Protestant Reformation Movement

The late medieval Catholic Church faced monumental crises during the Avignon papacy, the Great Schism, the Conciliar period, and the Renaissance papacy. The leadership of the pope was called into questions due to inappropriate behaviors such as, corruption and political manipulation. Many laity and intellectual felt a sense of spiritual crisis. As a result, criticism of the church gradually rose. By 16th century, religious movements and protests were spreading throughout Europe. Lutheran, Zwinglian, Calvinist, and Anabaptism were examples of different religious protests against the Catholic Church. All those protests were later known as the Protestant Reformation. In return, the Catholic Church responded with a Counter-Reformation, which led
Even among Protestant movements, there were variations in believers’ practices. Anabaptism, a radical Protestant movement, used a literal interpretation of the Scripture that resulted in extreme practices such as, refusal to participate both in war and civil government. In the “Schleitheim Confession”, Anabaptism explained that killing was a worldly punishment. Christians instead should excommunicate, forgive, and warn others to sin no more as God had commanded. Anabaptism also avoided government positions since those positions were subject to secular matter not temporal matter. Christians’ power should be spiritual, not worldly weapons made of iron and
According to Luther’s Theses no. 6, pope’s authority was only to declare that God had forgiven the sin. The pope, himself, did not have the power to remit guilt. However, Council of Trent asserted that God had bestowed power to the pope to grant indulgence that could remit guilt since church was God’s representative in the earth. Another dissimilarity was in the definition of priesthood. In accordance to the Scripture, Zwingli claimed that all people could be regarded as priests if and only if they had demonstrated the word of God. However, Council of Trent disagreed with Zwingli’s definition of priests. According to Catholic ecclesiastical law, priests were condemned to marriage and had to maintain their state of virginity and celibacy. Priests were selected by ordination through the Sacrament of Order.
One important change in ecclesiastical structure of the church was performed by John Calvin, a Protestant reformist. In Ecclesiastical Ordinance, Calvin laid the foundation for Protestant church’s ordinance. Calvin’s Reformed Church consisted of pastors, teachers, elders, and deacons. Each position had different duty and responsibility. Pastors had to duty to preach and administer sermons. Teachers had the responsibility to manage building and teach religious doctrine and practice.