The Reformation was practically completed before the close
of the sixteenth century. In 1500 A.D. the Roman Church embraced all Europe
west of Russia and the Balkan peninsula. By 1575 A.D. nearly half of its former
subjects had renounced their allegiance. The greater part of Germany and
Switzerland and all of Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Holland, England, and Scotland
became independent of the Papacy. The unity of western Christendom, which had
been preserved throughout the Middle Ages, thus disappeared and has not since
been revived.
COMMON FEATURES OF PROTESTANTISM
The reformers agreed in substituting for the authority of
popes and church councils the authority of the Bible. They went back fifteen
hundred years to the time of the Apostles and tried to restore what they
believed to be Apostolic Christianity. Hence they rejected such doctrines and
practices as were supposed to have developed during the Middle Ages. The
Reformation also abolished the monastic system and priestly celibacy. The sharp
distinction between clergy and laity disappeared, for priests married, lived
among the people, and no longer formed a separate class. In general,
Protestantism affirmed the ability of every man to find salvation without the
aid of ecclesiastics. The Church was no longer the only "gate of
heaven."
