Unit 4
Protest and Reform
Beginning in the sixteenth century, large numbers of Christians began to protest certain abuses in the Church. Many of the reasons for protest were justified, but the way these Protestant reformers went about reform led to division and schism in the Church. While there have been certain rifts in the Church since the time of the Apostles, the split between East and West and the Reformation were unprecedented. The division of Christians is a tragedy that is caused by sin. The Catechism calls schisms and separations “ruptures that wound the unity of Christ’s Body” (817). The Church responded to the errors of the Protestant Reformation by calling the Council of Trent, which led to a period of great reform in the Church called the Counter Reformation.