Reformation, Catholic renewal and religious wars
- In the XVI. century, the Catholic Church resorted to a great moral crisis: were sold
pardon of sin and church position (indulgence and simony), high priests
Lived "the high life", the Pope had a huge temporal power and acted like
secular rulers, while the printing press, social change and humanistic ideas
favored appears critic who demanded reform
- German monk Martin Luther was sufficiently assertive in demanding reforms (95
vitenberških thesis, 1518) to exclude from the Pope of the Catholic Church and to win over many
German princes - so was the Protestant Church in Germany (Simplified
ceremonies, the national language in bogosluţju, priestly vocation becomes profession and church
a community of members, the emphasis is on God's grace, a baptism and communion
only the sacraments)
- King Henry VIII. for personal and political reasons, decided to take advantage of this situation
to create their own, national church - the Anglican Church
- Western European citizenship tends saving and modest life followed the
reformer John Calvin and adopted the doctrine of predestination and honor and
consistently performing mundane tasks - Calvinists and Puritans
- There are also supporters of baptism and other smaller sects (sect), which attracted social
Messages about "the kingdom of God on earth"
- The Catholic Church had to accept the inner renewal and strengthen their own ranks against
such apostasy, that he did Pope Gregory XIII. and his successors to
Council of Trent (1545-63), established the official church dogma and rules, seven
the sacraments and the doctrine of the infallibility of the Pope, was abolished trade indulgence and
introduced an improved calendar (Gregorian)
- Ignacio Loyola founded within the Catholic Church a new religious order - Societas Jesu
(Jesuits or the Jesuits), dedicated to spreading the Catholic Education, and the Counter-Reformation
missionary work among the unbaptized natives around the world
- All this was accompanied by wars between rulers of different faiths and
the persecution of other religion: Calvinist part of the Netherlands seceded from the Spanish crown,
English rulers persecuted Catholics and Puritans, in France, in several waves
persecution almost exterminated Huguenots (Calvinists), final religious peace in Germany
performed only after the Thirty Years' War (1618-48), in which the population
Germany almost halved
- Loyal to the Catholic Church remained Spain, Italy, France, the Hapsburg possessions in
Germany and Central Europe, Poland, Ireland, Latin America, and there are also some Catholic
minorities in Protestant countries
- Luther evangelism is rooted in northern Germany and Scandinavia
- Calvinism, in its original form or Presbyterian, has held in Switzerland,
The Netherlands and Scotland, and in some places in Hungary and Poland
