In the beginning of the 16th century Western Europe only had one religion, Catholicism. The Catholic Church was very powerful and rich. The church made practices to impose reforms and the lax practices had grown up in the church. Churchmen began to criticize the administration of the church and began to doubt some of its teaching. The church insisted that it alone had the authority to interpret the meaning of the bible for people and tell them what it meant, but an English priest, John Wycliffe, stated the people had the right to read and interpret the meaning of the bible themselves.

The Catholic Church had too much power, and corruption began to happen. Some popes saw themselves as being in a position of more power than any king or emperor. One example of this is Pope Boniface VIII; he declared that the Church and priests were subject to no mortal and that the pope had absolute power over everything and everyone on earth. Many kings did not like this including, King Philip IV of France who imprisoned Boniface for this.

In this time of growing and wealth, the church

From Johannes Tauler of Strasbourg had come the mystic idea of "heart religion," which had come from Luther's doctrine of "justification of faith." Lefevre d' Etaples of France and Huldrych Zwingli of Switzerland hold views similar to Luther's. John Calvin made Geneva the world center of the Presbyterian and Reformed churches.

became greedy and corrupt in wanting wealth themselves. Popes and Priests were living like kings with all the tax money from the people, living in monstrous homes and having whatever they like. The sale of indulgences then

Protestants and Catholics shed each other's blood in large amounts during national and civil wars. These wars will eventually shatter the European monarchical traditions. Protestants that are unhappy with the Catholic kings challenge the monarchy. They have gone through unhappy times, and there is no reason for this bloodshed, I predict that major wars will rage if the

Church does not change. We, the Protestants just want freedom to practice our religion wherever we choose without persecution.

Some common words found in the essay are:
Catholic Church, Protestants Catholics, Wittenberg Luther, Popes Priests, Martin Luther, Eucharist Luther's, Presbyterian Reformed, Boniface VIII, Emperor Charles, Tauler Strasbourg, catholic church, martin luther, interpret meaning, church practices, meaning bible, interpret meaning bible,
Approximate Word count = 800
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)