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Martin Luther’s Break Away from the Roman Catholic Church

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Martin Luther’s Break Away from the Roman Catholic Church
Many factors lead up to Martin Luther’s break away from The Roman Catholic Church. Factors such as The Church selling indulgences, popes fighting for power, launching extravagant purchases, and the misteaching of the bible are some of the main reasons for Martin’s break off with the church. This essay will explain these points of how and why Martin Luther broke away from the church. The main or most profound reason for Martin’s break off from the church is that the church was selling indulgences. The Roman Catholic Church sold what were called indulgences for the pardons of sins committed. Martin was opposed to the thought of this; he felt the only way to be forgiven was by faith alone. The most important instance of this is when a priest named Johann Tetzel set up a pulpit on the outskirts of Wittenberg preaching the importance of indulgences to help the rebuilding of Cathedral of St. Peter in Rome. This was the final straw for Martin Luther. After hearing of this he set out to write the 95 Theses. The 95 Theses were arguments against indulgences and other important flaws within The Church. Other flaws that Martin saw throughout The Church were its growing involvement in worldly affairs. Popes were competing with Italian princes for political power. They fought long wars to protect the Papal States against invasions by secular rulers. The Popes also plotted against powerful monarchs who tried to seize control of the Church within their lands. People were outraged by these things and Martin Luther was outraged just as much by these acts of the Church. Like other Renaissance rulers, popes led lavish and luxury lives, and supported the arts, and hired artists to beautify churches. In order to pay for such extravagant services the Church had to start selling indulgences. This was one of the major reasons for the start of indulgences so naturally Martin was against these major renovations. This quote best represents this in the 86th line of the 95 Theses,”…why
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