The Magisterial Reformation was an element of the Protestant Reformation led by Martin Luther and many others. The Magisterial Reformation connected the visible Christian church with society as a whole, as the Roman Catholic Church had before, thus imposing on the government and magistrates Christian duties, such as supporting the new churches economically and weighing in on issues of doctrine.

Characteristics

Like the Roman Catholics and unlike the more Radical Protestants, the Magisterial Reformation did not abandon the idea of the "Church visible" as distinct from the "Church invisible." The reformers of the Evangelical (Lutheran) and the Reformed (Zwinglian and Calvinist) Protestant movements wanted to substitute their own learned elite for the learned elite of the Roman Catholic Church.