The Reformed tradition is one of four major Christian traditions which broke away from the Roman Catholic Church during the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century.

The Four Protestant Traditions

Lutheran
Martin Luther (1484-1546) was originally an Augustinian monk who struggled with the notion of how a God of judgment could ever forgive such a sinner as himself. Eventually, Luther found consolation while teaching Scripture at the university in Wittenberg. Particularly in his study of Paul’s letters, Luther began to reinterpret God’s judgment through the doctrine of justification by faith.

However, when he nailed his 95 theses to the door in Wittenberg in 1517, he was not yet trying to reform the church according to this doctrine. Rather, he was primarily challenging the sale of indulgences, but the hierarchy of the Church interpreted the theses as an attack on the Church’s authority, setting in motion a chain of events which would lead to Luther’s break from Rome.

By 1521, Luther was pushing for a break with Rome based on the theological motto of “justification by faith.” The Lutheran movement that followed would be most influential in Germany and Scandinavia, and today these are the "traditional" Lutheran countries, though the United States and Canada contain a relatively large number of Lutherans as well due to immigration from Germany and Scandinavia.

Reformed
While the Reformation was going on in Germany, another Reformation began in Zurich, Switzerland, under the leadership of Ulrich Zwingli (1484-1531), who was a contemporary of Martin Luther. However, this tradition grew much stronger under the leadership of John Calvin (1509-1564), a second generation Reformer. Calvin, a Frenchman, made his way to Switzerland after embracing both Lutheran and humanist ideas. He spent much of his career in Geneva as a theologian and pastor.

Much of Reformed theology revolves around Calvin's theology, and much of the backbone of his theology rested on the juxtaposition between the sinfulness of humanity and the grace of God.

The "traditional" Reformed countries that arose from the Reformation include Switzerland, Scotland, and the Netherlands, though the Reformed tradition would manage either to influence or establish communities in Germany, England, France, Poland, and Hungary, to name a few. Through the Puritans who came to the New World from England, the Reformed tradition would also manage to have a tremendous influence on many of the churches in the early history of the United States.

Anglican
In England, the Reformation had its roots in Henry VIII's (1491-1547) struggle with the Roman Catholic Church over how to divorce his wife and remarry in order to have a male heir to his throne.

The Reformation at first was very conservative in England, with the King becoming the head of the Church. It would take some years before the Reformation would build up steam and embrace some of the more widespread Protestant ideals, though in the early years of the Reformation in England, Thomas Cranmer (1489-1556) aided Henry VIII and the Church of England greatly in its reforming efforts.

Historically, countries with a significant presence of Anglican churches are those countries who have had close ties with England, often through colonization. In addition to England, these countries today include the United States (the Episcopal Church), Canada, Australia, the West Indies, New Zealand, and South Africa, to name a few.

Anabaptist
This movement developed in response to the theology of Luther and Zwingli, and was led by figures such as Conrad Grebel and Thomas Muntzer.

The Anabaptists simply felt that the these Protestant leaders had not gone far enough in their Reformation of the Church. They sought to make church life and practices comply to New Testament teachings as much as possible. Among their primary doctrines were believer's baptism, non-participation in the government, and pacifism.

Unlike the other three traditions, the Anabaptists were not embraced by any one particular nation, probably because their doctrines were quite radical for their day. Further, this is the only one of the four traditions that did not survive the Reformation to any large extent. One of the few Christian groups still in existence today who descend directly from the Anabaptists of the Reformation are the Mennonites, though their theology has been modified somewhat in modern times.