Decline of the Catholic Church There are many people who challenged he Catholic Church, accepted church doctrines, and the bible. But why? John Wycliffe was one of the people who challenged the Catholic Church. In his writing, he said that monarchs should rule/take over the church, in their own kingdoms. The church was abusing their power. They were afraid someone would overrule them. So they proved this by translating the bible. The bible was translated from Latin to English. This threatened the clergy. If the bible was read and translated into English, people would interpret the bible’s meaning themselves. When the bible was translated, many people got mad. They got mad because people believed they were being told what was truly in the bible, but instead the church said lies to make people do what they wanted them to do. This has to do with church doctrines. John Wycliffe’s work influenced John Hus, an Eastern European priest. John Hus went against the practice of selling indulgences. He called for reform. Hus went up to the Council of Constane to defend his statement. But, things went wrong, they burned him at stake. This made all of the other people scared to stand up to the Catholic Church. Martin Luther was the first after John Hus to stand up to the church. Luther was a priest. He had been authorized to preach indulgences, which people donated money. Luther was protesting his ninety-five theses. He saw the practices as proof of how corrupt the church was. Luther challenged the church to defend itself. The ninety-five theses was an invitation to scholars. His challenge would capture a growing movement of protest and change Europe. This changed the world forever because this changed the way people thought of any religious ideas. He objected on indulgences. He did not believe in indulgences. He did not believe the Catholic Church had the power to