The Background of American Religion

Introduction
Henry III of England (1509-1547) refused Catherine of Aragon because Catherin had no son but a daughter, Mary. (Later, Mary returned from Italy and killed hundreds of protestants when she became the queen of England.) Henry III remarried to Catherin Parr, who later became the mother of Elizabath. So, based on his adulthood, the Roman Catholic Pope excommunicated him. He gained the support from English parliment and became the headquarter of the Roman Catholic Church in England, which church later became the Church of England.

The Roman Catholic Church
By 1447, Popes had a great power in the North of Italy. Few people own the Bible because the printing was yet not to exist. Including the popes, the Christians did not read the Bible. Till the technic of printing came to exist in Glutenberg in 1455, the religion history in Europe changed. Began from the scholars, the clergys, and the popes, the Christians began to challenge the question about the salvation.

The Rise of Luther's Church
As printing became popular, Martin Luther, like many fortunate scholars, had the chances to read the Holy Scriptures. Luther learned about that the salvation required a close relationship between a man and God; and accordingly, Indulgence was the paper of non-scense. He wrote his discovery into the 95 theses, and he posted them on the walls of a church in Germany. Some agreed and some disagree with the 95 theses; so, people brought Luther to the Roman Catholic Church in Italy to be judged. Protestant means those that disagreed with the Roman Catholic Church. The Protestant spread all over the Europe since Luther was not found quilty. Being returned from Rome, Luther wrote letters to the churches: only 2 sacrement were requried, the baptizing and the communication. And the letters to the prists were about that the faith alone was required. And to the Christians, he said, the pristhood was made by oneself, his or her own.
Zwingli agreed with Luther on the aspect of Liturgy that any artificial movement by the popes or the church was unacceptable
John Knox, the father of Presbyterian, in following Calvinist, believed that only a limited numbers of the members in church were chosen. John Calvin believed in his predestin, or called TUNIP, 1st, all men sin. 2nd, a savior had died for our sins. 3rd, the numbers of the chosen ones were limited. 4th, irresisable grace from God that one will be saved no matter what he or she does. 5th, like the city of Zion, a Christian life must be visible to the public.
As the 95 theses were made known to the public, the peasants revolted in Germany; and Luther sent troops to supress the revolt. As a result, the unsuccessful peasants turned to anabaptist for solution. Anabaptist is a belief that baptizing was not required for salvation, for the reason that some protestant churches believed only a limit number of the members in the churches were to be saved and the prists refused to give them baptizing). The Church of Luther continued its tradition till today, and in many ways the Church of Luther and the Roman Catholic Church are similar.

The Religion in America
From the side of Catholic, the Conter Reformation by Ferdinate and Isabella genes: Francisco, Dominion, and Jesuit in America.
From the side of Church of England (or called, Arminion), the Protestant genes: Puritan, and the seperalist, which is the Piligrims in Americans. The numbers of Piligrims were few, and Piligrims were melt into the religious group of Puritan when they came to America.
So, by the time of American Revolution, several religions had co-existed in America: Anabaptism, a believing about the free willing. Francisco. Dominion. Jesuit. Arminion. Calvinist. Presbyterian, whose father was John Knox. Puritan. Piligrims. Evangelic cames to the America late because a personal relationship with God was an idea from Luther and it did not reach to America till Methodist came to the America shortly before the American Independence in the middle of the eighteenth century (Gaustad 95).

Works Cited
Edwin S. Gaustad et al. The Religious Hisotry of America (Sanfrancisco: Harper, 2002)