The Beginnings of the Reformation in England

During the mid to late 13^th century the Christian world witnesses the beginning of the end of the then long standing traditional Christian church. Beginning largely with the "Great Schism" which lasted from 1378-1417 there arises over the next few centuries, and really continuing to this day, within the church many rifts and divisions of thought and perhaps even more importantly-questions; questions about the legitimacy of papal power, right, dominion, and even moral character. These questions then magnified under the lens of the newly rediscovered Aristotelian scholastic method led the Christian world to a crisis.

A crisis that carried not only political and intellectual implications, but also theological quandaries that threatened to, and eventually succeeded in, completely changing the traditional doctrine of the medieval church. For some, like Martin Luther and William Tyndale, this change came as a complete upheaval and reformation of the existing church, essentially throwing out the old and ushering in a new doctrine. For others such as Desiderius Esrasmus Rotterdamnus, Sir Thomas More, and Henry VIII this change was more subtle, calling, not for the reformation of the church, but rather a renewal of the church in which much would be changed but the essential doctrine would remain the same. These opposing views, the questions, doctrines, and ideas they brought with them came to be known as the Reformatio/Renovatio question.