25. Part Three: The Church in Reformation

Part 3
THE CHURCH IN REFORMATION
(From the Posting of the Ninety-five Theses to the Peace of Westphalia, 1517-1648)

• The Church Is Shaken

• The Church Is Convulsed

• The Church Is Reformed in Germany and Scandinavia

• The Church Is Reformed in German Switzerland

• The Church Is Reformed in French Switzerland

• The Church Is Reformed in France and in the Netherlands

• The Church Is Reformed in Scotland

• The Church Is Reformed in England

• The Roman Church Undertakes Reform

• The Protestant Churches Fight for Their Life

TIME LINE - PART III - THE REFORMATION

PART THREE THE CHURCH IN THE REFORMATION

We have come to a high point in the history of the Church. In 1517 and the years that followed an event occurred which ushered in a new era in world history. In that period the power of Rome over the Christian Church was challenged, men broke away from its tyr­anny, and Christian liberty was at last restored. The men who led the way in this great reformation were men of strong faith and convictions, high intelligence, and great moral and physical courage. They had fire in their blood and steel in their spines. They risked their lives and sacrificed all ordinary pleasures to work untiringly for the purity and freedom of the Church of Jesus Christ. The period of the Reformation is an exciting and heroic one. The people were no less courageous than their leaders. War and perse­cution did not turn them aside. It was a time of high thinking and peril­ous living. In spite of all opposition from the Catholic Church, the Reforma­tion spread — through Germany, Switzerland, France, the Nether­lands, England, Scotland, Norway, and Sweden. The fetters that had bound the people to a religion of superstition and fear had at last been broken, and the Church was once more free to worship God "in spirit and in truth."