Protestant Reformation

The Protestant Reformation was a religious movement in Europe that split the Christian church into two main branches. It began in 1517 and lasted for more than a hundred years. Before the Reformation, almost everyone in western Europe belonged to the same church, called the Roman Catholic Church, led by the Pope in Rome. The Reformation created a new branch of Christianity called Protestantism.

The movement started with a German monk named Martin Luther. Luther was upset about a practice called the sale of indulgences. The Catholic Church was selling pieces of paper that promised to forgive people's sins. The money paid for a giant new church in Rome called St. Peter's Basilica. Luther thought selling forgiveness was wrong. He believed people were saved by faith alone, not by money or good deeds.

In October 1517, Luther wrote a list of 95 complaints against the church. According to tradition, he nailed it to the door of a church in Wittenberg, Germany. The list became known as the Ninety-Five Theses. Thanks to a new invention called the printing press, copies spread across Europe in just a few weeks. Without the printing press, the Reformation might have stayed a small local fight.

The Pope ordered Luther to take back what he wrote. Luther refused. In 1521 the church kicked him out, and the German emperor declared him an outlaw. A friendly prince hid Luther in a castle to keep him safe. While in hiding, Luther translated the Bible into German so ordinary people could read it themselves.

Other reformers soon spread similar ideas. In Switzerland, John Calvin taught that God had already chosen who would be saved. In England, King Henry VIII broke away from the Pope so he could divorce his wife. He started a new church called the Church of England. Each new branch of Protestantism had its own beliefs, but all of them rejected the Pope's authority.

The split caused terrible wars. Catholics and Protestants fought across Europe for more than a century. The worst was the Thirty Years' War, which killed millions of people in Germany between 1618 and 1648. The Catholic Church also reformed itself during this time, fixing some problems and making its rules clearer.

The Reformation changed Europe forever. It led to more reading, more schools, and more printed books. It pushed kings and governments to take power away from the church. It also pushed people to think for themselves about religion. Today there are more than 900 million Protestants in the world, spread across thousands of different churches.