Reformation Period - Martin Luther and Desiderius Erasmus

During the Reformation period, there were a few individuals whose ideas had a great impact on society. Two of these people are Martin Luther and Desiderius Erasmus. While they shared similar ideas about what religion should be, there were also ways in which they differed.

Martin Luther was an extremely intelligent man, who gave up law school to become a monk. He created some turmoil in the Catholic Church community with some of his ideas on what religion should be. Using the printing press as his weapon of choice, Luther looked to spread his ideas around to the common man. One of his ideas that the Church considered to be radical was his theory that there was no need for a priest. Luther also believed in a sort of pre-destination, in which he claims that God has already decided who is going to heaven and who is going to hell. This naturally had upset the Church, because if people had believed that priests were obsolete, they would stop going to Church and making contributions.

The second individual that was important in this era was Desiderius Erasmus. He was a believer and more importantly, a leader in the Humanist movement. Humanism is a philosophy that is strictly based around human's ideas and interests. He was a firm believer that all people are born good, not with original sin as the Roman Catholic Church preached. Much like Luther, Erasmus had spoken out against the Church and its clergy in his own way, writing such books as The Praise of Folly. He agreed with some of the Christian Virtue that the Bible professed, but was entirely against the idea of the Church.

Luther and Erasmus had ideas that were very similar to each other. They both believed that the Bible should be read by the common man, not just regulated towards the clergy and the rich. They were also strongly against the ideas of indulgence that the Church had been using in order to gain finances. The two had felt that there was no real need for the Church, and that each person could be spiritually satisfied or cleansed by just praying and doing good deeds. Even when Luther had posted his greatest work, 95 Theses, Erasmus was a silent supporter.

It was also during the time of the 95 Theses that the two had started to separate on their stands against the Church. When the Pope had asked Luther to retract these statements, Luther looked towards Erasmus for his support. Erasmus declined though, mainly because he was too afraid to stand