The Protestant Reformation

The protestant reformation brought about a lot of change. It began with Martin Luther and his 95 theses.  Before this reformation occurred the Roman Catholic Church held all the power.  This was due to the fact that the Catholics believed that God appointed the pope and that the pope should have power. Because of this power the church was rich; the kings collected taxes from the people and in turn gave some of their profits to the church and in return the church would help them when needed. Luther argued against power being centralized around the pope and caused the kings to feel that they did not have to give money to the church anymore. Along with this change in people’s views of religion, the protestant reformation also impacted education. With the printing of books more people learned to read. Not only did this help improve education, but it allowed ideas to spread fast enough so the Catholic Church could not prevent them. Despite all of the things that happened in this reformation, most of the providences remained Catholic and the Catholic Church fought to regain the power that it had once had.