Protestant Reformation

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The Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius Loyola, which was part of the Counter Reformation, preaches to commoners about how they shouldn’t follow the idea of predestination because it will result in them being hyper focused on their life and their actions instead of focusing on what is really important. John Calvin’s religious theory of predestination was a theory that those who opposed the Reformation didn’t like, which is why it’s a part of the social sphere effected in Europe. This theory showed peoples religious views. The Counter Reformation was a period of Catholic resurrection in response to the Protestant Reformation. It took place from the start of the Council of Trent in1545 to roughly the end of the Thirty Years’ War in 1648. In between these years, Catholicism was temporarily restored in England under the reign of Mary Tudor from 1553 to 1558, Lutheranism was officially recognized in the Peace of Augsburg in 1555, and France’s religious wars are over, and is proclaimed in the Edict of Nantes by France’s Henry IV in 1598. Also, the Thirty Years’ War begins in 1618 due to King Ferdinand II closing some Protestant churches in Prague, and a civil war in Britain has erupted between King Charles I and the Catholics, against the Parliament, Puritans, and Calvinists in 1625.

Lastly, John Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion; Book 1, Chapter 7, Section 2 (1559) is part of the social aspect because it changed the way people practiced their faith.

Henry VIII also played a major role in the Reformation. When he wanted to divorce his wife Catherine of Aragon, the Pope would not nullify the divorce. Because of this, he decided to excommunicate England from the Roman Catholic church and turned to Protestantism. From that, the Anglican Church was created and people became Anglican. Under the Anglican religion, puritans derived and lived the puritan life. The puritan life meant to purify the Christian church by living holy lives. They also believed that the purpose of an individual was to glorify God in all their activities. The puritans immigrated to North America and continued to practice their faith, thus the spread of Protestantism to the new World.

The Reformation was a time of religious reconstruction and competition between Protestant and Catholic religion. Society was torn between the two religions, which led to fighting amongst the followers of Catholicism and Protestantism. This fighting resulted in society turning on each other. Since the Reformation is more prominently known as a religious movement, many do not look deeper to see that it had a significant effect on the political and social spheres of Europe.[pic 2]

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