The Reformation And Its Effects On The World - 1356 Words

The Reformation and its Effects on the World. â€Å"Out of love for the truth and the desire to bring it to light, the following propositions will be discussed at Wittenberg, under the presidency of the Reverend Father Martin Luther, Master of Arts and of Sacred Theology, and Lecturer in Ordinary on the same at that place (Luther).† With these words Luther began the long war against the Catholic Church, that would later become known as the protestant Reformation. It would be one of the largest forces of change that Europe faced. The Reformation would not only change theology, but also spawn wars and colonization. The reformation Changed Europe s Theology drastically. Before the Reformation Europe was stuck in a spiritual drought. The Church†¦show more content†¦In Theses 35 he states: â€Å"Every truly repentant Christian has a right to full remission of penalty and guilt, even without letters of pardon.† In this single statement he directly defied the Catholic doctrine of purgatory and indulgences. Many o f the Reformers hated the doctrines of purgatory. John Calvin went so far as to state: â€Å"We should exclaim with all our might, that purgatory is a pernicious fiction of Satan, that it makes void the cross of Christ, that it intolerable insults Divine mercy, and weakens and overturns our faith (607).† Catholic doctrine teaches that salvation is granted both by faith and works. At the council of the Pope declared: If anyone says that the good works of the justified man are gifts of God in such a way that they are not also the good merits of the justified himself, or that the justified person, by the good works he performs through the grace of God and the merit of Jesus Christ (whose living member he is), does not truly merit an increase in grace, eternal life, the attainment of eternal life itself (if he dies in grace), and even an increase in glory, let him be anathema. (Trent, VI, canon 32) A modern interpretation would render: if anyone states that the saved mans actions are not the actions of himself, but the actions of God. And that these actions do nothing to merit increase in grace, eternal life and the attainment of eternal life, let him be dedicated to evil. The Reformation on the other hand