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The Protestant democratization of art caused all sorts of compositional problems. Waldemar Januszczak, Baroque! – From St Peter’s to St Paul’s II, BBC 2013
The ‘divinity’ of Jesus is made a convenient cover for absurdity. Nowhere in the Gospels do we find a precept for Creeds, Confessions, Oaths, Doctrines and whole carloads of other foolish trumpery that we find Christianity encumbered with.
The priesthood have, in all ancient nations, monopolized learning. And ever since the Reformation where or when has existed a Protestant or dissenting sect who would tolerate a free inquiry? ... The most ungentlemanly insolence, the most yahooish brutality, is patiently endured, countenanced, propagated, and applauded. But touch a solemn truth in collision with a dogma of a sect, though capable of the clearest proof, and you will soon find you have disturbed a nest, and the hornets will swarm about your eyes and hands, and fly into your face and eyes. John Adams
The Bible and the Bible only is the religion of Protestants. William Chillingworth, 1602-44, The Religion of Protestants, 1637
It is useless and vain for the Protestants to exclaim against the Roman Catholics for their Mariolatry, based on the ancient cult of lunar goddesses, when they themselves worship Jehovah, prominently a lunar god, and when both Churches have accepted in their theologies the ‘Sun’ – Christ of the lunar trinity. Madame Helena P Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine I
By the sixteenth century all through Europe the Church was selling certificates called Indulgences to show how much time in Purgatory you had avoided. The cash paid for new churches and hospitals. When the Pope wanted to finish the re-building of St Peter’s Basilica in Rome he launched an indulgence campaign. Some might think this a worthy cause but it raised big questions in the mind of a German monk ... Martin Luther ... Over the next decade this open defiance of ancient authority was Christened Protestantism. Professor Diarmaid MacCulloch, A History of Christianity, BBC 2009
For over a thousand years they believed that they possessed the greatest asset we could hope for: God. Diarmaid MacCulloch, How God Made the English I: A Chosen People? BBC 2012
Religion: a force that shaped the English soul. ibid.
At the heart of that change was the Christian Church. Diarmaid MacCulloch, How God Made the English II: A Tolerant People?
A thousand years of history was going to be junked ... The Reformation was a watershed. ibid.
For the next three hundred years Catholics would be excluded from all positions of power. ibid.
Just like ancient Israel, only better. Diarmaid MacCulloch, How God Made the English III: A White and Christian People? BBC 2012
Did He also make them White and Christian? ibid.
And a particular kind of Christianity at that. ibid.
An all-embracing Anglicanism ... I knew that the Church of England didn’t mean the same for everyone. ibid.
The English Church was born in the sixteenth century out of that revolution in Christianity we call the Protestant Reformation. ibid.
A continuous reinvention of something much older. You can see it in the nation’s plethora of chapels and meeting houses. ibid.
All across the German lands there was growing unhappiness with Catholic Rome ... In 1517 a monk called Martin Luther nailed a list of theological objections to the door of his local church. It sparked the Reformation and a new breakaway religion of Protestantism. Andrew Graham-Dixon, The Art of Germany, BBC 2010
That rich, hugely powerful and profoundly medieval institution the Roman Catholic Church ... Catholic magic was giving way to Protestant pragmatism. Bettany Hughes, Seven Ages of Britain: The Seventh Age: 1530 A.D. – 1700 A.D. Channel 4 2003
But if Elizabeth put out the fires of religious fanaticism, she lit them in the breasts of patriotic Englishmen and women ... The reinstatement of a truly English way ... It was above all a Protestant Englishness ... Now Protestantism and patriotism were one and the same. Simon Schama, A History of Britain s1e6: Burning Convictions, BBC 2000
The [Protestant] Revolution would turn out to be an attack on the very way of life of the people. Michael Wood, The Great British Story: A People’s History e5: Lost Worlds & New Worlds, BBC 2012
Up in the north, in the kingdom of Scotland, the Protestant Reformation unfolded later than in England and Wales. ibid.
There was a link between Protestantism and the rise of Capitalism and Industry. ibid.
The protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism. Max Weber
When I mention religion I mean the Christian religion. And not only the Christian religion but the protestant religion. Henry Fielding, Tom Jones, tutor Mr Thwackum
All Protestantism, even the most cold and passive, is a sort of dissent. But the religion most prevalent in our northern colonies is a refinement on the principle of resistance; it is the dissidence of dissent, and the Protestantism of the Protestant religion. Edmund Burke
For truth’s sake, our Protestantism must protest perpetually ... No peace with Rome. Charles Spurgeon, The Sword and the Trowel, 1873
A Protestant, if he wants aid or advice on any matter, can only go to his solicitor. Benjamin Disraeli, Lothair
The fabric of Christian faith and dogma was torn in pieces and continued to undergo even further schisms. For the first time in its history Christianity starts to come apart. It’s no longer one Catholic church. And for potential disbelievers these disagreements, this sectarianism, was seen as evidence that perhaps none of the dogma might be true. Dr Jonathan Miller, A Rough History of Disbelief, BBC 2004
Germany, 1493, a time of desolation and disease. Where the plague could wipe out entire towns in days. And a quarter of all children died before they were five. In this world there was one great consolation: the Church and its promise of heaven. Martin Luther I: Driven to Defiance PBS 2003
Also corrupt and tyrannical. An empire that would be overturned by one man: Martin Luther. ibid.
The church exerted as much control over life on Earth as it did in Heaven. ibid.
The Black Death had killed almost a half of Europe’s population in the previous hundred years. ibid.
The more his despair the more Luther threw himself into the rituals of the Church. ibid.
The papacy even wielded military power. ibid.
Luther’s trip to Rome had brought only disillusion and doubt. ibid.
Selling Indulgences – charging the faithful for entry into Heaven. ibid.
31st October 1517: Luther sat down and penned a furious litany of criticism. Ninety-five stinging bullet points. ibid.
The thesis would spread like wildfire. ibid.
The penalty for heresy was death. ibid.
The Church’s greatest conflict in its history. ibid.
95 theses – 95 stinging attacks on the mighty Catholic church and its head the Pope. Luther has no idea that with his one gesture he has unleashed a hurricane. A storm of violence that will rage across Europe. Martin Luther II: The Reluctant Revolutionary
Luther was charged with heresy. Only a hundred years before, a man named Huss had criticised the Church for much the same reasons as Luther. ibid.
Luther painted a vivid picture of the financial drain that was Rome. ibid.
Luther and his followers were beginning to see the struggle with Rome was an epic battle with the devil himself. bid.
To set down in detail a whole new system of faith. ibid.
Luther now attacked the very heart of the Church’s power – the system of sacraments. ibid.
In the winter of 1520 Luther finally received the bull of excommunication from Rome. ibid.
A depression that was accompanied by a vivid sense that the devil was haunting him. ibid.