On Sunday, February 16, 2020, Mr. John West lead a discussion on the historical events in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries that lead up to and culminated in the Protestant Reformation.
Church History, Week 7: Difficult Topics of the Time (AD 1400-1600)
1408: John Wycliffe’s English version of the Bible published; 1415: Jan Hus—Burned at the stake; 1439: Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Church leaders agree to a reunification under Rome, Kevian Rus (Russia) forms new Russian Orthodox Church; 1453: Fall of Constantinople, end of the Eastern Roman Empire; 1456: Gutenberg produces first printed Bible; 1478: The Spanish Inquisition begins; 1492: Spain’s monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabella, give Jews three months to convert or be banished. Columbus departs west for China; 1497: In Scotland, children are required by law to attend school.
1502: Johann Tetzel appointed by Cardinal Giovanni de Medici, later Pope Leo X, to preach the Indulgence; 1512: Michelangelo completes the Sistine Chapel ceiling; 1517: Martin Luther posts his Ninety-Five Theses; 1521: Diet of Worms, Luther refuses to recant; 1523: Zwingli begins the Swiss Reformation; 1524: William Tyndale travels to Germany and in two years releases first printed English New Testament; 1525: Anabaptist movement begins with Conrad Grebel. Influences Menno Simons, founder of the Mennonites;1527: Michael Sattler and Anabaptist leader is martyred for the Schleitheim Confession of Faith; 1529: Protestants emerge at the Diet of Speyer; 1531: League of Schmalkalden formed, Protestants against Rome; 1534: Henry VIII—Church of England established via the Act of Supremacy; 1536: Institutes of the Christian Religion published by John Calvin; 1549: Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury produces the Book of Common Prayer; 1555: Charles V agrees to the Peace of Augsburg, granting Lutheranism official status within the empire; 1559: Establishment of the French Protestant Church, later known as the Huguenots; 1560: Scots Confession ratified by the newly recognized sovereign parliament of Scotland; 1562: Frederick III encourages the development of the Heidelberg Catechism by Olevianus & Ursinus; 1563: Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion are issued summarizing the official doctrine of the Church of England; 1572: 24 August, St. Bartholomew’s Day, 3,000 Protestants massacred in Paris. Within three days, 10,000 Huguenots are killed across France; 1589: Moscow becomes an independent Patriarchate, recognized by the Eastern Orthodox Church as the fifth most honored office; 1590: William Shakespeare begins publishing plays with the Taming of the Shrew; 1598: Edict of Nantes by Henry IV ends religious wars in France by decreed tolerance between Catholics and Protestants.
