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At the time that Luther and Calvin came forward, the Holy Roman Catholic Church basically controlled religion throughout Europe. The Church helped ensure this by telling people that God spoke through the Church and NOT to common man. This was made easier by the fact that most people could not read and the only bibles available were in the churches.
Luther and Calvin both promoted the concept of an individual relationship between man and God, with or without the Church. They both began to write many works expressing their opinions, and many people began to look at other options besides the Catholic church. This was a major turning point for religion in the history of mankind.
This particular sentence refers to a basic fundamental difference between Luther and Calvin. Luther believed that ALL mankind was saved by the grace of God as long as they had faith in Him (salvation through faith alone). Calvin believed that grace and salvation were granted only to those who were chosen, or predestined, by God. Calvin believed that a man could become one of the chosen by adhering to church doctrine, "moral regeneration through church discipline", which basically meant that you would become more worthy by becoming more godly. He also believed that the "autonomy of religious communities" would make it easier for a man to adhere to these church doctrines by allowing him to live in a community with others who were like-minded.