Catholic Sacraments

BaptismConfirmation

EucharistPenance (confession)

Last RitesHoly OrdersMatrimony

Lutheran and Anglican Sacraments

• Baptism• Eucharist

Calvinist Sacraments

• Baptism• Eucharist

Transubstantiation (meaning change of substance)

• Catholic Church: The bread and wine at mass literally, materially transforms into the body and blood of Christ

• Protestant Churches: The bread and wine symbolically transform into the body and blood of Christ (note, there are however theological differences within each Protestant faith)

The three main religions of of Britain and Ireland in the 16th c.

• Catholicism: most people in Ireland, who live outside the British colonial outpost, remain Catholic

• Anglicanism: this is the new state religion of England, it becomes the official religion of the King and his subjects after Henry VIII’s Act of Supremacy, 1534

• Calvinism: this anti-authoritarian religion grows strongest in Scotland

Catholicism

• Dominates most of Europe• Controlled by the Pope in Rome• Is supported by most European kings, emperors,

etc.• Believes in traditional practices: masses,

pilgrimages, indulgences, transubstantiation• Wealthiest and most powerful institution in Europe• Still has a very strong presence in the uncolonised

majority of Ireland

Anglicanism (Church of England)

• Rejects the political power of the Pope, and invests this power in the English Monarch

• Only holds power in Britain and the colonial settlements in Ireland

• Does not have the support of most European leaders• Maintains many Catholic traditions, but takes a lot of

influence from Luther’s Protestant theology: notable, it rejects traditional practices, church decoration, and promotes reading the Bible

• Derives riches and power from the dissolution of the monasteries

Act of Supremacy 1534

• Establishes Henry VIII as the leader of a new Anglican faith.

• The monarch is the supreme head of the English Church

• Includes the Oath of Supremacy: all citizens must accept the king as the head of the church

• The new church is known as the Anglican Church or Church of England

Calvinism

• A powerful protestant movement all over Europe• Has a strong presence in Scotland, and is

considered threatening by the British establishment• Calls for radical reforms in religion and society• Denounces hierarchies, religious and social• Denounces all of the old traditions of the Catholic

church that are not mentioned in the Bible. • Believes in predestination: only the ‘elect’ will be

saves

Other Reformist sects

• Many other small groups form their own Protestant theologies, often calling for radical social and political reform

• These are often viewed with suspicion by the Anglican establishment, but are preferable to Catholicism