History UsefulNotes / TheProtestantReformation

-> '''WebVideo/BillWurtz''': said martin luther in his new book, which might have accidentally started the protestant reformation.

Britain confused the matter further when English King UsefulNotes/HenryVIII declared himself head of the new Church of England, dissolving the monasteries, colonizing Catholic Ireland, and divorcing his first wife UsefulNotes/CatherineOfAragon for UsefulNotes/AnneBoleyn in hopes for [[HeirClubForMen a male heir]] [[note]]which proved futile as she bore [[UsefulNotes/ElizabethI a daughter]], but a great daughter nonetheless[[/note]]. Scotland would convert to Protestantism through the preachings of John Knox, and would influence king UsefulNotes/JamesVIAndI throughout his whole reign(s), such as the translation of the Bible in English, named in his honor. The reigns of Henry VIII and his children, and James VI and his children would lead to a century and a half of conflict over whether the new Church was Catholic or Protestant. To make it even ''more'' complicated, the 17th century saw the birth of the "Puritan" movement inside the Church of England, which wanted to purify (thus "Puritan") the church from its Catholic elements, who flourished under the Protectorate of UsefulNotes/OliverCromwell. Some Puritans went even further and rejected a state-mandated church, advocating full indepedence and new doctrines not held by the Anglican Church, who became known as the "Dissenters", "Nonconformists" or "Separatists". This movement saw the rise in England of new denominations such as the Baptists[[note]]not to be confused with the Anabaptists. Though they share the ideia of Adult-only Baptism, they differ on the rest[[/note]], Quakers, Methodists, Unitarians, Congregationalists and Swedenborgians. A large number of them would later immigrate in mass to UsefulNotes/TheThirteenAmericanColonies, influencing the formation of the future United States of America.

* The 2003 film ''Film/{{Luther}}'' is a (rather inaccurate) {{biopic}} about Martin Luther that shows him first becoming disillusioned with the organization of the Catholic Church on a pilgrimage to Rome.

Britain confused the matter further when English King UsefulNotes/HenryVIII declared himself head of the new Church of England, dissolving the monasteries, colonizing Catholic Ireland, and divorcing his first wife UsefulNotes/CatherineOfAragon for UsefulNotes/AnneBoleyn in hopes for [[HeirClubForMen a male heir]] [[note]]which proved futile as she bore [[UsefulNotes/ElizabethI a daughter]], but a great daughter nonetheless[[/note]]. Scotland would convert to Protestantism through the preachings of John Knox, and would influence king UsefulNotes/JamesVIAndI throughout his whole reign(s), such as the translation of the Bible in English, named in his honor. The reigns of Henry VIII and his children, and James VI and his children would lead to a century and a half of conflict over whether the new Church was Catholic or Protestant. To make it even ''more'' complicated, the 17th century saw the birth of the "Puritan" movement inside the Church of England, which wanted to purify (thus "Puritan") the church from its Catholic elements, who flourished under the Protectorate of UsefulNotes/OliverCromwell. Some Puritans went even further and rejected a state-mandated church, advocating full indepedence and new doctrine not held by the Anglican Church, who became known as the "Dissenters", "Nonconformists" or "Separatists". This movement saw the rise in England of new denominations such as the Baptists[[note]]not to be confused with the Anabaptists. Though they share the ideia of Adult-only Baptism, they differ on the rest[[/note]], Quakers, Methodists, Unitarians, Congregationalists and Swedenborgians. A large number of them would later immigrate in mass to UsefulNotes/TheThirteenAmericanColonies.

* EvilJesuit: Partial TropeCodifier. The Society of Jesus was formed by the Counter-Reformation and the Council of Trent, with the objective of travelling to Protestant-occupied regions and engage in what essentially amounted to clandestine missionary work: supporting (often secret) worship, teaching doctrine, and ingratiating themselves with local ministers in order to encourage them to convert, or at least be lenient towards Catholics. This is basically how modern-day intelligence agencies, such as the CIA, operate, making the Jesuits also the Catholic Church's unofficial proto-spy agency. So predictably, the Jesuits got demonized by Protestants as dangerous foreign subversives. The rest of the TropeCodifier comes from catholic nations themselves and the conflict between the catholic monarchies and the Society of Jesus a few centuries after the Reformation.

