The Re-forging of Christendom: Essay

From the excerpts from Martin Luther's Ninety-Five Theses and Johann Tetzel's sermon on indulgences, it is clear that Martin Luther was motivated by and under pressure to act after growing increasingly alarmed by the extravagant and spiritually damaging claims made by indulgence preachers to the Christians of Wittenberg's neighboring electorate. He invites his intellectual peers to discuss indulgence and the abuses connected with it in his Ninety-Five Thesis, which he delivers. Tetzel, a subcommissioner, takes part in the debate with criticism of Luther's theses and as a result of pressure from Luther's written statements regarding indulgence. The pressure Luther receives from the critics of Tetzel, he refutes specific points by beginning with an attack on the Scholastic tripartite division of penance as scripturally unfounded and concludes with a direct reproach of Tetzel's insinuation of Luther as a heretic (Spielvogel et al.241).

When examining the map of Europe at the time of reformation, some of the areas affected by the reformation included Germany, the Baltics and Scandinavia which were mostly Lutheran churches, Switzerland, France, Netherlands, France, Hungary and Scotland, on the other hand were reformed. In Northern Europe, most countries became influenced into Protestantism except Ireland. Central Europe was not very much affected, but southern Europe on the other hand was not affected at all.

The timeline of the reformation of the Protestantism in Europe was between 1483 1nd 1546. In 1517, martin Luther made a protest against the catholic practice of indulgence by nailing the 95 theses, in 1521; He was summoned to answer questions before Charles V Holy Roman Emperor. In 1525, an anti-Baptist movement began. In 1526, the Bible Translation into English was published. In 1531, Ulrich Zwingli was killed in the battle between protestants and Catholics in Switzerland. In 1534 all catholic links were broken. In 1559, John Knox helped to establish a protestant church of Scotland (Spielvogel et al.244).

Work Cited

Spielvogel, Jackson J. Westrern Civilisation: A brief History : Comprehensive Volume. Belmont, CA" Thomson/ Wadsworth, 2008. Print.