What was one of the most beneficial effects of the Reformation?

Paul Carrington explains in this video that one of the most beneficial effects of the Reformation was that individuals were confronted with the idea of the sufficiency of Scripture. By being exposed to what God commanded in Scripture, the Reformers were forced to decide what to do if Scripture and  and whether Scripture ought to be the sole authority on matters of life.  

Martin Luther and John Calvin were men who stood up for the truth of God and saw it as authority. Furthermore, Scripture was translated into the speech of common people. More and more people were able to read, understand, and ultimately obey the commands of Scripture.

Hebrews 4:12 (NKJV) – “For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”

I think some of the reforms that have been most helpful to us today, the first thing that comes to mind to me would be the sufficiency of scripture. Here were men who had basically uncovered the Scriptures after hundreds of years of the Catholic Church trying to keep them under, to keep them isolated from the people. And now men were being exposed to what God had actually said in His Word. And by getting exposed to that, they were now confronted with, what shall we now do? Who is the authority that we now must obey?

And so you meet men like Martin Luther, you meet men like John Calvin, other men who stood up for the truth of the word of God and saw the word of God as an authority. And not only that, but then the words were then translated into the speech of the common people so that people in Germany could actually read the scriptures in German and in other countries like England and in France and so on.