Roman Catholics

Roman Catholics believed that in order to receive everlasting salvation, that you must commit good deeds during your lifetime, while the Protestants believed that just believing in the faith itself will bring you everlasting salvation. The Roman Catholics believed that clergy and laymen were chosen by God to live their lives through God, while Protestants believed that clergy and laymen were chosen to help other's interpret the words of God. While Roman Catholics believed their clergy and layment should live their lives how God would want them, Protestants believed that the clergy and laymen should live their lives according to the word of God. The Protestants believed that the Bible listed all the information that men needed in order to live their lives according to the religion; that they did not need to receive acceptance by one specific person or group of people, that everything that they needed was written in the Bible. Calvin believed that people were predestined before birth on whether they were going to receive everlasting salvation. Zwinglie believed that mass should not be something that involves the presence of God, but should be viewed as more of a commemorative event and referred to as the Lord's Supper. Luther believed that women should play a role in religion, since they were raising the children in the family.

In the early decades of the 16th century Europe experienced a religious rebirth called the Protestant Reformation.Ð' The movement was to purify the Catholic Church.Ð' This resulted in a group known as Protestants because they were protesting against Roman Catholic practices.Ð' Religious reform basically meant new ideas - but new ideas needed much word of mouth in order to be heard and adopted.Ð' The printing press played a huge part in this.Ð' People wanted to read and study the Bible and with the Guttenberg Bible for example, this was more and more readily available to the common people.Ð' More and more people wanted to be educated not just in the scriptures but also in humanistic views that were brought about during the Renaissance.Ð' In England, part of their religious reformation meant the education of women.Ð' One of the complaints of the humanistic movement that was pushing for reform was that the church teachings failed to inspire individuals to lead pious lives.Ð' They were also critical of old Catholic ways as being superstitious.Ð' One of the things that Martin Luther (1483-1546) protested the most about was the selling of "indulgences" which sounded to me like bribes in order to buy your way into heaven or to buy the entry for your deceased loved ones who were still in purgatory.Ð' Luther wrote his 95 Theses which were like invitations for debate about controversial issues that he was raising.Ð' He looked forward for anyone to come out and debate against him and apparently he was quite the challenge in that respect.

Ð' The Protestants differed from Christians in many beliefs.Ð' They believed salvation came from their faith in god alone not in the performance of good deeds.Ð' They also felt by reading and studying the bible they would achieve salvation and all men were equal in god's eyes.Ð' Another big difference was the role Protestants felt priests, monks, and nuns played.Ð' They viewed them as teachers of gods word but they could not "achieve a higher level of spirituality than the most ordinary citizen."(p.399)Ð' The protestants sola scriptura's was the word of god and the doctrine of equality challenged the spiritual hierarchy of the Catholic church.Ð' Challenges to the Catholic church in the past had been dismissed but the doctrine of equality gained popularity and directly threatened the Catholic church's structure.Ð' Reformer Martin Luther's ideas spread throughout Europe and led to the second generation of reformers.Ð' Huldrych Zwingli and John Calvin.Ð' Zwingli brought religious reform to Zurich Switzerland.Ð' His attack on over indulgences by the Catholic church met wide approval throughout the east.Ð' Zwingli's focus was on restoring "its earlier purity and to reject the innovations in practices brought in by successive popes and general councils."(p.403)

Ð' Ð' Shortly after converting to Lutherism John Calvin fled Paris due to the persecution of Protestants in that city.Ð' Calvin eventually led the reformation in Geneva after studying the writings of the first generation of reformers.Ð' Like his predecessors Calvin believed salvation came from god's grace but he differed with them on his interpretation of the doctrine of pre-destination.Ð' "Many are called but few are chosen, those who were pre-destined to salvation, the elect, were obliged to govern; those who were pre-destined to damnation were obliged to be governed.Ð' Thus, for the church that Calvin erected, discipline was the central concern."(p.404)

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