reformation

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. The act of reforming or the state of being reformed.
2. n. A 16th-century movement in Western Europe that aimed at reforming some doctrines and practices of the Roman Catholic Church and resulted in the establishment of the Protestant churches.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. The act of forming anew; a second forming in order: as, the reformation of a column of troops into a hollow square.
2. n. The act of reforming what is defective or evil, or the state of being reformed; correction or amendment, as of life or manners, or of a government.
3. n. Specifically, with the definite article The great religious revolution in the sixteenth century, which led to the establishment of the Protestant churches. The Reformation assumed different aspects and resulted in alterations of discipline or doctrine more or less fundamental in different countries and in different stages of its progress. Various reformers of great influence, as Wyclif and Huss, had appeared before the sixteenth century, but the Reformation proper began nearly simultaneously in Germany under the lead of Luther and in Switzerland under the lead of Zwingli. The chief points urged by the Reformers were the need of justification by faith, the use and authority of the Scriptures and the right of private judgment in their interpretation, and the abandonment of the doctrine of transubstantiation, the adoration of the Virgin Mary and saints, the supremacy of the Pope, and various other doctrines and rites regarded by the reformers as unscriptural. In the German Reformation the leading features were the publication at Wittenberg of Luther's ninety-five theses against indulgences in 1517, the excommunication of Luther in 1520, his testimony before the Diet of Worms in 1521, the spread of the principles in many of the German states, as Hesse, Saxony, and Brandenburg, and the opposition to them by the emperor, the Diet and Confession of Augsburg in 1530, and the prolonged struggle between the Protestants and the Catholics, ending with comparative religious equality in the Peace of Passau in 1552. The Reformation spread in Switzerland unde.. Zwingli and Calvin, in France, Hungary, Bohemia, the Scandinavian countries, Low Countries, etc. In Scotland it was introduced bv Knox about 1560. In England it led in the reign of Henry VIII. to the abolition of the papal supremacy and the liberation from papal control of the Church of England, which, after a short Roman Catholic reaction under Mary, was firmly established under Elizabeth. In many countries the Reformation occasioned an increased strength and zeal in the Roman Catholic Church sometimes called the Counter-Reformation. The term Reformation as applied to this movement is not of course accepted by Roman Catholics, who use it only with some word of qualification.
4. n. Synonyms Amendment, Reform, Reformation. Amendment may be of any degree, however small; reform applies to something more thorough, and reformation to that which is most important, thorough, and lasting of all. Hence, when we speak of temperance reform, we dignify it less than when we call it temperance reformation. Moral reform, religious reformation; temporary amendment or reform, permanent reformation. Reform represents the state more often than reformation.

Wiktionary

1. n. An improvement (or an intended improvement) in the existing form or condition of institutions or practices etc.; intended to make a striking change for the better in social or political or religious affairs.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. The act of reforming, or the state of being reformed; change from worse to better; correction or amendment of life, manners, or of anything vicious or corrupt.
2. n. Specifically (Eccl. Hist.), the important religious movement commenced by Luther early in the sixteenth century, which resulted in the formation of the various Protestant churches.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a religious movement of the 16th century that began as an attempt to reform the Roman Catholic Church and resulted in the creation of Protestant churches
2. n. rescuing from error and returning to a rightful course
3. n. improvement (or an intended improvement) in the existing form or condition of institutions or practices etc.; intended to make a striking change for the better in social or political or religious affairs