There are few periods in history as important as the era of religious reform across Europe. The wave of discontent in society has reverberated beyond just the church and has permeated the entire political landscape. As stated by Muriel McClendon, “…the Reformation made the exercise of traditional authority problematic.” A revolution in thinking was brewing, a revolution that would shatter all previous notions of centralized authority, in church, science, and government. No institution, no authority would have been immune from its fallout. Pressure had steadily built in Europe to dismantle the hierarchical and anti-individualistic structure of the pre-Reformation Roman Catholic Church. The church routinely repressed dissent, labeling individuals who disagreed with church doctrine as “heretics,” which resulted in punishments ranging from symbolic death (expulsion from the church) to literal death (public burnings). As a religious institution, it had established itself as the sole interpreter of the Bible and the sole legitimate source and dispenser of divine authority. The advent of the printing press effectively decentralized religious power, at least for those who were literate. Martin Luther and his 95 theses personify this growing tension between Church and society. The resulting shift of power from the church radically transformed the social body, separating the church's control and forming a void where it had previously existed in the political sphere. Protestants redirected the power of salvation toward the individual and away from intermediaries; one's individual faith in Christ is sufficient to save one's soul. This erosion of previously dominant religious power s...... middle of paper ......f English Literature, http://www.wwnorton.com/ college/english/nael/17century/topic_3/truelaw.htm (accessed 19 September 2011). King James I, “A Speech to the Lords and Commons of the Parliament at Whitehall,” in ELIZABETHAN ATTITUDES: AN ANTHOLOGY, http:// www.people.vcu.edu/~bgriffin/399/Elizabethan%20Attitudes.html, ( accessed 17 September 2011) “Petition of Right” in How to Read a Document, in Sources of the West, ed., Mark Kishlansky (Harper-Collins) Thomas Hobbes, “Leviathan”, in Modern History Sourcebook, in Fordham University , chapter 13, http://www.fordham.edu/Halsall/mod/hobbes-lev13.asp (accessed 19 September 2011) Blaise Pascal, “ Preface to the Treatise on the Void”, in Minor Works, vol. XLVIII, part 2, translated by O. W. Wright. The Harvard Classics. (New York: P. F. Collier & Son, 1909–14) in Bartleby.com, www.bartleby.com/48/3/ (accessed September 20 2011).