In 1517 Martin Luther published ninety-five theses on indulgences. Within a few years he was excommunicated, and over the following centuries the movement that began with him divided into many separate bodies. This timeline quotes those bodies in their own words at or near the time each one began, with the replies of the popes and the Council of Trent, and ends with what the Catholic Church has said in recent years about the divisions and the work toward unity.
Drafted from primary sources. Every quotation is checked against the page it links to. The Protestant texts are quoted from the library pages that carry them, in the translations and spellings of those pages. Where a founding document could not be found on an approved page, a later text of the same body is quoted and the entry says so.
Lutheran: parted from the Catholic Church. Martin Luther publishes the Ninety-five Theses at Wittenberg. Pope Leo X excommunicates him in 1521.
“When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, "Repent" (Mt 4:17), he willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance. … They preach only human doctrines who say that as soon as the money clinks into the money chest, the soul flies out of purgatory.”
“Therefore let Martin himself and all those adhering to him, and those who shelter and support him, through the merciful heart of our God and the sprinkling of the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ by which and through whom the redemption of the human race and the upbuilding of holy mother Church was accomplished, know that from our heart we exhort and beseech that he cease to disturb the peace, unity, and truth of the Church for which the Savior prayed so earnestly to the Father. Let him abstain from his pernicious errors that he may come back to us.”
“Nevertheless Martin himself—and it gives us grievous sorrow and perplexity to say this—the slave of a depraved mind, has scorned to revoke his errors within the prescribed interval and to send us word of such revocation, or to come to us himself; nay, like a stone of stumbling, he has feared not to write and preach worse things than before against us and this Holy See and the Catholic faith, and to lead others on to do the same. He has now been declared a heretic”
“Unless I am refuted and convicted by testimonies of the Scriptures or by clear arguments (since I believe neither the Pope nor the Councils alone; it being evident that they have often erred and contradicted themselves), I am conquered by the Holy Scriptures quoted by me, and my conscience is bound in the word of God: I can not and will not recant any thing, since it is unsafe and dangerous to do any thing against the conscience.”
Reformed: parted from the Catholic Church. Ulrich Zwingli defends his Sixty-seven Articles at Zurich, and the city sides with him.
“The power which the Pope and the bishops, and the others who are called spiritual, claim for themselves, and the pomp with which they are swollen, has no foundation in the sacred writings and the teaching of Christ.”
Our translation. The words as written, in Latin:
“Potestas quam sibi Papa et Episcopi, cæterique quos spiritales vacant, arrogant, et fastus, quo turgent, ex sacris literis et doctrina Christi firmamentum non habet.”
Anabaptist: parted from the Reformed body. Former followers of Zwingli at Zurich baptize one another as adults and part from him.
“First, That we have acted contrary to the imperial mandate, we do not admit; for the same says that the Lutheran doctrine and delusion is not to be adhered to, but only the Gospel and Word of God. This we have kept … Thirdly, As to baptism we say: Infant baptism is of no avail to salvation; for it is written, that we live by faith alone. Again: He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.”
“Inasmuch as the churches among us dissent in no article of faith from … the Church Catholic …, and only omit a few of certain abuses, which are novel …, and, contrary to the purport of the Canons, have been received by the fault of the times, we beg that Your Imperial Majesty would clemently hear both what ought to be changed and what are the reasons that the people ought not to be forced against their consciences to observe those abuses.”
Anglican: parted from the Catholic Church. The Act of Supremacy names King Henry VIII supreme head of the Church of England.
“I FROM henceforth shal utterly renounce, refuse, relinquisshe and forsake the Bysshop of Rome, and hys aucthoritie, power, and jurisdiction. And I shal never consent nor agree, that the Bysshop of Rome shall practyse, exercyse, or have any maner of aucthoritie, Jurisdiction, or Power wythin thys Realme, or anye other the Kynges dominions, but shall resyste the same at all tymes, to the uttermoste of my power. And I from hence foorth wyll accepte, repute, and take the Kynges Maiestie, to be the onelye Supreme head in earth, of the Church of Englande”
“In the first place, their calling it novel is highly injurious to God, whose holy word deserves not to be accused of novelty. I have no doubt of its being new to them, to whom Jesus Christ and the Gospel are equally new. … That it has long been concealed, buried, and unknown, is the crime of human impiety. Now that the goodness of God has restored it to us, it ought at least to be allowed its just claim of antiquity.”
