The main dispute stemmed from the fact that the Church was selling indulgences, people were literally buying their way into heaven. In B.C. , they started telling people that in order for their loved ones to go to heaven, they had to pay the church a lot of money, or they would go to the underworld forever. It was a huge money making scheme
Martin Luthers agruments against indulgences in the Catholic Chruch
Martin Luther's criticism of the Catholic Church was written in a his famous pamphlet called "95 Theses". It was basically a criticism against the indulgence which was put into practice by the Catholic Church during the papacy of Pope Leo X.
Martin Luther and others questioned the Catholic Church by relying on scriptures, the first printed books became available to the populations because of the printing press.
Martin Luther Sparked The Reformation in Germany by opposing Roman Catholic teachings.
Common people could read and understand the Bible. Bibles were only written in Latin at the time, and only priests learned how to read Latin. The Church used this to its advantage, and sometimes lied to the people what the Bible said to work for the benefit of the Church.
Protestant Reformation Martin Luther 95 theses
In 1517, the priest and scholar Martin Luther enters the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany, and nails a piece of paper to it containing the 95 revolutionary opinions that would begin the Protestant Reformation.
Desiderius Erasmus (1466-1536) made some of the same scathing attacks on Church practices as Luther, arguing against the fancy court life at Rome and against the selling of indulgences . Unlike Luther, however, Erasmus never advocated views leading to excommunication.
In the 1380s Wycliffe, a professor at Oxford, translated the Bible from the Latin Vulgate into English. He did this because he felt that the Bible held authority over the Church, not vice versa.
In January 1521, Pope Leo X excommunicated Luther. Three months later, Luther was called to defend his beliefs before Holy Roman Emperor Charles V at the Diet of Worms, where he was famously resistant. For his refusal to deny his writings the emperor declared him an outlaw and a heretic. Luther was protected by powerful German princes, however and by his death in 1546 the course of Western civilization had been significantly altered.
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