As the Renaissance developed, there was a new interest in nature and life, and people began to want to understand things for themselves. The Church’s doctrine was not set up for this type of movement. The Pope, thought to be the spiritual descendant of Peter, held the people’s spirituality in his own hands. People couldn’t even read and understand the Bible for themselves because it was not translated into the vernacular, or common language.

Corruption within the church

Pluralism

Pluralism was the act of holding more than one benefice or ecclesiastical office. This led to abuse because the holder would accept payment for more than one office, then pay a deputy a lesser amount to actually perform the job of the office.

Education

Leading up to the Renaissance, not many clergy had had formal education, and so they were poorly equipped to preach in churches. Because of this, there was a neglect of proper pastoral duties.

The Lutheran Movement

Martin Luther is one of the most well-known figures of the Reformation in the Renaissance period, as it was his movement that caused the peasants’ revolt in Germany (even though he had strongly opposed any form of war in the first place). As a child, he was hard-working and studious and attended university at Erfurt to become a lawyer. However, during his training, he decided instead to become a priest of the Order of Augustinian Hermits. He experienced a period of confusion, not knowing where he stood from a religious standpoint. He did all the customary acts of penance, confessions, and pilgrimage, but nothing seemed to appease him. It was when God first appeared to him as a gracious and kind figure that he really began to understand. The Lutheran Movement became well-known after a public complaint he made against the sale of indulgences (the act of payment to the pope to reduce one’s sins and time in purgatory) in 1517.

Peasants’ War

Meanwhile, the lower orders of German society were becoming restless with the aging feudal system. Peasants wanted to be relieved of their feudal obligations and burdens. They interpreted Luther’s doctrines as a social movement rather than a spiritual one, and looked on him as their leader. Luther was totally opposed to war, but in 1524, the Peasants’ War broke out under the lead of a man called Thomas Munzer, a former disciple of Luther who was eventually executed as a traitor by the Germans.

The Peasants’ War, although short, badly damaged Luther’s movement, as many of the peasants looked on him as if he had deserted them in their cause. Many turned to a more radical form of Protestantism created by Huldreych Zwingli.

Huldreych Zwingli

Born in 1484, Zwingli left the Catholic doctrine to create his own movement, one even more radical than Luther’s, in 1519. Zwingli believed that one could become closer to God by studying the Scriptures, so he decided that all practices used by the church not included in the Scriptures should be abandoned. These included, among many others, church music, religious images, and celibacy.

The Calvinist Movement

John Calvin was born in 1509 into a financially well-off family. His father encouraged him to have a good education in the area of theology at college, although he studied law instead. After his father died, he began to focus on the area of humanism originating in the Renaissance revolution. It is unknown when Calvin began to support the Protestant ideals, but it was probably in about the year 1533 when he began to become associated with people in that field. In November of that year, he was forced to flee Paris after his friend gave a speech betraying Lutheran sympathies, which he was suspected of having written. From that point on, Calvin began working as a missionary, moving around and administering the communion in Protestant fashion. He also proclaimed that one must not only read the scriptures, but also understand them as required, in his mind, by the Holy Spirit.

The spread of Calvinism

After traveling to Genoa due to a detour caused by the movement of armies in the area, Calvin decided to start up an established church in that city. His ideas were met with resistance, and he was asked to leave the city. However, in 1541, because of the chaotic situation of the city, they asked him to return. Upon his return, he started up a church with a new constitution called the Ecclesiastical Ordinances.

After his success in Genoa, he began to set up secret (because they were illegal) Calvinist societies in France. These societies grew in size in France, as well as many other countries around Europe. Calvinism was freely accepted in Scotland and New England, but in other areas it often created conflict. This was the origin of the Protestant church in Europe and the cause of many religious wars.

 

(Edited from source)