Why did the protestant reformation happen?
The sixteenth century was a time of religious upheaval. What happened was a revolt against the practices of the Catholic Church and a fundamental new order of churches along reformed lines. At the same time a range of radical sects emerged, which threatened the political stability of European society. Both Protestants and Catholics joined to suppress these developments, then fought a long series of wars themselves. How did this all begin? One can point to three developments: • There were a series of social rebellions by the poor who opposed the privileges of the church – the bishops and abbots were targeted as part of the privileged and oppressive ruling class. A good example of this was a series of very serious peasant revolts in Germany in the 1520s. A number of religious sects emerged as part of this rebellion and they were called Anabaptists – Baptists, Mennonites and Moravian Brothers are all descendants of this heterodoxical sect. • The Urban Middle Classes – the Reformation took
