Towards the end of the Middle Ages, the Catholic Church was one of the richest and most powerful organizations in Europe. But this power was only apparent: among the parishioners, both ordinary and noble, dissatisfaction with the omnipotence of the clergy, which, in the end, resulted in a movement for the restructuring of the church — the Reformation — was ripening more and more.
Causes
By the end of the 15th century, a strong royal power was formed in many countries of Europe. Kings, relying on the army and the bureaucratic apparatus, were unhappy with the intervention of the popes in their affairs. The monarchs did not need their valuable instructions. The kings of the Catholic Church, which was one of the largest landowners in Europe, did not give rest to the kings. Yes, if only that! On tithing, payment for services and the sale of indulgences, the clergy earned quite a lot of money, which "floated away" to distant Rome. And this, of course, the monarchs did not like.
Ordinary people were not happy with something else in church order. Firstly, the high cost of rituals and various requisitions. Secondly, the language of worship - not everyone understood what the priest was saying in their Latin. But even more unsatisfied with the fact that the church sanctified the existing inequality. It turned out that a man of non-noble origin had to remain a lifetime all his life, even if he got into people, having become rich. Or to endure bullying of oneself by those in power only because, so they say, it is predicted from above.
Beginning of the Reformation
The Catholic Church caused the greatest discontent in fragmented Germany. Therefore, it was from her that the Reformation in Europe began. In 1517, a young professor of theology, Martin Luther, hung 95 theses on the doors of the palace church — his views on church orders. The reason was the rampant trade in indulgences. These documents were, in modern language, certificates of absolution. They were sold by monks traveling around Germany. Due to indulgences, the Pope planned to rebuild the church of St. Petra in Rome. Luther condemned all these orders. He believed that the Pope had no right to publish indulgences. Luther also opposed the magnificent ceremonies, monasticism and the vow of celibacy given by priests. To make the Bible clearer for ordinary Germans who did not know Latin, he translated it into his native language.
Luther’s bold sermons made Pope Leo X worry. He urged him to renounce his views, and when he refused, declared him a heretic and excommunicated. But Luther was not scared - on the contrary, having received the papal bull, he tore it to shreds. Yesterday's professor had a lot of supporters, including quite influential ones. One of the German princes hid him in his castle, where Luther wrote theological works. Meanwhile, the Reformation in Europe was developing more actively. Luther had followers who suggested going even further by establishing universal equality. Their leader Thomas Münzer led the uprising, which grew into a peasant war. The German princes quickly defeated the poorly armed rebels who did not own military affairs. The uprising was brutally crushed. After this, the Reformation in Germany finally passed into the hands of the secular nobility.
The fight between the two churches
True, not all aristocracy took Luther's ideas positively. An armed struggle ensued between Catholics and Protestants (as the adherents of the new doctrine began to be called). It lasted quite a long time and ended with the Augsburg world, which established that each prince himself has the right to determine what religion will be in his possessions. The idea to rebuild the church was contagious, and soon the Reformation in Europe spread to the south of Germany, Switzerland, France, and the Scandinavian countries. In the Netherlands, local Protestants generally revolted against Spanish rule and gained independence.
The Reformation developed in a peculiar way in England. King Henry VIII demanded that the Pope allow him to divorce his next wife. He refused, and the monarch announced that the English church was no longer dependent on Rome. So, in 1534 the king became the head of the clergy in this country, and at the same time the master of all church property. It is clear that the Pope’s refusal was just an excuse for him to seize everything that belonged to the church. And it was done very quickly. The rest of the Anglican church, as it is now called, was for a long time similar to the Catholic.
However, by the middle of the XVI century the Catholic clergy had come to their senses, and the Reformation in Europe began to meet serious resistance. The vanguard of the struggle against Protestants was the Jesuit Order, founded in 1540. Its followers created a network of schools in European countries that provided excellent education and instilled in students loyalty to the Catholic Church. The Jesuits did not disdain espionage, entangling with their agents all the royal courts. These measures have largely helped stop the Reformation. But the Catholic Church no longer had its former power.