After the Reformation, Protestantism not only abolished bishops but also reduced the seven sacraments to two, retaining only baptism and communion.
Besides that, Galvin forbade Protestants from reciting the Rosary, prohibited the worship of the Virgin Mary, and turned Mass into sermons.
A Protestant monk's sermon was like a stew, mixed with humor, jokes, and quips about important figures, while the Mass itself was filled with solemnity.
While insisting on the Bible's absolute authority and opposing papal authority, Protestantism was also establishing its own authority.
Luther had once bestowed upon the Virgin Mary the role of "spiritual mother" to Christians. There were two kinds of believers in the Church: those with spiritual lives and those with worldly lives.
Spiritual believers believed that none of a person's actions could escape God's eyes, that God would fairly reward and punish one's deeds. Rather than acting according to worldly pursuits and opinions, they sought peace of mind and the qualification to ascend to Heaven and gain eternal life after death.
The worldly part belonged to secular life, such as the pursuit of money, fame, and profit, or indulgence in lust.
Martin Luther believed that the Virgin Mary had been conceived without original sin, and that her soul had not been tainted by it.
The secular world questioned this. Without a man's involvement, how could a woman become pregnant? It went against basic biological common sense.
Extreme Roman Catholics said, "Erasmus laid the egg, and Luther hatched it."
The relationship between Luther and Galvin was similar: one laid the egg, the other hatched it.
Erasmus was someone who loved to preserve peace, and the reforms he hoped for were limited to internal reform.
Martin Luther, however, regarded the balance between all the theology of the Middle Ages and the abilities of its propagators, on