During the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the Catholic Church was becoming increasingly corrupt. The Reformation was a time period that amended the churches disorders which include clerical ignorance, clerical immorality, and clerical pluralism. Many priests hardly knew how to read and write, which may have been the effect of pluralism. The wealthy clerics that held several benefices hired poor and uneducated priests to perform spiritual duties in order to become even more prosperous. These wealthy clerics seldom visited their benefices. Antoine du Prat was archbishop of Sens, yet the first time he entered his cathedral was in his own funeral procession. Martin Luther and John Calvin were major forces of the Reformation. They had converted much of Europe to Protestantism.

Martin Luther had posted his ninety-five theses in order to correct the corrupt church. These theses were his beliefs on ecclesiastical life. Like the Catholics, he believed that...