Britain confused the matter further when English King UsefulNotes/HenryVIII declared himself head of the new Church of England, dissolving the monasteries, colonizing Catholic Ireland, and divorcing his first wife UsefulNotes/CatherineOfAragon for UsefulNotes/AnneBoleyn in hopes for [[HeirClubForMen a male heir]] [[note]]which proved futile as she bore [[UsefulNotes/ElizabethI a daughter]], but a great daughter nonetheless[[/note]]. Scotland would convert to Protestantism through the preachings of John Knox, and would influence king UsefulNotes/JamesVIAndI throughout his whole reign(s), such as the translation of the Bible in English, named in his honor. The reigns of Henry VIII and his children, and James VI and his children would lead to a century and a half of conflict over whether the new Church was Catholic or Protestant. To make it even ''more'' complicated, the 17th century saw the birth of the "Puritan" movement inside the Church of England, which wanted to purify (thus "Puritan") the church from its Catholic elements, who flourished under the Protectorate of UsefulNotes/OliverCromwell. Some Puritans went even further and rejected a state-mandated church, advocating full indepedence, who became known as the "Dissenters", "Nonconformists" or "Separatists". This movement saw the rise in England of new denominations such as the Baptists[[note]]not to be confused with the Anabaptists. Though they share the ideia of Adult-only Baptism, they differ on the rest[[/note]], Quakers, Methodists, Unitarians, Congregationalists and Swedenborgians. A large number of them would later immigrate in mass to UsefulNotes/TheThirteenAmericanColonies.

* EvilJesuit: Partial TropeCodifier. The Society of Jesus was formed by the Counter-Reformation and the Council of Trent, with the objective of travelling to Protestant-occupied regions and engage in what essentially amounted to clandestine missionary work: supporting (often secret) worship, teaching doctrine, and ingratiating themselves with local ministers in order to encourage them to convert, or at least be lenient towards Catholics. This is basically how modern-day intelligence agencies, such as the CIA, operate, making the Jesuits also the Catholic Church's unofficial proto-spy agency. So predictably, the Jesuits got demonized by Protestants as dangerous foreign subversives.

** The Czech Unity of Brethren (one of the Czech Protestant sects pre-dating Luther) were also pacifists, although some of their members later slipped from that position in the mess that started the Thirty Year War.

** The Reformation was sucessful enough that religious wars broke out between protestants and catholics across Europe, culminating into the bloody Thirty Year War.

The Protestant Reformation ignited a century of [[ChurchMilitant religious conflict]], as countries used religion as an excuse to perpetuate existing rivalries, and Protestant minorities rose up against their Catholic rulers. [[UsefulNotes/TheEightyYearsWar The Protestant Dutch fought for 80 years]] against their deeply Catholic Spanish rulers, France was embroiled in [[UsefulNotes/FrenchWarsOfReligion a bloody civil war]], and many localized religious conflicts within the UsefulNotes/HolyRomanEmpire eventually enveloped all of Continental Europe in a [[UsefulNotes/ThirtyYearsWar conflict from 1618-1648]]. The British Isles largely escaped the brunt of it, but were embroiled in their own conflicts that culminated in the UsefulNotes/EnglishCivilWar (1640s-1660s).

