How would you describe the condition of the Catholic Church on the eve of the Protestant Reformation? According to History, the Protestant Reformation was “the 16th-century religious, political, intellectual and cultural upheaval that splintered Catholic Europe, setting in place the structures and beliefs that would define the continent in the modern era.”

During this time there was a rise in High Masses, literary works being published, people listening to famous preachers, and pilgrimages. But, some of the things that these people did were not all good. During this time, the wars were savage, there were executions which were not uncommon, and people would be tortured for months and then killed.

The conditions in the Church itself was worse. Church members were preforming immoral conduct, they collected money from the public, and there was a lot of clerical ignorance because there were no seminaries to teach the preachers.

Above all, the Church was in desperate need for a reform, but it was not until the sixteenth century that reformation would at last arrive.

What were the Ninety-Five Theses about? What was the basic message of Luther’s complaint? According to Wikipedia, “The Ninety-five Theses or Disputation on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences is a list of propositions for an academic disputation written in 1517 by Martin Luther, professor of moral theology at the University of Wittenberg, at the time controlled by the Electorate of Saxony.” Basically, the message he was trying to get across is that, according to History, “In his theses, Luther condemned the excesses and corruption of the Roman Catholic Church, especially the papal practice of asking payment—called “indulgences”—for the forgiveness of sins.” I am just going to say, paying for forgiveness for your sins is so dumb. Why pay for it when you can just do it for free? I think that this is one of the reasons that Luther was so against indulgences.