Look at Luther’s critique of Catholicism and Copernicus’s critique of
geocentrism, along with Leo’s critique of Protestantism and the
Inquisition’s critique of Galileo. Make an argument about whether the
Protestant Reformation and Scientific Revolution, as well as the Catholic
Church’s responses to both, share commonalities in their arguments and
ideology, or if both movements are completely separate.
Martin Luther was the lead role in the reformation of the Catholic Church. At
the start of the reformation, he was a Catholic himself. However, during the
process, he became anti-Catholic and gave birth to a new denomination of
Christianity: Protestantism. Luther wanted to focus Protestantism on three
main factors: The primacy of the Bible, justification by faith alone, and the
priesthood of all believers. Thus, the literacy of the Bible was better
understood by Protestants and allowed for less need of Catholic priests.
In the scientific revolution, Nicolaus Copernicus subtly disproved the belief of
the Catholic church that consisted of the Earth being the center of the
universe because it was favored by God. In his research, he found that the
sun was more likely to be at the center (Heliocentrism), which opened doors
for critique of the Catholic church. After this information was released after
the death of Copernicus, Luther promoted heliocentrism and therefore gave
more legitimacy to Protestantism in Germany. Along with Copernicus in the
Scientific Revolution, there was Galileo, who was the first person to draw an
accurate map of the moon with the use of a telescope. This also challenged
the Church due to the fact that it implied there were no heavens.
The Protestant and Scientific Revolutions were similar in the ways that they
challenged the Catholic church and resulted in backlash for doing so.
Luther’s new form of Christianity allowed for believers to no longer need
good works to enter heaven and no longer needed a priest to translate the
Bible and pray to God. Thus, Pope Leo X wrote, “Condemning the Errors of
Martin Luther” in 1520, which resulted in Luther being forbidden from church.
Copernicus was so afraid of the consequences of the Church that he waited
to release his findings of heliocentrism until he was on his deathbed.
Similarly to the two of them, Galileo was put on trial by the Spanish
Inquisition in Rome after his astrological findings. The mathematician of his
work, Johannes Kepler, went through the shame with him. Overall, The
Protestant and Scientific Revolutions both challenged the church and faced
similar consequences by the Church.
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