The Reformation Quiet Beginnings to a Tumultuous Conclusion

Religion: So what! It is impossible to understand this time period without taking a look at this major event. Religion was not a matter of personal preference or opinion, it was the very basis of society. By the 1500s this was being shaken to its roots by an unlikely source – a monk

Influences The rediscovery of the learning of the ancient world, the printing press, and all the other forces that came together to create the Renaissance also affected the Church. At the end of the fifteenth century and the beginning of the sixteenth, Christian humanists sought to apply the new style of scholarship to the study of scriptures in their original languages and to return to the first principles of their religion. In the interests of spreading religious understanding, they began to translate the Bible into the vernacular languages.

Flaws exposed The Renaissance belief in the "perfectability of man" made people less content with things as they were –They and more interested in improving them in the here and now. No one could argue that the church was not corrupt: –It held vast wealth all over Europe –It exercised enormous political power and waged war for religious and political motives. –It was administered by holders of patronage positions that had more interest in lining their pockets than in promoting the welfare of their "flocks".

Original Desires The Christian humanists criticized these all-too-human failings, while striving for a purer church. There was no particular intention of breaking from the church at this time, merely a passion for improving it. In 1517, a German monk started the process.