Louis XIV: From the Commoner

Yet again, another ruler who wants all of the power to himself. Louis establishing an absolutist and centralized state is going to cause even more problems for a commoner like myself. Yes, we may be better defended, but people like us will have no say in our lives and we will have to work even more for less outcome. And all of these wars that he is provocing is terrible, we the commonfolk are the ones that are gonna have to fight these wars for him. It is unnesessary and it's really killing us. We need a ruler who cares more about the commoners and less about his power and starting trouble with other provinces and countries.

The Thirty Years' War

The Theirty Years' War was primarily caused by the fact that people wanted less power given to government and a great rise in religious tension and conflict. Many religious riots were cause by the separation of Protestants and Ferdinand's dislike for Protestants. People were killed because of their religion and beliefs or even who they followed as a leader. These conflicts split countries such as France into two and due to the instability of the Holy Roman Empire and other areas, the Thrity Years' War continued to kill many people. The Peace of Augsburg, which stated that princes could choose which religion would be practiced in their provinces, was one affect of the war. Another affect of the war was the deaths of millions of soldiers and innocent people, making the Thirty Years' War one of the most brutal in European history.

Luther and the Reformation

Martin Luther was a young scholar who found fault and immorality within the Catholic, in that the Church would sell indulgences to people to forgive them of their sins. The Church would then use a lot of that money to either fund the building of new religous facilities or to spend however the priests wanted to. Luther rejected this idea and felt that people should not have to pay for forgiveness. Many of Luther's ideals were sparked as he read from the bible, Romans
1:17 from the passages of the Epistles of St. Paul: "For the justice of God is revealed from faith to faith in that it is written, for the just shall live by faith." Luther felt that one could get into Heaven by living a life of faith and not by indulgences. On the eve of All Saints Day, Luther nailed a copy of the Ninety-Five Theses to the door of the Castle Church at Wittenberg. These theses all disputed that practices of the Catholic church and after being translated, it was copied and spread quickly for everyone to read. Many agreed with Luther's ideas and began to follow him to separate from the Catholic church. They thought that Luther's ideas made more sense and that they would save more money by following his ideas.