Reformation History

The Catholic Church condemned Martin Luther as a heretic, excommunicated him from the Church and refuted those of his writings that were against the Faith. Ultimately, however, Martin Luther was a symptom to a much larger problem, for had it not been Luther, it would have been someone else. Had Luther not struck at the time he had, he would have just been another heresiarch, but the world was festering at the time, rulers were looking for political leverage to oust the Church, the printing press gave immeasurable power for those that applied its ability to replicate tracts, and a new class of society was looking to firmly establish itself where it could.

At the time, Europe had for a while been influenced by Humanism as well as an emerging middle class that was constantly struggling to forge its own place in the disintegrating feudal system. As the roads became safer and trade and travel increased, many old Greek and Roman texts reemerged from the monasteries and education geared up. Crusaders also brought back from the Holy Land many ancient parchments and works that the Muslims had already recovered and were studying themselves. The culmination of all this change and emergence was the Renaissance. Things began to change and progress so fast that the Church, which always worked very slowly, soon fell behind in addressing those issues that had come to light, both abuses and needs. Many make the sale of indulgences as the big issue, when in fact, it was mostly done by unscrupulous pardoners or slyly promoted by a handful of greedy Church officials and so was a rather petty thing. There were much more pressing matters, such as the relation of the Church to emerging nationalism and the immense political pressures that were surfacing, the threat of the invading Muslims, the loosening of the rubrics, multiplication of religious orders and devotions, challenges of humanistic philosophy against the theology of the Church, etc. The emerging Middle Class brought with it a rebellious streak that saw the desire for power without nobility, wealth without titles, education without responsibility and philosophy without theology. The entire social order was quaking and in the centuries ahead would finally end with revolutions in most every country.

In this time the Church began what has been called the "Counter-Reformation" in order to reinforce the Church and bolster the faithful against the rampant errors and rebellious ideologies that were so popular. The pinnacle of this movement was the Council of Trent, which blasted the errors, streamlined Church doctrine, the sacraments, further defined things to proof them against heresy and boldly set forth a direction for the Church to follow. As a result the Catholic heart of Europe ultimately survived the rippling Protestant revolt, though several nations and the northern regions proved highly susceptible. The Renaissance became harnessed by the Church in order to produce the height of Church architecture, music, art and theological studies and schools became defined and precise. The modern spirit, however, was deep set and there to stay and the Church has been battling with it ever since.

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from

Modern Catholic Dictionary by John A. Hardon, S.J. Doubleday & Co., Inc. Garden City, NY 1980

A period of Catholic revival from 1522 to about 1648, better know as the Catholic Reform. It was an effort to stem the tide of Protestantism by genuine reform within the Catholic Church. There were political movements pressured by civil rules, and ecclesiastical movements carried out by churchmen in an attempt to restore genuine Catholic life by establishing new religious orders such as the Society of Jesus and restoring old orders to their original observances, such as the Carmelites under St. Teresa of Avila (1515-98). The main factors responsible for the Counter Reformation, however, were the papacy and the council of Trent (1545-63). Among church leaders St. Charles Borromeo (1538-84), Archbishop of Milan, enforced the reforms decreed by the council, and St. Francis de Sales of Geneva (1567-1622) spent his best energies in restoring genuine Catholic doctrine and piety. Among civil rulers sponsoring the needed reform were Philip II of Spain (1527-98) and Mary Tudor (1516-58), his wife, in England. Unfortunately this aspect of the reformation led to embitterment between England and Scotland, England and Spain, Poland and Sweden, and to almost two centuries of religious wars. As a result of the Counter Reformation, the Catholic Church became stronger in her institutional structure, more dedicated to the work of evangelization, and more influential in world affairs.

Fissionable material, that is, material with the ability to fission, occurs in some isotopes of heavy elements. The most useful ones are uranium-235 (U-235) and plutonium-239 (Pu-239).

In brief, when fission occurs, an atom of nuclear fuel (and we're talking about the fission of nuclear fuel here) splits. This splitting yields what are called fission fragments, and the atom splits approximately in two. Note that there are several options as regards what the atom splits into. It can split into "A" and "B" or it can split into "C" and "D" or a few other resultants. But regardless, the fission fragments recoil after fission occurs, and most of the energy of this recoil, which is kinetic energy on the atomic scale, is expressed as heat (thermal energy).

