The Reformation: History in an Hour

The Reformation: History in an Hour
Edward A Gosselin

Love history? Know your stuff with History in an Hour.The Reformation was a long struggle of ideas between the established Catholic Church and the questioning of faith brought about by the Renaissance in Western Europe. Started by Martin Luther in 1517, religious dissidence spread across Europe throughout the sixteenth century, causing wars, migration and disunity. By 1648 Henry VIII’s desire for divorce led him to break with the Catholic Church in Rome and form the Church of England.The Reformation: History in an Hour is a clear and comprehensive look at this long and complex period of religious change. It explains the major causes of the Reformation and the differences between Protestants and Catholics. It will help you understand the significance of the Reformation in European history in just one hour.Know your stuff: Read a concise history of the Protestant Reformation in just one hour.

THE REFORMATION

History in an Hour

Edward A. Gosselin

About History in an Hour (#uf53c8d82-dc7e-5aa5-9bea-5057189c7049)

History in an Hour is a series of ebooks to help the reader learn the basic facts of a given subject area. Everything you need to know is presented in a straightforward narrative and in chronological order. No embedded links to divert your attention, nor a daunting book of 600 pages with a 35-page introduction. Just straight in, to the point, sixty minutes, done. Then, having absorbed the basics, you may feel inspired to explore further.

Give yourself sixty minutes and see what you can learn …

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Contents

Cover (#uc6694e58-05bc-50f8-a80b-f2d3439fa651)

Title Page (#u9916fef2-f72b-5c77-bd4e-169abe3e4169)

About History in an Hour

Introduction

Origins of the Protestant Reformation

131 Years of the Reformation

The Sacraments, Heaven and Hell

‘The Third Place’: Purgatory

‘Shortening a Stay in Purgatory’

Early Sixteenth-Century Efforts at Reform

Martin Luther

Luther’s Interpretation of St Paul

Renaissance Popes

The Birth of Classical Protestantism

The Diet of Worms

One Man Alone

‘Infallible Donkey’ and ‘Upstart Heretics’

‘Preaching the Gospel Purely’

Zwingli v. Luther on the Eucharist

Zwingli’s Death

The Creation of Sects

John Calvin and his ‘Reformed Church’

Anti-Tolerance of Anti-Trinitarianism

Hunted Heretic

The Spread of Protestantism

The End of Choices: The Territorial Churches

Protestantism on a European Political Basis

The Reformation after 1550

France

The Low Countries

The Protestant Diaspora

How the Protestant Reformation Ended

Appendix 1: Key Players

Appendix 2: Timeline of the Reformation

Copyright

Got Another Hour?

About the Publisher

Introduction (#uf53c8d82-dc7e-5aa5-9bea-5057189c7049)

From the time of St Peter to AD 1521, the Roman Catholic Church was the only ‘official’ Christian church in western Europe. It provided the only means through which a person could expect to have access to God and gain entry into Heaven. The Church, however, was not immune to corruption, and there had been several attempts to rein in Church leaders who were often distracted from their pastoral duties with more earth-bound interests such as the gathering of power and wealth. Yet the one Church remained intact and unchanged in its teachings and doctrines throughout the Middle Ages into the Renaissance and up to the Reformation.

In the sixteenth century, Martin Luther began his feverish quest for salvation and Church reform, and started an evangelical movement which spread beyond the borders of sixteenth-century Germany. This movement is the first of three distinct developments of the Protestant Reformation. Luther’s (and others’) evangelical revolution evolved into personal causes for rulers and monarchs, who sought to impose their religious will upon their subjects, and signified a second phase, the Reformation ‘from above’. During the Reformation’s third, confessional (religious wars) period, in which princes, territories and national churches conducted wars of belief, Protestants migrated to and colonized new settlements, and created their own methods of preserving the faith.