Over the middle Ages, the access to the Bible was restricted to the clerical people that worked to The Catholic Church. This because of the limited copies of the Bible, the langue barriers and also the speech that only clerical person could read and understand Bible. The situation in that Europe arrived, been so much time far form the Biblical teachings, let space for the firsts movements that questioned Catholic practices.
In the photo that follow we can see an indulgence of the Pope Léon XII, document sealed with the pontifical stamp.
John Wycliffe (1320 – 1384) was an English theologian that questioned the difference between the firsts Christians, that were simple, living without superfluous possessions, and the church of his time. Wycliffe was posthumously burned by the Catholic Church. John Huss (1369 – 1415) followed. His efforts were mainly to stop the exploration of the people by the Church, how we can see in his words: “One pays for confession, for mass, for the sacrament, for indulgences, for churching a woman, for a blessing, for burials, for funeral services and prayers. The very last penny which an old woman has hidden in her bundle for fear of thieves or robbery will not be saved. The villainous priest will grab it.” (Macek, 16). He was invited to participate at the Concil of Constance, where he went to show his doctrines to the Catholic Church. In this council he went arrested, in spite of a safe-conduct promised him by the Emperor Sigismund of Luxemburg. He rested arrested for a long time, after what he was judged at a Franciscan monastery. There he recognized his doctrines and said that he was ready to renounce them if they were proved wrong from the Bible. He didn’t renounce his theses, and died burned at the stake.
After, many others followed. Ulrich Zwingli (1484 – 1531), Martin Luther (1483 – 1546), John Calvin (1509 – 1564) and John Knox (1514? – 1572) are some examples and with them the protestant reformations got importance. All these movements leaded Catholic Church to the Counter-Reformation that was intended to make substantial changes in itself. There were many changes, between them the creation of the religious orders how the Order of the Jesuits. The Council of Trent took place also in the context of the Catholic Reformation.
But in England, the reformation took place also by political necessities, and had different forms. Henry VIII, started the reformation, and with The Act of Supremacy he reduced the power of the Catholic Church in England and become the head of the Church of England, in place of pope. Henry VIII’s son, Edward VI, implanted some protestants beliefs in the Church of England, changing to a protestant regime. This changes where well received by the puritans, the protestants of England, that now were encouraged to read one of the new translations of the Bible and that now could listen to the church services in English, in place of Latin.
Now in England the reformation had in some manners solved the religious and politics problems brought by Catholic Church. But not for long, because Edward VI’s half-sister Mary, a devoted Catholic, succeeded him. With Mary all the protestants laws were annulled, England returned to pope authority and a persecution started towards protestants. Like in the continent, some protestants were condemned to die burned. Cranmer, the one had influenced all the process of reformation, both with Henry VIII and Edward VI, was one of the protestants were burned.
In the photo that follow we see a picture that represents the landing of the Pilgrim fathers in America, that is the protestants of puritan tendency that arrived in the Mayflower and founded the colony of Plymouth in 1620.
When Henry VIII's second daughter, the Protestant Elizabeth, became queen, she promoted a moderate Church of England, the persecution of protestants stopped and a religious tolerance was experimented. This moderate church stayed also under the Stuart kings, James I and Charles I, and a consequence of this period was a polarization between the Catholics and the Protestants or Puritans. England got divided in regions of Catholic dominance or Puritan dominance, mainly in the East.
Dossier's title: Religion in America
Sobtitle: Christianity in the origines of the country
Bibliography:
A Universal History of the United States of America: Embracing the Whole Period from the Earliest..., By Citizen of the United States (~pg 38)
The Hand of God in History: Or, Divine Providence Historically Illustrated in the Extension &...,By Hollis Read (~pg 43)
History of North America (~pg 72)
Religion in America, Or, An Account of the Origin, Progress, Relation to the State, and Present..., By Robert Baird:
http://books.google.com/books?vid=OCLC09647322&id=6vMEAAAAMAAJ&printsec=toc&dq=religion+in+america+history+migration&as_brr=1
The Old Religion in a New World: the history of North American
Christianity, By Mark A. Noll:
http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0802849482&id=b53HUe_NRVgC&printsec=frontcover&dq=religion+in+america+history+migration (morceaux)
Internet:
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/documents/documents_p2.cfm?doc=200 (Reasons for Puritan Migration)
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/learning_history/puritans/puritans_menu.cfm (Puritans menu)
http://www.historynet.com/exploration/great_migrations/3036611.html (The Quaker Migration)
http://www.historynet.com/exploration/great_migrations/3035471.html?featured=y&c=y (The Puritan Migration)
http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_1741500823_4/United_States_History.html (III Colonial Experiments, IV Growth of the English Colonies)
http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puritanismo (Puritanismo)
