Protestantism
Throughout the Middle Ages, the Catholic
Church continued to assert its primacy
of position. The growth of the papacy
had paralleled the growth of the church,
but by the end of the Middle Ages
challenges to papal authority from the rising
power of monarchical states had
resulted in a loss of papal temporal authority.
An even greater threat to
papal authority and church unity arose in the
sixteenth century when the
unity of medieval European Christendom was
irretrievably shattered by the
Reformation. Martin Luther was the catalyst that
precipitated the new
movement. His personal struggle for religious certainty led
him, against his
will, to question the medieval system of salvation and the very
authority of
the church. His chief opposition was Holy Roman Emperor Charles V
who, due to
multiple circumstances, was unable to impede Luther’s movement. He
opposed
the Catholic doctrine of faith and good works for salvation,
instead
proposing a doctrine of salvation through faith. His publishing of
the
Ninety-Five Theses, which covered the abuse of indulgences, is often
seen as the
beginning of the Reformation movement. However, the movement was
not only
confined to Luther's Germany. Native reform movements in Switzerland
found
leadership in Ulrich Zwingli, who eventually sought an alliance with
Luther and
the German reformers, and especially in John Calvin, whose
Institutes of the
Christian Religion became the most influential summary
of the new theology. On
most important doctrines, Calvin was in agreement
with Luther. Calvin differed
from Luther in his belief in the concept of
predestination, derived from his
belief in God’s supreme authority. This
concept became the central focus of
succeeding generations of Calvinists. One
of the more radical Reformation
groups, the Anabaptists, set themselves
against other Protestants as well as
against Rome, rejecting such
long-established practices as infant baptism and
sometimes even such dogmas
as the Trinity and denouncing the alliance of church
and state. They believed
in nonviolence and strict separation of church and
state, equality, and
voluntary congregations. England during the Reformation was
one of continuous
change. The English Reformation, provoked by the marital
troubles of Henry
VIII, reflected the influence of the Lutheran and then of the
Calvinistic
reforms, but went its own "middle way," retaining both Catholic
and
Protestant elements. Following Henry’s reign, Edward VI moved the Church
of
England toward Protestantism, followed immediately by a reversion
to
Catholicism by Mary I. Elizabeth then reverted to Protestantism, and
tried to
merge Catholicism and Protestantism into the Anglican church. The
Protestant
Reformation did not exhaust the spirit of reform within the
Roman Catholic
church. In response both to the Protestant challenge and to
its own needs, the
church summoned the Council of Trent, which would not
compromise with the
Protestants by reaffirming traditional teachings,
making both faith and good
works necessary for salvation. They reestablished
the sacraments, relics,
clerical celibacy, and the practice of indulgences.
Responsibility for carrying
out the actions of the council fell in
considerable measure on the Society of
Jesus, which was grounded on the
principles of absolute obedience to the papacy
and to militarily protect the
word of God. The chronological coincidence of the
discovery of the New World
and the Reformation was seen as a providential
opportunity to evangelize
those who had never heard the gospel. Trent on the
Roman Catholic side
and the several confessions of faith on the Protestant side
had the effect of
making the divisions permanent. In one respect the divisions
were not
permanent, for new divisions continued to appear. Historically, the
most
noteworthy of these were probably the ones that arose in the Church
of
England. The Puritans objected to the "remnants of popery" in the
liturgical
and institutional life of Anglicanism and pressed for a further
reformation.
Because of the Anglican union of throne and altar, this
agitation had direct
political consequences, climaxing in the English
Revolution and the execution of
King Charles I in 1649. Just as many
other denominations that would form such as
the Quakers and Nonconformists,
Puritanism found its most complete expression,
both politically and
theologically, in North America, where denominations could
find some
sanctuary from the persecution of the homeland.