Protestant Reformation Dbq

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A total of 12 rights are given to U.S. citizens as a result of 12 amendments being made to the U.S. Constitution in 1789. In reference to the 3rd amendment, the document states, “Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” (The Bill of Rights: A Transcription | National Archives, n.d.). This means that individuals have the right to practice whichever religion they desire. In the 16th century, though, this was not widely accepted as truth. Instead, the Catholic Church dominated in Europe and the people were therefore expected to abide by Catholic laws regarding faith. As one might expect, along came a man by the name of Martin Luther who found multiple issues with the practices of the Catholic Church. While he did not mean to attack it directly, most of his writings were considered against the Church and he was considered a heretic. Nonetheless, amidst the Protestant Reformation, Luther introduced innovative ideas about how a Christian should be taught to live in comparison to how they were living as directed by the Catholic Church. Specifically, the fact that Martin Luther was able to …show more content…
This document's goal was to encourage a debate among scholars about acceptable practices of faith. Being a professor of theology, Luther knew that learning was often done through the manner of debates in the university setting (Admin, 2020). Evidently, his passionate words struck a match among all those who were in agreement about the corrupt nature of the Catholic Church. Those who participated in the many protests of such abuses came to be known as “Protestants,” and their goal of reforming how the Catholic Church conducted itself led their collective movement to be known as the “Reformers” (Admin, 2020). With these titles in place, the Protestant Reformation as referred to in history was in