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In a broader sense of the word, Protestantism is the collective name for numerous heresies, of Western European origin, that broke with the Roman Catholic Church as a result of the influence of Martin Luther, founder of the Lutheran churches, and John Calvin, founder of the Calvinist movement. A third major branch of the Reformation, which encountered conflict with both the Catholics and other Protestants, is sometimes called the Radical Reformation, or Anabaptists. Some Western, non-Catholic, groups are labeled as Protestant, even if the sect acknowledges no historical connection to Luther, Calvin, or the Anabaptists. These sundry groupings, i.e. Lutherans, Calvinists, Anabaptists, and other sectarians, are characterized in part by a lack of apostolic succession, in the sense that their founders are not anointed successors of St. Peter.
Protestants are often considered to be another people 'of the book', in that they adhere to the text of the Bible, that they grew out of the enlightenment and universities, that they attracted learned intellectuals, professionals, and skilled tradesmen and silversmiths, that their belief is more abstracted than ritualized, and that the great dissemination of protestant beliefs occurred with the translation by Protestants into native tongues from Latin (Greek and Hebrew) with the new technology of the printing press. Protestants are also less fond of hierarchy, having relentlessly attacked the priestly cast and the Holy See's authority, and thus are closely associated with the local control and political democratization during the 16th and 17th century.
Protestants generally trace their separation from the Roman Catholic Church to the 1500's, which is sometimes called the magisterial Reformation because the movement received support from the magistrates, the ruling authorities (as opposed to the radical Reformation, which had no state sponsorship). The protest erupted suddenly, in many places at once but particularly in Germany, during a time of threatened Islamic invasion ¹ which distracted German princes in particular. To some degree, the protest can be explained by the events of the previous two centuries in Western Europe.
Unrest in the Western Church and Empire, which culminated in the Avignon Papacy ( 1308Events Henry VII is elected as king of the Holy Roman Empire. Emperor Hanazono ascends to the throne of Japan Beginning of reign of Hungary by Capet-Anjou family. January 25 King Edward II of England marries Isabella of France Births Deaths Emperor Go-Nij - 1378Events March John Wyclif tried to gain public favour by laying his theses before parliament, and then made them public in a tract. He appeared before Simon of Sudbury at the episcopal palace at Lambeth to defend himself. April 9 Pope Urban VI (Bartolomeo), and then the papal schism ( 1378Events March John Wyclif tried to gain public favour by laying his theses before parliament, and then made them public in a tract. He appeared before Simon of Sudbury at the episcopal palace at Lambeth to defend himself. April 9 Pope Urban VI (Bartolomeo- 1416Events May 30 The Catholic Church burns Jerome of Prague as a heretic. Births Deaths 1416.), excited wars between princes, uprisings among the peasants, and widespread concern over corruption in the monastic system. In addition, the humanistic RenaissanceLeonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian Man, an example of the blend of art and science during the Renaissance The Renaissance was a great cultural movement which brought about a period of scientific revolution and artistic transformation, at the dawn of modern Eur was stimulating an unprecedented academic ferment, with a concomitant concern for academic freedom. Earnest theoretical debates were ongoing in the universities concerning the nature of the church, and the proper source and extent of the authority of the papacy, of councils, and of princes. One of the most disruptive and radical of the new perspectives came first from John Wyclif at Oxford and then from Jan Hus at the University of Prague. Within the Roman Catholic Church, this debate was officially concluded by the Council of Constance ( 1414- 1418), which executed Jan Hus, and posthumously burned Wyclif as a heretic. However, while Constance confirmed and strengthened the Medieval conception of church and empire, it could not entirely resolve the national tensions, nor the theological tensions which had been stirred up during the previous century. Among other things, the council could not prevent schism and the Hussite Wars in Bohemia.
To some extent, the protest began in earnest when Martin Luther, an Augustinian monk and professor at the University of Wittenberg, called for reopening of debate on the sale of indulgences. (Tradition holds that he nailed his 95 theses to the door of the Wittenberg Castle's Church, which served as a pinboard for university-related announcements). Luther's dissent marked a sudden outbreak with new and irresistible force of discontent which had been pushed underground but not resolved.
Parallel to events in Germany, a movement began in Switzerland under the leadership of Huldreich Zwingli. These two movements quickly agreed on most issues, as the recently introduced printing press spread ideas rapidly from place to place but some unsolved 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 separation of the Church of England from Rome under Henry VIII, beginning in 1529 and completed in 1536, brought England alongside the Reformation. However, change in England proceeded more conservatively than elsewhere in Europe and alternated between traditional and Protestant sympathies for centuries, progressively forging a stable compromise. Thus, the West was permanently divided into Catholic and Protestant.