While they actually originated before Luther's theses, UsefulNotes/TheSpanishInquisition quickly switched from ferreting out secret Jews and Muslims, to [[ChurchPolice ferreting out]] Protestant heresy in Spain. They are often credited with keeping Spain Catholic during this time, although it also factored that, despite their undoubted adherence, Catholicism in Spain was sort of its own beast, being subservient first to the Spanish monarchy and only then to Rome, which didn't lend so easily to the original Protestant feelings. This is how, for instance, Spanish kings like Charles V and UsefulNotes/PhilipII would end up voluntarily warring ''against'' the Catholic Church while at the same time calling themselves its greatest paladins. Spanish theologians actually backed this up, such as those of the UsefulNotes/SchoolOfSalamanca, but breaking apart like Henry VIII did was something they never were as far as to consider.

UsefulNotes/CharlesV was initially curious about what did Luther have to say, but the strongly Catholic emperor-king was not fond of what he heard, and with the Edict of Worms (1521), Luther's teachings were banned in the UsefulNotes/HolyRomanEmpire, although they continued to spread throughout Europe regardless. In 1530, Luther and his companion Philip Melanchthon published the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augsburg_Confession Augsburg Confession]], in which they defined in 28 articles what a Protestant believed in and what they wanted to change in the church. This confession was adopted by breakaway state churches of the principalities of Saxony and Lubeck, and soon were widely adopted in most of modern-day Germany, UsefulNotes/{{Prussia}, Scandinavia and modern-day Latvia[[note]]the first Protestant city outside of modern-day Germany was actually Riga, a predominantly German city at the beginning of the 16th century[[/note]]. Leading to what we call today the "Lutheran Church".

UsefulNotes/CharlesV was initially curious about what did Luther have to say, but the strongly Catholic emperor-king was not fond of what he heard, and with the Edict of Worms (1521), Luther's teachings were banned in the UsefulNotes/HolyRomanEmpire, although they continued to spread throughout Europe regardless. In 1530, Luther and his companion Philip Melanchthon published the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augsburg_Confession Augsburg Confession]], in which they defined in 28 articles what a Protestant believed in and what they wanted to change in the church. This confession was adopted by breakaway state churches of the principalities of Saxony and Lubeck, and soon were widely adopted in most of modern-day Germany, UsefulNotes/{{Prussia}} and Scandinavia. Leading to what we call today the "Lutheran Church".

There had been a handful of attempts to reform the church prior to Luther, such as St. Catherine of Siena, John Wycliffe, and Jan Hus. Their efforts and success varied; Jan Hus was even burnt at the stake for his calls to reform. Compared to them, Luther had one advantage: the printing press. And with this incredible machine that had produced copies of the Gutenberg Bible, his prints of reform and his vernacular translation of the Bible were easily spread throughout Europe.

Although UsefulNotes/CharlesV was initially curious about what did Luther have to say, the strongly Catholic emperor-king was not fond of what he heard, and with the Edict of Worms (1521), Luther's teachings were banned in the UsefulNotes/HolyRomanEmpire, although they continued to spread throughout Europe regardless. In 1530, Luther and his companion Philip Melanchthon published the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augsburg_Confession Augsburg Confession]], in which they defined in 28 articles what a Protestant believed in and what they wanted to change in the church. This confession was adopted by breakaway state churches of the principalities of Saxony and Lubeck, and soon were widely adopted in most of modern-day Germany, UsefulNotes/{{Prussia}} and Scandinavia. Leading to what we call today the "Lutheran Church".

With the Edict of Worms (1521), Luther's teachings were banned in the UsefulNotes/HolyRomanEmpire, but they continued to spread throughout Europe regardless. In 1530, Luther and his companion Philip Melanchthon published the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augsburg_Confession Augsburg Confession]], in which they defined in 28 articles what a Protestant believed in and what they wanted to change in the church. This confession was adopted by breakaway state churches of the principalities of Saxony and Lubeck, and soon were widely adopted in most of modern-day Germany, UsefulNotes/{{Prussia}} and Scandinavia. Leading to what we call today the "Lutheran Church".

In contrast, Italy, France, and Spain remained staunchly Catholic, though a highly persecuted Protestant minority in France, the Huguenots, sparked considerable conflict. Although in an emblematic case of {{Realpolitik}}, France would later join the Protestant side during the Thirty Years' War to oppose the Hapsburgs.

