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Tara Francis
Mrs. Bowman
AP European History Period: G
2 October 2013
Protestant and Catholic DBQ
At the eve of the Reformation, the Catholic Church's future was not looking bright. Corruption and money had taken control of the Church and many of its influential leaders. The Protestant Reformation was an attempt to get away from the corruption of the Church, but in essence it is still very similar in beliefs. The Protestants deviated from the Catholic faith by changing many traditions that gave church heads more power as a way to revert back to the focus of the faith.
A hot topic at the time was the selling of indulgences. Many historians feel that this was the last straw for Luther and is what sparked him into placing the 95 Thesis on the doors of the church. The famous seller of these indulgences, which were said to give you a pass to heaven for the dead and living, was a man named Tetzel as seen in Document A.
This is perfect proof of the continuation of corruption as the church sold these to help pay for projects such as St. Peters Basilica.
A huge difference between the newly emerging Protestants and the Catholics was the idea that it is not good works that save you, but your own faith in God and Jesus, "It is the gift of God it is not from works, so no one may boast" (Document 7). Catholics also placed a lot of weight on the birth of Jesus and Mother Mary while Protestants make Jesus' resurrection the center of their religion. This is shown in
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Document 8 as the prayer includes Mary and speaks of good works, which the Protestants don't believe in.
When visiting these religion's places of worship, it...