Protestantism originated from work of several
theologians starting in the 12th century,
although there could have been earlier cases
of which there is no surviving evidence.
Any prominent dissent was subject to persecution
by the Roman Catholic Church, and thus attempts
to change anything in the Catholic Church
were kept isolated or effectively eradicated
up to the 16th century. One of the early Protestant
Reformers was John Wycliffe, an English theologian
and early proponent of reform in the 14th
century. His followers, known as Lollards,
spread throughout England but soon were persecuted
by both the Catholic Church and the crown.
Wycliffe influenced Jan Hus, a Czech priest
from Prague, whose followers waged the Hussite
Wars after he was burned on the stake following
a decision made by the Council of Constance.
Five crusades were proclaimed against Bohemia
by the Pope (in 1420, 1421, 1422, 1427, and
1431), though all of them were defeated by
Hussite Czechs. Hussites divided early on
into Radical Hussites and Moderate Hussites
who opposed each other in the Hussite Wars.
Utraquism eventually prevailed. Utraquist
Hussites dominated the Kingdom of Bohemia,
and later spread into other Lands of the Bohemian
Crown that included Silesia and Moravia. Both
Wycliffe and Hus preached against indulgences.
Hus wrote his Six Errors, fixed to the door
of his church, in which he criticized corruption
of the clergy and touched on other topics
which under the later Luther became the key
to Reformation. After the Battle of White
Mountain, persecuted Hussites established
minor churches such as the Unity of the Brethren
(and its international branch Moravian Church).
Those early reformers influenced German monk
Martin Luther, who spread the Protestant Reformation.
Originally, Luther intended to reform the
Roman Catholic Church rather than break it
up. Reformation in Germany diversified quickly
as did the earlier Hussites in Bohemian Crown,
and other reform impulses arose independently
of Luther. The spread of Gutenberg's printing
press provided the means for the rapid dissemination
of religious materials in local languages.
Similar to his predecessors, Martin Luther
wrote Ninety-Five Theses on the sale of indulgences
in 1517. Soon, the Reformed tradition began
in Switzerland under the leadership of Huldrych
Zwingli in 1519. The Reformation evolved into
a large debate involving theologians throughout
most of Europe. The political separation of
the Church of England from Rome under Henry
VIII brought England alongside this movement.
The work and writings of John Calvin helped
establish a loose consensus among various
groups in Switzerland, Scotland, the Netherlands,
Hungary, Germany and elsewhere. Calvinism
took a special path and evolved into the Reformed
tradition with specific subgroups like the
Continental Reformed, Presbyterianism, Congregationalism
and a variety of English dissenters, including
the Puritans. Other important movements that
emerged during the Reformation include Anabaptism,
Arminianism, the Baptist movement and Unitarianism.After
excommunicating Luther, the Pope condemned
the Reformation and its followers. In 1545,
the Counter-Reformation was launched by Roman
Catholic officials at the Council of Trent
to destroy Protestantism with help of the
Jesuit order and powerful monarchs like the
Habsburgs. Demographically, its impact is
mostly visible in the vast areas that were
under Habsburg control except for Hungary,
where undertaken counterreformational efforts
left it only shrunk.In the course of this
religious upheaval, the German Peasants' War
of 1524–1525 swept through Bavaria, Thuringia
and Swabia. The confessional division of the
states of the Holy Roman Empire eventually
erupted in the Thirty Years' War of 1618–1648,
leaving the agglomeration severely weakened.
France suffered its own religious wars. The
Dutch people rebelled in the Eighty Years'
War. The War of the Three Kingdoms affected
the British Isles.The success of the Counter-Reformation
on the continent and the growth of a Puritan
party dedicated to further Protestant reform
polarized the Elizabethan Age, although it
was not until the Civil War of the 1640s that
England underwent religious strife comparable
to that which its neighbours had suffered
some generations before. Nonconforming Protestants
along with the Protestant refugees from continental
Europe were the primary founders of the United
States of America. In the middle 17th century,
Pietism became an important influence in Lutheranism.The
Great Awakenings were periods of rapid and
dramatic religious revival in American religious
history, from the 1730s to the mid-19th century.
In result, a multitude of diverse Protestant
denominations emerged. In the First Great
Awakening, John Wesley founded Methodism which
in turn sparked Evangelicalism. The Second
Great Awakening brought Adventism, the Holiness
movement and Plymouth Brethren alongside other
denominations. The Salvation Army was founded
during the Third Great Awakening. Some scholars
propose the Fourth Great Awakening took place
in the late 20th century. Modernist and liberal
streams shaped mainline denominations during
the Age of Enlightenment.In the 20th century,
Protestantism was becoming increasingly fragmented
with Pentecostalism, Charismatic movement,
Neo-charismatic movement, Nondenominational
churches, house churches, Neo-orthodoxy, Paleo-orthodoxy,
numerous Christian fundamentalist, evangelical,
independent, and other groups emerging mainly
in the United States and the developing world.
In particular, American Protestantism was
affected by this phenomenon with both mainline
and conservative sides being affected. Beginning
in the 1980s, the rapid fragmenting became
accompanied by a general secularization of
Western society. While all these movements
spilled over to Europe to a limited degree,
the development of Protestantism in Europe
was more dominated by secularization, leading
to an increasingly post-Christian Europe.In
the 21st century, Protestantism continues
to divide, while simultaneously expanding
on a worldwide scale largely due to rising
Evangelical Protestant and Pentecostal movements.
== Historical maps ==
=== 
Europe ===
=== 
World ===
== 
Origins ==
Protestants generally trace to the 16th century
their separation from the Catholic Church.
Mainstream Protestantism began with the Magisterial
Reformation, so called because it received
support from the magistrates (that is, the
civil authorities). The Radical Reformation,
had no state sponsorship. Older Protestant
churches, such as the Unitas Fratrum (Unity
of the Brethren), Moravian Brethren or the
Bohemian Brethren trace their origin to the
time of Jan Hus in the early 15th century.
As the Hussite movement was led by a majority
of Bohemian nobles and recognized for a time
by the Basel Compacts, this is considered
by some to be the first Magisterial Reformation
in Europe. In Germany, a hundred years later,
protests against Roman Catholic authorities
erupted in many places at once during a time
of threatened Islamic Ottoman invasion ¹
which distracted the German princes in particular.
To some degree, these protests can be explained
by the events of the previous two centuries
in Europe and particularly in Bohemia. Earlier
in the south of France, where the old influence
of the Cathars led to the growing protests
against the pope and his authorities, Guillaume
Farel (b. 1489) preached reformation as early
as 1522 in Dauphiné, where the French Wars
of Religion later originated in 1562, also
known as Huguenot wars. These also spread
later to other parts of Europe.
=== Roots ===
Unrest due to the Avignon Papacy and the Papal
Schism in the Roman Catholic Church (1378–1416)
sparked wars between princes, uprisings among
peasants, and widespread concern over corruption
in the Church. A new nationalism also challenged
the relatively internationalist medieval world.
The first of a series of disruptive and new
perspectives came from John Wycliffe at Oxford
University, then from Jan Hus at the University
of Prague (Hus had been influenced by Wycliffe).
The Catholic Church officially concluded debate
over Hus' teachings at the Council of Constance
(1414–1417). The conclave condemned Jan
Hus, who was executed by burning in spite
of a promise of safe-conduct. At the command
of Pope Martin V, Wycliffe was exhumed and
burned as a heretic twelve years after his
burial.
The Council of Constance confirmed and strengthened
the traditional medieval conception of Churches
and Empires. It did not address the national
or theological tensions which had been stirred
up during the previous century. The council
could not prevent schism and the Hussite Wars
in Bohemia.Following the breakdown of monastic
institutions and scholasticism in late medieval
Europe, accentuated by the "Babylonian Captivity"
of the Papacy, the Papal Schism, and the failure
of the Conciliar movement, the sixteenth century
saw a great cultural debate about religious
reforms and later fundamental religious values
(See German mysticism). Historians would generally
assume that the failure to reform (too many
vested interests, lack of coordination in
the reforming coalition) would eventually
lead to a greater upheaval or even revolution,
since the system must eventually be adjusted
or disintegrate, and the failure of the Conciliar
movement helped lead to the Protestant Reformation
in Europe. These frustrated reformist movements
ranged from nominalism, devotio moderna (modern
devotion), to humanism occurring in conjunction
with economic, political and demographic forces
that contributed to a growing disaffection
with the wealth and power of the elite clergy,
sensitizing the population to the financial
and moral corruption of the secular Renaissance
church.
