Question

- Explain the main motivating factors behind The Protestant Reformation. Please include Martin Luther's criticisms of the Catholic Church, and John Calvin's ideas during this time.

Answer 1

The Protestant Reformation was a sequence of events in the Christian Church that occurred in the 16th century. Any persons saw that the way things operated needed to change because of hypocrisy in the Catholic Church. People such as Erasmus, Huldrych Zwingli, Martin Luther, and John Calvin have seen and sought to avoid injustice. This forced the church to break into Catholics and different Protestant denominations. The Catholic Counter-Reformation was activated by the Protestant reformation.

The publishing by Martin Luther of The Ninety-Five Theses at Wittenberg is seen as the beginning of the Protestant Reformation. In the year 1517, this occurred. John Knox took to Scotland the thoughts of Luther and founded the Presbyterian Church. When Protestant ideas were embraced by different countries, conflicts broke out between Catholic and Protestant sects and states. In these conflicts, which included the Thirty Years' War and the Eighty Years' War, several persons perished. These wars weren't about religion alone. Since most countries have a recognised religion (state), much of the tensions have been secular. Protestants were recognised by the Peace of Westphalia in 1648 when the signers agreed not to intervene in other countries' domestic relations. This included the faith they had selected.