Question

What were the causes of the protestant reformation?

Answer 1

The Protestant Reformation is a term used to describe a series of events that happened in the 16th century in the Christian Church. Because of corruption in the Catholic Church, some people saw a need to change the way it worked.

People like Erasmus, Thomas More, Huldrych Zwingli, Martin Luther and John Calvin saw this corruption, and acted to stop it. This led to a schism in the church, into Catholics and a number of Protestant churches.

Martin Luther was the first person to translate the Bible into German. He could print copies, because Johannes Gutenberg had invented a way to print a number of copies (approximately 50-100) at a relatively low price. The Protestant reformation triggered the Catholic Counter-Reformation.