Reformation Quiz

By Dr. Clark Armstrong

This month is the 500^th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation.  We have enjoyed several reflections in the past two weeks, but now let’s take a simple five question quiz about the Reformation to see what has been learned so far?

Click here to take the quiz online: Reformation Quiz

#1 – The start of the Protestant Reformation occurred when?

1. The Gutenberg Bible was produced off the first printing press.
2. Martin Luther nailed his Ninety-Five Theses on the Castle Door at Wittenberg.
3. John Hus was burned at the stake in Bohemia.
4. John Calvin wrote “Institutes of the Christian Religion.”

#2 – The Reformation began on October 31 of what year?

1. 1415
2. 1452
3. 1517
4. 1536

#3 – The Protestant Reformation began as an attempt to reform what?

1. The Roman Catholic Church
2. The European Monarchies
3. Certain Universities and Educational Institutions
4. The Middle Earth Peoples.

#4 – True or False.

The Reformers opposed what they perceived as false doctrines and ecclesiastical malpractice — especially the teaching and the sale of indulgences (or the abuses thereof) and doctrinal policies about purgatory, particular judgment, Mariology (devotion to Mary, Jesus’s Mother), the intercession of and devotion to the saints, wrong beliefs about most of the sacraments, the mandatory clerical celibacy, including monasticism, the unbridled authority of the Pope and the practice of simony: the selling and buying of clerical offices.

#5 – Which of the following was a prominent point of the reformers?

1. Sola Scriptura (Scripture alone as our source of authority.)
2. Sola Fide (Salvation is by faith alone and not by works.)
3. The Priesthood of All Believers
4. All of the above.

Bonus Question:

The Reformation continued until the Treaty of Westphalia brought the European religious wars to an official end in what year?

1. 1492
2. 1525
3. 1597
4. 1648

You probably correctly answered the majority of the first five questions. So what about the Bonus Question? It was 1648. That event signaled the end of the Reformation through the peaceful ending of what was called the Thirty Years war between the Habsburgs and their Catholic allies and the Protestants with their French allies.

The Catholic Church was not reformed, per se, by that date, but the Protestant churches were fully established by then.  After Luther, many other reformers came who extended the reformation attempt. But by 1648, it was clear that all attempts to reform the Catholic Church had not been successful and the severance of the protesters from the church was complete. They had established Protestant Churches that were independent from the Mother Church and were thriving in most parts of Europe except Italy.

Click here if you want to download the quiz (in PowerPoint format): Reformation Quiz PPT

*Dr. Clark Armstrong is a Missionary Professor at Asia-Pacific Nazarene Theological Seminary in Manila, Philippines where he has served with his wife Connie since September 2013. Previously he served as a pastor for 32 years in the United States.