The outcome of the Black Death encouraged
a radical reorganization of the economy, and
eventually of European society. In the emerging
urban centers, however, the calamities of
the fourteenth and early fifteenth century,
and the resultant labor shortages, provided
a strong impetus for economic diversification
and technological innovations. Following the
Black Death, the initial loss of life due
to famine, plague, and pestilence contributed
to an intensification of capital accumulation
in the urban areas, and thus a stimulus to
trade, industry, and burgeoning urban growth
in fields as diverse as banking (the Fugger
banking family in Augsburg and the Medici
family of Florence being the most prominent);
textiles, armaments, especially stimulated
by the Hundred Years' War, and mining of iron
ore due, in large part, to the booming armaments
industry. Accumulation of surplus, competitive
overproduction, and heightened competition
to maximize economic advantage, contributed
to civil war, aggressive militarism, and thus
to centralization. As a direct result of the
move toward centralization, leaders like Louis
XI of France (1461–1483), the "spider king",
sought to remove all constitutional restrictions
on the exercise of their authority. In England,
France, and Spain the move toward centralization
begun in the thirteenth century was carried
to a successful conclusion.
But as recovery and prosperity progressed,
enabling the population to reach its former
levels in the late 15th and 16th centuries,
the combination of a newly-abundant labor
supply and improved productivity, was a mixed
blessing for many segments of Western European
society. Despite tradition, landlords started
to exclude peasants from "common lands". With
trade stimulated, landowners increasingly
moved away from the manorial economy. Woollen
manufacturing greatly expanded in France,
Germany, and the Netherlands and new textile
industries began to develop.
The invention of movable type led to Protestant
zeal for translating the Bible and getting
it into the hands of the laity.
The "humanism" of the Renaissance period stimulated
unprecedented academic ferment, and a concern
for academic freedom. Ongoing, earnest theoretical
debates occurred in the universities about
the nature of the church, and the source and
extent of the authority of the papacy, of
councils, and of princes.
=== 16th century ===
Protests against Rome began in earnest when
Martin Luther, an Augustinian monk and professor
at the university of Wittenberg, called in
1517 for a reopening of the debate on the
sale of indulgences. The quick spread of discontent
occurred to a large degree because of the
printing press and the resulting swift movement
of both ideas and documents, including the
95 Theses. Information was also widely disseminated
in manuscript form, as well as by cheap prints
and woodcuts amongst the poorer sections of
society.
Parallel to events in Germany, a movement
began in Switzerland under the leadership
of Ulrich Zwingli. These two movements quickly
agreed on most issues, as the recently introduced
printing press spread ideas rapidly from place
to place, but some unresolved differences
kept them separate. Some followers of Zwingli
believed that the Reformation was too conservative,
and moved independently toward more radical
positions, some of which survive among modern
day Anabaptists. Other Protestant movements
grew up along lines of mysticism or humanism
(cf. Erasmus), sometimes breaking from Rome
or from the Protestants, or forming outside
of the churches.
After this first stage of the Reformation,
following the excommunication of Luther and
condemnation of the Reformation by the Pope,
the work and writings of John Calvin were
influential in establishing a loose consensus
among various groups in Switzerland, Scotland,
Hungary, Germany and elsewhere.
The Reformation foundations engaged with Augustinianism.
Both Luther and Calvin thought along lines
linked with the theological teachings of Augustine
of Hippo. The Augustinianism of the Reformers
struggled against Pelagianism, a heresy that
they perceived in the Catholic Church of their
day. In the course of this religious upheaval,
the German Peasants' War of 1524–1525 swept
through the Bavarian, Thuringian and Swabian
principalities, leaving scores of Catholics
slaughtered at the hands of Protestant bands,
including the Black Company of Florian Geier,
a knight from Giebelstadt who joined the peasants
in the general outrage against the Catholic
hierarchy.
Even though Luther and Calvin had very similar
theological teachings, the relationship between
their followers turned quickly to conflict.
Frenchman Michel de Montaigne told a story
of a Lutheran pastor who once claimed that
he would rather celebrate the mass of Rome
than participate in a Calvinist service.The
political separation of the Church of England
from Rome under Henry VIII, beginning in 1529
and completed in 1536, brought England alongside
this broad Reformed movement. However, religious
changes in the English national church proceeded
more conservatively than elsewhere in Europe.
Reformers in the Church of England alternated,
for centuries, between sympathies for Catholic
traditions and Protestantism, progressively
forging a stable compromise between adherence
to ancient tradition and Protestantism, which
is now sometimes called the via media.
Martin Luther, John Calvin, and Ulrich Zwingli
are considered Magisterial Reformers because
their reform movements were supported by ruling
authorities or "magistrates". Frederick the
Wise not only supported Luther, who was a
professor at the university he founded, but
also protected him by hiding Luther in Wartburg
Castle in Eisenach. Zwingli and Calvin were
supported by the city councils in Zurich and
Geneva. Since the term "magister" also means
"teacher", the Magisterial Reformation is
also characterized by an emphasis on the authority
of a teacher. This is made evident in the
prominence of Luther, Calvin, and Zwingli
as leaders of the reform movements in their
respective areas of ministry. Because of their
authority, they were often criticized by Radical
Reformers as being too much like the Roman
Popes. For example, Radical Reformer Andreas
von Bodenstein Karlstadt referred to the Wittenberg
theologians as the "new papists".
=== Impact of humanism ===
The frustrated reformism of the humanists,
ushered in by the Renaissance, contributed
to a growing impatience among reformers. Erasmus
and later figures like Martin Luther and Zwingli
would emerge from this debate and eventually
contribute to another major schism of Christendom.
The crisis of theology beginning with William
of Ockham in the fourteenth century was occurring
in conjunction with the new burgher discontent.
Since the breakdown of the philosophical foundations
of scholasticism, the new nominalism did not
bode well for an institutional church legitimized
as an intermediary between man and God. New
thinking favored the notion that no religious
doctrine can be supported by philosophical
arguments, eroding the old alliance between
reason and faith of the medieval period laid
out by Thomas Aquinas.
The major individualistic reform movements
that revolted against medieval scholasticism
and the institutions that underpinned it were
humanism, devotionalism, (see for example,
the Brothers of the Common Life and Jan Standonck)
and the observantine tradition. In Germany,
"the modern way" or devotionalism caught on
in the universities, requiring a redefinition
of God, who was no longer a rational governing
principle but an arbitrary, unknowable will
that cannot be limited. God was now a ruler,
and religion would be more fervent and emotional.
Thus, the ensuing revival of Augustinian theology,
stating that man cannot be saved by his own
efforts but only by the grace of God, would
erode the legitimacy of the rigid institutions
of the church meant to provide a channel for
man to do good works and get into heaven.
Humanism, however, was more of an educational
reform movement with origins in the Renaissance's
revival of classical learning and thought.
A revolt against Aristotelian logic, it placed
great emphasis on reforming individuals through
eloquence as opposed to reason. The European
Renaissance laid the foundation for the Northern
humanists in its reinforcement of the traditional
use of Latin as the great unifying language
of European culture.
The polarization of the scholarly community
in Germany over the Reuchlin (1455–1522)
affair, attacked by the elite clergy for his
study of Hebrew and Jewish texts, brought
Luther fully in line with the humanist educational
reforms who favored academic freedom. At the
same time, the impact of the Renaissance would
soon backfire against traditional Catholicism,
ushering in an age of reform and a repudiation
of much of medieval Latin tradition. Led by
Erasmus, the humanists condemned various forms
of corruption within the Church, forms of
corruption that might not have been any more
prevalent than during the medieval zenith
of the church. Erasmus held that true religion
was a matter of inward devotion rather than
outward symbols of ceremony and ritual. Going
back to ancient texts, scriptures, from this
viewpoint the greatest culmination of the
ancient tradition, are the guides to life.
Favoring moral reforms and de-emphasizing
didactic ritual, Erasmus laid the groundwork
for Luther.
Humanism's intellectual anti-clericalism would
profoundly influence Luther. The increasingly
well-educated middle sectors of Northern Germany,
namely the educated community and city dwellers
would turn to Luther's rethinking of religion
to conceptualize their discontent according
to the cultural medium of the era. The great
rise of the burghers, the desire to run their
new businesses free of institutional barriers
or outmoded cultural practices, contributed
to the appeal of humanist individualism. To
many, papal institutions were rigid, especially
regarding their views on just price and usury.
In the North, burghers and monarchs were united
in their frustration for not paying any taxes
to the nation, but collecting taxes from subjects
and sending the revenues disproportionately
to the Pope in Italy.
These trends heightened demands for significant
reform and revitalization along with anticlericalism.
