Use your notes on the steps leading to the Reformation and other insights you gathered while reading the lesson to explain that Luther did not start the Reformation on his own.

Answer:

It can be said that Luther did not start his revolution on his own because public discontent with the church already existed, manifesting itself in the forms of mystical movements and increased personal devotion. Furthermore, the doctrines and beliefs of Erasmus had also been written and spread by the time of Luther. On a more practical level, the various German princes supported Luther’s revolution both as a way to take the property of the Catholic churches in their domain and to express their discontent at the presence of Papal power in their states.