It's a wonder that so many different groups of worshippers stemmed from the same few basic beliefs. Yet that's the story of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. One pair of denominations in particular is very closely related - Lutheranism and Calvinism - and they played a huge part in European society in the early sixteenth century. While Protestantism as we know it was basically created by the similar ideas of Martin Luther and John Calvin, it was split into two sects by their differing opinions on certain matters.
Out of the Catholic faith and new Christian humanistic ideas came the basis for the Reformation. Both Lutherans and Calvinists kept only two of the seven holy Catholic sacraments: communion and baptism. They also shared similar beliefs about these sacraments. For example, both groups thought that the spirit of Jesus was contained in the bread and wine that were His body and blood for communion. They each relied on the Holy Bible as the sole authority for all religious matters and used it as a basis for their churches. But the similarities were still few and far between, and the weight of the differences much greater. It was the last of these that truly left the greatest impression.
Luther rested many of his theories on the foundation of something he called "justification by faith". This was his belief that souls may be granted salvation only by putting faith in God and awaiting his grace and mercy. Good works were done only out of gratitude for our heavenly father, and neither performing them nor buying indulgences could earn you a place in heaven. Another big Lutheran concept was that of a "priesthood of all believers", where the word of God in the Bible was all the authority needed in religious affairs. Therefore, priests as known in the Catholic Church were done away with because every Christian who followed the Bible was their own priest. These three concepts were the roots of Lutheranism and were not found in Calvinism.
