The Protestant Reformation
In the 1500s, a new way of thinking called humanism was changing how people saw the world—and it ended up playing a big role in the Protestant Reformation. Humanism was all about going back to the basics, studying original texts like the Bible and ancient works in their original languages, and using reason and critical thinking to understand them. People like Erasmus of Rotterdam encouraged others to read the Bible for themselves instead of relying on the Church to explain it.
This idea that individuals could question and explore religious truths for themselves inspired reformers like Martin Luther. Humanism didn’t start the Reformation, but it gave people the confidence—and the tools—to challenge long-standing religious traditions and authority.
Christian Europe in the 1500's
Power and Controversy: The Catholic Church in the 1500s
In the 1500s, the Catholic Church wasn’t just about Sunday services and prayer—it was the most powerful institution in Europe. The Church owned vast lands, collected taxes, and influenced decisions at every level of society, from peasant villages to royal courts. But with all that power came plenty of controversy. To many, it seemed like the Church had strayed far from its spiritual mission, and its practices were raising more eyebrows than Amens.
One of the biggest issues people had was indulgences. Imagine being told you could pay to reduce your time in purgatory—or worse, to free a loved one’s soul. That’s what indulgences were: payments to the Church for spiritual benefits. For the rich, it was no big deal, but for the poor, it felt like the Church was selling salvation to the highest bidder. It wasn’t just indulgences, though. There was also simony, the buying and selling of Church positions. Wealthy families could pay for their sons to become bishops or priests, turning what should have been a sacred calling into a business transaction.
Then there was the issue of absentee clergy—bishops and priests who collected income from their parishes but didn’t bother to live or work there. Many were more interested in politics or luxury than in leading their congregations. And don’t forget the Bible. At the time, it was only available in Latin, meaning that most people couldn’t read it for themselves. They had to rely on priests to interpret scripture, leaving little room to question whether Church teachings were true to the original text.
For years, people complained quietly, but by the early 1500s, the discontent had reached a tipping point. The Church’s focus on wealth and power instead of faith and service made many question whether it was still the moral authority it claimed to be. The stage was set for a major shake-up, and Martin Luther was about to spark the Protestant Reformation, changing the course of history forever.
Pope's Behaving Badly
Pope Benedict IX
1032-1048
There are a number of really bad pope's in history. Benedict is one of the worst. Not only did his use the church treasury as his personal slush fund, he also had his enemies tortured, flayed alive, and burnt.
St. Damian once called him "a demon from hell in the disguise of a priest."
Martin Luther: From Student to Reformer
Martin Luther was born into a working-class family in 1483. His father, a miner who later owned several mines, worked hard to ensure his son received a good education. Luther’s father hoped Martin would become a lawyer, a stable and respectable profession. Luther followed this path until a life-changing event occurred when get stuck outside in the middle a violent thunderstorm. Terrified, he vowed to become a monk if he survived. He kept his promise and joined the Church.
As a monk and later a professor of theology, Luther spent years studying the Bible. Over time, he grew uncomfortable with some Church practices, particularly the selling of indulgences.
A Penny for Your Soul
The Catholic church taught that after a person dies their eternal soul went to one of three places:
1. Heaven (if you were really good)
2, Hell (if you were really bad)
3. Purgatory (if you were somewhere in between).
Naturally, most people fell into this third category where your soul waited in purgatory until your sins had been fully wiped away and you were ready to enter the Pearly Gates.
The thought of being stuck in purgatory for hundreds of years was almost as terrifying as being sent straight to Hell. However, the Church had a solution. You could visit relics or buy a piece of paper called an indulgence to knock off a few years. You could also buy an indulgence for a dead loved one, so now, for a few pennies, grandma could get to Heaven faster.
To Luther and others who agreed with him, the Pope was peddling snake oil. Luther could find no mention of indulgences in the Bible and therefore, criticized the Church for selling them to naïve people. The worst abuser of the indulgence system was a man named Johann Tetzel- an experienced salesman and member of the clergy. Teztel really got on Luther's bad side when he came around to Luther's church trying to sell indulgences. Luther drove him off but Teztel set up shop in a town nearby.
With catchy slogans like "As soon as a coin in the coffer rings / the soul from purgatory springs", Tetzel really knew the power of a rhyming slogan to make a sell. Tetzel preyed on the people's fear for the souls of their dead loved ones and the gold coins came pouring in. Where did all this money go? The building of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, a project the Pope was eager to see completed.
The 95 Theses
On October 31, 1517. Luther spent his Halloween hunched over his writing desk drafting a simple list of his 95 favorite objections against the Catholic Church-and nailing them to the door of the university church in Wittenberg (a large town not far from where Luther lived).
It would take a really long time going through all of them, so we'll give you the Cliff Notes version of the 95 Theses instead:
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There's nothing in the Bible about indulgences
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Indulgences cant save your soul
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Even if an indulgence could save your soul the Pope shouldn't be charging people for it.
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The Pope needs to give everyone a refund who bought an indulgence for a dead relative.
Just as a side note. To a modern reader nailing messages to the door of a public building might sound like a really revolutionary act. Imagine if we went around nailing our objections on the door of Congress (on second thought it might get their attention). But, in Luther's day, this was a rather common way to call a public debate. Luther was not trying to take on the Pope or the power of the Church; his aim was just to get a little discussion going. As a final touch, Luther mailed a copy to the Archbishop of Mainz and even posted a copy to the Pope himself.
