Introduction for Chapter 13

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13

Reformations and Religious Wars

1500–1600

Calls for reform of the Christian Church began very early in its history. Throughout the centuries, many Christians believed that the early Christian Church represented a golden age, akin to the golden age of the classical past celebrated by Renaissance humanists. When Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire in the fourth century, many believers thought that the church had abandoned its original mission, and they called for a return to a church that was not linked to the state. Throughout the Middle Ages, individuals and groups argued that the church had become too wealthy and powerful and urged monasteries, convents, bishoprics, and the papacy to give up their property and focus on service to the poor. Some asserted that basic teachings of the church were not truly Christian and that changes were needed in theology as well as in institutional structures and practices. The Christian humanists of the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries such as Erasmus urged reform, primarily through educational and social change. What was new in the sixteenth century was the breadth of acceptance and the ultimate impact of the calls for reform. This acceptance was due not only to religious issues and problems within the church, but also to political and social factors. In 1500 there was one Christian Church in western Europe to which all Christians at least nominally belonged. One hundred years later there were many, a situation that continues today.

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Religious Violence in Urban Life This 1590 painting shows Catholic military forces, including friars in their robes, processing through one of the many towns affected by the French religious wars that followed the Reformation.
(Procession of the Holy League, 1590/Musée des Beaux-Arts, Valenciennes, France/ Bridgeman Images)

CHAPTER PREVIEW

The Early Reformation

What were the central ideas of the reformers, and why were they appealing to different social groups?

The Reformation and German Politics

How did the political situation in Germany shape the course of the Reformation?

The Spread of Protestant Ideas

How did Protestant ideas and institutions spread beyond German-speaking lands?

The Catholic Reformation

What reforms did the Catholic Church make, and how did it respond to Protestant reform movements?

Religious Violence

What were the causes and consequences of religious violence, including riots, wars, and witch-hunts?

Chronology

1517 Martin Luther writes “Ninety-five Theses on the Power of Indulgences”
1521 Diet of Worms
1521–1559 Habsburg-Valois wars
1525 German Peasants’ War
1526 Turkish victory at Mohács, which allows spread of Protestantism in Hungary
1530s Henry VIII ends the authority of the pope in England
1535 Angela Merici establishes the Ursulines as first women’s teaching order
1536 John Calvin publishes The Institutes of the Christian Religion
1540 Papal approval of Society of Jesus (Jesuits)
1542 Pope Paul III establishes the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Roman and Universal Inquisition
1545–1563 Council of Trent
1553–1558 Reign of Mary Tudor and temporary restoration of Catholicism in England
1555 Peace of Augsburg; official recognition of Lutheranism
1558–1603 Reign of Elizabeth in England
1560–1660 Height of the European witch-hunt
1568–1578 Civil war in the Netherlands
1572 Saint Bartholomew’s Day massacre
1588 England defeats Spanish Armada
1598 Edict of Nantes