New thinkers began noticing the divide between
the priests and the flock. The clergy, for
instance, were not always well-educated. Parish
priests often did not know Latin and rural
parishes often did not have great opportunities
for theological education for many at the
time. Due to its large landholdings and institutional
rigidity, a rigidity to which the excessively
large ranks of the clergy contributed, many
bishops studied law, not theology, being relegated
to the role of property managers trained in
administration. While priests emphasized works
of religiosity, the respectability of the
church began diminishing, especially among
well educated urbanites, and especially considering
the recent strings of political humiliation,
such as the apprehension of Pope Boniface
VIII by Philip IV of France, the "Babylonian
Captivity", the Great Schism, and the failure
of Conciliar reformism. In a sense, the campaign
by Pope Leo X to raise funds to rebuild St.
Peter's Basilica was too much of an excess
by the secular Renaissance church, prompting
high-pressure indulgences that rendered the
clergy establishments even more disliked in
the cities.
Luther borrowed from the humanists the sense
of individualism, that each man can be his
own priest (an attitude likely to find popular
support considering the rapid rise of an educated
urban middle class in the North), and that
the only true authority is the Bible, echoing
the reformist zeal of the Conciliar movement
and opening up the debate once again on limiting
the authority of the Pope. While his ideas
called for the sharp redefinition of the dividing
lines between the laity and the clergy, his
ideas were still, by this point, reformist
in nature. Luther's contention that the human
will was incapable of following good, however,
resulted in his rift with Erasmus finally
distinguishing Lutheran reformism from humanism.
=== Lutherans and the Holy Roman Empire ===
Luther affirmed a theology of the Eucharist
called Real Presence, a doctrine of the presence
of Christ in the Eucharist which affirms the
real presence yet upholding that the bread
and wine are not "changed" into the body and
blood; rather the divine elements adhere "in,
with, and under" the earthly elements. He
took this understanding of Christ's presence
in the Eucharist to be more harmonious with
the Church's teaching on the Incarnation.
Just as Christ is the union of the fully human
and the fully divine (cf. Council of Chalcedon)
so to the Eucharist is a union of Bread and
Body, Wine and Blood. According to the doctrine
of real presence, the substances of the body
and the blood of Christ and of the bread and
the wine were held to coexist together in
the consecrated Host during the communion
service. While Luther seemed to maintain the
perpetual consecration of the elements, other
Lutherans argued that any consecrated bread
or wine left over would revert to its former
state the moment the service ended. Most Lutherans
accept the latter.
A Lutheran understanding of the Eucharist
is distinct from the Reformed doctrine of
the Eucharist in that Lutherans affirm a real,
physical presence of Christ in the Eucharist
(as opposed to either a "spiritual presence"
or a "memorial") and Lutherans affirm that
the presence of Christ does not depend on
the faith of the recipient; the repentant
receive Christ in the Eucharist worthily,
the unrepentant who receive the Eucharist
risk the wrath of Christ.
Luther, along with his colleague Philipp Melanchthon,
emphasized this point in his plea for the
Reformation at the Imperial Diet of 1529 amid
charges of heresy. But the changes he proposed
were of such a fundamental nature that by
their own logic they would automatically overthrow
the old order; neither the Emperor nor the
Church could possibly accept them, as Luther
well knew. As was only to be expected, the
edict by the Diet of Worms (1521) prohibited
all innovations. Meanwhile, in these efforts
to retain the guise of a Catholic reformer
as opposed to a heretical revolutionary, and
to appeal to German princes with his religious
condemnation of the peasant revolts backed
up by the Doctrine of the Two Kingdoms, Luther's
growing conservatism would provoke more radical
reformers.
At a religious conference with the Zwinglians
in 1529, Melanchthon joined with Luther in
opposing a union with Zwingli. There would
finally be a schism in the reform movement
due to Luther's belief in real presence—the
real (as opposed to symbolic) presence of
Christ at the Eucharist. His original intention
was not schism, but with the Diet of Augsburg
(1530) and its rejection of the Lutheran Augsburg
Confession, a separate Lutheran church finally
emerged. In a sense, Luther would take theology
further in its deviation from established
Catholic dogma, forcing a rift between the
humanist Erasmus and Luther. Similarly, Zwingli
would further repudiate ritualism, and break
with the increasingly conservative Luther.
Aside from the enclosing of the lower classes,
the middle sectors of northern Germany, namely
the educated community and city dwellers,
would turn to religion to conceptualize their
discontent according to the cultural medium
of the era. The great rise of the burghers,
the desire to run their new businesses free
of institutional barriers or outmoded cultural
practices contributed to the appeal of individualism.
To many, papal institutions were rigid, especially
regarding their views on just price and usury.
In the North, burghers and monarchs were united
in their frustration for not paying any taxes
to the nation, but collecting taxes from subjects
and sending the revenues disproportionately
to Italy. In northern Europe, Luther appealed
to the growing national consciousness of the
German states because he denounced the Pope
for involvement in politics as well as religion.
Moreover, he backed the nobility, which was
now justified to crush the Great Peasant Revolt
of 1525 and to confiscate church property
by Luther's Doctrine of the Two Kingdoms.
This explains the attraction of some territorial
princes to Lutheranism, especially its Doctrine
of the Two Kingdoms. However, the Elector
of Brandenburg, Joachim I, blamed Lutheranism
for the revolt and so did others. In Brandenburg,
it was only under his successor Joachim II
that Lutheranism was established, and the
old religion was not formally extinct in Brandenburg
until the death of the last Catholic bishop
there, Georg von Blumenthal, who was Bishop
of Lebus and sovereign Prince-Bishop of Ratzeburg.
With the church subordinate to and the agent
of civil authority and peasant rebellions
condemned on strict religious terms, Lutheranism
and German nationalist sentiment were ideally
suited to coincide.
Though Charles V fought the Reformation, it
is no coincidence either that the reign of
his nationalistic predecessor Maximilian I
saw the beginning of the movement. While the
centralized states of western Europe had reached
accords with the Vatican permitting them to
draw on the rich property of the church for
government expenditures, enabling them to
form state churches that were greatly autonomous
of Rome, similar moves on behalf of the Empire
were unsuccessful so long as princes and prince
bishops fought reforms to drop the pretension
of the secular universal empire.
== Protestant Reformation ==
The authority of the Catholic Church has been
constantly challenged during centuries, though
first on theoretical level only. Necessary
groundwork had thus been laid long before
Luther with significant earlier attempts to
reform the Roman Catholic Church – such
as those of Peter Waldo and John Wycliffe.
First change of religion in an entire country
came with Jan Hus, executed in 1415, whose
successors became the chief force in the Kingdom
of Bohemia for several centuries. Both Wycliffe
and Hus preached against indulgences, criticized
corruption of the clergy and opened other
topics which under the later Luther became
the key to Reformation. The movements based
on these early reform movements, such are
also considered Protestant today, although
their origins date back to more than 100 years
before the launch of the Reformation.
In the early 16th century, the church was
confronted with the challenge posed by Martin
Luther to the traditional teaching on the
church's doctrinal authority and to many of
its practices as well. The seeming inability
of Pope Leo X (1513–1521) and those popes
who succeeded him to comprehend the significance
of the threat that Luther posed - or, indeed,
the alienation of many Christians by the corruption
that had spread throughout the church - was
a major factor in the rapid growth of the
Protestant Reformation. By the time the need
for a vigorous, reforming papal leadership
was recognized, much of northern Europe had
already converted to Protestantism.
=== Bohemia ===
The Hussites were a Christian movement in
the Kingdom of Bohemia following the teachings
of Czech reformer Jan Hus.
Czech reformer and university professor Jan
Hus (c. 1369–1415) became the best-known
representative of the Bohemian Reformation
and one of the forerunners of the Protestant
Reformation. Jan Hus was declared heretic
and executed – burned at stake – at the
Council of Constance in 1415 where he arrived
voluntarily to defend his teachings.
Hussites were a predominantly religious movement
was propelled by social issues and strengthened
Czech national awareness. In 1417, two years
after the execution of Jan Hus, the Czech
reformation quickly became the chief force
in the country.
Hussites made up the vast majority of the
population, forcing the Council of Basel to
recognize in 1437 a system of two "religions"
for the first time signing the Compacts of
Basel for the kingdom (Catholic and Czech
Ultraquism, a Hussite movement). Bohemia later
also elected one Protestant king (George of
Poděbrady).
After Habsburgs took control of the region,
the Hussite churches were prohibited and the
kingdom partially recatholicized. Even later
Lutheranism gained a substantial following,
after being permitted by the Habsburgs with
the continued persecution of the Czech native
Hussite churches. Many Hussites thus declared
themselves Lutherans.
Two churches with Hussite roots are now second
and third biggest churches in the predominantly
agnostic country: Czech Brethren (which gave
origin to the international church known as
the Moravian Church) and Czechoslovak Hussite
Church.
