The Reform Movements of the Early Modern Period

In the early 16th century, this tension between godly and worldly power in the universally dominant Church had begun to show some cracks. The previous century had seen a series of reform movements challenging Church doctrine. Every sacrament and religious order and practice that we've been talking about so far were established as Catholic tradition by Luther's time. That was their dialogue with this fitful resistance to the contradictions inherent in this religious project.