PRESENTATION OUTLINE
16TH CENTURY PROTESTANT AND CATHOLIC RULERS
One of the greatest of all revolutions was the 16th-century religious revolt known as the Reformation. This stormy, often brutal, conflict separated the Christians of Western Europe into Protestants and Catholics. So far-reaching were the results of the separation that the Reformation has been called a turning point in history. It ushered in the Modern Age because, once the people's religious unity was destroyed, they began to think in terms of their own regional interests. From the diversity of those interests arose new political, social, and economic problems and beliefs.
At the start of the 16th century Western Europe had only one religion, Roman Catholicism. The Catholic church was rich and powerful and had preserved Europe's classical culture. However, despite General Councils called to impose reforms, disputes and lax practices had grown up within the church.
Luther became the leader of the Reformation in Germany. For some years he had protested that some of the clergy were selling indulgences (temporal pardons of sins) without making clear that people must also be sincerely repentant for those sins. He especially attacked the monk Johann Tetzel for deceiving the people. In 1517 the angry Luther wrote a list of 95 theses against indulgences and nailed them to the door of the church in Wittenberg.
