Luther's protest against indulgences became, through the confessions of Augsburg and the settlements of the century, a permanent division of the Western church into the churches of the Reformation and the church that answered at Trent.
The parties
- Martin Luther and the reformers of Germany, Switzerland, and England
- The papacy and the imperial church of the Latin West
What was disputed
Justification, the authority of Scripture, and the number and nature of the sacraments.
Causes: doctrinal political economic
Key documents
- The Ninety-Five Theses (1517)
- The Augsburg Confession (1530)
- The decrees of the Council of Trent (1545-1563)
What it produced
Resolution attempts
- The Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification (1999), signed by the Catholic Church and the Lutheran World Federation
How each side understands it
Protestant memory reads the Reformation as the recovery of the gospel; Catholic memory long read it as rebellion, and now increasingly as a call to the reform the church itself needed. Both readings stand in the record.
Downstream divisions
- English Reformation, 1534 and after
- The Restoration Movement, 1801 and after
It grew out of
- East-West Schism, 1054 and after
Sources
Primary
- Martin Luther, the Ninety-Five Theses (1517).
Secondary
- Diarmaid MacCulloch, The Reformation: A History (2004).