Question

20. Why was Martin Luther excommunicated and declared a heretic?

Answer 1

Answer:

He encouraged Catholics to question a number of practices of the Church, including the sale of indulgences.

Explanation:

Martin Luther was appalled after seeing how common the practice of indulgences and papal bulls had become in the Roman Catholic Church in the early 16th century. Your sins could be washed away just by paying an amount of money to the church, instead of true faith and observance of moral principles. He also knew the licentious life of many church top leaders in the Vatican. All of that was unacceptable to him. He questioned those practices and Catholic dogmas. For Luther, salvation comes from God´s grace and man can reach through faith only; he saw the Bible as the ultimate source of legitimacy, not papal orders or interpretation. Because he refused to retract from his theses, he was excommunicated by the pope.