Writing Resources
During the 16th Century Catholicism was the mainstream religion to be it defined many characteristics of the people and their way of life The church offered many social and spiritual services such as preaching last rights giving confessions orphanages education and giving to the poor The church owned over a third the land in Europe which made it the most powerful political economic being on the continent and the Pope assumes authority over every king as the heir to the Roman emperor One day a German monk named Martin Luther stapled a list called the 95 thesis that questioned and challenged the Catholic church's beliefs and teachings However before all the chaos that aroused about the 95 theses what started it all was a man named Johann Tetzel This man was a priest selling indulgences a promise from the pope that giving the church money would shorten their time in purgatory in Europe for money Its estimated that indulgences costed around half a year's wages for peasants This raised a huge red flag for Martin and began the Protestant Reformation Among Martins teachings there were 4 major doctrines
