THE REFORMATION WAS A GREAT MILESTONE ON THE ROAD TO PROGRESS Religious ideas have developed from every society known since the Sumerians, with theological ideas evolving as communities progressed and changed. Throughout recorded history there have been dissenters and revolt to every religious institution. However, the Reformation of the sixteenth century religious institutions led to changes in social, political and cultural life that have profoundly effected Western Civilization (McKay, Hill, Buckler, A History of Western Society, page 451). By the early sixteenth century, church and state had become inextricably intertwined. Both factions were removed from the greatest percentage of the population by wide margins in education, nutrition, mobility, and income. Europeans of all social classes were devoted to the Catholic church and bequeathed enormous amounts of time, energy and money to the church (page 453). The spiritual yearnings of the people, combined with a worsening economic situation, and an increasingly popular resentment of church officials as immoral and corrupt, paved the way for sweeping changes. A theocracy requires a strong hierarchy of political power to succeed. Political fragmentation within the church "destroyed the unity of Europe as an organic Christian society" (page 481).Martin Luther himself was a member of the Catholic church, a trained priest. Luther was literate, educated, trained by the Church, but also, the son of a lower-class miner who empathized with and was respected by peasants. The theological issues questioned by the "Protestants" were primary to the faith and power held by the Church. First, is salvation attained by faith and good works, as the Catholic Church maintained (and profited from by selling "indulgences" as good works), or by faith alone as Luther asserted. Second, does authority over the people rest with the Church or on the Word of God (the Bible) alone, as interpreted b...
