faith) were largely economic and political. Princes, especially in German principalities, were wearied of sending a significant portion of their revenues (in one form or another) to support Rome, especially as much of this money was going into wasteful expenditures, such as lavish papal palaces, when it was needed for infrastructure at home. Other leaders, such as Henry VIII of England, wanted autonomy from papal rules and interference—and did not mind appropriating monastic wealth in their countries for their own purposes.

For the faithful, including Martin Luther, the main goal of the reformation was getting back to what they considered a simpler, more authentic faith, more similar to what they envisioned the early church practicing. They believed the Roman Catholic church, over time, had moved away from the basic tenets of Christianity and let tradition and manmade doctrine corrupt institutional Christianity and twist the faith. Therefore, a main goal of the reformation was the translating of the Bible from Latin into vernacular (local) languages that people could easily understand. If Luther's case, his translation of the Bible became the basis of modern written German.

Behind this concern with translation was the concept of Sola Scripture, or "only the Bible." The reformers, starting with Luther, believed that only by basing the faith on what the Bible alone taught could it be purified. The reformers worked to diminish the institutional authority of the church and put faith more fully in the hands of individuals so that they could develop an unmediated relationship with the divine.

Most of the reformers, however, became as rigid as the Roman Catholics in their insistence that their followers adhere minutely to their own sect's interpretation of scripture and ritual.