Protestantism vs. CatholicismCatholicism was the religion of ancient Rome. In Rome there was no separation of church and state like in the United States. The Pope was essentially responsible for the Roman people. Martin Luther was in the monastery, but he began to see some flaws in the Catholic Church. Martin Luther believed that some things taught by the Catholic Church were not morally correct. He then went to preach a different religion called Protestantism; this caused a big problem between him and the pope. Roman Catholicism and Martin Luther's Protestantism have moral differences, religious belief differences, and have caused many conflicts. Martin Luther realized morally that there was much wrong with the Catholic Church. First, it was wrong that only the highest people in the church could read the Scriptures. He believed that everyone should be able to understand and interpret it for themselves; that's why he translated it from Latin to German while living in Germany because his life was in danger. He also did not agree with celibacy and married a former nun. A major moral conflict for him was that the Catholic Church sold indulgences instead of sin. In his words, "Christians must be taught that those who give to the poor or lend to the needy do a better deed than those who buy indulgences." This was a dominant practice in the church and they used indulgences to make the church extraordinarily beautiful. Roman Catholicism and Protestantism have several differences in religious beliefs. One important difference is that Catholics believe that if you sin you can pay indulgences to the Church to help keep you out of purgatory. However Luther disagreed with this, he believed that "salvation came by faith rather than works and to denounce the Church's practices of selling indulgences". He didn't think it was necessary for the pope, priests, saints or Mary to intervene and that everyone can have their own personal relationship with Christ. Martin Luther states: “The Bible is the only authority for Christians. All this infuriated the Catholic Church and caused Luther to be excommunicated from the Church. They stated: "He committed heresy against the Church which could be punished by death." Although Luther was under the impression that he was right, this does not mean that this did not cause many conflicts not only between him and the Roman Catholic Church, but also for Western European culture in general.