The Protestant Reformation

From Medieval Christendom to the Inauguration of Modern Christianity

Jul 23, 2009

The Protestant Reformation serves as a major landmark not only in Christian history but also that of the world, without which it would never have been as it is today.

October 31, 1517 is a date that students of church history will remember as the day when the German Augustinian monk Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the main door of a Catholic church at Wittenberg.

It was the day when he finally broke his silence against the abuse of ecclesiastical authority over the affairs of humankind in that portion of the world known back then as Christendom. Shortly thereafter, Protestantism was born and in so short a time eventually emerged to be the third major branch of Christianity.

As Church historian Philip Schaff puts it, "The Reformation was a republication of primitive Christianity, and the inauguration of modern Christianity. This makes it, next to the Apostolic age, the most important and interesting portion of church history." He then went on to call it, "next to the introduction of Christianity, the greatest event in history." From this point on, the world has never been the same again - and would never have been as it is today without the Protestant Reformation.

Historical Backdrop - Medieval Christendom and Renaissance Europe

Prior to Luther's publication of his 95 Theses, there emerged several dissident movements from the late Medieval Christendom who attempted to reform the Church against the pervasive corruption of ecclesiastical authority and the fundamental doctrines of Roman Catholicism. There were the Waldensians (led by the merchant Peter Waldo of Lyons, France), the Lollards (inspired by the English theologian and Bible translator John Wycliffe) and the Hussites (influenced by the Bohemian reformer John Hus). Unable to effect a lasting impact on the Church because of persecution, all they could afford to leave were a handful few of survivors to later join the Protestant Reformation.

But history was at this point posing itself against those who were wearing the robes of ecclesiastical authority who insisted to cling on to their unchallenged religious tradition. With the revival of classical learning, the invention of the printing press, the emergence of humanism in Western Europe and other intellectual forces, the Renaissance came into scene to dictate the order of the day. Renaissance thinkers began to question what eventually became of the Church with her vast riches and enormous political authority.

This they did not to dispense of the Church altogether, but to purify her of the moral and doctrinal corruptions brought about by malpractice of ecclesiastical authority. This made the people of the late Medieval Christendom more receptive to the ideals of Protestant Reformation.

The Spread of Protestantism

At first, Luther had no intention whatsoever to leave the premises of the Roman Catholic Church so as to establish his own Protestant branch of the Christian religion. His aim was to seek reform from within, to call the hierarchy of the Church of Rome led by Pope Leo X back to primitive Christianity.

However, this only made him the main subject of religious persecution together with his fellow Protestants until Roman Catholic theologians convened in the Council of Trent from 1545 to 1563 to officially reject his proposals. The Council of Trent concluded with its own version of Catholic Reformation, otherwise known in Protestant circles as Counter-Reformation - as it also reaffirmed the old Roman Catholic faith against the ideals of Protestantism.

Luther, of course, was not the only Protestant reformer. He was later joined by the Swiss pastor Ulrich Zwingli and by the French theologian John Calvin (who was responsible for the first systematic exposition of Protestant theology), not to mention the other reformers of lesser lights and the radical Anabaptists.

Given the context of growing secularism and the rise of nationalism in Western Europe, Protestantism was welcomed with opened arms by not a few magistrates along with the masses of people and soon emerged to be a formidable force that eventually changed the entire horizon of the Western world and brought into place the inauguration of modern Christianity.

The copyright of the article The Protestant Reformation in Protestantism is owned by Edwin Vargas. Permission to republish The Protestant Reformation in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.