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Daniela Alba
Professor Antonio Acevedo
HIS- 201
March 1, 2016
Religious freedom in Europe
Before the Reforma%on Era, Western Christendom was Roman Catholic and Orthodox
and was of great influence to the lives of the men and women of the %me. Society was
extremely religious while the church ensured a vast wealth and governed among the people.
The Catholic Church thrived in wealth and power, being above the kings as God sent and
owning proper%es across Western Christendom, thus adding to their value. The Sixteenth
century was a period of religious freedom due to its correla%on with the prin%ng press and
Mar%n Luther’s 95 theses but can also be seen as a political revolution.
Mar%n Luther was a lawyer who later decided to become a clergy man due to a series of
events that led to his peruse of holiness. On his journey to understand such holiness he
stumbled upon the re+ec%on that the Church he represented was corrupt and did not follow
the beliefs he praised. “Yet instead of being impressed by the holiness of Rome’s christian, he
was shocked at the immorality and blasphemy he witnessed.”(Atherstone 23) Luther wanted
the church to be as pure as what he praised but was appalled by the reality of the truth, later
a<er he witnessed the selling of indulgences and was infuriated with the notion of the Church
gran%ng meaningless pieces of paper and decided to expose the church by crea%ng the 95
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theses. As soon as Luther posted the 95 theses on the Church door; he opened up a box of
change that of which would never be closed again. (Atherstone 29) Luther brought to light the
troubling ma>ers of the church and the corrup%on but what he did not know he would do was
unleash greater doubts of the church he worked for by the commoners, thus inspiring a
revolu%on.
The Catholic Church provided faith through the readings of sacred texts and through
mass, crea%ng a movement of followers that depicted the Church as the one and only who can
allow them to reach closer in all absolute to their religious faith. This was prior to the prin%ng
press and when it became part of society’s way of exploring new texts, giving the people an
overhead onto becoming their own person and not depending on other mediums. The printing
