Religion+of+The+Renaissance

**Religion in the Renaissance: The Protestant Reformation & Church Of England**  **Religion** has inspired many people for ages. It has given us guidelines on how to live and interact. People who believe that Jesus Christ was the Son of God are called Christians**.** The Catholic Church carried on the Christian traditions and ideas through the Dark Ages. In 1517, Martin Luther began the Protestant Reformation, causing many changes in Christianity.  **Marin Luther** was a German Catholic monk and is the well-known “Father of Protestantism” (Protestant). Luther nailed his 95 theses or disagreements with Catholic beliefs, to a church door in Wittenbergin 1517 (Protestant). His greatest disagreement with the Catholic Church was the selling of indulgences (Protestant). Indulgences were the idea of paying the church a certain amount of money (to fund St. Peter’s Cathedral in Rome) and sins would be pardoned. His Protestant movement changed the history of Christianity.  **The Protestant Reformation** began in 1517 when Martin Luther expressed his disagreements with the Church. The Protestants wanted to reform Catholic beliefs. There was a great deal of tension between the Catholics and Protestants throughout the Renaissance, but there were also disagreements between the new reformers causing even smaller Christian sects (Protestant). Some of these sects included Anglican, Presbyterian, Lutheran, and Reformed. Some historians say that this “signaled the beginning of the modern era” (Protestant).  **The Tudor King, Henry VIII**, was the first Anglican leader in England. Henry’s first wife did not give birth to a son, causing him to seek divorce (Denny). The Pope would not grant him the divorce that he wanted, so the King followed Luther’s movement and brought the whole of England with him. **King Henry VIII** established the Church of England, or the Anglican Church (Church). He broke away from the Catholic Church because the pope angered him (Denny). The Anglicans have very conservative beliefs and stay closer to Catholic tradition than most Protestants (Church). The King forced the English to practice the Anglican belief system. **Works Cited** Denny, Emily. "The Renaissance." Fourth Block HA English Class .NorthridgeMiddle School, Crawfordsville, IN. Address. "Church of England." //Theopedia.com//. N.p., n.d. Web.15 Mar 2012. [|www.theopedia.com/church_of_england]. "Protestant Reformation." //www.Theopedia.com//. N.p., n.d. Web.21 Mar 2012. .
 * There** were many differences between the Catholics and new Protestants. While the Catholics stuck to their ancient beliefs, the Protestants were coming up with new ideas and theologies on the Christian faith (Protestant). The Reformers disagreed with the ideas of transubstantiation, purgatory, indulgences, prayer to the saints, and the inclusion of the apocrypha to the bible (Protestant).
 * The Renaissance** was an exciting time in Christian history. During this time, there was a mass exodus from the Catholic Church and into Protestantism. Martin Luther jump-started this movement with his 95 theses, starting the Protestant Reformation. The reformers broke the Christian unity in Europe forever. The Church has grown and reached people across the globe due to this massive event in Christian history.

