Humanism to protestant reformation

In Europe, the 16th century was a great century of change on many sides. The major change had occurred in religion. During the Dark Ages, before the Renaissance the dominant religion in the world especially in Europe was Roman Catholicism. Together with the Renaissance, Europe became a secular place. The humanist approach evolved in these days which support “to promote the development of human capacities and to open new possibilities for mankind” (The New Knowledge, n.d.). Enlightenment period began to raise questions about everything in the world including the Church. This led to the Protestant Reformation, so this meant the first big division in religion and also it was the messenger of religious wars. Europeans had to face off with this reality that they had to “make a choice – to be Catholic or Protestant” (Lecture 3: The Protestant Reformation, n.d.). All of these events had occurred as a consequence of humanist approach that was influenced on Protestant Reformation. Humanism firstly awakened the consciousness of individual power, creativity and realizing the natural world then gave rise to the scientific explorations, secondly by the help of this achievements humanism helped believers to understand the reality of

) factor in social life, their wish was to create tolerance for diverse religious thoughts. So, for this purpose humanist tendency determine a new, unknown side of the world: scientific part and than began to discover the natural world by science (The new Knowledge, n. In conclusion, 16th century Europeans saw big changes in social and religious life. Humanism firstly arose in Italy: in Milan, Florence, Venice, Roma and Pisa which had a common point to have potent economic forces. Consequently, Protestant Reformation started to respond the need for a more personal, tolerant and spiritual religion which separates from the government and serves for salvation and can "touch the believer directly, in the heart" (Lecture 3: The Protestant Reformation, n. Humanism was the fundamental trigger force for the rise of the Protestant Reformation. At this point when believers perceived this power, most of the applications of Catholic Church became meaningless. When people started to understand the Bible texts more precisely, they recognized the necessity of an immediate reformation in the Church; many rejected the dogmatic official doctrines created by the church and started to look for different approaches with new methods (The northern humanists, n. Thus, ideological systems like humanism could be easily accepted and expanded in this era. These changes affected the whole world after a while but the roots of reformations took place firstly in Europe. ) and this approach was created by the humanism and the works of humanists. Humanists were not unbelievers but they did not want the religion as a "prime dominating" (Historical Perspective, n.