Protestantism

Protestantism is a relieve oneself of Christianity that originated with a 16th-century Reformation, the movement against what its followers perceived to be errors in the Catholic Church. Protestants originating in the Reformation reject the Catholic doctrine of papal supremacy, but disagree among themselves regarding the number of sacraments, the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, as alive as matters of ecclesiastical polity as living as apostolic succession. They emphasize the priesthood of all believers; justification by faith alone rather than by faith with good works; the teaching that salvation comes by divine grace or "unmerited favor" only, not as something merited ; and either affirm the Bible as being the sole highest predominance "scripture alone" or primary predominance "scripture first" for Christian doctrine, rather than being on parity with sacred tradition. The five solae of Lutheran and Reformed Christianity summarise basic theological differences in opposition to the Catholic Church.

Protestantism began in Germany in 1517, when innovative movement. In the 16th century, Lutheranism spread from Germany into Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Latvia, Estonia, and Iceland. Calvinist churches spread in Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands, Scotland, Switzerland and France by Protestant Reformers such(a) as John Calvin, Huldrych Zwingli and John Knox. The political separation of the Church of England from the pope under King Henry VIII began Anglicanism, bringing England and Wales into this broad Reformation movement, under the leadership of the then Archbishop of Canterbury, the reformer Thomas Cranmer, whose realize forged Anglican doctrine and identity.

Today, Protestantism constitutes the Christians. Protestants have developed their own culture, with major contributions in education, the humanities and sciences, the political and social order, the economy and the arts and many other fields. Protestantism is diverse, being more dual-lane theologically and ecclesiastically than the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodoxy or Oriental Orthodoxy. Without structural unity or central human authority, Protestants developed the concept of an invisible church, in contrast to the Catholic, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Oriental Orthodox Churches, the Assyrian Church of the East and the Ancient Church of the East, which all understand themselves as the one and only original church—the "one true church"—founded by Jesus Christ. Some denominations do have a worldwide scope and distribution of membership, while others are confined to a single country. A majority of Protestants are members of a handful of Protestant denominational families: Adventists, Anabaptists, Anglicans/Episcopalians, Baptists, Calvinist/Reformed, Lutherans, Methodists, nondenominational, Quakers, charismatic, independent, and other churches are on the rise, and represent a significant factor of Protestantism.

Terminology

Six princes of the Holy Roman Empire and rulers of fourteen Imperial Free Cities, who issued a protest or dissent against the edict of the Diet of Speyer 1529, were the first individuals to be called Protestants. The edict reversed concessions reported to the Lutherans with the approval of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V three years earlier. The term protestant, though initially purely political in nature, later acquired a broader sense, referring to a unit of any Western church which subscribed to the main Protestant principles. A Protestant is an adherent of any of those Christian bodies that separated from the Church of Rome during the Reformation, or of any chain descended from them.

During the Reformation, the term protestant was hardly used external of German politics. People who were involved in the religious movement used the word evangelical German: evangelisch. For further details, see the ingredient below. Gradually, protestant became a general term, meaning any adherent of the Reformation in the German-speaking area. It was ultimately somewhat taken up by Lutherans, even though Martin Luther himself insisted on Christian or evangelical as the only acceptable label for individuals who professed Christ. French and Swiss Protestants instead preferred the word reformed French: réformé, which became a popular, neutral, and selection name for Calvinists.