Luther an intellectual historians persepective

Lortz an intellectual, Catholic Historian explains the reformation with reference to the medieval break up of Western Christianity. Lortz provides revealing evidence of a late medieval break down in the universality of the Catholic Church, which shook it to its very foundations. Firstly, Clement V removed the seat of the Roman See to Avignon in France from 1309 till 1377. Petrarch, the "father of humanism", termed this period the "Babylonian Captivity" of the papacy, a sentiment shared …

…seventeenth of August a group chanted, "death to monks and priests, in the Devil's name", as well as defecating on his doorstep, all the above resentment lead the priest to resign, the town council then appointed a reform preacher. Magisterial consent evident and both their inaction against the anticlerical attack and the ushering in of the replacement evangelical reformer did play a role in bringing reformation but the more significant role is played by anticlericalism.