Wars of Religion and Clash of Worldviews

1560–1648

For kings, nobles, and ordinary folk alike, the late sixteenth through mid-seventeenth centuries were a time of turmoil and change, as the following documents illustrate. Religious wars galvanized much of Europe during this period, fueled by both ecclesiastical and lay leaders’ attempts to maintain the commonly held idea that political and social stability depended on religious conformity. With the escalation of violence, however, some people came to question, and in some cases openly criticize, conventional views about the basic order of governance. They argued successfully that peace would come only if state interests took precedence over religious ones. Europeans’ views of the earth and the heavens also expanded because of the rise of new scientific methods. At the same time, the lure of traditional beliefs remained strong within communities struggling to make sense of the upheavals occurring around them.