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Protestant Reformation

Protestant Reformation

2 6.5
A 16th-century movement that changes the Roman Catholic Church and leads to new Christian churches
  • noun
  • /ˈprɒtɪstənt ˌrɛfəˈmeɪʃən/
translation icon : Reforma Protestante
  • During the 1550s, the Protestant Reformation swept through Scotland, changing the direction of Scottish nationalism by adding to it a religious dimension.

And with that, the we had the Protestant Reformation, Martin Luther called the printing press God's highest act of grace.

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Examples

  • Martin Luther served as a catalyst of the Protestant Reformation in sixteenth-century Europe.

  • But I encourage you to get to some history prior to the Protestant Reformation.

    Blog text (9)
  • New methods were necessary to combat the impact of the Protestant Reformation.

    Academic text (2000)
  • The Protestant Reformation provided further impetus for these changes.

    Academic text (2006)
  • The Anabaptist faith was one of the more radical belief systems to emerge from the Protestant Reformation.

    Academic text (2016)
  • Coinciding in part with the Protestant Reformation, the Peace of Westphalia further weakened Papal authority throughout much of Europe.

    Academic text (2005)
  • Amish and Mennonite roots can be traced to earlier times, but the Anabaptist faith emerged during the European Protestant Reformation of the 1500s.

    Academic text (2016)
  • The Protestant Reformation led to the establishment of various new Christian denominations.

  • The impact of the Protestant Reformation was felt across Europe, resulting in significant social and political changes.

Synonyms

Reformation
vsProtestant Reformation
14 6.4

A movement in the 1500s to change the Catholic Church that led to Protestant churches

is the more specific name focusing on churches that broke away
religious movement
vsProtestant Reformation
3 3.5

A group of people who try to change beliefs and practices about faith

is the 16th-century case aiming to reform the Roman Catholic Church

Surface Forms

Morphology

Protestant + Reformation

The meaning is directly compositional: 'Protestant' (the branch of Christianity) modifies 'Reformation' (a religious reform movement), so together they denote the reform movement associated with Protestants. This adjectival-noun combination is transparent and cross-linguistically regular, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents can infer the MWE's meaning.

Etymology

Protestant Reformation comes from the words Protestant (people who 'protested' the Church) and Reformation (a push for 'change'). One famous image is Martin Luther nailing his list of complaints to a church door. So the phrase means the 16th-century movement that publicly protested the Roman Catholic Church and led to new Protestant churches.