We explain what the Protestant Reformation was, its origin, consequences, and characteristics. We also discuss its most important figures. Please read other MTV articles for more information. If you share it, it will be of little help to us.
What was the Protestant Reformation?
The “Protestant Reformation” or “Protestant Revolution” refers to a 16th-century religious movement led by theologians Martin Luther (1438-1546) and John Calvin (1509-1564).
This movement generated a division within Catholicism, which gave rise to different churches that did not obey the leadership of the Pope as the supreme representative of the Christian faith. The Reformation arose as a result of discontent with the way the Catholic Church administered religion. The basic Catholic precepts of the Holy Scriptures were revised, and religious practice was transformed in several ways.
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Its initial event was Luther’s writing and dissemination of his “Ninety-Five Theses” in 1517, a text in which he criticized the Catholic Church’s sale of indulgences to raise funds to build the Sistine Chapel. Luther argued that the current church should be reformed to return to the original practice of the Christian faith, which had been lost due to the corruption of papal powers.
The princes of the German states supported Luther’s denunciations by signing the Speyer Protest, in which they refused to submit to the power of the Catholic pope.
Since then, various clergy and rulers in other parts of Europe joined the reform movement and organized their own Christian churches. In other cases, they supported the papacy and the Counter-Reformation movement.
The Counter-Reformation
The Church, led by the Pope, organized the “Counter-Reformation,” the theological movement that legitimized traditional actions and its ecclesiastical organization.
The reformers were persecuted by the Catholic Inquisition in numerous countries. The process initiated by Luther culminated in the victory of the papacy, but weakened its power in Northern Europe.
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Characteristics of the Protestant Reformation
Some characteristics of the Protestant Reformation were:
- It proposed returning to the “original” spirit of Christianity, from which Catholicism had departed. It did not recognize papal or ecclesiastical authority to define the Christian faith.
- It believed that only through the Holy Scriptures could one understand the truth of God. It urged the translation of the Bible into different languages and its reading and interpretation by clergy and believers.
- He maintained that faith is the only path to the salvation of souls. The indulgences and pardons granted by priests were not backed by divine power.
- He denounced the corruption and behavior of many Catholic priests. Protestants criticized his civil privileges and asserted that priests were no closer to God than other believers. Furthermore, they abolished church hierarchies and maintained that Jesus was the sole intermediary between the individual and God.
- He emphasized the importance of baptism and the Eucharist, and eliminated the other sacraments.
- He laid the groundwork for the division of the church. He proposed different ways of interpreting Christian faith and practice: the Lutheran Church, Anglicanism, Calvinism, and other “radical” reforms.
Origins of the Protestant Reformation
By the early 16th century, the Catholic Church considered the Pope the highest authority in matters of faith and established an ecclesiastical hierarchy that allowed it to control Christian practice in a pyramid-like manner.
The power of the Pope, who was said to be backed by God, extended to earthly matters that went beyond the administration of religion. His power was political, due to the pressure he could exert on rulers affiliated with the Catholic faith, and economic, due to the Church’s ownership of large properties and fiefdoms throughout Europe. This ecclesiastical hierarchy, in turn, protected the actions of the clergy in their own churches.
At this time, the Sistine Chapel was also being built in the Vatican, which generated an additional need for revenue to finance it.
Among the various sacraments administered by Catholic clergy, there were “indulgences,” or pardons granted by the priest to the believer in the name of God. It was common at that time for believers to give donations in exchange for these spiritual favors. For many, this epitomized the fraud and corruption inherent in Catholic practices.
In turn, the papal power of excommunication allowed the Pope to exercise a constant threat over those who challenged his power or directly confronted clerical actions.
Excommunication not only meant expulsion from the Christian faith, but also, in many cases, expulsion from the political community to which one belonged. This explains the risk Luther took when he posted his Disputatio pro declaratione virtus indulgentiarum (“Questioning the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences”) on the doors of the main churches in his city.
Causes of the Protestant Reformation
The Protestant Reformation did not have a single cause, but rather stemmed from several simultaneous processes. We can summarize its causes as:
- The weariness of many European countries with the payment of papal taxes and the rejection of the control exercised from Rome by papal delegates. The widespread accusations of corruption, lack of faith, and ill will leveled against the Catholic Church, the Pope, and the ecclesiastical hierarchy.
