Around 14th and 15thcentury Catholic Church became very corrupted. First of all, an important historical event that sabotaged the church’s reputation was the Great Schism of Western Christianity that occurred in 1378 through 1417, when three men claimed to be the pope at the same time. This split of the Roman Catholic Church ended in 1418 with the decision from Council of Constance, but left a bad impression on the church in the eyes of the people. Also, common people did not like it that the sins of rich people were basically forgiven by the church for their money. The practice was called indulgence, and it meant that people could buy forgiveness for certain sins. Of course, rich people enjoyed it, but poor people saw it as immoral and wanted something else. The corruption of the church also became evident from the fact that church positions were not achieved by meritocracy, and were often passed from father to son. Thus, many people wanted a reformation within the church.
Another most important reason why the Protestant Reformation occurred was because of the rise of new humanistic ideas during Renaissance and the fact that they could easily be spread to people of different social classes because of the invention of the printing press. Because of the invention of the printing press more books became available to more scholars. Thus, more people turned to science and begun examining such issues as morality, human nature, and the scientific approach to church doctrineswith more eagerness. Since humanism centered on the idea of human nature, human power, and human freedom, it made sparked dissatisfaction with how church controlled people and questioned many Catholic traditions and rituals. Also, since people in general became more educated during the Renaissance, especially due to the invention of the printing press, many thought that they needed to communicate with God more openly, on their native language, without having Catholic authorities stand between...