Abstract:
The Protestant movement started widespread protests in the 16th century with the slogan of religious reform, especially against the authority of the Pope and the spiritual hierarchy in the Catholic Church. Along with some other factors that had declined the governing power of the Catholic Church and the papal system during the late centuries of the Middle Ages, these protests made the foundation of the thousand-year rule of Western Christianity unstable; so the Catholic Church (religion) was removed from the scene of politics and governance forever. On the other hand, the Protestant movement's emphasis on the slogan of ‘reformations’ strengthens the idea that Protestantism was not against the rule of religion, but tried for its reformation, and specifically tried for a change in the rule of the Pope and the Catholic Church. Using a descriptive -analytical method, this article studies the structure, intellectual foundations and performance of the leaders of the Protestant movement, and explains the hypothesis that the nature of Protestantism and the spirit dominant on its doctrines and slogans entails crisis and chaos, which completely obviates the potential for establishing a religious government.