Alvarez Veroy Mr. and Mrs. Alvarez10th Grade Research Project6 June 2001Reformation: Its Religious and Educational Impact Throughout the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries a movement called the Reformation took place in Europe. But merely being more than just another religious movement, the Reformation was the moment in history in which God showed His great power and Salvation to the world through the lives of men like John Wycliffe, John Huss, William Tyndale, Martin Luther and John Calvinmen which were determined to die if it was necessary for the Lord’s causea moment in which two distinct forcesthe desire of learning and the rebirth of the Word of Godmade it possible for people to believe in the Bible as the only absolute source of wisdom and truth, putting it as the final authority over man and church. As stated in World History and Cultures by George Thompson and Jerry Combee, the story of how the Protestant Reformation began is a story of how brave men in a world dominated by the Holy Roman Empire “desperately searched for the truth about salvation and found it in the Bible and how they were willing to step out on the sole authority of God’s Word, even if it meant to stand alone for what is right”(246). I think that Martin Luther clearly expressed this thought when he said, Alvarez 2“Unless I am refuted and convicted by testimonies of Scripture, my conscience is bound in the word of God: I cannot and will not recant anything. I cannot do otherwise. Here I stand. God help me, Amen.” Before the printing press was invented, books and Bibles were very rare, and people thought that the Roman Catholic Church held the final authority concerning religion and God. The Catholic Church not only possessed the few Bibles available, moreover they were the only ones who could interpret th...
