It was not the initial intention of Martin Luther to split from the Catholic Church. The biggest gripe Martin had against the Church was the sale of indulgences. Indulgences tale away the temporal punishment due to the sinner for the sins that they commit. For example, if you commit a sin and it is forgiven in the sacrament of penance, the sin is gone, but you still have to deal with consequences of the sin. Certain members of the clergy decided that the pious practice of giving alms could count and they further decided that why not give the alms to the church who could use it for worthy projects. Unfortunately, the practice went far beyond this goal as certain members of the clergy would line their pockets with the proceeds. This was NEVER something that the Church approved of but it happened and it was widespread. Martin protested and negotiations followed and Marin fell in amongst some bad companions who saw a way to make themselves rich by starting their own church and take appropriate the property of the Church to finance it. People fell away from the Church and started following Martin Luther’s teachings but his move to split the church into two did not last long because others such as Knox and Calvin and others split away from Martin Luther because they did not agree with all of his spirituality. This affected the spiritual lives of millions of people. Many were lured away to other doctrines and away from the Bread of Life, the Eucharist which is the very Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Christ. Today, we have at least thirty-thousand different denominations, each of them claiming to have the truth. It is all because of the pride of one man who in the end thought himself to be higher than the Church. The reformers would recoil in horror at the thousands of denominations that exist today. They would probably consider heretical many of the beliefs that are held by denominations that profess their name as being their founder. For example up until Roe vs Wade most of the denominations stood arm and arm with the Catholic Church in condemning abortion. Today, some of those denominations, usually by democratic vote say that abortion is okay. They would be horrified to see that homosexuality and same sex marriage has been approved by some of the denominations. On the other hand, they would recognize that the doctrines and beliefs of the Roman Catholic Church were the same as they were when they were alive. The “reformers” if they came back today would be more comfortable with the Roman Catholic Church than they would be with many of the denominations.