Nowadays there are laws about the separation of religion from government. In the Middle Ages and the Renaissance things were not the same. Religion has played an important role in everyday life and even in major government decisions. In the beginning of these religiously governed times, the only source of religious guidance was the Roman Catholic Church. Therefore the Roman Catholic Church was the leading power of the Middle Ages. There were some in the common crowd who decided that the Roman Catholic Church was wrong in wanting all the power and began to fight back. The names of some of these people are Martin Luther, Nicolaus Copernicus and Galileo Galilei. They were some of the famous theologians and scientists of their time and thanks to their research they were the most capable of fighting against the Church. Martin Luther was the first of the three mentioned to begin fighting the Church, and it was Galileo Galilei who was at the tail end with Copernicus in the center. The three of them, along with some of their colleagues, managed to steal the power of the church and give it to people further down the ladder through what the church called heretical and pernicious doctrine. With that doctrine and perseverance the “thinkers” of the Middle Ages took power from the church and brought it to more deserving people and were completely correct in doing so. This was the beginning of a religious revolution and also the separation of church and state. The Church, because of its governmental power, was able to do many more things in the Middle Ages than are currently possible, today churches in the United States are unable to do so. control any part of our government as stated in the constitution as separation of church and state. The Catholic C...... middle of paper ...... rule that you could sacrifice your life for this. Some theologians and scientists of the Middle Ages knew this. Luther had to give up many of his friends and followers when the Church issued the Edict of Worms. Copernicus was ridiculed by the non-thinkers of the world because he had the strength to publish his work even though he knew it would happen. Galileo was twice brought before a tribunal to speak about the apparent crime of teaching what he thought was right. All of these people were strong enough to stand up to the church and every time each of them did so, it gave a little bit of power to the regular people, who weren't in the church or in positions of power. They started something that affected us greatly by rightfully taking away the governing power of the church. They were the fathers of religious change in the Renaissance.