The causes of the German Reformation (A level History)

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Background to the reformation: The time of the reformation was time of great upheaval’s, both socio-economic and political. Russia had just reunified under Ivan the Terrible, and disposed of the Mongol threat to Europe for good. Islam in the east was becoming danger to the west again, with Suleiman the Magnificent, attack on Hungry. Closer to home, Germany was a state with over 200 principalities and was only just gaining some sense of nationality as German. Public unrest was growing against heavy church levy from these principalities. The church was seen not as spiritual leaders but as oppressive foreign powers. The church its self was under going changes. Before Lutherin movements in Germany other movements had started, Humanists one of the most popular of these movements who preached a back to the original bible ideal, Luther actually attended, but later split from as his ideas became more extreme. The building of St. Paul’s in the Vatican also was on the forefront of the pope in the time of Luther. This is also the time European renitence, art and science began reappearing such as biology. The printing press made literature available for the masses and created something that did not exist before the media. Luther would use this extensively as a means of raising popularity against the pope in Germany.