The fuel in a reactor, whatever it is, is tightly sealed in a metal jacket ( How_is_energy_released_in_nuclear_fission). The atoms of the fuel are being held rigidly, and when fission occurs, the recoil of the fragments is "contained" in the fuel itself. This mechanical energy gives rise to the appearance of thermal (heat) energy. The lion's share of energy released by fission is carried off in the recoil of the fission fragments, which is kinetic (mechanical) energy. Said another way, the fission fragments can't "go anywhere" in the fuel matrix, and the kinetic energy they come away with after fission is captured in the fuel and appears as heat.

There are also free neutrons released, and they carry off kinetic energy like the fission fragments. These neutrons are slowed down in the moderator to increase the chances that they will be captured by other fuel atoms and cause other fission reactions. They will continue the chain and cause more fissions following neutron capture events. Electromagnetic radiation in the form of gamma rays is also produced in nuclear fission. It must be shielded against. In review, most of the energy of fission appears in the kinetic energy of the fission fragments, and that kinetic energy is converted into heat within the fuel element.

A nuclear reactor is a core made up of an assembly of fuel bundles, which are made of fuel elements, usually using enriched uranium as the nuclear fuel. In the pressurized water reactor, this assembly is inside a How_is_energy_released_in_nuclear_fission, as water is used as the primary coolant, and also the moderator. It can be ordinary water or heavy water. We also see some reactor designs that use graphite as a moderator. Also in the reactor are the control rods.

The primary coolant is the heat transfer medium. It carries heat out of the core and into the steam generator and back to the core in a closed loop. The reactor is made to reach criticality on start up when control rods are pulled. The chain reaction within the fuel will produce a steady power output as a result of nuclear fission, and this will release heat. The heat is used to produce steam in a steam generator, and the steam is feed to a conventional steam turbine/generating unit to generate electric power.

For those investigators attempting to trace the transformations of energy, nuclear energy (the binding energy that holds atomic nuclei together) is converted into electromagnetic and kinetic energy in fission. The electromagnetic energy, which appears as gamma rays, is largely lost as we cannot "capture" and "use" it. The kinetic energy (mechanical energy) of the fission fragments is converted into thermal energy (heat) because the fission products are "trapped" in the fuel matrix and cannot "fly free" as they would in air. The thermal energy created in the fuel bundles heats the fuel, and the primary coolant picks up that heat and transports it to a steam generator. The steam generator turns secondary water into steam, and the steam is piped to a turbine. The thermal energy of the steam is converted into mechanical energy in the turbine, and the mechanical energy is transferred into a generator. The generator converts the mechanical energy into electrical (electromagnetic) energy, and that is the useful product we derive from nuclear fission.

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Sinn Féin candidates were elected in 73 constituencies but four party candidates (Arthur Griffith, Éamon de Valera, Eoin MacNeill and Liam Mellows) were elected for two constituencies and so the total number of individual Sinn Féin MPs elected was 69. Despite the isolated allegations of intimidation and electoral fraud on the part of both Sinn Féin supporters and its Unionist opponents, the election was seen as a landslide victory for Sinn Féin.

The proportion of votes cast for Sinn Féin, namely 46.9% of votes for 48 "first past the post" seats won in the 80 constituencies it contested, is understated by the fact that 25 candidates in some of its strongest support bases were unopposed, reducing its real support level in these constituencies from a possible level of 80pc.[citation needed] This is close to the total level of enjoyed by Sinn Féin's three major breakaway parties after partition. Labour who had pulled out in the south under instructions 'to wait' polled better in Belfast than Sinn Féin.[2]

The party returned with the second largest number of seats was the Irish Unionist Party with 22 seats. The success of the Unionists who won 26 seats in total[3] was largely limited to Ulster, however. In the rest of Ireland Southern Unionists were elected only in the constituencies of the University of Dublin and Rathmines. None the less Unionists won 23 seats out of Ulster's 37 seats, having only had a minority previously.

Predestination was one of the beliefs held by John Calvin, one of the leaders of the Reformation.

Read more: What_is_The_relationship_between_the_reformation_and_predestination

"Doctor Evangelicus".

He is also often called 'The morning star of the Reformation' due to the positions he took against some of the Roman Catholic doctrines, as well as his Bible translation work. He sought to give the Bible to the common people in their own language, one major reason for which being so they could see for themselves how certain teachings were against God's word.

The Theses were nailed to the door of the cathedral by Martin Luther. It was common practice in that time to spark discussions about topics or to publicly communicate by posting a notice on the door. Luther had no idea what a huge outcry would result from his Theses posting. Martin Luther never intended to leave the church; he just wanted a few things changed, such as selling indulgences. So when everyone got upset, Luther was quite surprised and appalled. The Bishop in his town demanded Martin Luther come and defend himself to the Bishop, and Martin went and defended his ideas.