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    The Protestant Reformation

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    Sabby Villaver
    The Protestant Reformation began in 1517 when Martin Luther published his 95 Theses challenging the Catholic Church's teachings. This sparked a widespread religious reform movement across Europe known as Protestantism. Dissatisfied with the Church of England, some Protestants like the Pilgrims migrated to America seeking freedom to practice their faith. Later, Puritans established the Massachusetts Bay Colony for similar reasons, beginning the diversity of religious thought that now defines the American identity.

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    The Protestant Reformation

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    Sabby Villaver
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    The Protestant Reformation began in 1517 when Martin Luther published his 95 Theses challenging the Catholic Church's teachings. This sparked a widespread religious reform movement across Europe known as Protestantism. Dissatisfied with the Church of England, some Protestants like the Pilgrims migrated to America seeking freedom to practice their faith. Later, Puritans established the Massachusetts Bay Colony for similar reasons, beginning the diversity of religious thought that now defines the American identity.

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    The Protestant Reformation began in 1517 when Martin Luther published his 95 Theses challenging the Catholic Church's teachings. This sparked a widespread religious reform movement across Europe known as Protestantism. Dissatisfied with the Church of England, some Protestants like the Pilgrims migrated to America seeking freedom to practice their faith. Later, Puritans established the Massachusetts Bay Colony for similar reasons, beginning the diversity of religious thought that now defines the American identity.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    64 views2 pages

    The Protestant Reformation

    Uploaded by

    Sabby Villaver
    The Protestant Reformation began in 1517 when Martin Luther published his 95 Theses challenging the Catholic Church's teachings. This sparked a widespread religious reform movement across Europe known as Protestantism. Dissatisfied with the Church of England, some Protestants like the Pilgrims migrated to America seeking freedom to practice their faith. Later, Puritans established the Massachusetts Bay Colony for similar reasons, beginning the diversity of religious thought that now defines the American identity.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
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    The Protestant Reformation

    The Protestant Reformation that began with Martin Luther in 1517 played a key role in the development of the North American
    colonies and the eventual United States.

    Martin Luther at the Diet of Worms 1521

    Martin Luther, a German teacher and a monk, brought about the Protestant Reformation when he challenged the Catholic
    Church's teachings starting in 1517.
    The Protestant Reformation was a religious reform movement that swept through Europe in the 1500s. It resulted in the
    creation of a branch of Christianity called Protestantism, a name used collectively to refer to the many religious groups that
    separated from the Roman Catholic Church due to differences in doctrine.

    The Protestant Reformation began in Wittenberg, Germany, on October 31, 1517, when Martin Luther, a teacher and a monk,
    published a document he called Disputation on the Power of Indulgences, or 95 Theses. The document was a series of 95 ideas
    about Christianity that he invited people to debate with him. These ideas were controversial because they directly contradicted
    the Catholic Church's teachings.

    Luther's statements challenged the Catholic Church's role as intermediary between people and God, specifically when it came to
    the indulgence system, which in part allowed people to purchase a certificate of pardon for the punishment of their sins. Luther
    argued against the practice of buying or earning forgiveness, believing instead that salvation is a gift God gives to those who
    have faith.

    Luther's objections to the indulgence system paved the way for other challenges to the Catholic doctrine throughout Europe.
    For example, John Calvin in France and Huldrych Zwingli in Switzerland proposed new ideas about the practice of Holy
    Communion, and a group called Anabaptists rejected the idea that infants should be baptized in favor of the notion that baptism
    was reserved for adult Christians.
    Broadly speaking, most of the challenges to the Catholic Church revolved around the notion that individual believers should be
    less dependent on the Catholic Church, and its pope and priests, for spiritual guidance and salvation. Instead, Protestants
    believed people should be independent in their relationship with God, taking personal responsibility for their faith and referring
    directly to the Bible, the Christian holy book, for spiritual wisdom.

    Protestant reform in England began with Henry VIII in 1534 because the Pope would not grant him a marriage annulment.
    Subsequently, King Henry rejected the Pope's authority, instead creating and assuming authority over the Church of England, a
    sort of hybrid church that combined some Catholic doctrine and some Protestant ideals. Over the next 20 years, there was
    religious turbulence in England as Queen Mary (1553–1558) reinstated Catholicism in England while persecuting and exiling
    Protestants, only to have Queen Elizabeth I and her Parliament attempt to lead the country back toward Protestantism during
    her reign (1558–1603).

    Some English citizens did not believe Queen Elizabeth's efforts to restore England to Protestantism went far enough. These
    citizens fell into two groups, both labeled Puritans by their opponents. The first group, known as separatists, believed the Church
    of England was so corrupt that their only choice was to leave England, separate from the church, and start a new church. They
    called this the English Separatist Church.

    Around 1607 or 1609, some of the separatists tried to start the new lives they imagined in Holland, in the Netherlands.
    Ultimately, the endeavor failed due to poverty and the sense that the children were assimilating too much into Dutch culture, so
    many of the separatists returned to England.

    By 1620, members of the English Separatist Church were ready for a second try at establishing a new life and church. Those who
    set sail aboard the Mayflower for New England and eventually landed near Plymouth, Massachusetts, would, in time, become
    known as the Pilgrims.

    The other group of English citizens who did not believe Queen Elizabeth's reform efforts went far enough were called
    nonseparatists; over time, the term "Puritan" would become synonymous with the nonseparatists. They did not seek to leave
    the Church of England; they wanted only to reform it by eliminating the remnants of Catholicism that remained. In terms of
    theology, most of them were Calvinists.

    Although they did not desire to separate from the Church of England, some Puritans saw emigrating to New England as their
    best chance at true reform of the church and freedom to worship as they chose. In 1630, a decade after the Pilgrims embarked
    on a similar journey for similar reasons, the first Puritans traveled to the New World and established the Massachusetts
    Bay Colony in Boston, Massachusetts.

    Though the separatists and no separatists disagreed about whether to sever ties to the Church of England, both groups of early
    North American colonists shared a dissatisfaction with the church and a mindset that they were free to establish a church more
    in alignment with their spiritual views. Perhaps predictably, this freedom to practice religion according to one's beliefs led to the
    creation of countless different churches, denominations, and doctrines in the colonies. Equally predictable, throughout history
    this diversity has led to disagreements.

    However, this diversity of religious thought has also become a core part of the identity of the United States: The Bill of Rights
    explicitly forbids "establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” Over 400 years in the making, this belief in
    personal empowerment and independence in religious matters, with its roots in the Protestant Reformation, has become an
    enduring part of the American mindset.

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