What were the major effects of the Protestant Reformation?

Answer 1

Roman Catholic AnswerI would say that there were some outstanding, very long lasting effects that including the shattering of the unity of the Body of Christ, and the denial of the ordinary means of salvation to generations of people who have been raised in good faith. Worse is the fact that they have spent nearly five hundred years trying to justify what happened all that time ago, which the current result of millions of people brought up believing in Our Blessed Lord by denying the basic need to accept and live the faith. The Bible has been mutilated, and the Bible studies that have proliferated for the wrong interpretation of that Bible, outside of the Church that Our Blessed Lord founded have multiplied along with the currently over 30,000 denominations - each believing something just a little bit different than the other over what "the Bible" actually means.

Answer 2

The downfall of the stranglehold that the church gad over what was considered the truth and what was from then on open to be referred to as the truth. It was not so much that the competition in theological doctrine was any more truthful it is just that now people out side of the church were free at last to speak out on philosophy science and any number of subjects that were considered taboo.

Answer 3

The Bible was translated into national tongues, so that people could actually understand what the Masses were on about. Before the reformation the Bible and masses were solely in latin. It brought the Bible to the people.

The reformation helped education, it also helped to axe inherent abuses which existed within the current church and erased an amount of the mysticism which existed.. it also lead to an onus on sermons which taught people what the different parts of the bible were about.

There are many more effects, but there are the main ones that i can think of

Roman Catholic AnswerThe principle effects of the protestant revolt were a disaster for the salvation of souls and the unity of Christianity:

from A Catholic Dictionary, edited by Donald Attwater, Second edition, revised 1957

the true reform of the Church "in head and members" effected by the Council of Trent and the revivification of Catholicism so thoroughly achieved that it remains vital to this day (The Counter-reformation); the putting of countless souls, notably in Great Britain, Scandinavia and the German parts of the Empire, in enmity to the Church and consequently outside those means provided by Christ for man to know and attain to God; the disappearance of any "higher unity" holding together the diverse peoples and nations of Europe, the inoculation of men with naturalistic and humanitarian (as opposed to theocentric) philosophy which is now the chiefest enemy of Christianity.

Contrary to popular modern propaganda the Bible had already been translated into native languages before the revolt, and the Catholic Church had been the founder and main supporter of what has become modern education, with the Churches and the religious (such as the Benedictine monks) establishing hundreds of schools and colleges for centuries.