Martin Luther (1483–1546): the Rise and Growth of the Reformation

Abstract

The Church councils and criticism of the papacy had very little effect on the position of the Church in the everyday lives of the inhabitants of Central Europe in the late Middle Ages. For the lay population, the intimate connection of their existence with the Church as an institution was a self-evident and perfectly natural condition, and they lived with it, attesting to their faith in frequent, often daily, worship. The usefulness of caring for the poor and the necessity of involving oneself in this effort for the sake of one’s own salvation was clear to everyone. The secular powers protected and promoted ecclesiastical institutions, engaged in useful co-operation and, in part, exercised a secular right of supervision — for instance, through municipal officers in charge of the poor, often in connection with monasteries.