to stand trial, and in 1520 publicly burned the papal bull excommunicating him from the Church. Luther’s ideas were supported by representatives of various estates in Germany. Emboldened by this support, he develops increasingly radical arguments against the official Catholic creed. The main argument of the whole Lutheran doctrine is aimed at destroying the power of the Church. He rejects the special grace of the Holy-

stva and his mediation in the salvation of the soul, does not recognize the papal authority. Together with the Catholic hierarchy, they rejected the authority of the papal bulls (decrees) and encyclicals (Epistles), which were part of the content of the Holy Tradition.

In contrast to the dominance of the Church hierarchy and sacred Tradition, Luther put forward the slogan of restoring the traditions of the early Christian Church and the authority of the Bible-Holy Scripture.

In medieval Catholicism, only priests had the right to read the Bible and interpret its contents. The Bible was published in Latin and all worship was in this language. Luther translated the Bible into German and every believer had the opportunity to get acquainted with its text and interpret it according to their own understanding.

Luther rejected the domination of the Church hierarchy over secular power and put forward the idea of subordination of the Church to the state. These ideas were particularly close to some German sovereigns, who were dissatisfied with the concentration of land and wealth in the Church, the payment of large sums of money to the popes, and the interference of the Pope in their politics. A group of German princes carried out reforms in their domains in the spirit of Lutheran ideas. In 1526, the Speer Reichstag, at the request of the German Lutheran princes, passed a decree on the right of each German Prince to choose a religion for himself and his subjects. However the second Speer Reich-

Stagg repealed this decree in 1529. In response, 5 princes and 14 Imperial cities formed a so – called Protest-a protest against the majority of the Reichstag. This event is connected with the origin of the term “Protestantism”, which began to be used to refer to the totality of faiths of Christianity in its origin associated with the reformation.

The reformation had a number of currents. With the first of them, which was headed by M. Luther-Lutheranism, we have already briefly met. The second current was headed by Thomas munzer. Munzer began his reform work as a supporter and follower of Luther. Later, however, munzer adopted more radical positions both on religious and socio-political issues. Munzer’s religious teachings are dominated by mystical motives, he opposes the Church hierarchy, Orthodox theological teachings, ” sa-

of the self-confident Pharisees, bishops, and scribes, “and contrasts them with the direct” faith of the heart.” In his opinion, in order to find the true truth, man must break with his sinful nature, feel the spirit of Christ in himself, and turn from godless wisdom to the highest divine wisdom. The source of truth for man, according to Munzer, is the Holy Spirit working in the human soul.

From Luther’s postulate of equality between laymen and clergymen munzer concludes that-

all the sons of God. And this meant the demand for civil equality and the elimination of at least the most significant property differences. Thus, munzer came up with the idea of social justice, for equalizing or collective land use. Munzer’s ideal was to build the Kingdom of God on Earth. Under this slogan, an uprising broke out, and the Peasant war began in Germany (1524-1525). This war ended with the defeat of the rebels and the death of Munzer. Defeated, Munzer’s supporters fled to Holland, England, Bohemia, and Moravia.

In the first half of the sixteenth century, the reformation movement began to spread rapidly beyond Germany. There are separate Lutheran communities in the Scandinavian countries, the Baltic States, France and Poland.

The largest center of the reformation in this period is Switzerland, in particular the cities of Geneva and Qiu-

rikh, in which he acted J. W. Calvin, and Zwingli. J. Calvin laid the main ideas of his religious teaching in two main works: “Instructions in the Christian faith” and “Church regulations”. On the basis of this doctrine there is a special kind of Protestantism – Calvinism.