Due to the increasing corruption of the Catholic Church, the Pope and the king fought for power and profit, and the Catholic Church itself was divided, and even three popes appeared at one time. These popes frantically exploited the wealth of Christians. Some sold church relics, some sold atonement vouchers and pardons everywhere, some publicly sold clergy, and even the crown was given to Venetian businessmen. On the other hand, in order to maintain their rule in the spiritual field, they used the means of attacking and persecuting "heresy" to intimidate and persecute religious dissidents in an attempt to turn the redemption of Jesus Christ into their profit-making tool. But the wheel of history is not shifted by human will, and a great revival movement is quietly rising. With the demise of the Eastern Roman Empire, a large number of new ideas and cultures poured in, and paper and printing were widely promoted. The Bible is no longer a special tool of the church, and knowledge spreads faster and more accurately among the people. After the enlightenment of john wycliffe, John Huss and others, people began to think more, and a religious reform that pursued individual liberation and demanded human freedom was booming.

(A)/KLOC-the Reformation Movement in the 6th century

1517101October 3 1 Sunday, Dr. Martin Luther, a doctor of theology, posted a poster "The Ninety-Five Theses" on the door of Wittenberg Cathedral. This article is mainly written for the church to sell atonement vouchers, and the tone of the article is also academic discussion. However, this way of asking questions still stirred up a thousand waves with one stone, which immediately caused a long backlog. After the publication of "The Ninety-Five Outline", the sales of atonement vouchers in Germany were greatly reduced, and Martin Luther suddenly became a hero of Germany and a heretic of the church. From 65438 to 0520, Martin Luther published three important papers: Letter to German Christian Nobles, Babylonian Prisoner in the Church and On Christian Freedom, expounding his religious reform thoughts and calling on German nobles to devote themselves to religious reform. 1520 in June, the Roman church expelled Martin Luther and gave him 60 days to publicly admit his mistake. Martin Luther did not flinch, but wrote the article "The anti-Christ edict should be opposed" with a more radical attitude. Publicly accusing the Vatican of becoming the center of anti-Christ, the behavior of the Pope and his church can no longer represent the will of Christ. After several wars between the Protestant vassal states and the Pope and German Charles V, the augsburg Treaty was finally signed in 1552, which recognized Protestantism.

At the same time, Zurich, Switzerland also carried out religious reform. Influenced by Martin Luther's thought, Father Uldrich Zwingli of Zurich Cathedral proposed to deny the authority of the Pope and the efficacy of the atonement voucher. Advocating the abolition of clergy celibacy, believing that clergy can get married and nuns can be secularized; Abolish the complicated rituals in Catholic etiquette and change "mass" into "Eucharist" ceremony; He believes that "faith" comes from the Bible, especially the gospels. Man can only be redeemed by God, and Christ is the mediator between man and God. He opposed idolatry and holy land worship; Advocating that the pastor of the church should be elected by believers.

After the death of Zwingli, john calvin pushed his reform to a higher stage. 1536, john calvin published Principles of Christianity, which is a theoretical work about his religious reform thoughts. In the book, he talked about two ways to know God: one is the inner sense of holiness. This varies from person to person. Spiritual people are more likely to feel God's revelation than secular people, and this revelation is really the result of salvation confidence. Second, the revelation of God in the Bible. He believes that the Bible is the "absolute truth", the doctrine of Christianity and the norm of Christian life. Christian belief, church organization, church discipline, Christian ethical standards and Christian teachings must be based on the Bible. John calvin's talent is also reflected in the organization of the church. He believes that the duties of the church should include priests, teachers, elders and deacons. The duties of elders are mainly to take charge of the church and maintain its order, morality and discipline. Their candidates are elected by all members of the church. Pastors are appointed by elders and manage the educational affairs of the church under the entrustment of elders; The teacher is responsible for interpreting the Bible; The deacon is in charge of the charity of the church. The above four kinds of people are also called "supervision". John calvin believed that the early Christian church was such a democratic and simple organization, which was destroyed after the emergence of the papacy system and should be restored to its original appearance.

154 1 year, john calvin began to have the opportunity to implement his religious reform plan. First, it was announced that the Reformed Church regarded the Bible as the only basis of its religious belief. Cancel idolatry; Only baptism and communion are practiced. Then the organization and management of the church were reformed, and the reformed church managers only included priests, elders and deacons. The elders are elected by the laity, and the Presbyterian church, which is composed of 12 elders, is the authority of the church and directly under the city council. This suzerain system, which valued harmony, replaced the Catholic hierarchy and replaced the autocratic inheritance system with the common people's democratic election system, which played a positive role in history and enlightened the political structure of western democratic countries later. Because john calvin has always been the chairman of the Central Pastoral College, and the city council is controlled by the Central Pastoral College, john calvin has actually become the real leader in Geneva. With the expansion of power, the strange circle of "the closer to power, the farther from the way of the Lord" flashes again. While john calvin mastered theocracy and administrative power in Geneva, he promoted religious reform and adopted a narrow, exclusive and even irrational attitude towards other religious reformers. The most typical example is the execution of Miguel Servit, a famous religious reformer at that time, at the stake of 1553.

1533, King Henry VIII of England publicly broke with the Pope because of conflicts of interest. 1534, in cooperation with Protestantism, he announced the establishment of the Church of England, also known as the Anglican Church, through the "Supreme Decree". Its content is no different from the teachings and rituals of the old Roman religion. Although it was slightly improved by Elizabeth I, it was still only an "incomplete religious reform"

During its formation, Protestantism was supported and protected by many nation-states or secular regimes because of its struggle for religious rights and kingship. After the religious war, according to the following contracts, such as the Augsburg Peace Treaty of 1555 and the Westphalia Peace Treaty of 1648, the layout of Protestantism was formed in Europe, and Lutheranism (that is, Lutheranism) was distributed in Germany and Nordic countries. The orthodoxy (that is, Calvinism) is Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Scotland.

From the end of 16 to the end of 17, the main Protestant sects have basically taken shape in church organization and worship ceremony. After a long debate, asceticism has gradually become a system. Protestant theologians wrote a large number of theological works, but most of them were based on tedious argumentation and textual research, which lost the vitality of the protest spirit in the early days of the Reformation. /kloc-In the middle of 0/7th century, the Puritan movement in Britain demanded the conservative Anglican Church to carry out Calvinism reform. As a result, the Protestant movement took another step forward, resulting in new sects that broke away from the Anglican Church, such as Presbyterian Church, Congregational Church, Baptist Church and Friends Association. With the immigration to the United States, Protestantism has also become the main body of American sects.