What does protestant mean?
Non-catholic Christian believer. It was founded in the 16th century by Martin Luther in reaction to the ‘spells and smells’ form of worship practised by the catholics, in favour of a simpler style of worship reflected in the style of churches they used, the litany they followed, and most of all an adherence to the scriptures, rather than the Popes/Cardinals’ interpretation. Most controversially they used the Bible in the verncular – rather than the Latin still used by catholics today. Introduced into Britain as the official religion by Henry VIII who founded the Church of England (after he could not obtain a divorce from the Pope). The term covers a wide range of similar religions (Baptists etc) as well as non-conformists. The word originateds from the letters of protest sent by princely followers of Luther who objected to the bans placed on Luthers doctrines by the Pope – the term stuck and has come to mean basically any non-catholic.