Britain confused the matter further when English King UsefulNotes/HenryVIII declared himself head of the new Church of England, dissolving the monasteries, colonizing Catholic Ireland, and divorcing his first wife Catherine of Aragon for UsefulNotes/AnneBoleyn in hopes for [[HeirClubForMen a male heir]] [[note]]which proved futile as she bore [[UsefulNotes/ElizabethI a daughter]], but a great daughter nonetheless[[/note]]. Scotland would convert to Protestantism through the preachings of John Knox, and would influence king UsefulNotes/JamesVIAndI throughout his whole reign(s), such as the translation of the Bible in English, named in his honor. The reigns of Henry VIII and his children, and James VI and his children would lead to a century and a half of conflict over whether the new Church was Catholic or Protestant. To make it even ''more'' complicated, the 17th century saw the birth of the "Puritan" movement inside the Church of England, which wanted to purify (thus "Puritan") the church from its Catholic elements, who flourished under the Protectorate of UsefulNotes/OliverCromwell. Some Puritans went even further and rejected a state-mandated church, advocating full indepedence, who became known as the "Dissenters", "Nonconformists" or "Separatists". This movement saw the rise in England of new denominations such as the Baptists[[note]]not to be confused with the Anabaptists. Though they share the ideia of Adult-only Baptism, they differ on the rest[[/note]], Quakers, Methodists, Unitarians, Congregationalists and Swedenborgians. A large number of them would later immigrate in mass to UsefulNotes/TheThirteenAmericanColonies.

While they actually originated before Luther's theses, UsefulNotes/TheSpanishInquisition quickly switched from ferreting out secret Jews and Muslims, to [[ChurchPolice ferreting out]] Protestant heresy in Spain. They are often credited with keeping Spain Catholic during this time.

The Protestant Reformation indirectly fueled the contemporaneous [[BoldExplorer Age of Exploration]]. Spain sought to conquer the New World in order to gain more souls for the Church, while their rival England sought to counter them. English Protestants fled persecution to North America, leading to the establishment of UsefulNotes/TheThirteenAmericanColonies and later UsefulNotes/TheUnitedStates.

For extra irony, Wittenberg, the birthplace of the Reformation, is nowadays a secular city, due to the influence of state atheism back when the city was under communist East Germany during the UsefulNotes/ColdWar. Nevertheless, there are still a handful of Lutherans in the city that keep the Reformation flame burning.

The general timeline of the Reformation started with the posting of Luther's "95 Theses" in 1517 and ended with the signing of the Treaty of Westphalia that ended the UsefulNotes/ThirtyYearsWar in 1648; Britain may extend it with the Glorious Revolution in 1688 and the Jacobite rebellions until 1745. Meanwhile, for [[UsefulNotes/CzechRepublic Czechs]] it usually begins a century earlier than the rest of Europe, with the death of Jan Hus in 1415 (if not earlier, with his preaching), and may end either in 1627-28 when Catholicism was proclaimed the only religion in the Hapsburg Austrian Empire, or even later than in Britain with the Toleration Patent of Josef II in 1781 which marked the end of post-Thirty Year War Counter Reformation in the empire.[[note]]To many an official's shock at the time, even over 150 years after the Emperor Ferdinand II's outlawing of Protestantism, there were large numbers of secret Protestants in the Czech lands who flocked to the Protestant churches the moment they could.[[/note]]

The story goes that on UsefulNotes/AllHallowsEve of 1517, an Augustinian monk named Martin Luther nailed a piece of parchment on the doors at the All Saints' Church in Wittenberg. That parchment was named the "95 Theses", condemning the practice of the indulgences, a way of paying the church to absolve one's sins. That stunt, at best, would have looked insignificant and a bit of an annoyance at the onlookers' perspective, as nailing parchment on doors was common at the time, but this particular parchment kickstarted the events to come.