History

The Protestant Reformation is usually considered to have begun when Martin Luther posted up his 95 theses in Witternberg in 1517. Although this was of course an important point in church history, the Reformation  was however a much more gradual process involving not one man in one country, but  a wide ranging movement .across Western and Central Europe and over an extended period of time.
It was a great movement within the church, mainly in the 16th century, with the intention originally of reforming the Roman Catholic Church. The result however was to split the church into Protestants and Catholics, a situation which persists to the present time.

The reformers held two key beliefs, both supported by the New Testament Scriptures. which were in opposition to a certain extent to the practices of the Roman Catholic Church at that time. These were Justification by Faith i.e. not because of any action such as the buying of indulgences, and The Priesthood of All Believers which was taken to mean that every believer had the right to decide for himself on religious matters .

Luther has been quoted as saying I simply say that true Christianity had ceased to exist among those who should have preserved it as quoted in the 1992 The Lion Handbook of Christian Belief. (page 439). It was much more than a protest against certain practices, but to do with Luthers realization that the methods of spiritual growth which were promoted by the church just did not work, but Christ could dwell in a penitent and believing heart.

Luther was able to argue his case basing this upon both early Christian tradition and the scriptures.
Chronologically Jan ( or John ) Hus came a little earlier and can be said to have anticipated Reformation ideas. Ordained as priest in 1401 he stressed piety and purity and the authority of the scriptures. He also taught that only God (and not priests ) could forgive sin. In 1415 he was called to account, but before he could really put his defence, he was condemned and subsequently burned at the stake. His supporters then started the Husserite church in Czechoslovakia.

Pope Leo X, a member of the powerful Medici family, was the pontiff in Luthers time. He favored a very lavish life style and spent large amounts of money beautifying the Vatican. This is turn was to some extent a cause of the Reformation as the sale of indulgences, a promise of release from eternal penalties for sin, was encouraged in order to raise the necessary funds.

Peter Waldo or Valdes)  of Lyon in the late 12th century gave away his wealth and tried to follow the example of Jesus Christ as described by Ronald Finicane in 1992.( page 315). By their simple lifestyle the Waldesians showed up the wealth of the Catholic Church. Inn 1214 they were declared to be heretics by the pope, Innocent III.

John Calvin (born 1509) was the person who systemized Protestant ideas in Western Europe. He came across the teachings of Luther and in 1533 was converted. He spent a lot of energy trying to heal rifts within the Protestant church. He believed that all knowledge of God could come only by studying the scriptures. Strongly influenced by Lutherian ideas he rejected Zwinglis stance which stated that the communion was only a symbol. Zwingli, according to the Catholic Encyclopedia writer Wilhelm Meyer ( 1912), was the first leader of the Reformation in Switzerland. He disputed Luthers priority, claiming that he was the first to preach such ideas.  He stated that the Bible should be the only authority within the church, but he actually meant his own interpretation of it.

Calvin is best remembered for his stress on predestination and election, ideas which in the New Testament are held in tension with the idea of free will.

The Thirty Years War was in fact a series of wars which occurred between1618-1648 throughout central Europe. To some extent it was a religious war between the Catholics, Lutherans and Calvinists, but it was also a German civil war. As described on the web page The Thirty Years War under the Peace of Augsburg of 1555 Lutheranism was officially recognized within the Holy Roman Empire. German rulers were able to impose their religious ideas upon their people.

The Counter Reformation was the Roman Catholic Churchs reforming response to the Reformation. It came out of the famous Council of Trent which sat from 1545 to 1563 and was also the beginning of the Jesuit movement.

In England the Reformation took a different form. It was the breaking away of the Church of England from the Church of Rome during the reign of Henry VIII. This meant that it was the English sovereign who appointed the bishops rather than Rome. There were a number of non-conformist groups such as Baptists, Calvinists and the Brethren movement and these were suppressed. Under the reign of Elizabeth 1 the Act of Uniformity was passed which required everyone to attend church on a regular basis. Elizabeth was trying to bring to an end the factions and troubles of the previous reigns
The Reformation was obviously a complex movement with many aspects which arose  not from many causes, but several and over several  centuries within Western Europe. Different countries were affected in different ways. It came about at a time of great social and political change with many new intellectual and scientific ideas