In 1517, a German priest named Martin Luther posted a list on the door of the local church in Wittenburg. It contained ninety-five questions, or "theses," intended for academic discussion and public debate. However, what was intended as an academic debate spiraled into the second great Christian schism, known as the Protestant Reformation.
Luther's theses criticized corruption in the Church and spoke out against the abuse of various practices. He also questioned the Church's teachings about salvation, the role of faith and works ("sola fide"), and the role of the Bible ("sola scriptura.") Many princes of the various German states supported Luther, some because they genuinely agreed with him, and some because separating from the Roman Catholic Church would allow them to assert more independence from the Holy Roman Empire. Luther's adherents became known as Lutherans.
Similar movements soon followed. John Calvin and Ulrich Zwingli began teaching a systematic theology which notably included the doctrine of "double predestination." Their teachings gave rise to the Hugenots in France and Switzerland, and Presbyterians in Scotland. A "radical Reformation," which felt the Lutherans and Calvinists had not gone far enough, rose up, known as Anabaptists.
Within a few decades, hundreds of different denominations had developed, today numbering in the thousands.
Not one to miss out on a party, King Henry VIII in England (the son of Henry Tudor) soon became involved in a scuffle with Pope Clement VII. Henry had divorced his first wife, the Spanish princess Catherine of Aragon, and asked the pope for a formal annulment so that he could marry his lover, Anne Boleyn. Unwilling to upset the Catholic monarchs of Spain (not to mention God, cf. Mark 19:4-9), the pope refused. Henry responded by declaring himself "Supreme Governor of the Church in England" in 1531. He viciously persecuted anyone remaining loyal to the Church (most notably Sir Thomas More) and set off decades of violence between Catholics and, as they became known, Anglicans.
The Catholic Church's response to the Protestant Reformation is known as the Counter-Reformation, embodied in the 1563 Council of Trent.
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