50 Fun Facts About Protestantism

The Reformation is usually dated from which year, when Luther published the Ninety-five Theses?

He was a professor of moral theology at Wittenberg protesting the sale of indulgences.

The first people to be called Protestants issued a protest against the edict of which 1529 assembly?

Six princes and fourteen free cities signed; the word stayed a German political term for decades.

Martin Luther was born in 1483 in which German town?

He also died there in 1546, still formally excommunicated.

Before his break with Rome, Luther belonged to which religious order?

He entered the monastery at Erfurt in 1505 after a lightning bolt struck near him in a thunderstorm.

Luther's Ninety-five Theses attacked which church practice?

Indulgences purported to remit the temporal punishment of sins for their purchaser.

Which pope excommunicated Luther in January 1521?

He had demanded in 1520 that Luther renounce all his writings.

At which 1521 assembly did Emperor Charles V condemn Luther as an outlaw?

The resulting edict called him a notorious heretic and let anyone kill him without legal consequence.

In which castle did Luther hide and translate the New Testament into German?

He called it his Patmos; the translation helped create standard German.

Luther's wife Katharina von Bora had been what before their marriage?

The marriage set the model for Protestant clergy to marry.

The name Lutheran was first used as an insult by which opponent at the 1519 Leipzig Debate?

Luther himself wanted his followers called simply Christian or Evangelical.

Who was the principal author of the 1530 Augsburg Confession?

It remains the primary Lutheran confession of faith and sits fourth in the Book of Concord.

The 1555 Peace of Augsburg let rulers choose between Roman Catholicism and which confession?

The settlement collapsed in the early 17th century, helping to cause the Thirty Years' War.

Which event at a Zurich printer's workshop in 1522 is considered the start of the Swiss Reformation?

Zwingli and a dozen others deliberately broke the Lenten fast with two smoked sausages.

Luther and Zwingli met at the Marburg Colloquy but could not agree on what?

They agreed on most other points; the 1529 meeting is remembered for its failure.

Which reformer died on the battlefield in 1531 when Catholic cantons attacked Zurich?

His alliance had tried a food blockade on the Catholic cantons; they struck back at Kappel.

John Calvin led the Reformation in which city?

William Farel recruited him there in 1536, the year the Institutes first appeared in Basel.

Calvin was born in 1509 in Noyon, a town in which French province?

His birth name was Jehan Cauvin; he fled to Basel after violence against French Protestants.

What is the title of Calvin's seminal work of theology?

The first edition came out in 1536 and he revised it for the rest of his life.

Which Spaniard was burned at the stake in 1553 after Calvin denounced his view of the Trinity?

Catholics and Protestants alike regarded him as a heretic; the city council carried out the sentence.

Which Protestant tradition teaches double predestination?

Lutheranism affirms election to salvation but denies predestination to damnation; Arminians tie election to foreseen faith.

Presbyterianism takes its name from what?

Presbyters sit in representative assemblies; most churches trace to the Church of Scotland.

Which Scottish reformer spent 1547 to 1549 as a prisoner rowing in French galleys?

He was captured at St Andrews castle and went on to lead the Scottish Reformation of 1560.

The Church of England renounced papal authority in which year?

Henry VIII's Acts of Supremacy made him Supreme Head after Clement VII refused to annul his marriage.

Which archbishop declared Henry VIII's marriage to Catherine of Aragon void in 1533?

Cranmer went on to write the 1549 Book of Common Prayer.

The first Book of Common Prayer was published in 1549 under which king?

It was the first prayer book with complete English services; the 1662 edition is still official.

The Church of England's defining doctrinal statement, finalised in 1571, contains how many articles?

Cranmer's Forty-two Articles of 1552 were the earlier version.

About how many adherents does the Anglican Communion have?

That makes Anglicanism the second-largest Protestant grouping after the Pentecostal denominations.

William Tyndale was executed in 1536 near Brussels by which method?

His New Testament was the first English Scripture drawn directly from Greek and Hebrew.

Which bishop bought up Tyndale's 1526 New Testaments and burned them in public?

Only three copies of the first edition survive; thousands were smuggled into England.

The King James Version of the Bible was published in which year?

James commissioned it at the 1604 Hampton Court Conference, wanting no anti-monarchist notes like the Geneva Bible's.

The Huguenots were French Protestants of which tradition?

They were perhaps 10 per cent of France before the 1572 massacre and led by Jeanne d'Albret and her son, the future Henry IV.

The St Bartholomew's Day massacre of Huguenots began days after which event in Paris?

Margaret of Valois married the Protestant Henry of Navarre; estimates of the dead run from 5,000 to 30,000.

Which king signed the Edict of Nantes granting Huguenots rights in 1598?

His grandson Louis XIV revoked it with the Edict of Fontainebleau in 1685, triggering a mass exodus.

The Westminster Confession of Faith was drawn up by an assembly in which year?

It was meant for the Church of England but became the Church of Scotland's subordinate standard.

How many passengers did the Mayflower carry to America in 1620?

A second ship, Speedwell, proved unseaworthy; only half the Pilgrims survived the first winter at Plymouth.

Anabaptists set out their beliefs in a 1527 statement of faith named after which Swiss village?

The Amish, Hutterites and Mennonites all descend from the early Anabaptist movement.

The Mennonites take their name from which Frisian cleric?

They are one of the historic peace churches; his church still continues in the Netherlands.

The Amish began with a 1693 schism led by whom?

The split happened among Swiss and Alsatian Mennonites; the US Amish population passed 400,000 in 2024.

Quakers got their name after founder George Fox told a judge to do what?

Members call each other Friends, refuse oaths and historically refused to fight.

Baptists are distinguished by baptising only believers by what method?

The tradition grew from John Smyth's exiled Gainsborough congregation in Amsterdam.

The Southern Baptist Convention split from northern Baptists in 1845 over what issue?

It organised in Augusta, Georgia, and apologised for its racial positions in 1995.

Methodism derives from the teachings of which Anglican cleric?

The name mocked the methodical piety of his Oxford Holy Club; the movement now has about 50 million adherents.

At a Moravian meeting in 1738, Wesley felt his heart 'strangely warmed' in which London street?

Methodists celebrate the anniversary on 24 May as Aldersgate Day.

Who preached 'Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God' at Enfield, Connecticut, in 1741?

A leader of the First Great Awakening, he died of a smallpox inoculation soon after becoming president at Princeton.

In 1900 which evangelist began teaching that speaking in tongues was the evidence of Spirit baptism?

His Bethel Bible School near Topeka taught Seymour, who led the Azusa Street Revival.

The Azusa Street Revival that launched global Pentecostalism began in 1906 in which city?

William Seymour led it from a dilapidated two-storey building at 312 Azusa Street.

Worldwide Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity numbers over how many adherents?

Classical Pentecostals alone top 279 million and it is thought the fastest-growing religious movement.

Billy Graham hosted his evangelistic 'crusades' from 1947 until his retirement in which year?

He insisted on integrated audiences from 1953 and was close to Eisenhower, Johnson and Nixon.

Which sociologist coined the term Protestant work ethic in a 1905 book?

The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism tied Calvinist asceticism to the rise of capitalism.

Which of the five solae means 'by faith alone'?

The Reformers stated only sola fide and sola gratia clearly; the set of five was assembled in the 20th century.