Protestantism
From the Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia that anyone can change
A Protestant is one kind of Christian who does not follow Roman Catholic beliefs. The Protestants split from the Roman Catholic Church in the 1500s. The word "Protestant" comes from "protest" because they were protesting against the Pope.
It was Martin Luther, a doctor of theology and a monk, who said that the church should return to its roots, and give more weight to what is written in the Bible. This returning to the roots was the basic idea of Humanism. Luther thought that the Church had gone too far away from the original teachings. He published 95 theses on the way the Catholic Church was then. Some say, he stuck them onto the door of the church of Wittenberg, but others say this is not true. The 95 theses were published in 1516 or 1517. With the theses, he started the Protestant Reformation.
Protestant churches with a big following are:
- Lutheran Church
- Calvinist Church
- Anglican Church: Henry VIII split from the Roman Catholic. He wanted to divorce from Catherine of Aragon, but the pope refused to divorce him. King Henry started the Church of England.
