Editing Reformation (section)

==Terminology==
[[File:Ginevra1.JPG|thumb|alt=A stone wall with the sculptures of four bearded men|The [[Reformation Wall|International Monument to the Reformation]], a statue erected in [[Geneva]] in 1909 depicting [[William Farel]], [[John Calvin]], [[Theodore Beza]], and [[John Knox]], four leaders of the [[Calvinism|Reformed tradition]] of [[Protestantism]]]] 
In the 16th-century context, the term mainly covers four major movements: [[Lutheranism]], [[Calvinism]], the [[Radical Reformation]], and the [[Catholic Reformation]] or [[Counter-Reformation]]. Since the late {{nowrap|20th century}}, historians often use the plural of the term to emphasize that the Reformation was not a uniform and coherent historical phenomenon but the result of parallel movements.{{sfn|Cameron|2012|p=1}} 

Anglican theologian [[Alister McGrath]] explains the term "Reformation" as "an interpretative category—a way of mapping out a slice of history in which certain ideas, attitudes, and values were developed, explored, and applied". Historian [[John Bossy]] criticized the term Reformation<ref>''Christianity in the West 1400-1700 '' (review) {{cite journal |last1=Wooding |first1=Lucy |title=The Canon |journal=Times Higher Education |date=7 January 2010 |issue= 1929 |page=49}}</ref> for "wrongly implying that bad religion  was giving way to good," but also because it has "little application to actual social behaviour and little or no sensitivity to thought, feeling or culture."{{sfn|Duffy|2016}} A French scholar has noted "no Reformation term is indisputable" and that "Reformation studies has revealed that “Protestants” and “Catholics” were not as homogenous as once thought."<ref name=kanga>{{cite book |last1=Kanga |first1=Fariba |title=The Construction of the Enemy in French Reformation Martyr Narratives, 1554-1616 |date=2023 |publisher=University of Pennsylvania |url=https://repository.upenn.edu/handle/20.500.14332/59174 |language=en}}</ref> 

Specific terminology includes:
* "Protestant Reformation" excludes the [[Renaissance]] and [[Early Modern Times|early modern]] Catholic reform movements. 
* "[[Magisterial Reformation]]" has a narrower sense, as it refers only to mainstream [[Protestantism]], primarily Lutheranism, Anglicanism and Calvinism, contrasting it with more radical ideas such as the [[Anabaptists]]'.{{sfn|McGrath|2021|pp=2–3}}<ref name="Shah2016">{{cite book |last1=Shah |first1=Timothy Samuel |last2=Hertzke |first2=Allen D. |title=Christianity and Freedom: Volume 1, Historical Perspectives |date=26 April 2016 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-316-55285-8 |language=en |quote=... where nationally dominant magisterial Protestant churches (Lutheran, Anglican, and Presbyterian) became virtual “departments of state” in their governance, as one Reformation historian characterized them.}}</ref><ref name="Cremeens2018">{{cite book |last1=Cremeens |first1=Timothy B. |title=Marginalized Voices: A History of the Charismatic Movement in the Orthodox Church in North America 1972-1993 |date=28 June 2018 |publisher=Wipf and Stock Publishers |isbn=978-1-5326-1708-9 |page=157 |language=en |quote=The “magisterial” Protestant denominations (i.e., Lutheran, Reformed, and Anglican) all claimed to honor the ecumenical Councils of the undivided Church and give a modicum of authority to the Church Fathers}}</ref> 
* "Catholic Reformation" is distinguished by the historian Massimo Firpo from [[Counter-Reformation]]. In his view, Catholic Reformation was "centered on the care of souls ..., episcopal residence, the renewal of the clergy, together with the charitable and educational roles of the new religious orders", whereas Counter-Reformation was "founded upon the defence of orthodoxy, the repression of dissent, the reassertion of ecclesiastical authority".{{sfn|Firpo|2016|p=295}} 
* Some historians have also suggested a persisting "[[Legacy and evaluations of_Erasmus#Erasmian reformation|Erasmian Reformation]]."{{refn|group=note|Historian [[Hendrik Enno van Gelder]] suggested that the Reformations of Luther and Calvin were minor affairs compared to the Reformation of Erasmus and the humanists, "which propelled Christianity further than (the others) could do, away from medieval Catholicism and towards the modern world." Historians [[Edward Gibbon]] and [[Hugh Trevor-Roper]] also wrote of a "third church".<ref name= mansfield>{{cite book |last1=Mansfield |first1=Bruce |title= Erasmus in the Twentieth Century |date=6 May 2003 |publisher=University of Toronto Press |isbn=978-1-4426-7455-4 |url= https://doi.org/10.3138/9781442674554 |chapter=Erasmus in the Twentieth Century: Interpretations 1920-2000|doi=10.3138/9781442674554 }}</ref>{{rp|149}} }}

