The Reformation and Counter-Reformation

The Reformation and Counter-Reformation

The Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century was the most seismic event in the history of Western Christianity since the early councils. It shattered the institutional unity of the Western Church, produced new confessional traditions (Lutheran, Reformed, Anglican), and provoked a vigorous Catholic response known as the Counter-Reformation. The theological issues at stake — the nature of salvation, the authority of Scripture, the role of the Church — remain central to Christian identity today.

The Background to Reform

By the early sixteenth century, widespread dissatisfaction with the institutional Church had been building for decades: