General Reference
Anabaptists
In general the Anabaptists were peaceful and drew disaffected persons of various sorts. Yet, while it was primarily a religious movement, it included some who were fanatical in their anticipation of the second coming of Christ and who were eager to hurry it along.
Peasants’ War, The
The most serious consequence of the uprising was the effect upon Luther. It drove him back upon his natural conservatism, made him fear the effects of radicalism upon his own movement, and turned him away from the principle of individual rights. From that time Luther was more disposed to give to the State the direction of religion.
Life of Martin Luther
Much of the history of the Reformation depends on the ideas of Martin Luther. Because of him, the revolt was more ecclesiastical than theological, except in the fundamental difference of Protestant dependence on faith for salvation and Catholic dependence on the sacraments of the Church. The basic principle on which Luther based his reconstruction of theology was that individual salvation from sin and its punishment was to be obtained by personal faith in Christ as a sufficient Savior rather than faith in the priest, the sacraments, and the whole system of Catholicism.
Sales of indulgences spark the Reformation
Luther’s contempt for injustice and oppression and his love for God’s Word and the freedom it offered launched the Protestant Reformation. It was the simple sale of indulgences, however, that inspired him to nail his written protest in a public forum.
Great Schism, The
Three councils met one after another in an attempt to bring order out of chaos and to reform the Church. These three are called the Reforming Councils, and they constitute an important chapter in the history of the first half of the fifteenth century.
Reforms among the Bohemian clergy
The death of Hus was resented bitterly by the Bohemians and led to a long war with the German Empire, a conflict that was both national and religious in character. Inspired by Hus, anti-Catholic church groups like the Bohemian Brethren and the Waldensians produced vernacular translations of Scripture and their aggressive evangelism won many converts to their cause.