Before the Reformation the only church that existed was the Roman Catholic Church. The Roman Catholic Church was extremely powerful in the early 16th century. He had many followers who covered much of the world, the area called Christendom, which was classified as a Catholic community. The Church was the largest employer with large numbers of farm laborers, servants, and builders. The church ran most of the few schools and hospitals. Some school pupils grew up to become monks or priests. Churches taught people how to behave in almost everything they did. Part of their power came from the amount of money earned from the sale of indulgences that were said to reduce time in purgatory. On the contrary, the church was very demanding. They said that if people didn't do good deeds they would go straight to hell, for example if they didn't pay the church. Heretics were burned alive and then the soul went to hell. Inside the church, on the walls, there were many images of hell. The Church said that if you are a heretic when you go to hell your soul will continue to live and will be tortured and punished, such as being burned and stabbed. This was intended to scare people into doing good deeds that would make them follow the church. The "abuses" of the Church led Martin Luther to strongly oppose their way of profiting and the way they treated their followers with excessive demands. This caused him to post 95 theses on the door of Wittenberg Castle, Germany; in 1517. The Reformation in Europe was created by Martin Luther. He loved the Roman Catholic Church but wanted it to change for the better. Things identified as wrong in the Catholic Church included: Priests were... middle of paper... consequences if they were not. Some prayers and the Bible were translated into English and a copy of the Bible was placed in every church in the country. By the late 1530s Henry was short of money. This was due to wars in Europe and expenses in his personal life. To solve this problem Henry took over all the monasteries. He took all their gold and silver ornaments and all their land. He sold this land which brought him a lot of money. The ministries he took over were eventually turned into private homes or simply left alone and reduced to ruin. Henry said that all monks were immoral and lazy. He used this as an excuse to close all the monasteries. Although Henry separated from the Catholic Church, many things did not change. Priests were not allowed to marry. Most services were in Latin and the 6 Articles of 1539 were mostly Catholic.