- The promulgation of the Statutes of Mortmain (1279), Provisors (1351), and Praemunire (1393), which in some countries reduced the Church’s control over land.
- The state of poverty in the Holy Roman Empire, including its noble classes, eager to share the property held in their nation by the Catholic Church.
Consequences of the Protestant Reformation
The Protestant Reformation was an event of enormous significance in the cultural history of Europe and, consequently, of the entire West. Its consequences include:
- The division of the Christian faithful into two major factions: Catholic and Protestant (in turn made up of different churches and creedal views).
- The cultural estrangement between the countries of Mediterranean and Catholic Europe and the Protestant countries of the north.
- Profound cultural changes in the values and philosophy of Protestant nations, many of which later influenced the rise of capitalism.
- The emergence of the Counter-Reformation as an opposition movement to the Reformation, which had an enormous influence on the culture of Spanish America.
Reformation and Counter-Reformation
The Counter-Reformation was the name given to the Papist movement in response to the Protestant Reformation: it proclaimed a “revival” of faith that sought to strengthen the traditional values of the Catholic creed, papal authority, and medieval Christian heritage.
It presented itself as the authentic and true form of Christian worship, attempting to address the criticisms of Luther and other Protestant thinkers, which they considered heresies or deviations from the Christian faith.
Beginning with the Council of Trent, which began in 1545 and held for nearly 17 years, new disciplinary measures were established for Catholic priests, seminaries were created to organize the teaching of the faith, and the precepts of the Roman Catholic Church were revised and affirmed.
Furthermore, the actions of ancient Catholic orders such as the Discalced Carmelites and the Society of Jesus were strengthened, whose charisma of advocating for earthly poverty and closeness to the neediest believers balanced the scales against the criticisms of the papal aristocracy’s wealth.
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Most Important Figures of the Protestant Reformation
Martin Luther
Founder of Lutheran doctrine, he was not only a critic of Catholicism but also an important translator of the Bible into German, a version that became the standard for translating the sacred text into German. He married Catherine of Bora in 1525, which began a movement supporting priestly marriage.
John Calvin
He was another of the great Protestant reformers, the author of a series of doctrines that later founded “Calvinism,” contrasting with those of the Dutch Protestant Jacobus Arminius. He was the creator of the Geneva Bible in 1564, as well as The Institutes of the Christian Religion, published in 1536.
Ulrich Zwingli
A leader of the Protestant Reformation in Switzerland, born in 1484 and died in 1531, he was also the founder of the Swiss Reformed Church and studied the Holy Scriptures from a perspective strongly influenced by Humanism. His conclusions, similar to those of Luther, were obtained independently, and between 1524 and 1529 he translated the Bible into German, with marked Swiss characteristics. This text is known as the Zurich Bible.
Jacobus Arminius
Born in 1560 and died in 1609, he was a writer and professor at the University of Leiden, as well as an important Dutch Protestant theologian. He was the founder of the anti-Calvinist Protestant school, and his legacy was important for the emergence of Methodism.
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References
All the information we offer is supported by authoritative and up-to-date bibliographic sources, which ensure reliable content in line with our editorial principles.
- Protestant Reformation on Wikipedia.
- The Protestant Reformation and Luther (video) on Academia Play.
- Protestant Reformation on Encyclopedia.us.
- History 101: The Protestant Reformation on National Geographic.
- Martin Luther and the 95 Theses on History.com.
- Reformation (Christianity) in The Encyclopaedia Britannica.
- Miegge, M. (2017). Martin Luther: The Protestant Reformation and the Birth of Modern Society. Editorial Clie.
- Plans, J. B. (2019). Catholic Reformation and the Protestant Reformation. Its Cultural Impact. Hippogriff. Journal of Literature and Culture of the Golden Age, 7(2), 333-347.
- Chávez, H. D., & Aguilar, R. A. C. The Protestant Reformation.
- Protestant Reformation – What It Was, Concept, People, and Characteristics – concepto.de