=== Germany ===
Martin Luther was a German monk, theologian,
university professor, priest, father of Protestantism,
and church reformer whose ideas started the
Protestant Reformation.Luther taught that
salvation is a free gift of God and received
only through true faith in Jesus as redeemer
from sin. His theology challenged the authority
of the papacy by adducing the Bible as the
only infallible source of Christian doctrine
and countering "sacerdotalism" in the doctrine
that all baptized Christians are a universal
priesthood.
Luther's refusal to retract his writings in
confrontation with the Holy Roman Emperor
Charles V at the Diet of Worms in 1521 resulted
in his excommunication by Pope Leo X (actually
on 3 January 1521, before the Diet convened)
and declaration as an outlaw. His translation
of the Bible into the language of the people
made the Scriptures more accessible, causing
a tremendous impact on the church and on German
culture. It fostered the development of a
standard version of the German language, added
several principles to the art of translation,
and influenced the translation of the King
James Bible. His hymns inspired the development
of congregational singing within Christianity.
His marriage to Katharina von Bora set a model
for the practice of clerical marriage within
Protestantism.In 1516-17, Johann Tetzel, a
Dominican friar and papal commissioner for
indulgences, was sent to Germany by the Roman
Catholic Church to sell indulgences to raise
money to rebuild St Peter's Basilica in Rome.
Roman Catholic theology stated that faith
alone, whether fiduciary or dogmatic, cannot
justify man; and that only such faith as is
active in charity and good works (fides caritate
formata) can justify man. These good works
could be obtained by donating money to the
church.
On 31 October 1517, Luther wrote to Albrecht,
Archbishop of Mainz and Magdeburg, protesting
the sale of indulgences. He enclosed in his
letter a copy of his "Disputation of Martin
Luther on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences,"
which came to be known as The 95 Theses.
Luther objected to a saying attributed to
Johann Tetzel that "As soon as the coin in
the coffer rings, the soul from purgatory
springs," insisting that, since forgiveness
was God's alone to grant, those who claimed
that indulgences absolved buyers from all
punishments and granted them salvation were
in error. Christians, he said, must not slacken
in following Christ on account of such false
assurances.
According to Walter Krämer, Götz Trenkler,
Gerhard Ritter and Gerhard Prause, the story
of the posting on the door has settled as
one of the pillars of history, but its foundations
in truth are minimal. In the preface of the
second pressing of Luther's compiled work,
released posthumously, humanist and reformist
Philipp Melanchthon writes 'reportedly, Luther,
burning with passion and just devoutness,
posted the Ninety-Five Theses at the Castle
Church in Wittenberg, Germany at All Saints
Eve, 31 October (Old calendar)". At the time
of the writing of the preface Melanchton lived
in Tübingen, far from Wittenberg. In the
preface, Melanchton presents more facts that
are not true: He writes that indulgence sales
man Johann Tetzel publicly burned Luther's
Ninety-Five Theses, that Luther held colleges
on nature and physics, and that Luther had
visited Rome in 1511. For a professor of the
Wittenberg University to post thesis on doors
is unparalleled in history. Even further,
Luther is known as strongly law abiding, and
to publish his thoughts and direction in such
a way would be strongly against his character.
Luther has never mentioned anything in this
direction in his writings, and the only contemporary
account of the publishing of the thesis is
the account of Luther's servant Agricola,
written in Latin. In this account, Agricola
states that Luther presents 'certain thesis
in the year of 1517 according to the customs
of University of Wittenberg as part of a scientific
discussion. The presentation of the thesis
was done in a modest and respectful way, preventing
to mock or insult anybody". There is no mention
of nailing the thesis to a door, nor does
any other source report this. In reality,
Luther presented a hand-written copy, accompanied
with honourable comments to the archbishop
Albrecht of Mainz and Magdeburg, responsible
for the practice of the indulgence sales,
and to the bishop of Brandenburg, the superior
of Luther.
It wasn't until January 1518 that friends
of Luther translated the 95 Theses from Latin
into German, printed, and widely copied, making
the controversy one of the first in history
to be aided by the printing press. Within
two weeks, copies of the theses had spread
throughout Germany; within two months throughout
Europe. In contrast to the speed with which
the theses were distributed, the response
of the papacy was painstakingly slow. After
three years of debate and negotiations involving
Luther, government, and church officials,
on 15 June 1520, the Pope warned Luther with
the papal bull (edict) Exsurge Domine that
he risked excommunication unless he recanted
41 sentences drawn from his writings, including
the 95 Theses, within 60 days.
That autumn, Johann Eck proclaimed the bull
in Meissen and other towns. Karl von Miltitz,
a papal nuncio, attempted to broker a solution,
but Luther, who had sent the Pope a copy of
his conciliatory On the Freedom of a Christian
(which the Pope refused to read) in October,
publicly set fire to the bull and decretals
at Wittenberg on 10 December 1520, an act
he defended in Why the Pope and his Recent
Book are Burned and Assertions Concerning
All Articles.
As a consequence, Luther was excommunicated
by Leo X on 3 January 1521, in the bull Decet
Romanum Pontificem.
In 1534, Michael the Deacon of the Ethiopian
Orthodox Church travelled to Wittenberg to
meet with Martin Luther, both of whom agreed
that the Lutheran Mass and that used by the
Ethiopian Orthodox Church were in agreement
with one another. In their discussion, Michael
the Deacon also affirmed Luther's Articles
of the Christian Faith as a "good creed".
Martin Luther saw that the Ethiopian Orthodox
Church practiced elements of faith including
"communion in both kind, vernacular Scriptures,
and married clergy" and these practices became
customary in the Lutheran Churches. For Lutherans,
"the Ethiopian Church conferred legitimacy
on Luther’s emerging Protestant vision of
a church outside the authority of the Roman
Catholic papacy" as it was "an ancient church
with direct ties to the apostles".
=== Switzerland ===
==== 
Zwingli ====
Parallel to events in Germany, a movement
began in Switzerland under the leadership
of Huldrych Zwingli (died 1531). These two
movements quickly agreed on most issues, as
the recently introduced printing press spread
ideas rapidly from place to place, but some
unresolved differences kept them separate.
Some followers of Zwingli believed that the
Reformation was too conservative, and moved
independently toward more radical positions,
some of which survive among modern day Anabaptists.
Other Protestant movements grew up along lines
of mysticism or humanism (cf. Erasmus), sometimes
breaking from Rome or from the Protestants,
or forming outside of the churches.
==== John Calvin ====
Following the excommunication of Luther and
condemnation of the Reformation by the Pope,
the work and writings of John Calvin were
influential in establishing a loose consensus
among various groups in Switzerland, Scotland,
Hungary, Germany and elsewhere.
Geneva became the unofficial capital of the
Protestant movement, led by the Frenchman,
Jean Calvin, until his death in 1564 (when
Calvin's ally, William Farel, assumed the
spiritual leadership of the group).
The Reformation foundations engaged with Augustinianism.
Both Luther and Calvin thought along lines
linked with the theological teachings of Augustine
of Hippo. The Augustinianism of the Reformers
struggled against Pelagianism, a heresy that
they perceived in the Catholic Church of their
day. Ironically, even though both Luther and
Calvin both had very similar theological teachings,
the relationship between Lutherans and Calvinists
evolved into one of conflict.
=== Scandinavia ===
All of Scandinavia ultimately adopted Lutheranism
over the course of the sixteenth century,
as the monarchs of Denmark (who also ruled
Norway and Iceland) and Sweden (who also ruled
Finland) converted to that faith.
In Sweden the Reformation was spearheaded
by Gustav Vasa, elected king in 1523. Friction
with the pope over the latter's interference
in Swedish ecclesiastical affairs led to the
discontinuance of any official connection
between Sweden and the papacy from 1523. Four
years later, at the Diet of Västerås, the
king succeeded in forcing the diet to accept
his dominion over the national church. The
king was given possession of all church property,
church appointments required royal approval,
the clergy were subject to the civil law,
and the "pure Word of God" was to be preached
in the churches and taught in the schools—effectively
granting official sanction to Lutheran ideas.Under
the reign of Frederick I (1523–33), Denmark
remained officially Catholic. But though Frederick
initially pledged to persecute Lutherans,
he soon adopted a policy of protecting Lutheran
preachers and reformers, of whom the most
famous was Hans Tausen. During his reign,
Lutheranism made significant inroads among
the Danish population. Frederick's son, Christian,
was openly Lutheran, which prevented his election
to the throne upon his father's death. However,
following his victory in the civil war that
followed, in 1537 he became Christian III
and began a reformation of the official state
church.
