Identify And Discuss The Main Factors In The Origins Of The Essay

Identify And Discuss The Main Factors In The Origins Of The Reformation Who Or What Was The Single Greatest Catalyst For Change - Essay Example While some causes for doubt where natural processes quite beyond the scope or prevention of the church of the times, such as in the case of the Black Death and subsequent plagues that periodically decimated the European population, others were undoubtedly the result of greed and bids for power, such as could be seen in the Western Schism. Finally, social changes ranged far out of the control of the church through a variety of factors. A growth in the population leading up to the reformation, coupled with significant changes in economic structures as agrarian workers moved to towns and villages began to produce a more literary public. This was encouraged by the invention of the printing press that made the production of books faster and more economical and thus making them more accessible to a wider audience. This, in turn, promoted the spread of Humanitarian ideas throughout the general public following a period of church failures. Thus, while it can be argued that Martin Luther was the biggest catalyst for change, he was heavily assisted by a variety of factors that came together at just the right time and place for his words to have maximum impact. The Black Death was the first of several waves of plague that would periodically decimate and terrorize the European population until a probable cause was finally identified. In this, the first of the plagues, the populace was more than terrified at the horrible curse that had been brought upon them, striking seemingly at random and completely unstoppable. Those suffering the illness might not know they’d contracted it for up to seven days and then would experience headaches, nausea, aching joints, swelling of the lymph nodes, high fevers and vomiting. Reports indicate as much as a third of all Europeans died of the disease and the mortality rate for those contracting it was reportedly as high as 75 percent (Luftus et al, 1999). In the face of this devastating and mysterious illness that