What Luther had come to realize was that everything the Church taught was built on people needing priests to interpret the Bible for them. Luther believed that people could find God and salivation just by reading the Bible. The only problem was, most people couldn't read Latin (much less than own language) nor could they understand what was being said aside from a few memorized prayers that they had been reciting all of their lives. Luther used the power of the printing press, which had become available to Europeans in 1450 thanks to another German named Johann Gutenberg. After posting his 95 theses to the cathedral door in Wittenberg his friends raced to the printing presses to spread his message.
Before the printing press, the Church would have been able to quickly and quietly get rid of these heretic teachings. In fact, they probably would have been totally ignored had his 95 Theses not been translated into German and printed for everyone to read.
Luther was passionate about spreading the Bible to the common person. One of his reforms suggested that the Bible be translated from Latin to the language of the local people. Luther set out to do just that: be the first person to translate the Bible into German.
Now that the protestant cat was out of the bag, there was no turning back. The power of the printing press made certain that everyone had heard about Luther's challenge to the Catholic Church. What Luther hoped for was to bring about a few changes and end the practice of indulgences. What he got was a showdown with the Pope and all of the powers of Europe
The Showdown Begins
Pope Leo X (the 10th) probably should have paid more attention to what was going down in Germany. Instead, he was busy overseeing the construction of his pet project, St. Peter's Basilica to take much notice of the complaints of a simple priest.
Meanwhile, Martin Luther was just getting warmed up. A debate on justification through faith might seem like a real snore-fest but Luther was a dynamic speaker who touched a topic close to the hearts of many Germans, the abuses of the Catholic Church.
The debate lasted 18 days (talk about overtime) and Luther argued with Church scholars on everything from the sale of indulgences, to the existence of purgatory, to the authority of the Pope himself. Luther's main argument was that salvation lay with the Bible, not the Pope. Luther became very popular throughout Renaissance Germany.
In June 1520, Pope Leo X had had enough and issued a Papal Bull ( a formal decree) criticizing Luther and condemning him as a heretic. Luther was stripped of his title as a Catholic priest and excommunicated from the Church. In those days being excommunicated meant that you were an outlaw (literally not in communication) of the Church. Without being able to receive the sacraments or confession your soul was as good as damned. The Pope ordered that Luther's writings be collected (as many as he could find anyhow and publicly burned). Not to be outdone, Luther publicly burned the Pope's, Papal Bull.
In April of 1520, Luther was summoned to appear before the Diet of Worms-- which has nothing to do with a gross method of weight loss. A Diet is an assembly of government and Worms (pronounced Vurms... those Germans), a city in southwestern Germany.
Luther vs Leo
The Showdown of the Century
Against the Roman Church, you warned, lying teachers are rising, introducing ruinous sects, and drawing upon themselves speedy doom. Their tongues are fire, a restless evil, full of deadly poison.
...the Pope is the very Antichrist, who has exalted himself above, and opposed himself against Christ because he will not permit Christians to be saved without his power
This was no school debate- Martin Luther had been called before the Holy Roman Emperor himself- Charles V (also known as Charles I). The Emperor may have only been nineteen but the message could not have been clearer- Luther was big trouble. At first, Luther considered not going. But really, what choice did he have. The Emperor promised him safe passage both to and from the meeting. However, it should be said that in 1415 a Czech priest named Joan Hus had been called before the Holy Roman Emperor to answer similar charges of heresy that Luther faced. However, Hus never made it back. The emperor reneged on his promise and he was burned at the stake.
Luther reluctantly agreed. Not that he had much of a choice. At the meeting, in front of the powerful government and religious leaders of his time, Luther was asked just two questions:
1.Did he acknowledge that he had written heresy
2.Would he recant (take back) what he had written)
Luther looked at his accusers (who clearly had already had decided that he was guilty of heresy) and said: "I need 24 hours to think about it."
Surprisingly, the Emperor agrees. The next day, Luther is asked the same two questions. This time he gives a speech, slamming the Church and its corruption. He finished with one of the most famous lines of the Reformation:
"Your Imperial Majesty and Your Lordships demand a simple answer. Here it is, plain and unvarnished. Unless I am convicted [convinced] of error by the testimony of Scripture or (since I put no trust in the unsupported authority of Pope or councils, since it is plain that they have often erred and often contradicted themselves) by manifest reasoning, I stand convicted [convinced] by the Scriptures to which I have appealed, and my conscience is taken captive by God's word, I cannot and will not recant anything, for to act against our conscience is neither safe for us, nor open to us. On this, I take my stand. I can do no other. God help me. Amen."
Charles V immediately declares him an outlaw but agrees to uphold his deal of giving Luther safe passage back to Saxony. On the way, Luther is kidnapped and hauled away. Most of Luther's supporters believe that he has been secretly executed. However, Luther is alive and well in Saxony. The kidnapping was staged by his patron, The Prince of Saxony, in an effort to confuse the Emperor and buy a little time.
Luther is kept locked up in the prince's castle where he spends his days translating the New Testament from Latin (the language of the Church) into German.
Why it Matters
The Catholic Church in the 1500s wasn’t just about religion—it was about power and control over nearly every part of daily life. When people like Martin Luther started calling out the Church for its practices, it wasn’t just a religious revolution; it was about questioning who got to make the rules and whether those rules were fair. The Reformation didn’t just change how people worshiped—it changed how they thought.
By challenging the Church’s authority, the Reformation pushed people to think for themselves, demand fairness, and make knowledge more accessible. Translating the Bible into local languages gave everyday people the chance to read and interpret it themselves for the first time. This shift encouraged critical thinking and personal responsibility, ideas that went way beyond religion. It’s the kind of change that sparked other big movements, like the Enlightenment, and laid the groundwork for the freedoms we value today. Looking back at the Church in the 1500s helps us understand how one movement can start a chain reaction that changes the world.
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