=== England ===
The separation of the Church of England from
Rome under Henry VIII, beginning in 1529 and
completed in 1536, brought England alongside
this broad Reformed movement. However, religious
changes in the English national church proceeded
more conservatively than elsewhere in Europe;
King Henry himself sought only to break the
bond to Rome, but the bishops, in particular
Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury,
drove the newly freed church into Protestant
reformation. Reformers in the Church of England
alternated, for centuries, between sympathies
for ancient traditions and more radical Protestantism,
progressively forging a compromise between
conservative practices and the ideas of the
puritans. In the Victorian period this was
reinterpreted by John Newman as a via media
(middle way), which idea remains a current
theme of Anglican discourse.
In England, the Reformation followed a different
course from elsewhere in Europe. There had
long been a strong strain of anti-clericalism,
and England had already given rise to the
Lollard movement of John Wycliffe, which played
an important part in inspiring the Hussites
in Bohemia. Lollardy was suppressed and became
an underground movement so the extent of its
influence in the 1520s is difficult to assess.
The different character of the English Reformation
came rather from the fact that it was driven
initially by the political necessities of
Henry VIII. Henry had once been a sincere
Roman Catholic and had even authored a book
strongly criticizing Luther, but he later
found it expedient and profitable to break
with the Papacy. His wife, Catherine of Aragon,
bore him only a single child, Mary. As England
had recently gone through a lengthy dynastic
conflict (see Wars of the Roses), Henry feared
that his lack of a male heir might jeopardize
his descendants' claim to the throne. However,
Pope Clement VII, concentrating more on Charles
V's "sack of Rome", denied his request for
an annulment. Had Clement granted the annulment
and therefore admitted that his predecessor,
Julius II, had erred, Clement would have given
support to the Lutheran assertion that Popes
replaced their own judgement for the will
of God. King Henry decided to remove the Church
of England from the authority of Rome. In
1534, the Act of Supremacy made Henry the
Supreme Head of the Church of England. Between
1535 and 1540, under Thomas Cromwell, the
policy known as the Dissolution of the Monasteries
was put into effect. The veneration of some
saints, certain pilgrimages and some pilgrim
shrines were also attacked. Huge amounts of
church land and property passed into the hands
of the crown and ultimately into those of
the nobility and gentry. The vested interest
thus created made for a powerful force in
support of the dissolutions.
There were some notable opponents to the Henrician
Reformation, such as Thomas More and Bishop
John Fisher, who were executed for their opposition.
There was also a growing party of reformers
who were imbued with the Zwinglian and Calvinistic
doctrines now current on the Continent. When
Henry died he was succeeded by his Protestant
son Edward VI, who, through his empowered
councillors (with the King being only nine
years old at his succession and not yet sixteen
at his death) the Duke of Somerset and the
Duke of Northumberland, ordered the destruction
of images in churches, and the closing of
the chantries. Under Edward VI, and with Thomas
Cranmer as Archbishop, the reform of the Church
of England was established unequivocally in
doctrinal terms. Yet, at a popular level,
religion in England was still in a state of
flux. Following a brief Roman Catholic restoration
during the reign of Mary 1553–1558, a loose
consensus developed during the reign of Elizabeth
I, though this point is one of considerable
debate among historians. Yet it is the so-called
"Elizabethan Religious Settlement" to which
the origins of Anglicanism are traditionally
ascribed. The compromise was uneasy and was
capable of veering between extreme Calvinism
on the one hand and Catholicism on the other,
but compared to the bloody and chaotic state
of affairs in contemporary France, it was
relatively successful until the Puritan Revolution
or English Civil War in the seventeenth century.
==== Puritans ====
The success of the Counter-Reformation on
the Continent and the growth of a Puritan
party dedicated to further Protestant reform
polarized the Elizabethan Age, although it
was not until the 1640s that England underwent
religious strife comparable to that which
its neighbours had suffered some generations
before.
The early Puritan movement (late 16th century-17th
century) was Reformed or Calvinist and was
a movement for reform in the Church of England.
Its origins lay in the discontent with the
Elizabethan Religious Settlement. The desire
was for the Church of England to resemble
more closely the Protestant churches of Europe,
especially Geneva. The Puritans objected to
ornaments and ritual in the churches as idolatrous
(vestments, surplices, organs, genuflection),
which they castigated as "popish pomp and
rags". (See Vestments controversy.) They also
objected to ecclesiastical courts. They refused
to endorse completely all of the ritual directions
and formulas of the Book of Common Prayer;
the imposition of its liturgical order by
legal force and inspection sharpened Puritanism
into a definite opposition movement.
The later Puritan movement were often referred
to as Dissenters and Nonconformists and eventually
led to the formation of various Reformed denominations.
The most famous and well-known emigration
to America was the migration of the Puritan
separatists from the Anglican Church of England,
who fled first to Holland, and then later
to America, to establish the English colonies
of New England, which later became the United
States.
These Puritan separatists were also known
as "the pilgrims". After establishing a colony
at Plymouth (in what would become later Massachusetts)
in 1620, the Puritan pilgrims received a charter
from the King of England which legitimized
their colony, allowing them to do trade and
commerce with merchants in England, in accordance
with the principles of mercantilism. This
successful, though initially quite difficult,
colony marked the beginning of the Protestant
presence in America (the earlier French, Spanish
and Portuguese settlements had been Catholic),
and became a kind of oasis of spiritual and
economic freedom, to which persecuted Protestants
and other minorities from the British Isles
and Europe (and later, from all over the world)
fled to for peace, freedom and opportunity.
The original intent of the colonists was to
establish spiritual Puritanism, which had
been denied to them in England and the rest
of Europe to engage in peaceful commerce with
England and the Native American Indians and
to Christianize the peoples of the Americas.
=== Scotland ===
The Reformation in Scotland's case culminated
ecclesiastically in the re-establishment of
the church along Reformed lines, and politically
in the triumph of English influence over that
of France. John Knox is regarded as the leader
of the Scottish Reformation
The Reformation Parliament of 1560, which
repudiated the pope's authority, forbade the
celebration of the mass and approved a Protestant
Confession of Faith, was made possible by
a revolution against French hegemony under
the regime of the regent Mary of Guise, who
had governed Scotland in the name of her absent
daughter Mary, Queen of Scots, (then also
Queen of France).
The Scottish Reformation decisively shaped
the Church of Scotland and, through it, all
other Presbyterian churches worldwide.
A spiritual revival also broke out among Catholics
soon after Martin Luther's actions, and led
to the Scottish Covenanters' movement, the
precursor to Scottish Presbyterianism. This
movement spread, and greatly influenced the
formation of Puritanism among the Anglican
Church in England. The Scottish Covenanters
were persecuted by the Roman Catholic Church.
This persecution by the Catholics drove some
of the Protestant Covenanter leadership out
of Scotland, and into France and later, Switzerland.
=== France ===
Protestantism also spread into France, where
the Protestants were nicknamed "Huguenots",
and this touched off decades of warfare in
France, after initial support by Henry of
Navarre was lost due to the "Night of the
Placards" affair. Many French Huguenots however,
still contributed to the Protestant movement,
including many who emigrated to the English
colonies.
Though he was not personally interested in
religious reform, Francis I (1515–47) initially
maintained an attitude of tolerance, arising
from his interest in the humanist movement.
This changed in 1534 with the Affair of the
Placards. In this act, Protestants denounced
the mass in placards that appeared across
France, even reaching the royal apartments.
The issue of religious faith having been thrown
into the arena of politics, Francis was prompted
to view the movement as a threat to the kingdom's
stability. This led to the first major phase
of anti-Protestant persecution in France,
in which the Chambre Ardente ("Burning Chamber")
was established within the Parlement of Paris
to handle with the rise in prosecutions for
heresy. Several thousand French Protestants
fled the country during this time, most notably
John Calvin, who settled in Geneva.
Calvin continued to take an interest in the
religious affairs of his native land and,
from his base in Geneva, beyond the reach
of the French king, regularly trained pastors
to lead congregations in France. Despite heavy
persecution by Henry II, the Reformed Church
of France, largely Calvinist in direction,
made steady progress across large sections
of the nation, in the urban bourgeoisie and
parts of the aristocracy, appealing to people
alienated by the obduracy and the complacency
of the Catholic establishment.
French Protestantism, though its appeal increased
under persecution, came to acquire a distinctly
political character, made all the more obvious
by the noble conversions of the 1550s. This
had the effect of creating the preconditions
for a series of destructive and intermittent
conflicts, known as the Wars of Religion.
