A Protestant Quiz

Answer: Disagreement with certain practices of the Roman Catholic Church

By the 16th century, the Roman Catholic Church had developed a huge bureaucracy and had become very wealthy and interested in politics and earthly affairs. Many people believed that the leaders of the Church were corrupt and not interested in spiritual matters. The invention of the printing press and the translation of the Bible into the vernacular allowed many people to read it for themselves. They found that many doctrines of the Church were not based on scripture, and some, like the selling of indulgences for the forgiveness of sins, were based solely on greed. This caused widespread discontent within the Church.

There had been many other disagreements about Church doctrine prior to the rise of Protestantism. In the early days of the Church, there was a great deal of conflict between Arian Christianity, which did not accept the doctrine of the the Trinity, and Orthodox Christianity which did. Arian Christianity was actually the dominant doctrine for the first 300 years of the Church. Later, there were various "heresies" which arose in opposition to accepted practices, many of which were cruelly and brutally suppressed.

Answer: The Reformation

The Reformation is usually interpreted to encompass the years between 1517 and 1648. By the middle of the 17th century, the various Protestant churches were well established. The word "Reformation" comes from the fact that early leaders did not want to leave the Roman Catholic Church, but to reform it from within. Eventually the differences in opinion became so pronounced that Protestant leaders broke with the Roman Catholic Church completely.

Answer: Martin Luther

Martin Luther (1483-1546) was born in Saxony, which was then part of the Holy Roman Empire. He became an Augustinian friar in 1505, and was later ordained as a priest. Luther was very upset by the practice of selling indulgences. An indulgence was a document that would forgive sins in return for the payment of a sum of money. People would buy indulgences not only for themselves, but also for deceased friends and relatives to shorten their time in purgatory. Luther did not believe in purgatory, a place where souls were supposed to go to expiate their sins before being admitted to heaven, because it is not mentioned in the Bible.

He also did not believe that sins could be forgiven by paying money to the Church. Luther wrote an essay called "The Ninety-Five Theses on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences," and nailed it to the door of All Saints' Church in Wittenberg on October 31, 1517.

The Reformation is usually said to have begun on this date.

Answer: Henry VIII

England became a Protestant country for political reasons. Henry VIII had married his brother Arthur's widow, Catherine of Aragon; she was five years older than he. Catherine and Henry had several children, but only their daughter, Mary, lived more than a few weeks. Perhaps mindful of the Wars of the Roses that had troubled England for so long, Henry was desperate to have a son, and avoid another round of civil wars. When Catherine was beyond childbearing age, Henry petitioned the Vatican to have his marriage annulled. Pope Clement VII refused to annul the marriage because a previous Pope, Julius II, had issued a special dispensation to allow Henry to marry his brother's widow.

In 1534, the Act of Supremacy was passed, making Henry, and not the Pope, the head of the Church in England. Henry quickly divorced Catherine, and married Anne Boleyn. But Henry did not stop there. He used his new authority to seize the assets of the Church in England, an act called the Dissolution of the Monasteries. Many beautiful churches, monasteries, and convents in England and Ireland were destroyed, and their lands and treasures appropriated by the Crown.

Henry's new church, known as the Anglican Church, or Church of England, remains in existence today. In the United States, it is known as the Episcopalian Church. Its beliefs and ceremonies are closer to those of the Roman Catholic Church than those of most other Protestant denominations.

Answer: False

Unfortunately, religious differences led to numerous conflicts throughout Europe. There were many wars between the various German states, between the predominately Protestant Netherlands and Catholic Spain, and also internal civil wars in countries like France, where in 1572 as many as 30,000 French Protestants, known as Huguenots, were killed in what became known as the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre.

The worst of these wars was the Thirty Years War, which lasted from 1618 to 1648. Some historians estimate that almost half the inhabitants of what is now Germany lost their lives in this war. Eventually Protestants and Catholics learned to live in harmony with each other, although there are still isolated areas, like Northern Ireland, where sectarian strife continues to this day.

Answer: They deny the authority of the Pope

The Roman Catholic Church believes that the Pope "by reason of his office as Vicar of Christ, and as pastor of the entire Church has full, supreme, and universal power over the whole Church, a power which he can always exercise unhindered." This is based on the fact that Jesus told St. Peter that "I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church." St. Peter is regarded as the first Pope, and his authority is believed to have been passed down to his successors.

From almost the beginning of the Christianity, the authority of the Pope, as Bishop of Rome, has been questioned. The Bishops of Antioch, Alexandria, Damascus, and Constantinople all claimed that they were the equals of the Pope. In 1054, the Patriarch of Constantinople and the Pope were unable to reach an agreement about each other's authority, and this resulted in a permanent rift between the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church that remains until the present day. This is called "the Great Schism."

Almost all Protestant denominations reject the authority of the Pope, and usually refer to him as merely as "the Bishop of Rome." At the time of the Reformation, many of the Popes were worldly, wicked, and thoroughly evil men. It is not surprising many people would reject the authority of such men.

Some Protestant sects allow the ordination of women, but many do not, based on the Biblical instruction "the Bishop shall be the husband of one wife." Many denominations do not believe in infant baptism; while some denominations believe in a literal interpretation of the Bible, most interpret it in a more symbolic way.

Answer: The perpetual virginity of Mary, the mother of Christ

The Roman Catholic Church gives the Virgin Mary a special place in its theology. It believes that Mary was not only a virgin when Jesus was born, but that she remained a virgin throughout her life. They also believe that she, unique among human beings, was conceived without the taint of original sin, a doctrine known as "the Immaculate Conception."

Most Protestant denominations reject all of these ideas, noting that Mary is hardly mentioned at all in the Bible after the Nativity; there is nothing that sets her apart from ordinary women. Furthermore, there are references to Jesus' brothers and sisters in the Bible. The Roman Catholic Church usually claims that these people were either the cousins of Jesus, or Joseph's children by a prior marriage. But most Protestants believe that after Jesus was born, Mary and Joseph lived together like any other married man and woman, and had many other children.

Answer: Celibacy for the clergy

Most people do not understand that celibacy of priests is not a matter of doctrine, even in the Roman Catholic Church. The first Pope, St. Peter, was married, as were many Popes after him (39 altogether). Even after priests were forbidden to marry in the 11th century, celibacy seems to have been the exception rather than the rule; Pope Alexander VI (1492-1503) fathered at least seven illegitimate children.

Most Protestant denominations allow their clergy to marry; the Bible offers many instances where early Church leaders were married, including 1 Timothy 3:2, which states: "The bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife."

Answer: True

The Roman Catholic Church is a very hierarchical institution, with authority vested in the Pope and the Vatican, and strict central control. Protestant churches have an organization as well, but (especially with the more fundamentalist sects) much less authority is vested in church leaders, and local congregations make most of the important decisions. Decisions on theological and procedural issues are usual decided by a vote. One reason there are so many different Protestant denominations is because if a number of congregations disagree with a decision of their church's central authority, they will leave and form a new church.

It is also not unheard of for two or more denominations to merge and form a new church.

Answer: Southern Baptist Convention

The Southern Baptist Convention is the largest Protestant denomination in the United States, with over 12 million members. The Eastern Orthodox Church is not a Protestant church, and the Church of Latter Day Saints, informally known as the Mormons, is usually not considered a Protestant church, because their beliefs are so different than most mainstream Protestant churches.

The Church of Scientology is not a Christian church at all.