"The righteous shall live by faith" (Romans 1:17) "I understood that the righteousness of God enables the just to live, that is, by faith. A merciful God justifies us by faith..." Martin Luther stated this in his writings some twenty-five years after he was attacked for his views of the church, and right before his death. The Protestant Reformation destroyed religious unity of Western Europe. Scholars, for the first time, were challenging the Catholic Church with new ideas on Christianity. This impacted several things through out Europe. Christian beliefs were being looked at differently, was the church right or were the men of the reformation ideas' right? The middle class was listening to men like Luther and his idea of justification by faith, and they were revolting against the church. The role of the individual was taking its place with every man wanting to be his own priest. The Catholic Church had a campaign to combat these activities of the Protestants, but the above three topics were hit hard with the Protestant Reformation.
             There were several men who started to take the Catholic Church's ideas apart. The man who stared it was Martin Luther. Luther was troubled with the possibility of achieving salvation. Martin began coming up with his own theories. He developed an order of theology known as "Justification by faith" meaning that there was nothing that the believer couldn't do to earn salvation. Only Jesus Christ could grant salvation. This went against the Church. They believed you must attend church, perform good works, receive sacraments, and several other things to receive salvation. With this idea Luther produced Ninety-five Theses. His ideas quickly spread to the peasants. With a translation of the bible, Lutheranism spread like wildfire through out the middle and lower classes.
             With this several other men, with their own beliefs, be
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