The civil wars were helped along by the sudden
death of Henry II in 1559, which saw the beginning
of a prolonged period of weakness for the
French crown. Atrocity and outrage became
the defining characteristic of the time, illustrated
at its most intense in the St. Bartholomew's
Day massacre of August 1572, when the Catholic
Church annihilated between 30,000 and 100,000
Huguenots across France. The wars only concluded
when Henry IV, himself a former Huguenot,
issued the Edict of Nantes, promising official
toleration of the Protestant minority, but
under highly restricted conditions. Catholicism
remained the official state religion, and
the fortunes of French Protestants gradually
declined over the next century, culminating
in Louis XIV's Edict of Fontainebleau—which
revoked the Edict of Nantes and made Catholicism
the sole legal religion of France. In response
to the Edict of Fontainebleau, Frederick William
of Brandenburg declared the Edict of Potsdam,
giving free passage to French Huguenot refugees,
and tax-free status to them for 10 years.
=== Netherlands ===
The Reformation in the Netherlands, unlike
in many other countries, was not initiated
by the rulers of the Seventeen Provinces,
but instead by multiple popular movements,
which in turn were bolstered by the arrival
of Protestant refugees from other parts of
the continent. While the Anabaptist movement
enjoyed popularity in the region in the early
decades of the Reformation, Calvinism, in
the form of the Dutch Reformed Church, became
the dominant Protestant faith in the country
from the 1560s onward.
Harsh persecution of Protestants by the Spanish
government of Philip II contributed to a desire
for independence in the provinces, which led
to the Eighty Years' War and eventually, the
separation of the largely Protestant Dutch
Republic from the Catholic-dominated Southern
Netherlands, the present-day Belgium.
=== Hungary ===
Much of the population of Kingdom of Hungary
adopted Protestantism during the sixteenth
century. After the 1526 Battle of Mohács
the Hungarian people were disillusioned by
the ability of the government to protect them
and turned to the faith which would infuse
them with the strength necessary to resist
the Turkish invaders. They found this in the
teaching of the Protestant Reformers such
as Martin Luther. The spread of Protestantism
in the country was aided by its large ethnic
German minority, which could understand and
translate the writings of Martin Luther. While
Lutheranism gained a foothold among the German-speaking
population, Calvinism became widely accepted
among ethnic Hungarians.
In the more independent northwest the rulers
and priests, protected now by the Habsburg
Monarchy which had taken the field to fight
the Turks, defended the old Catholic faith.
They dragged the Protestants to prison and
the stake wherever they could. Such strong
measures only fanned the flames of protest,
however. Leaders of the Protestants included
Matthias Biro Devai, Michael Sztarai, and
Stephen Kis Szegedi.
Protestants likely formed a majority of Hungary's
population at the close of the sixteenth century,
but Counter-Reformation efforts in the seventeenth
century reconverted a majority of the kingdom
to Catholicism. A significant Protestant minority
remained, most of it adhering to the Calvinist
faith.
In 1558 the Transylvanian Diet of Turda declared
free practice of both the Catholic and Lutheran
religions, but prohibited Calvinism. Ten years
later, in 1568, the Diet extended this freedom,
declaring that "It is not allowed to anybody
to intimidate anybody with captivity or expelling
for his religion". Four religions were declared
as accepted (recepta) religions, while Orthodox
Christianity was "tolerated" (though the building
of stone Orthodox churches was forbidden).
Hungary entered the Thirty Years' War, Royal
(Habsburg) Hungary joined the catholic side,
until Transylvania joined the Protestant side.
There were a series of other successful and
unsuccessful anti-Habsburg /i.e. anti-Austrian/
(requiring equal rights and freedom for all
Christian religions) uprisings between 1604
and 1711, the uprisings were usually organized
from Transylvania. The constrained Habsburg
Counter-Reformation efforts in the seventeenth
century reconverted the majority of the kingdom
to Catholicism.
== Nineteenth century ==
Historian Kenneth Scott Latourette argues
that the outlook for Protestantism at the
start of the 19th century was discouraging.
It was a regional religion based in northwestern
Europe, with an outpost in the sparsely settled
United States. It was closely allied with
government, as in Scandinavia, the Netherlands,
Prussia, and especially Great Britain. The
alliance came at the expense of independence,
as the government made the basic policy decisions,
down to such details as the salaries of ministers
and location of new churches. The dominant
intellectual currents of the Enlightenment
promoted rationalism, and most Protestant
leaders preached a sort of deism. Intellectually,
the new methods of historical and anthropological
study undermine automatic acceptance of biblical
stories, as did the sciences of geology and
biology. Industrialization was a strongly
negative factor, as workers who moved to the
city seldom joined churches. The gap between
the church and the unchurched grew rapidly,
and secular forces, based both in socialism
and liberalism undermine the prestige of religion.
Despite the negative forces, Protestantism
demonstrated a striking vitality by 1900.
Shrugging off Enlightenment rationalism, Protestants
embraced romanticism, with the stress on the
personal and the invisible. Entirely fresh
ideas as expressed by Friedrich Schleiermacher,
Soren Kierkegaard, Albrecht Ritschl and Adolf
von Harnack restored the intellectual power
of theology. There was more attention to historic
creeds such as the Augsburg, the Heidelberg,
and the Westminster confessions. The stirrings
of pietism on the Continent, and evangelicalism
in Britain expanded enormously, leading the
devout away from an emphasis on formality
and ritual and toward an inner sensibility
toward personal relationship to Christ. From
the religious point of view of the typical
Protestant, major changes were underway in
terms of a much more personalized religiosity
that focused on the individual more than the
church or the ceremony. The rationalism of
the late 19th century faded away, and there
was a new emphasis on the psychology and feeling
of the individual, especially in terms of
contemplating sinfuness, redemption, and the
mysteries and the revelations of Christianity.
Pietistic revivals were common among Protestants.
Social activities, in education and in opposition
to social vices such as slavery, alcoholism
and poverty provided new opportunities for
social service. Above all, worldwide missionary
activity became a highly prized goal, proving
quite successful in close cooperation with
the imperialism of the British, German, and
Dutch empires.
=== Britain ===
In England, Anglicans emphasized the historically
Catholic components of their heritage, as
the High Church element reintroduced vestments
and incense into their rituals, against the
opposition of Low Church evangelicals. As
the Oxford Movement began to advocate restoring
traditional Catholic faith and practice to
the Church of England (see Anglo-Catholicism),
there was felt to be a need for a restoration
of the monastic life. Anglican priest John
Henry Newman established a community of men
at Littlemore near Oxford in the 1840s. From
then forward, there have been many communities
of monks, friars, sisters, and nuns established
within the Anglican Communion. In 1848, Mother
Priscilla Lydia Sellon founded the Anglican
Sisters of Charity and became the first woman
to take religious vows within the Anglican
Communion since the English Reformation. From
the 1840s and throughout the following hundred
years, religious orders for both men and women
proliferated in Britain, America and elsewhere.
=== Germany ===
Two main developments reshaped religion in
Germany. Across the land, there was a movement
to unite the larger Lutheran and the smaller
Reformed Protestant churches. The churches
themselves brought this about in Baden, Nassau,
and Bavaria. However, in Prussia King Frederick
William III was determined to handle unification
entirely on his own terms, without consultation.
His goal was to unify the Protestant churches,
and to impose a single standardized liturgy,
organization and even architecture. The long-term
goal was to have fully centralized royal control
of all the Protestant churches. In a series
of proclamations over several decades the
Church of the Prussian Union was formed, bringing
together the more numerous Lutherans, and
the less numerous Reformed Protestants. The
government of Prussia now had full control
over church affairs, with the king himself
recognized as the leading bishop. Opposition
to unification came from the "Old Lutherans"
in Silesia who clung tightly to the theological
and liturgical forms they had followed since
the days of Luther. The government attempted
to crack down on them, so they went underground.
Tens of thousands migrated, to South Australia,
and especially to the United States, where
they formed the Missouri Synod, which is still
in operation as a conservative denomination.
Finally in 1845 a new king Frederick William
IV offered a general amnesty and allowed the
Old Lutherans to form a separate church association
with only nominal government control.
== Great Awakenings ==
The "Great Awakenings" were periods of rapid
and dramatic religious revival in American
religious history, beginning in the 1730s.
=== First Great Awakening ===
The "First Great Awakening" (or sometimes
"The Great Awakening") was a wave of religious
enthusiasm among Protestants that swept the
American colonies in the 1730s and 1740s,
leaving a permanent impact on American religion.
It emphasized the traditional Reformed virtues
of Godly preaching, rudimentary liturgy, and
a deep sense of personal guilt and redemption
by Christ Jesus. It resulted from powerful
preaching that deeply affected listeners (already
church members) with a deep sense of personal
guilt and salvation by Christ. Pulling away
from ritual and ceremony, the Great Awakening
made religion intensely personal to the average
person by creating a deep sense of spiritual
guilt and redemption. Historian Sydney E.
