Protestant Reformers of the Catholic Church - Erasmus, Calvin, Tyndale, Henry VIII Protestant Reformers of the Catholic Church Erasmus, Calvin, Tyndale, Henry VIII European Reformation Unit

Martin Luther was not the only person who brought big changes to the Catholic Church. He was just the one who made the biggest splash, so we have heard more about him. He's the one who is said to have nailed his list of ideas on a church door. He told people the church was greedy. He said it was taking money from people. He said the church was hungry for power. He may have opened the door so people could see how the church was behaving, but these four men also worked hard to share their ideas about where the church had gone wrong.

Sometimes, people who do not follow the rules can change the ways that people think. Desiderius Erasmus was one of the most famous scholars of the northern Renaissance due to his study of holy books and ideas. He was born around 1466. He was a great learner, but his life took a hard turn after both of his parents died when he was a teenager. The people who took care of him after this said he should go into the Church. The problem was, he was not someone who always followed the rules, so he could not see himself working for the church, which had a lot of rules.

But, he had no money. So he did not have many choices in life, other than becoming a priest. Erasmus became a great learner and speaker, traveling all around the world to share his ideas and hear from other people. He studied humanism, which looked at people more than the ideas of the church. His work came together in many books. He added notes to a Bible written in Greek in order to share his thoughts about religion. Then he wrote a book that said some pretty bad things about the church and the people running it. This book was printed hundreds of thousands of times. Many people were angry with him, because they said that his ideas about what was wrong with the Church inspired Luther and his movement.

What do you do if you do not agree with what the Church says? Well, you might want to start your own! John Calvin was a pastor who is known for helping to start a new form of Christian thought and belief. Born in 1502, John Calvin also studied humanism when he was young. He went on to study language

Over 500 more free History and Science articles are waiting to inspire your students at Rocketlit Page 2 Protestant Reformers of the Catholic Church - Erasmus, Calvin, Tyndale, Henry VIII and law, like many boys did at the time. Martin Luther had lived years before him, so he learned all about Martin Luther's ideas in school. Many of these ideas made sense to him and he did not agree with the church either. In 1532, he wrote a book called 'Institutes of the Christian Religion'. It did not catch on at first, but he kept working on it. Slowly, his ideas began to spread. A new way of thinking called Calvinism started to take off.

He moved from place to place for a while working on his book, forming his ideas, and doing some speaking in churches. The people who followed him started many new churches based on his ideas. It may not have been the most exciting book, but it did give people a clear path for how to live a good life. The Puritans loved it and used it as a rule book for their people.

The Church at this time said that it was against the rules to write the Bible in anything besides Latin. Imagine how mad they were, then, when someone did just that! William Tyndale was an English thinker who was first to translate the Bible into English. He was born in 1494 and became a priest in 1521. At the time, what went into the Bible was decided by the church. The church told people what the Bible said. The church told people what they should believe. The Bible was written in Latin, and only rich people knew how to read it. Tyndale moved to England in 1523 and thought about translating the Bible into English for the very first time. He felt the people deserved to know what the Bible said.

Because this act was seen as very bad by the church, he only had a few thousand English copies of the book printed. They were secretly shared across the country. Some were even hidden in bed sheets to be secretly brought to different towns. Hearing of these books, King Henry VIII kicked Tyndale out of England. He also said that anyone caught with an English Bible would be killed. Tyndale went into hiding for a time but was soon caught and put to death. Still, his books spread, putting the words of God into the hands of the people.

Not everyone tried to change the church for the right reasons. And not everyone was a priest who wanted to make the church better. One of the most important people to change the church in this time was a king who wanted to marry a new woman. Henry VIII was a king of England, known for his many marriages and for turning England into a Protestant country. Henry VIII was different from the other people we have talked about and he did not always agree with the rest of these men. He was the one who kicked Tyndale out of England, after all. But, he did want to change the church. . . for selfish reasons. In 1535, Henry was mad that the Pope would not let him divorce his wife to marry a new one. So he decided he was done with the church. He would start his own.

In 1535, King Henry VIII started the Church of England. This let him to divorce his wives any time he wanted. (He ended up having six wives.) It also gave him more power in his country. Now, he was head of the state, and also head of the Church. He was the most important person in the country. He made himself the leader of his new church, and no one could tell him what he could or could not do. That's one way to get what you want, I guess.

Martin Luther was not the only person to make a big change in the Reformation. He just got things started. By not following the rules, these people brought big changes to the church. Desiderius Erasmus wrote the Bible in Greek. This allowed more people read it. John Calvin wrote a book that made people think

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about God in a new way. This started Calvinism. William Tyndale wrote the Bible in English. He was killed for it. Henry VIII started the Church of England. He got what he wanted. All four of these men changed the church. They may have had different reasons, but they all left their mark.

References:

History Today. "The Treaty of Westphalia", www.historytoday.com, 1998.

History. "The Reformation", www.history.com, 2009.

European History. "The Reformation: Calvin", www.europeanhistory.boisestate.edu, 2015.

BBC History. "William Tyndale", www.bbc.co.uk, 2016.

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