefited the bourgeoisie, who from this moment began to increase their influence in most of the northern countries.

New churches

Luther's words made many people realize that Catholicism had turned its back on ideals originals of religion, so new churches appeared that in theory sought to return to the origins of religion Christian. Some of these churches were the Lutheran, Calvinist, or Anglican, the latter being the one that had the greatest relevance at first, since it brought about the rupture of the United Kingdom with the Church, since King Henry VIII looked for a way to get separated from his wife, and at the same time to increase his power in the region.

Conflicts between Catholics and Protestants

Religious wars have been a constant in the history of humanity and the differences between Catholics and Protestants led in a short time to many conflicts of great importance. Hundreds of Protestants were murdered in Spain and Portugal, in England Christians were persecuted and murdered and the all-important 30 years war it is still a direct consequence of the confrontation between the two currents of religion.

Counter Reformation

The reform movement had such an impact that the Catholic Church had no choice but to start a revolution in its own center, seeking to change the religious system towards a renewed Church that could slow the advance of the Protestants. Some of the measures taken in the Counter ReformationThey were the change in the sacraments, reinforcing the figure of the Pope and reducing the indulgence trade.

Jewish migration

When carrying out his thesis, Luther thought that the Jews, who had suffered so much at the hands of the Church, would come to support his ideas but the The reality is that the vast majority ignored the words of Luther and maintained their beliefs in Judaism, since they believed that it was the only religion real. The Jews found themselves in a crossfire between Christians and Protestants that made a large majority they left to the east and many others were persecuted and killed by the followers of both beliefs.

Europe Division

The rise of the Protestants divided Europe in two, the northern states being more prone to the new religion and the southern states being more related to traditional religion. This division caused a series of conflicts and alliances that would mark the European map in the following years and that caused many of the most important events of the last years of the Modern Age.