Ahlstrom saw it as part of a "great international
Protestant upheaval" that also created Pietism
in Germany, the Evangelical Revival, and Methodism
in England. It had a major impact in reshaping
the Congregational, Presbyterian, Dutch Reformed,
and German Reformed denominations, and strengthened
the small Baptist and Methodist denominations.
It brought Christianity to the slaves and
was an apocalyptic event in New England that
challenged established authority. It incited
rancor and division between the old traditionalists
who insisted on ritual and doctrine and the
new revivalists. It had little impact on Anglicans
and Quakers.
Unlike the Second Great Awakening that began
about 1800 and which reached out to the unchurched,
the First Great Awakening focused on people
who were already church members. It changed
their rituals, their piety, and their self-awareness.
The new style of sermons and the way people
practiced their faith breathed new life into
religion in America. People became passionately
and emotionally involved in their religion,
rather than passively listening to intellectual
discourse in a detached manner. Ministers
who used this new style of preaching were
generally called "new lights", while the preachers
of old were called "old lights". People began
to study the Bible at home, which effectively
decentralized the means of informing the public
on religious manners and was akin to the individualistic
trends present in Europe during the Protestant
Reformation.
=== Second Great Awakening ===
The "Second Great Awakening" (1790-1840s)
was the second great religious revival in
United States history and, unlike the First
Great Awakening of the 18th century, focused
on the unchurched and sought to instil in
them a deep sense of personal salvation as
experienced in revival meetings. It also sparked
the beginnings of groups such as the Mormons
and the Holiness movement. Leaders included
Charles Grandison Finney, Lyman Beecher, Barton
W. Stone, Peter Cartwright and James Finley.
In New England, the renewed interest in religion
inspired a wave of social activism. In western
New York, the spirit of revival encouraged
the emergence of the Restoration Movement,
the Latter Day Saint movement, Adventism and
the Holiness movement. In the west especially—at
Cane Ridge, Kentucky and in Tennessee—the
revival strengthened the Methodists and the
Baptists and introduced into America a new
form of religious expression—the Scottish
camp meeting.
The Second Great Awakening made its way across
the frontier territories, fed by intense longing
for a prominent place for God in the life
of the new nation, a new liberal attitude
toward fresh interpretations of the Bible,
and a contagious experience of zeal for authentic
spirituality. As these revivals spread, they
gathered converts to Protestant sects of the
time. However, the revivals eventually moved
freely across denominational lines, with practically
identical results, and went farther than ever
toward breaking down the allegiances which
kept adherents to these denominations loyal
to their own. Consequently, the revivals were
accompanied by a growing dissatisfaction with
Evangelical churches and especially with the
doctrine of Calvinism, which was nominally
accepted or at least tolerated in most Evangelical
churches at the time. Various unaffiliated
movements arose that were often restorationist
in outlook, considering contemporary Christianity
of the time to be a deviation from the true,
original Christianity. These groups attempted
to transcend Protestant denominationalism
and orthodox Christian creeds to restore Christianity
to its original form.
=== Third Great Awakening ===
The "Third Great Awakening" was a period of
religious activism in American history from
the late 1850s to the 1900s. It affected pietistic
Protestant denominations and had a strong
sense of social activism. It gathered strength
from the postmillennial theology that the
Second Coming of Christ would come after mankind
had reformed the entire earth. The Social
Gospel Movement gained its force from the
Awakening, as did the worldwide missionary
movement. New groupings emerged, such as the
Holiness movement and Nazarene movements,
and Christian Science. Significant names include
Dwight L. Moody, Ira D. Sankey, William Booth
and Catherine Booth (founders of the Salvation
Army), Charles Spurgeon and James Caughey.
Hudson Taylor began the China Inland Mission
and Thomas John Barnardo founded his famous
orphanages. The Keswick Convention movement
began out of the British Holiness movement,
encouraging a lifestyle of holiness, unity
and prayer.
Mary Baker Eddy introduced Christian Science,
which gained a national following. In 1880,
the Salvation Army denomination arrived in
America. Although its theology was based on
ideals expressed during the Second Great Awakening,
its focus on poverty was of the Third. The
Society for Ethical Culture was established
in New York City in 1876 by Felix Adler attracted
a Reform Jewish clientele. Charles Taze Russell
founded a Bible Student movement now known
as The Jehovah's Witnesses
With Jane Addams's Hull House in Chicago as
its center, the settlement house movement
and the vocation of social work were deeply
influenced by the Tolstoyan reworking of Christian
idealism. The final group to emerge from this
awakening in North America was Pentecostalism,
which had its roots in the Methodist, Wesleyan,
and Holiness movements, and began in 1906
on Azusa Street, in Los Angeles. Pentecostalism
would later lead to the Charismatic movement.
== 20th century ==
Protestant Christianity in the 20th century
was characterized by accelerating fragmentation.
The century saw the rise of both liberal and
conservative splinter groups, as well as a
general secularization of Western society.
The Roman Catholic Church instituted many
reforms in order to modernize. Missionaries
also made inroads in the Far East, establishing
further followings in China, Taiwan, Korea,
and Japan. At the same time, state-promoted
atheism in Communist Eastern Europe and the
Soviet Union brought many Eastern Orthodox
Christians to Western Europe and the United
States, leading to greatly increased contact
between Western and Eastern Christianity.
Nevertheless, church attendance declined more
in Western Europe than it did in the East.
Christian ecumenism grew in importance, beginning
at the Edinburgh Missionary Conference in
1910, and accelerated after the Second Vatican
Council (1962–1965) of the Catholic Church,
The Liturgical Movement became significant
in both Catholic and Protestant Christianity,
especially in Anglicanism.
Another movement which has grown up over the
20th century has been Christian anarchism
which rejects the church, state or any power
other than God. They usually also believe
in absolute nonviolence. Leo Tolstoy's book
The Kingdom of God is Within You published
in 1894, is believed to be the catalyst for
this movement. Because of its extremist political
views, however, its appeal has been largely
limited to the highly educated, especially
those with erstwhile humanist sentiments;
the thoroughgoing aversion to institutionalism
on Christian anarchists' part has also hindered
acceptance of this philosophy on a large scale.
The 1950s saw a boom in the Evangelical church
in America. The post–World War II prosperity
experienced in the U.S. also had its effects
on the church. Although simplistically referred
to as "morphological fundamentalism", the
phrase nonetheless does accurately describe
the physical developments experienced. Church
buildings were erected in large numbers, and
the Evangelical church's activities grew along
with this expansive physical growth.
=== Pentecostal movement ===
Another noteworthy development in 20th-century
Christianity was the rise of the modern Pentecostal
movement. Although its roots predate the year
1900, its actual birth is commonly attributed
to the 20th century. Sprung from Methodist
and Wesleyan roots, it arose out of meetings
at an urban mission on Azusa Street in Los
Angeles. From there it spread around the world,
carried by those who experienced what they
believed to be miraculous moves of God there.
These Pentecost-like manifestations have steadily
been in evidence throughout the history of
Christianity—such as seen in the two Great
Awakenings that started in the United States.
However, Azusa Street is widely accepted as
the fount of the modern Pentecostal movement.
Pentecostalism, which in turn birthed the
Charismatic movement within already established
denominations, continues to be an important
force in western Christianity.
=== Modernism, fundamentalism, and neo-orthodoxy
===
As the more radical implications of the scientific
and cultural influences of the Enlightenment
began to be felt in the Protestant churches,
especially in the 19th century, Liberal Christianity,
exemplified especially by numerous theologians
in Germany in the 19th century, sought to
bring the churches alongside of the broad
revolution that Modernism represented. In
doing so, new critical approaches to the Bible
were developed, new attitudes became evident
about the role of religion in society, and
a new openness to questioning the nearly universally
accepted definitions of Christian orthodoxy
began to become obvious.
In reaction to these developments, Christian
fundamentalism was a movement to reject the
radical influences of philosophical humanism,
as this was affecting the Christian religion.
Especially targeting critical approaches to
the interpretation of the Bible, and trying
to blockade the inroads made into their churches
by atheistic scientific assumptions, the fundamentalists
began to appear in various denominations as
numerous independent movements of resistance
to the drift away from historic Christianity.
Over time, the Fundamentalist Evangelical
movement has divided into two main wings,
with the label Fundamentalist following one
branch, while Evangelical has become the preferred
banner of the more moderate movement. Although
both movements primarily originated in the
English speaking world, the majority of Evangelicals
now live elsewhere in the world.