“then I voluntarily renounced all my worldly honor and reputation, my unchristian conduct, masses, infant baptism, and my unprofitable life, and at once willingly submitted to distress and poverty, and the cross of Christ. In my weakness I feared God; I sought out the pious, and though they were few in number, I found some who were zealous and maintained the truth.”
“Doth it please you,–unto the praise and glory of the holy and undivided Trinity, Father, and Son, and Holy Ghost ; for the increase and exaltation of the Christian faith and religion; for the extirpation of heresies; for the peace and union of the Church; for the reformation of the Clergy and Christian people; for the depression and extinction of the enemies of the Christian name,–to decree and declare that the sacred and general council of Trent do begin, and hath begun?”
“to come freely and safely to the said oecumenical Council, and there remain and abide, and propose therein, as well in writing as by word of mouth, as many articles as to them shall seem good, and to confer and dispute, without any abuse or contumely, with the Fathers, or with those who may have been selected by the said holy Synod; as also to withdraw whensoever they shall think fit.”
“Wherefore, in declining fatal participation in such wickedness, we run no risk of being dissevered from the Church of Christ. The communion of the Church was not instituted to be a chain to bind us in idolatry, impiety, ignorance of God, and other kinds of evil, but rather to retain us in the fear of God and obedience of the truth.”
“As the Church of Jerusalem, Alexandria, and Antioch, have erred; so also the Church of Rome hath erred, not only in their living and manner of Ceremonies, but also in matters of Faith.”
Baptist: parted from the Anglican body. John Smyth and a group of English Separatists in Amsterdam form the first Baptist congregation.
“A CONFESSION OF FAITH of seven congregations or churches of Christ in London, which are commonly, but unjustly, called Anabaptists; published for the vindication of the truth and information of the ignorant; likewise for the taking off those aspersions which are frequently, both in pulpit and print, unjustly cast upon them.”
Methodist: parted from the Anglican body. John Wesley sends ministers to America, and the Methodist Episcopal Church is organized apart from the Church of England.
“As our American brethren are now totally disentangled both from the state and from the English hierarchy, we dare not entangle them again; either with the one or the other. They are now at full liberty simply to follow the Scriptures and the primitive church. And we judge it best that they should stand fast in that liberty wherewith God has so strangely made them free.”
Pentecostal: parted from the Methodist body. The revival under Charles Parham at Topeka, Kansas. The Azusa Street revival follows in 1906.
“Brother Seymour was recognized as the nominal leader in charge. But we had no pope or hierarchy. We were “brethren.” We had no human programme. The Lord Himself was leading. We had no priest class, nor priest craft. These things have come in later, with the apostatizing of the movement. We did not even have a platform or pulpit in the beginning. All were on a level.”
“But in subsequent centuries much more serious dissensions made their appearance and quite large communities came to be separated from full communion with the Catholic Church - for which, often enough, men of both sides were to blame. The children who are born into these Communities and who grow up believing in Christ cannot be accused of the sin involved in the separation, and the Catholic Church embraces upon them as brothers, with respect and affection. For men who believe in Christ and have been truly baptized are in communion with the Catholic Church even though this communion is imperfect.”
“Representatives of the Catholic Church and the Lutheran World Federation are signing a Joint Declaration on one of the principal points which have divided Catholics and Lutherans: the doctrine of justification by faith. This is a milestone on the difficult path to re-establishing full unity among Christians, and it is highly significant that it is taking place in the exact city where in 1530 a decisive page in the Lutheran reform was written with the Augsburg Confession.”
“While we are profoundly thankful for the spiritual and theological gifts received through the Reformation, we also confess and lament before Christ that Lutherans and Catholics have wounded the visible unity of the Church. Theological differences were accompanied by prejudice and conflicts, and religion was instrumentalized for political ends.”