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→Competing religious ideas: Remove repetitive sentence. (Also, the sentence strawman's the Catholic position, so not suitable for encyclopedia in this form.) |
→Competing religious ideas: Faith versus good works is a false opposition, and not Luther's position: he knew the Catholic position was faith with works. (However, he reduced one to the other.) |
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Some [[Renaissance humanists]], such as [[Erasmus]] (who lived in England for a time), [[John Colet]] and [[Thomas More]], called for a return ''[[ad fontes]]'' ("back to the sources") of Christian faith—the scriptures as understood through textual, linguistic, classical and patristic scholarship{{Sfn|Marshall|2017|pp=29–32}}—and wanted to make the Bible available in the vernacular. Humanists criticised so-called [[superstitious]] practices and clerical corruption, while emphasising inward piety over religious ritual. Some of the early Protestant leaders went through a humanist phase before embracing the new movement.{{Sfn|Ryrie|2017|p=69}} A notable early use of the English word "reformation" came in 1512, when the English bishops were called together by King [[Henry VIII]], notionally to discuss the extirpation of the rump Lollard heresy. John Colet (then working with Erasmus on the establishment of his school) gave a [[John_Colet#Colet's_convocation_sermon_(1512)|notoriously confrontational sermon]] on Romans 12:2 ''Be ye not conformed to this world, but be ye reformed in the newness of your minds...'' saying that the first to reform must be the bishops themselves, then the clergy, and only then the laity.<ref name=Seebohm>{{cite book |last1=Seebohm |first1=Frederic |title=The Oxford Reformers. John Colet, Erasmus and Thomas More |date=1869 |publisher=Longmans, Green and Co |edition=3rd |url=https://reformationchurch.org.uk/book_oxford-reformers_seebohm.php}}</ref>{{rp|250}}
The [[Reformation|Protestant Reformation]] was initiated by the German monk [[Martin Luther]]. By the early 1520s, Luther's views were known and disputed in England.{{Sfn|MacCulloch|1996|p=27}} The main plank of [[Theology of Martin Luther|Luther's theology]] was [[sola fide|justification by faith alone]] rather than by faith with good works. In other words, justification is a gift from God received through [[Faith in Christianity|faith]].{{Sfn|Hefling|2021|p=96}}
If Luther was correct, then the Mass, the sacraments, charitable acts, [[Prayer to saints|prayers to saints]], prayers for the dead, [[Christian pilgrimage|pilgrimage]], and the veneration of [[relic]]s do not mediate divine favour. To believe otherwise would be superstition at best and [[idolatry]] at worst.{{Sfn|Hefling|2021|p=97}}{{Sfn| Marshall | 2017 | p = 126}} Early Protestants portrayed Catholic practices such as confession to priests, [[Clerical celibacy (Catholic Church)|clerical celibacy]], and requirements to [[Fasting and abstinence in the Catholic Church|fast]] and keep [[Religious vows|vows]] as burdensome and spiritually oppressive. Not only did purgatory lack any biblical basis according to Protestants, but the clergy were also accused of leveraging the fear of purgatory to make money from prayers and masses. The Catholics countered that justification by faith alone was a "licence to sin".{{Sfn|Marshall|2017|p=146}}
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