name, noun ·Moderate ·High school level
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"[…] olde men long nusled in corruption, scorning them that would seeke reformation […]"
"All sorts of legal instruments may be reformed by equity, when the errors, which have been committed in the execution of them, are mutual mistakes or a mistake of one party combined with the fraud of the other. Thus, reformation has been decreed of all kinds of deeds of conveyance, including leases, mortgages, deeds of trust, marriage and family settlements. Likewise, bonds of all kinds, policies of insurance, assignments or release of mortgages, executory contracts for the sale of lands, the indorsement of a note, agreements for the establishment of a highway, military orders. So may, also, judgments and other records be corrected or be reformed."
"Who or what is a Catholic? This Greek word has become one of the chief battlegrounds in western Latin Christianity […] How can the word describe all of these things and still have any meaning? I have written this book about the sixteenth-century Reformation in part to answer that question. The Reformation introduced many more complications to the word; in fact there were very many different Reformations, nearly all of which would have said that they were simply aimed at recreating authentic Catholic Christianity. For simplicity’s sake I will take for granted that this book examines multiple Reformations, some of which were directed by the Pope. From now on I will continue to use the shorthand term ‘Reformation’, but readers should therefore note that this is often intended to embrace both Protestantism and the religious movements commonly known as Tridentine Catholicism, the Catholic Reformation or Counter-Reformation: the revitalized part of the old Church which remained loyal to the Pope. ’Catholic’ is clearly a word which a lot of people want to possess. By contrast, it is remarkable how many religious labels started life as a sneer: the Reformation was full of angry words. […] Reformation disputes were passionate about words because words were myriad refractions of a God one of whose names was Word: a God encountered in a library of books itself simply called ‘Book’ – the Bible. It is impossible to understand modern Europe without understanding these sixteenth-century upheavals in Latin Christianity. They represented the greatest fault-line to appear in Christian culture since the Latin and Greek halves of the Roman empire went their separate ways a thousand years before; they produced a house divided. The fault-line is the business of this book."
"Against reformation stood chiefly and even fanatically the Marquis de Beaufront. In Geneva he took part in the congress and indignantly protested against the magazines which made use of new forms."
An improvement (or an intended improvement) in the existing form or condition of institutions or practices, etc.; intended to make a striking change for the better in social, political or religious affairs or in the conduct of persons or operation of organizations.
Common synonyms include: protestant reformation, abject apology, about face, about-face, accommodation, adaptation.
Against reformation stood chiefly and even fanatically the Marquis de Beaufront. In Geneva he took part in the congress and indignantly protested against the magazines which made use of new forms.
Pronounced /ˌɹɛfɚˈmeɪʃən/.
From Middle English reformacioun, reformation, from Middle French reformation and Latin refōrmātiō, refōrmātiōnis (“reform, change”), from refōrmō (“transform, reshape”), from re- + fōrmō (“shape, form”). By surface analysis, reform + -ation.
Originally a variant of Etymology 1. In later use also independently from re- + formation, after re-form.