How the Reformation Moved The Church Forward

Martin Luther

     

      After the Church rose in power within the Roman Empire, the bishops of Rome developed an identity of authority.  Since Peter was the leader of the Church in Rome, bishops of Rome believed they succeeded Peter and were therefore more important than bishops elsewhere.  Pope Leo I (440-461 A.D.) expounded this idea of Petrine supremacy and the supremacy of the Pope.  As the bishop of Rome, Leo I claimed to be the successor of Peter as the vicar of Christ on Earth.  Following popes carried on this title.  As the Roman Catholic Church expanded, popes gained even more power.
      Very important to Roman Catholicism was and is tradition.  The Catholic Church of the Middle Ages viewed tradition as just important as the Scriptures.  Through the years of the Catholic Church's reign in the Middle Ages more and more became added to tradition.  Some of these additions included: the idea of purgatory, indulgences, that Catholic priests needed to intercede for believers, the promise of salvation by the pope, and the pope as God's representative on Earth.  Roman Catholicism also taught that the Bible needed to be taught by trained clergy. 
       In the sixteenth century a revolution began which is known as the Protestant Reformation.  Martin Luther, an Augustinian monk, found no hope in the stale works based Roman Catholicism.  As he read the Bible, he found that God reached down to man through his Son to provide a way to restore man's broken relationship with God.  Luther found that it was by grace alone through faith in Christ alone that one is reconciled to God and counted as righteous.  Luther's reading led him to see that the Catholic Church put barriers between people and God. 
      Seeing such a travesty, Luther stood up against the Catholic Church.  The Catholic Church made faith as something a priest must impart.  There was no personal devotion that would matter.  Everything had to go through the Catholic Church to go to God and vice verse.  Because of this, Luther nailed ninety-five theses onto his local cathedral's doors to stand up for the truth. 
      As part of these theses, Luther argued for the supremacy of the Bible, not the pope, as the authority over the believer.  Within Luther's writing one finds his condemnation of indulgences and Catholic teachings which make Sacraments and indulgences vital to salvation.  It is only by grace alone through faith that one is justified, argued Luther.  In Luther's conviction against Roman Catholicism, he translated the Bible into the vernacular German so that common laymen had the opportunity to read the Word of God. 
      The Protestant Reformation began with Luther and continued on by men like John Calvin and John Knox.  Central to the aim of the Reformation was to make faith personal.  Roman Catholicism placed to many bounds for believers and made faith focused on the actual structure of the church rather than a personal relationship with God.  Through the Reformation, bibles were translated into vernacular languages so that common people could read God's Word.  The Reformation pushed the Bible as the foundation for theology and opened faith to be experienced by the individual.  No longer could a system get in the way of a person's faith and relationship with God.