236 THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION
ruler, his must be the religion”).
In other words, they demanded
the right to impose the Church
of their choice upon their people.
Once established, the Protestant
principle changed both the religious
and the political landscape of
Europe forever. It gave other rulers
the grounds they needed to remove
their kingdoms from the control of
the Pope. The English Reformation,
for example, began when King
Henry VIII, a one-time opponent of
the reformers, sought to curb the
Pope’s authority in order to divorce
his wife, Catherine of Aragon, and
marry Anne Boleyn.
Protestantism gave rise to a
number of new branches of the
Church, known as denominations.
While the Catholic Church had
been the only Church in Europe
for centuries, a whole host of
denominations emerged following
the Protestant Reformation. While
Protestants were agreed that the
authority of the Roman Catholic
Church was to be rejected, they
could not agree on a unified
alternative system of thought.
Disputes between some Protestant
movements were at times as
fierce as those between the
Catholics and Protestants.Protestant proliferation
Three main Protestant strands
arose from these turbulent times:
Lutherans, who followed the ideas
of Martin Luther; Presbyterians,
who were influenced by the work
of John Calvin (see opposite); and
Anglicans, moderate Protestants
based in England who kept hold
of many aspects of Catholicism
the other movements rejected.The Counter-Reformation
In a sense, the Catholics had been
right about controlling the means
of communication with their flock:
without the regulation of papal
authority, the Church was no longer
united in its thinking. To try to
stem discontent over corruption
and worldly attitudes, and reclaim
lost souls from the Protestants, the
Catholic Church launched a
Counter-Reformation. In 1545,
Catholic leaders met in the Italian
city of Trent, aiming to reestablish
the superiority of the Catholic
Church against the rising tide of
Protestantism. By the end of the
Council of Trent, which spanned
18 years to 1563, traditional Catholic
doctrines had been reaffirmed,
but reforms were also introduced
addressing the unacceptable
practices of the clergy that had
sparked the Reformation.
An Index of Forbidden Books
was published, naming 583
heretical texts, including most
translations of the Bible and the
works of Erasmus, Luther, and
Calvin (the Index was enforced
until 1966). A church building... Scripture, gathering
together the impressions
of Deity, which, till then,
lay confused in our minds,
dissipates the darkness, and
shows us the true God clearly.
John CalvinThe Reformation depended upon
the widespread dissemination of the
Christian scriptures. The Bible was
translated into the vernacular, printed
in the presses, and distributed.