Impact of Church through History: The Reformation

The Protestant Reformation was a major sixteenth-century European movement, which in its inception intended to reform the beliefs of the Roman Catholic Church and some of its practices deemed as obsolete and corrupt. The conflict divided European Christians into Protestants and Roman Catholics. Many scholars consider it the catalyst for the modern age.

Reformation, religious revolution that took place in Western Europe in the 16th cent. It arose from objections to doctrines and practices in the medieval church and ultimately led to the freedom of dissent.

One of the greatest of all revolutions was the 16th-century religious revolt known as the Reformation. This stormy, often brutal, conflict separated the Christians of western Europe into Protestants and Roman Catholics. So far-reaching were the results of the separation that the Reformation has been called a turning point in history. It ushered in the Modern Age because, once the people’s religious unity was destroyed, they began to think in terms of their own regional interests. From the diversity of those interests arose new political, social, and economic problems and beliefs.

In the Middle Ages the Roman Catholic church considered all the Christians of Europe to be within its fold. That unity and inclusiveness were shattered by the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century. In response to the Reformation, the church launched a major effort to reform itself, to combat the Protestant movement and reclaim lost territories, and to expand its missionary endeavors around the world. This reform is usually called Counter-Reformation.

The article looks at the significance of the Protestant Reformation in terms of its impact on European civilization and on British politics and history, on the occasion of the 500th anniversary of German monk Martin Luther initiating the Reformation. It describes the Reformation as the key event in Europe moving from the Middle Ages into the modern world, citing a fall in the influence of religion, an increase in scientific inquiry, and the shift to capitalism.

Of the many traumas endured by the Catholic Church, only the Great Schism that divided it from Eastern Orthodoxy can compare with the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century for its continentwide impact. Most of northern and western Europe (Upper Germany, Scandinavia, the Netherlands, Great Britain, etc.) were severed from the church, and the great power that soon arose in North America was dominated by non-Catholics from the start. All around the world Catholic and Protestant forces have been and often remain in competition for the hearts of the public.

Today there are many types of Protestant Churches. For example, Baptist is currently the largest denomination in the United States but there are many dozens more. How did this happen? Where did they all begin? To understand the Protestant Reform movement, we need to go back in history to the early 16th century when there was only one church in Western Europe - what we would now call the Roman Catholic Church - under the leadership of the Pope in Rome. Today, we call this "Roman Catholic" because there are so many other types of churches (for example, Methodist, Baptist, Lutheran, Calvinist, Anglican.

The Reformation was a culmination of events and circumstances, both here and abroad, which led to a seismic shift in the religious framework of this country. So what exactly happened, and what lasting impact did the Reformation have?