ABSTRACT
Rising nationalism and the corruption of church officials threw more fuel on the religious bonfire. With these ideological, technical, economic, and social changes, many responded with heartfelt fervor to the movement that came to be called the Protestant Reformation. Martin Luther, a German monk, was the first egalitarian reformer to break away from the Roman church. The strong-minded independence that prompted Luther to challenge the pope prevented him from unifying the opposition through alliances with other reformers. The decentralized multiplicity of Protestant churches is in sharp contrast to the centralized Roman Catholic Church headed by the pope, the single most important Christian figure today. The Council of Trent created the modern Roman Catholic Church, set against the proliferating Protestant churches: Lutheran, Calvinist, and Anglican. The purpose of the Inquisition was to root out Protestant sympathizers in countries where Catholicism was still dominant. The changes associated with the Protestant Reformation brought about a dramatic shift in European authority.
