History of Christianity
The Protestant Reformation may be divided into two distinct but basically simultaneous movements, the Magisterial Reformation and the Radical Reformation.  The Magisterial Reformation involved the alliance of certain theological teachers (Latin: magistri) such as Luther, Huldrych Zwingli, John Calvin, Cranmer, etc. with secular magistrates who cooperated in the reformation of Christendom.  Radical Reformers, besides forming communities outside state sanction, often employed more extreme doctrinal change, such as the rejection of tenants of the Councils of Nicaea and Chalcedon.  Often the division between magisterial and radical reformers was as or more violent than the general Catholic and Protestant hostilities.