I.Society and Religion
1.Social and Political conflict
A.The Reformation first broke out in free imperial cites such as Germany and Switzerland. Deep social and political divisions occurred. Since the late fourteenth century, the territorial ruler’s law and customs had progressively overridden local laws and customs almost everywhere. Townspeople used religion as an ally to remain politically free and independent. Peasants were constantly chipped away be the secular and ecclesiastical landlords of the age. Protestants caused a change in their surroundings. Martin Luther beliefs gave people hope of political liberation and a degree of social betterment.
Approximately 65 free imperial cities all had Protestant movements.
I.Society and Religion
2.Popular Religious Movements and Criticisms of the Church
B.A variety of factors contributed towards the criticism of the church. The printing press had the biggest impact on Protestant Reformation.
1521: At the Diet of Worms the German nobility presented the emperor with a list of 102 “oppressive burdens and abuses” said to be corrupting the care of German souls.
The modern Devotion:
The brothers of common life caused a religious movement in northern Europe prior to the Reformation.
The brothers looked after the future philosophers Nicholas of Cisa, Hebraist Johhannes Reuchlin and Erasmus who were the proclaimed “prince of the humanists.
Thomas a Kempis summarized the philosophy of the brothers in one of the most popular religious books of the period, the Imitation of Christ
Lay Control over Religious Life:
Rome’s Churches who brought together people during the middle Ages was now falling apart. A new sense of regional identity, an increasingly contempt local secular administration and a new sense of nationalism emerged. Not only townspeople but the governments grew tired of church interference and wanted strictly monarchal authority. All of this together led to Martin Luther and the German...