The Reformation and the Fracturing of Christianity (^) ‹ 73
Rapid Review
By the sixteenth century, the Christian Church was faced with mounting criticism of its
preoccupation with worldly matters. In Germany in 1517, Martin Luther charged that the
Church had abandoned scripture and strayed from its mission. He offered an alternative
and simplified theology that asserted that salvation came by having faith alone, and that
scripture alone was the source of all knowledge about salvation. In England, the powerful
monarch Henry VIII used the existence of a Protestant movement to break with Rome in
1524, confiscating church lands and creating the Church of England, which retained the
hierarchy and trappings of the Catholic Church. By mid-century, the Protestant movement
had diversified and fragmented, as second-generation Protestant theologians faced the task
of articulating the specific beliefs and structures of the new Church they were building.
The Catholic response to the Protestant movement, the Counter-Reformation, was
two-pronged. The Church carried out many internal reforms that addressed the grievances
of the faithful; it also enhanced the role of the Inquisition, which was aimed at stamping
out Protestantism.KEY IDEA11_Bartolini_Ch11_065-074.indd 73 13/04/18 12:11 PM