• What was the Protestant Reformation?
• Characteristics of the Protestant Reformation
• Origin of the Protestant Reformation
• Causes of the Protestant Reformation
• Consequences of the Protestant Reformation
• Reform and Counter-Reformation
• Most important figures of the Protestant Reformation

We explain what the Protestant Reformation was, its origin, consequences and characteristics. Also, more important characters.

Martin Luther started the Protestant Reformation by questioning the power of the Church.

What was the Protestant Reformation?

It is known as the Protestant Reformation, Protestant Revolution or simply the Reformation, the religious movement of the 16th century initiated by the German Catholic theologian and friar Martin Luther (1438-1546) and the French theologian Juan Calvin (1509-1564).

This movement generated a division within the Catholic Church of the time, and thus gave rise to the different churches that make up Protestantism, the second great branch of Christianity worldwide.

The Reform arose as a consequence of the discontent that, in different aspects, generated in the population the way in which the Catholic Church administered the religion. It was manifested in a revision of the Catholic precepts against what was said by the Holy Scriptures.

Its initial event was the writing and disclosure of the "ninety-five thesis"Of Luther in 1517, text in which he criticized the sale of indulgences by the Catholic Church to raise funds and build the Sistine Chapel.

The term "Reformation" is used because according to its initial intentions, the idea was to reform Christianity and recover an original, primordial meaning, which was considered lost in the theology of Catholicism.

This movement of division of the Christian world divided in two to Europe. At conflict Different princes and aristocrats intervened who saw in the Reformation the opportunity to create their own state Christian churches, thus freeing themselves from the authority of the Pope and the Vatican.

Characteristics of the Protestant Reformation

• It arises in the 16th century with the questioning of Martin Luther and John Calvin.
• He proposes to retake the "original" spirit of Christianity, from which Catholicism would have departed.
• Denounced the corruption and lack of faith of many of the catholic priests, and proposed the return to the Bible like unique true way towards Christ. This allowed the emergence of multiple translations of the Bible into local languages.
• It divided the Christian world in two and gave rise to Protestantism, whose cult differs significantly from Catholicism. For example, your priests may contract marriage and they are free from celibacy.
• It laid the foundations for the Counter-Reformation, the opposite theological movement.
• It was persecuted by the Holy Catholic Inquisition in numerous countries.
• It culminated in the victory of the papacy, but it weakened Catholicism in northern Europe forever.

Origin of the Protestant Reformation

Together with Luther, the French theologian John Calvin initiated the Protestant Reformation.

The Protestant Reformation began in Germany in 1517, but its roots can be traced much earlier, and have to do with the configuration of the powers politicians of the time, divided between the Holy Roman Emperor and the Pope.

The trigger for everything was the sale of indulgences by the Catholic Church: the granting of spiritual favors, such as absolution, in exchange for donations, in order to finance the construction of the Sistine Chapel. According to the Protestants, this gesture summed up fraud and corruption which constituted Catholic procedures.

At that time, just finishing the Middle Ages, religion played a vital role in social organization and was among the powers of the Condition. For this reason, gestures of rebellion to the Papal power exposed them to grave dangers, such as excommunication and punishment.

This explains the risk Luther ran in publishing his Disputatio pro declaratione virtus indulgentiarum ("Questioning the power and efficacy of indulgences") on the doors of the main temples of his town.

Causes of the Protestant Reformation

Despite what has been said above, the Protestant Reformation did not have a single cause, but was due at the same time to various historical processes and to the excesses of the Catholic Church. We can summarize its causes in:

• The disgust of many European countries for the payment of papal taxes and the rejection of the control exercised from Rome by the pontifical delegates.
• The abundant accusations of corruption, lack of faith and ill will made against the Catholic Church.
• The enactment of the statutes of Mortmain, Provisors and Praemunire, which in some countries reduced the Church's control over land control.
• The state of poverty of the Holy Roman Empire, including its lessons noble women, eager to divide up the goods owned in their nation by the Catholic Church.

Consequences of the Protestant Reformation

Luther and Zwingli translated the Bible to make it available to the faithful.

The Protestant Reformation was an event of enormous significance in the history culture of Europe and, therefore, of the whole West. Among its consequences are:

• The division of the Christian congregation into two main aspects: the Catholic and the Protestant (made up in turn by different churches and visions of the creed).
• The cultural distancing of the countries of Mediterranean and Catholic Europe, of the Protestant countries of the north.
• A profound cultural change in the values and the philosophy Protestant nations, many of whom later influenced the rise of the capitalism.
• The emergence of the Counter-Reformation as an opposition movement to the Reformation, which had an enormous influence on the culture of Hispanic America.

Reform and Counter-Reformation

The Counter-Reformation was called the movement exactly opposite to the Protestant Reformation: a kind of Catholic “renaissance”, which sought to consolidate the traditional values ​​of the Catholic creed, of papal authority, and of the inheritance medieval Christian.

It was presented as the authentic and true form of Christian worship, trying to tackle the criticisms of Luther and other Protestant thinkers.

The Counter-Reformation began at the Council of Trent in 1545, which met for almost 17 years, due to continuous interruptions. In it disciplinary measures were established for Catholic priests, seminaries were created to organize the teaching of faith.

In addition, old Catholic orders such as the Discalced Carmelites, or the Society of Jesus, were revived.

Most important figures of the Protestant Reformation

Ulrich Zwingli was the leader of the Protestant Reformation in Switzerland.

The most relevant historical figures in the Protestant Reformation were:

• Martin Luther. This Augustinian Catholic friar was probably the most relevant of all the reformists, founder of the Lutheran doctrine and the church of the same name, he was not only a critic of Catholicism, but also an important translator of the Bible into German, his version being the model for the translation of the sacred text into the German language. He married Catherine of Bora in 1525, initiating a movement in support of the marriage priestly.
• Juan Calvin. Another of the great Protestant reformers, he was the author of a series of doctrines who later founded "Calvinism", opposed to those of the Dutch Protestant Jacobo Arminio. He was the creator of the Geneva Bible in 1564, as well as of The Institution of the Christian Religion, of 1536.
• Ulrich Zwingli. The Leader of the Protestant Reformation in Switzerland, born in 1484 and died in 1531, was also the founder of the Swiss Reformed Church, studying the Holy Scriptures from a point of view strongly influenced by the Humanism. Their 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.
• Jacobo Arminio. 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 its important legacy for the rise of Methodism.