FREE ESSAY ON REFORMATION: ITS RELIGIOUS AND EDUCATIONAL IMPACT

REFORMATION: ITS RELIGIOUS AND EDUCATIONAL IMPACT

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Carlos A. Alvarez Veroy 
Mr. and Mrs. Alvarez
10th Grade Research Project
6 June 2001
Reformation: Its Religious and Educational Impact
Throughout the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries a movement called the Reformation took
place in Europe. But merely being more than just another religious movement, the
Reformation was the moment in history in which God showed His great power and Salvation
to the world through the lives of men like John Wycliffe, John Huss, William Tyndale,
Martin Luther and John Calvinmen which were determined to die if it was necessary
for the Lord's causea moment in which two distinct forcesthe desire of
learning and the rebirth of the Word of Godmade it possible for people to believe
in the Bible as the only absolute source of wisdom and truth, putting it as the final
authority over man and church. As stated in World History and Cultures by George Thompson
and Jerry Combee, the story of how the Protestant Reformation began is a story of how
brave men in a world dominated by the Holy Roman Empire "desperately searched for the
truth about salvation and found it in the Bible and how they were willing to step out on
the sole authority of God's Word, even if it meant to stand alone for what is
right"(246). I think that Martin Luther clearly expressed this thought when he said, 
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"Unless I am refuted and convicted by testimonies of Scripture, my conscience is bound in
the word of God: I cannot and will not recant anything. I cannot do otherwise. Here I
stand. God help me, Amen."
Before the printing press was invented, books and Bibles were very rare, and people
thought that the Roman Catholic Church held the final authority concerning religion and
God. The Catholic Church not only possessed the few Bibles available, moreover they were
the only ones who could interpret them since they were written only in Latin and Hebrew
and only monks and highly educated people could read those languages. They even set a law
which prohibited to everyone but the church to have Bibles, and if anyone else wanted to
translate it, he had to translate it from the Catholic manuscripts and not from the
original Hebrew or Latin texts. As I said before, books were not very abundant and making
one was not an easy task. Edith Simon writes, "The making of a book was a slow, expensive
process that had improved but little in a thousand years. The professional scribe might
spend four or five months copying out a 200-page text; even more costly than his labors
were the 25 sheepskins needed to make enough parchment for a book of that length"(134).
Therefore, if you wanted to have a Bible of your own, you did not only had to pay a lot
for it but had to know how to read Latin or Hebrew and since in those days education
levels were so poor and 
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expensive, only a small number of people could afford it, making it for anyone a great
privilege to read and write. 
However, in 1450, Johann Gutenberg invented the printing press and by 1501, there were
printing presses in 110 European towns and cities. This made literature available to all
class levels, opening people's minds and encouraging them to study and educate themselves
in any field of education that they wanted. This invention became later one of the key
tools God used to carry the Gospel to all parts of the world. Throughout all this time
the Roman Catholic Church dominated almost every social aspect of the European life,
including politics, economy, religion and education, but once men realized the great
teachings the Bible possessed, there was nothing that could stop the truth from coming
out.
Some might say that the Reformation began many decades before Martin Luther lived but the
thing is that none of them had so permanently influenced the world as he did. He was born
in Eisleben in 1483 to a middle-class family. All through his life, he tried to live
according to the church's teachings but it seemed like nothing was sufficient to save him
from eternal judgment. He tried to do everything in his strength to obey what the church
told him a Christian ought to do, yet he never experienced a sense of forgiveness in his
soul, only guilt and condemnation. Fortunately, one day, while he was studying the Bible,
he came into 
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a passage (Romans1: 16-17) which made it to him clear that Salvation was by faith and not
by good deeds. By the time he discovered this, he was a very respected monk, who soon
realized that the church didn't teach this and that many things the Catholic church did,
including the selling of indulgences (papal certificates that excused a person from doing
penance and shortened the required stay in purgatory before going to Heaven) were not in
accordance to what he had read in the Bible. The more he read, the more he convinced
himself about the lies and worldliness, which existed in the Roman papal court. Few years
after, he, and his followers were excommunicated and persecuted by the Roman Catholic
Church, but he kept preaching and spreading his belief. He taught that everyone had the
right to be educated no matter his or her social position since God made us equal. He
constantly encouraged Christian families to train their children in the ways of the Lord
and effortlessly persisted throughout Europe the important need of more schools with a
strong foundation in God. During his lifetime and after his death he inspired other men
such as John Calvin and William Tyndale to follow his example. After Luther's death the
Protestant leadership shifted towards John Calvin. John Calvin further studied the Bible
and made a more comprehensive ecclesiastical basis for the church of the new Christian
faith, teaching that everything existed for the glory of God and that they should reject
papal and state absolutism, appealing rather to God's sovereignty as absolute. Gary J.
Moes says, 
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"The Calvinistic understanding of the world as created and governed in every detail by
God contributed much to the rise of modern science. Europeans inherited from the
Reformation a desire for a serious pursuit of truth and knowledgenot only in the
area of salvation, but also in every area of society and culture"(2-3).
"The Reformation doctrine of the priesthood of all believers is often cited as the spark
of democracy and individualism in Western culture"(Moes 51). As expressed by Dr. Ellis L.
Knox, when Martin Luther died, "…his prestige among reformers was great, but his
actual influence had much declined. His greater influence, however, can hardly be
underestimated"(Luther's Later Years). Because of the persecution and discrimination
Christians suffered in Europe, they had no other option than to escape to the new
discovered continent (America) and to establish themselves in that different, yet big
location and begin to construct a new nation based upon the Lord, in which men would have
freedom of expression and religion. It would be a nation in which democracy and
patriotism would play the key roles that made Americaand later South and Central
Americaa free country and a world example of liberty. "Even so, Luther and Calvin
had brought the people into disputes that in earlier ages had been left to scholars and
priests; thus they opened the way for democracy, for once men began to voice opinions
about religious faith, they moved on to make themselves heard in government as 
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well"(Simon 170). I will conclude saying that there is much more into the Reformation
than what we could ever realize since it changed the world in so many different ways we
don't even know, but something is sure, standing for what's right and believing in what
you say is all it takes to make the difference. How can we apply this to our lives?
Sharing God's gift of salvation to every person we know, no matter what they might say or
think since the gospel is God's power for salvation, and if we are totally sure about
that, then why should we keep it a secret? Surely, your message will not return empty.
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Works Cited
Knox, Dr. E. L. Skip. "The Reformation." History of Western Civilization 15 May 
2000. 5 June 2001 *http://history.idbsu.edu/westciv/reformat/luther12.htm*.
Moes, Garry J. Streams of Civilization v. 2. Christian Liberty Press, 1997.
Simon, Edith. The Reformation. New York: Time-Life Books, 1973.
Thompson, George, and Jerry Combee. World History and Cultures in Christian 
Perspective. 2nd ed. Pensacola: Pensacola Christian College, 1998.