A third, but less popular, option than either
liberalism or fundamentalism was the neo-orthodox
movement, which generally affirmed a higher
view of Scripture than liberalism but did
not tie the main doctrines of the Christian
faith to precise theories of Biblical inspiration.
If anything, thinkers in this camp denounced
such quibbling between liberals and conservatives
as a dangerous distraction from the duties
of Christian discipleship. This branch of
thought arose in the early 20th century in
the context of the rise of the Third Reich
in Germany and the accompanying political
and ecclesiastical destabilization of Europe
in the years before and during World War II.
Neo-orthodoxy's highly contextual, dialectical
modes of argument and reasoning often rendered
its main premises incomprehensible to American
thinkers and clergy, and it was frequently
either dismissed out of hand as unrealistic
or cast into the reigning left- or right-wing
molds of theologizing. Karl Barth, a Swiss
Reformed pastor and professor, brought this
movement into being by drawing upon earlier
criticisms of established (largely modernist)
Protestant thought made by the likes of Søren
Kierkegaard and Franz Overbeck; Dietrich Bonhoeffer,
murdered by the Nazis for allegedly taking
part in an attempt to overthrow the Hitler
regime, adhered to this school of thought;
his classic The Cost of Discipleship is likely
the best-known and accessible statement of
the neo-orthodox position.
=== Evangelicalism ===
In the U.S. and elsewhere in the world, there
has been a marked rise in the evangelical
wing of Protestant denominations, especially
those that are more exclusively evangelical,
and a corresponding decline in the mainstream
liberal churches. In the post–World War
I era, Liberalism was the faster-growing sector
of the American church. Liberal wings of denominations
were on the rise, and a considerable number
of seminaries held and taught from a liberal
perspective as well. In the post–World War
II era, the trend began to swing back towards
the conservative camp in America's seminaries
and church structures. Those entering seminaries
and other postgraduate theologically related
programs have shown more conservative leanings
than their average predecessors.
The neo-Evangelical push of the 1940s and
1950s produced a movement that continues to
have wide influence. In the southern U.S.,
the more moderate neo-Evangelicals, represented
by leaders such as Billy Graham, have experienced
a notable surge displacing the caricature
of the pulpit pounding country preachers of
fundamentalism. The stereotypes have gradually
shifted. Some, such as Jerry Falwell, have
managed to maintain credibility in the eyes
of many fundamentalists, as well as to gain
stature as a more moderate Evangelical.
Evangelicalism is not a single, monolithic
entity. The Evangelical churches and their
adherents cannot be easily stereotyped. Most
are not fundamentalist, in the narrow sense
that this term has come to represent; though
many still refer to themselves as such. There
have always been diverse views on issues,
such as openness to cooperation with non-Evangelicals,
the applicability of the Bible to political
choices and social or scientific issues, and
even the limited inerrancy of the Bible.
However, the movement has managed in an informal
way, to reserve the name Evangelical for those
who adhere to an historic Christian faith,
a paleo-orthodoxy, as some have put it. Those
who call themselves "moderate evangelicals"(although
considered conservative in relation to society
as a whole) still hold fast to the fundamentals
of the historic Christian faith. Even "Liberal"
Evangelicals label themselves as such not
so much in terms of their theology, but rather
to advertise that they are progressive in
their civic, social, or scientific perspective.
There is some debate as to whether Pentecostals
are considered to be Evangelical. Their roots
in Pietism and the Holiness movement are undisputedly
Evangelical, but their doctrinal distinctives
differ from the more traditional Evangelicals,
who are less likely to have an expectation
of private revelations from God, and differ
from the Pentecostal perspective on miracles,
angels, and demons. Typically, those who include
the Pentecostals in the Evangelical camp are
labeled neo-evangelical by those who do not.
The National Association of Evangelicals and
the Evangelical Alliance have numerous Trinitarian
Pentecostal denominations among their membership.
Another relatively late entrant to wide acceptance
within the Evangelical fold is the Seventh-day
Adventist Church.
Evangelicals are as diverse as the names that
appear—Billy Graham, Chuck Colson, J. Vernon
McGee, John MacArthur, J.I. Packer, John R.W.
Stott, Pat Robertson, Jimmy Carter, etc.—or
even Evangelical institutions such as Dallas
Theological Seminary (Dallas), Gordon-Conwell
Theological Seminary (Boston), Trinity Evangelical
Divinity School (Chicago), The Master's Seminary
(California), Wheaton College (Illinois),
the Christian Coalition, The Christian Embassy
(Jerusalem), etc. Although there exists a
diversity in the Evangelical community worldwide,
the ties that bind all Evangelicals are still
apparent. These include but are not limited
to a high view of Scripture, belief in the
Deity of Christ, the Trinity, salvation by
grace alone through faith alone, and the bodily
resurrection of Christ.
=== Spread of secularism ===
EuropeIn Europe there has been a general move
away from religious observance and belief
in Christian teachings and a move towards
secularism. The "secularization of society",
attributed to the time of the Enlightenment
and its following years, is largely responsible
for the spread of secularism. For example,
the Gallup International Millennium Survey
[1] showed that only about one sixth of Europeans
attend regular religious services, less than
half gave God "high importance", and only
about 40% believe in a "personal God". Nevertheless,
the large majority considered that they "belong"
to a religious denomination.
The Americas and AustraliaIn North America,
South America and Australia, the other three
continents where Christianity is the dominant
professed religion, religious observance is
much higher than in Europe. At the same time,
these regions are often seen by other nations
as being uptight and "Victorian", in their
social mores. In general, the United States
leans toward the conservative in comparison
to other western nations in its general culture,
in part due to the Christian element found
primarily in its Midwestern and southern states.
South America, historically Catholic, has
experienced a large Evangelical and Pentecostal
infusion in the 20th century due to the influx
of Christian missionaries from abroad. For
example: Brazil, South America's largest country,
is the largest Catholic country in the world,
and at the same time is the largest Evangelical
country in the world (based on population).
Some of the largest Christian congregations
in the world are found in Brazil.
== See also ==
Christianity in the 16th century
Christianity in the 17th century
Christianity in the 18th century
Christianity in the 19th century
Christianity in the 20th century
Christianity in the 21st century
History of Christianity of the Late Modern
era
History of the Roman Catholic Church
Revival (religious)
Timeline of Christianity
== Notes ==
== 
Further reading ==
Ahlstrom, Sydney E. A Religious History of
the American People (1972, 2nd ed. 2004);
widely cited standard scholarly history excerpt
and text search
Chadwick, Owen. A History of Christianity
(1995)
Gilley, Sheridan, and Brian Stanley, eds.
The Cambridge History of Christianity: Volume
8, World Christianities c.1815-c.1914 (2006)
excerpt
González, Justo L. (1984). The Story of Christianity:
Vol. 1: The Early Church to the Reformation.
San Francisco: Harper. ISBN 0-06-063315-8.
González, Justo L. (1985). The Story of Christianity,
Vol. 2: The Reformation to the Present Day.
San Francisco: Harper. ISBN 0-06-063316-6.
Hastings, Adrian (1999). A World History of
Christianity. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing.
ISBN 0-8028-4875-3.
Latourette, Kenneth Scott (1975). A History
of Christianity, Volume 1: Beginnings to 1500
(Revised). San Francisco: Harper. ISBN 0-06-064952-6.
Latourette, Kenneth Scott (1975). A History
of Christianity, Volume 2: 1500 to 1975. San
Francisco: Harper. ISBN 0-06-064953-4.
Latourette, Kenneth Scott. Christianity in
a Revolutionary Age, I: The Nineteenth Century
in Europe: Background and the Roman Catholic
Phase; Christianity in a Revolutionary Age,
II: The Nineteenth Century in Europe: The
Protestant and Eastern Churches; Christianity
in a Revolutionary Age, III: The Nineteenth
Century Outside Europe: The Americas, the
Pacific, Asia and Africa (1959–69), detailed
survey by leading scholar
Lippy, Charles H., ed. Encyclopedia of the
American Religious Experience (3 vol. 1988)
Lynch, John. New Worlds: A Religious History
of Latin America (2012)
MacCulloch, Diarmaid. Christianity: The First
Three Thousand Years (2011)
MacCulloch, Diarmaid. The Reformation (2005)
McLeod, Hugh. Religion and the People of Western
Europe 1789–1989 (Oxford UP, 1997)
McLeod, Hugh and Werner Ustorf, eds. The Decline
of Christendom in Western Europe, 1750-2000
(Cambridge UP, 2004) online
Marshall, Peter. The Reformation: A Very Short
Introduction (2009)
Noll, Mark A. A History of Christianity in
the United States and Canada (1992)
Rosman, Doreen. The Evolution of the English
Churches, 1500-2000 (2003) 400pp
== External links ==
