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John Wycliffe wrote a translation of the Bible, and it proved to be a very controvertial act. Wycliffe's followers, known as Lollards, were basically Western Christians, who went against the Protestants. After the publication of Wycliffe's Bible, the Roman Catholic Church took action against him. In the early 15th century, severe religious censorship laws were passed, and at the Oxford Convocation of 1408, it was voted that no new translation of the Bible would be made without prior approval.
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Jan Hus wanted to create a church that rejected many ideas of the Roman Catholic Church. He contradicted ecclesiological and other theological ideas. He also had different ideas about the Eucharist that Roman Catholics hated him for.
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Martin Luther came out and openly challenged the church with his 95 Theses. Much of the material in the theses scrutinized indulgences, or things people bought from the church that would cleanse their soul and guarantee them a happy afterlife.
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Huldrych Zwingli became the pastor of the Grossmunster in Zurich, where he preached ideas on reforming the Catholic Church. He challenged the custom of fasting during Lent, accused the ecclesiastical hierarchy of corruption, promoted clerical marriage, and attacked the use of images in places of worship. The ideas of Zwingli eventually reached Martin Luther, another contributer to the Protestant Reformation.
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In 1533, Henry VIII was excommunicated for marrying a new wife and having the archbishop of Canturbury sanction the divorce of his first wife. in 1534, Henry VIII had Parliament pass an act appointing the king and his successors supreme head of the Church of England, thus establishing an independent national Anglican church.
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The Thirty Years War was right at the heart of the Protestant Reformation. It started as a religious conflict between the Protestants and Catholics in the Holy Roman Empire and eventually escalated involving more countries. The war went from 1618-1648.
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Presbyterianism was confirmed as the means of Church Government in Scotland by the Act of Union in 1707. John Calvin instituted a Presbyterian Church in Geneva. Calvin insisted on reforms including the congregational singing of Psalms as part of church worship, the teaching of catechism and confession of faith to children, and the enforcement of a strict moral discipline in the community by the pastors and members of the church.
