The Protestant Reformation and Its Aftereffects
A Milestone Documents E-text
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Abstract

The term Protestant Reformation applies to several reform movements that began within the medieval church during the sixteenth century. The reformers and their followers ultimately left the Roman Church in order to form their own communities of faith. The three main western European branches of the Protestant Reformation that emerged in the sixteenth century were Lutheranism, the Reformed Church, and the Anglican Church. All three rejected the primacy of the pope and the contention that the priest is an intermediary between a believer and God through the sacrifice of the Mass. In the case of the Anglican Church, the archbishop of Canterbury assumed the role of final authority.

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