Several aspects of the Reformation, such as changes in the arts, music, rituals, and communities are frequently presented in specialised studies.{{sfn|Dixon|2012|pp=10–11}}

The historian [[Peter Marshall (historian)|Peter Marshall]] emphasizes that the "call for 'reform' within Christianity is about as old as the religion itself, and in every age there have been urgent attempts to bring it about". [[Charlemagne]] employed a "rhetoric of reform".{{refn|group=note|"This 'rhetoric of reform' crops up in a variety of sources all of which originated in the royal court of Charlemagne and his successors. Subsequently, words such as ''corrigere'', ''emendare'', ''renovare'', ''reformare'' and their synonyms, readily became the instruments for achieving unity, and unity gave the Christian empire of Charlemagne ''pax'', ''caritas'' and ''concordia''."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hen |first1=Yitzhak |title=Medieval Manuscripts in Transition: Tradition and Creative Recycling |date=2006 |publisher=Leuven University Press |jstor=j.ctt9qdxv4.11 |isbn=978-90-5867-520-0 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt9qdxv4.11}}</ref>{{rp|158}} }} Medieval examples include the [[Cluniac Reform]] in the {{nowrap|10th–11th centuries}}, and the 11th-century [[Gregorian Reform]],{{sfn|Marshall|2009|pp=3–4}} both striving against [[Catholic laity|lay]] influence over church affairs.{{sfn|Hamilton|2003|p=45}}{{sfn|Collinson|2005|p=14}} When demanding a church reform, medieval authors mainly adopted a conservative and utopian approach, expressing their admiration for a previous "golden age" or "apostolic age" when the Church had allegedly been perfect and free of abuses.{{sfn|Cameron|2012|p=52}}

When considered as a historical time period, both the starting and ending date of the Reformation have always been debated.{{sfn|Marshall|2009|p=5}} The most commonly used starting date is 31 October 1517—the day when the German theologian [[Martin Luther]] (d. 1546) allegedly nailed up a copy of his [[disputation]] paper on [[indulgences]] and papal power known as the ''[[Ninety-five Theses]]'' to the door of the [[All Saints' Church, Wittenberg|castle church]] in [[Wittenberg]] in [[Electorate of Saxony|Electoral Saxony]].{{refn|group=note|As Wittenberg academics regularly published their disputation papers by posting it to the door of the castle church, the story is quite probable even if it was first mentioned years after the events.{{sfn|Cameron|2012|p=102}}{{sfn|Roper|2022|p=52}}}}{{sfn|Dixon|2012|p=15}} Calvinist historians often propose that the Reformation started when the Swiss priest [[Huldrych Zwingli]] (d. 1531) first preached against abuses in the Church in 1516.{{sfn|Dixon|2012|p=10}} The end date of the Reformation is even more disputed: considered as political/martial strife,  25 September 1555 (when the [[Peace of Augsburg]] was accepted), 23 May 1618 and 24 October 1648 (when the Thirty Years' War began and ended, respectively) are the most commonly mentioned terminuses. The Reformation has always been presented as one of the most crucial episodes of the early modern period, or even regarded as the event separating the [[modern era]] from the [[Middle Ages]].{{sfn|Dixon|2012|pp=14–15}}

The term [[Protestant]], though initially purely political in nature, later acquired a broader sense, referring to a member of any Western church that subscribed to the main Reformation (or [[anti-Catholicism|anti-Catholic]]) [[Five solae#The three solae|principles]].<ref name= "etymonline.com" /> Six princes of the [[Holy Roman Empire]] and rulers of fourteen [[Imperial Free City|Imperial Free Cities]], who issued [[protestation at Speyer|a protest]] (or dissent) against the edict of the [[Diet of Speyer (1529)]], were the first individuals to be called Protestants.<ref name= "etymonline.com">{{cite web|url= http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=protestant|title= Protestant – Origin and meaning |website=Online Etymology Dictionary}}</ref> The edict reversed concessions made to the [[Lutheranism|Lutherans]] with the approval of [[Holy Roman Emperor]] [[Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor|Charles V]] [[Diet of Speyer (1526)|three years earlier]].