Protestant Reformation

The Church was divided into Protestants and Catholics. The invention of the printing press utilized the wood cut which allowed Martin Luther to get his word out there by writing his ninety-five theses and nailing it to the church. It stated his counter beliefs against the church and its ideas. Luther believed that the Bible was the foundation to Christianity, he thought the pope as the antichrist and so of course Luther was excommunicated from the Catholic Church. Martin Luther rejected most of the Catholic’s sacraments five out of the seven except for baptism and communion. People saw how ridiculous it was to believe in indulgences and that people were buying there way to heaven.
Protestants and Catholics used art very differently. Woodcuts were inexpensive type of art work that was used to get the message out about both churches views and was very useful to people that were unable to read. Protestants used it as a way of “effective teaching tool and facilitated the private devotional exercises." Protestant churches were bare because they believed that the images could distract people from communicating with God. Catholics on the other hand were complete opposites from Protestants views with the use of art work in the church. They used decoration and images as a way of communicating with God like huge detailed altarpieces. In conclusion, Luther was the starter of the fire to the uproar of reformation and it greatly impacted the Holy Roman Empire.