The protestant reformation was a split in the church during the 16th century. It was initiated by Martin luther, and cased thousands of people to leave the church as a major protests that was started by questioning the way the church was lead. While this wasn't the first attempt to reform the Roman Catholic church the previous attempts would just fail. The protesters claimed that the church cared more about their money than looking after the people themselves. However it was a bit more complicated than that like the corruption and excessively luxurious lifestyle of popes. The church has dominated europe since the 4th century and due was strictly followed and obeyed till the 16th century, however there was also …show more content…
One of the first of these was the Black Death. The Black death was a deadly virus that started in the 1320s, it quickly spread through. In cities like Cairo, upto 7000 people died per day. Infact china's population went from 120million to 90million in the 14th century. The plague spread to west and reached constantinople in 1347. And kept spreading to Italy mainly through popular trading routes and spread to France in 1348 and then just going everywhere even to Russia. During this time even though the disease was carried by rats and rodent and transmitted through fleas and the disease spread mainly through the filthy streets however most people had a misconception that God was unhappy with society and the way the church was run. In the fear that god was going to just get even angrier people started paying indulgences due to fear. Indulgences was originally a form of repent where a person sacrificed something over forgiveness. Later the church started to charge money for these indulgences. In doing so, a large window of opportunity was created in the potential for corruption, and unfortunately it did. Upto half a year's wage was requested by the church, and due to fear of god, most people did comply with it. However when Pope Leo X used indulgence to fund St peter's basilica, this was a major factor that triggered Martin