The Reformation and Wars of Religion
1527-1648
To what extent did religion
affect the lives of Europeans in
the fifteenth century?
Causes of the Reformation
1.
Crises in the Church (1300s-1400s)
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2.
Corruption in the Church
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3.
Babylonian Captivity, Great Schism, Conciliar Movement
simony, pluralism, absenteeism, selling of indulgences,
nepotism, moral decline of the papacy, clerical ignorance
Criticism of the Church
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John Wycliffe (1329-1384)
Jan Huss (1369-1415)
The Brethren of the Common Life
Renaissance Humanism
5. Printing Press
4.
Printing Press
Desiderius Erasmus (1466-1536)
Christian humanism- the belief that
human being can use reason to improve
themselves
Erasmus advocated reform within the
Church, not separation
The Praise of Folly (1509)
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What religious practices did Erasmus ridicule?
What did he reveal about medieval Christians
and the Church?
Martin Luther (1483-1546)
peasant origins
 study law and later theology
 1505, lightning storm?
 1507, joined the order of
Augustinians
 1512, University of Wittenberg
in Saxony
 Pope Leo X, St. Peter’s
Basilica, and Johann Tetzel
 selling of indulgences
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Luther’s Ninety-Five Theses
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October 31, 1517
written in Latin- sent to the
Archbishop of Mainz
By 1518, the Ninety-Five Theses
were being distributed throughout the
Germanies in the German vernacular
Pope Leo X’s reaction?
Johann Eck (1486-1543)
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Disputation at Leipzig, 1519
Luther’s stance
Pope Leo X (r.1513-1521)
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Luther excommunicated, 1520
Johann Eck
Pope Leo X
Luther’s Publications
 Address to the Nobility of the German Nation (1520)
 The Freedom of the Christian Man (1520)
 The Babylonian Captivity of the Church(1520)
Luther’s assertions
1. salvation by faith alone (sola fide)
2. authority of scripture alone (sola scriptura)
3. priesthood of all believers
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attacked the traditional sacraments
criticized the selling of indulgences and simony
encouraged German princes to reform their churches
rejected the authority of the pope
Charles V (r.1519-1556)
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King of Spain and Holy Roman
Emperor
Diet of Worms, 1521
 “Here I stand, I can do no other”

Edict of Worms
 Luther declared an outlaw and heretic

Frederick III of Saxony (1463-1525)
•
Luther’s translation of the Bible into
the German vernacular
Charles V
The Spread of Lutheranism
The Empire of Charles V
German Peasant Revolts (1524-1525)
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Twelve Articles of the Peasants
Thomas Muntzer (1489-1525)
Luther’s Against the Murderous,
Thieving Hordes of Peasant
(1524)
enormous death toll on the
peasant population
Peasant Revolts, 1524-1525
Habsburg-Valois Wars
Habsburg-Valois Wars
Spain/HRE vs. France
 Schmaldkaldic League, 1531

 Protestant alliance in the Germanies
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Francis I (r.1515-1547)- France
 Catholic, Valois dynasty

Charles V of Spain and the HRE
 Catholic, Habsburg dynasty
What was the cause of the HabsburgValois Wars?
Habsburg-Valois Wars
The Schmaldkaldic League subdued in 1547
 1550s, Charles V abandoned his efforts to restore
Catholicism throughout the Germanies
 The Peace of Augsburg (1555)
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 cuius regio, eius religio
 Lutheranism and Catholicism
Religious and political conflict in the HRE kept the
Germanies divided and weak.
The Spread of Protestantism

Anabaptists, formed in 1525
 radical reformers
 rejected any secular agreements
 refused to serve in the military
 rejected infant baptism
 rejected the idea of the Trinity
 millenarians
Modern-day Mennonites, Quakers, and Unitarians
are rooted in Anabaptist ideology
Anabaptists
The Spread of Protestantism
Ulrich Zwingli (1484-1531)
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Swiss Reformer
theocracy in Zurich
Luther and Zwingli
The Spread of Protestantism
John Calvin (1509-1564)
 France to Switzerland (Geneva)
 Institutes of the Christian Religion
(1536)
 predestination
 the elect

Spread of Calvinism
 Scotland (John Knox)- Presbyterianism
 France- Huguenots
 England and North America- Puritans
The Spread of Lutheranism
Who was Henry VIII?
What is the Anglican Church?
The English Reformation

John Wycliffe (1320-1384)
 Lollards

John Wycliffe
William Tyndale (1492-1536)
The English Reformation
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Henry VIII (r.1509-1547)
Tudor monarch
Defense of the Seven Sacraments, 1521
Problem the Church?
 Catherine of Aragon (wife #1)
 Anne Boleyn (wife #2… of 6)
Henry VIII
The English Reformation
England’s Break with Rome
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Pope Clement VII (r.1523-1534) refused Henry’s requested
annulment with Catherine of Aragon
Act of Annates (1532)- refused revenue to the church in Rome
Act of Appeals (1533)- ended the pope’s legal authority on
England
Act of Supremacy (1534)- made the English king the supreme
head of the Church of England (Anglican Church)
Act of Succession (1534)- all of the king’s subjects had to take an
oath of loyalty to the king as head of the Anglican Church
○ All of these acts were secured with the
cooperation of the English Parliament.
The English Reformation
How did the church in England change after
1534?
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Statute of Six Articles (1539)
Edward VI (r.1547-1553)
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Henry VIII’s son with wife
#3- Jane Seymore
10 years old at succession
raised in the Anglican faith
Edward and the Puritans in
the English Parliament?
died after a short reign
Lady Jane Grey?
Mary Tudor (r.1553-1558)
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Henry VIII’s eldest daughter
with wife #1- Catherine of
Aragon
a devout Catholic
“Bloody Mary”
Elizabeth I (r.1558-1603)
Henry VIII’s daughter with
wife #2- Anne Boleyn
 raised Anglican
 “Virgin Queen”
 politique
 Thirty- Nine Articles (1363)
 Elizabeth I died in 1603
leaving no heirs.
 end of the Tudor dynasty…
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Catholic Reformation
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Principal Objectives
 Society of Jesus, 1534
 Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556)
 Council of Trent, 1545
 reform of abuses within the church Ignatius of Loyola
 reaffirmed established church doctrine
 Inquisition and censorship
 Index of Banned Books
Catholic Reformation and Catholic Counter-Reformation?
Women in the Reformation

Protestant Women
 place is with the family at home
 role in literacy
 few opportunities outside the
home
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Catholic Women
 place is with the family at home
 but… for some women there
were other opportunities in
religious orders
Roman Catholic Ursulines
Wars of Religion
1560-1648
Wars of Religion (1560-1648)
When, where, and why?
1. Spain
2. France
3. Holy Roman Empire
4. England
Spain and Philip II (r.1556-1598)

Charles V (abdicated in 1556)
 HRE went to brother Ferdinand
 Spain and New World went to his son
Philip II

Turks in the Mediterranean
 Battle of Lepanto (1571)

Philip II- devout Catholic
 Spain’s wealth and Golden Age
 Philip’s plan for Europe?
Philip II’s Empire
Spain and Philip II (r.1556-1598)

Dutch Revolt in the
Netherlands
 Calvinism
 William of Orange
 United Provinces of the
Netherlands (formed in 1581)
 England?

Division of the Netherlands
 Dutch Republic (United
Provinces)
 Spanish Netherlands
*Dutch independence not formally recognized
until the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648.
Spain and Philip II (r.1556-1598)
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The Defeat of the Spanish Armada, 1588
Spain vs. England
Mary Tudor (d.1558) and
Philip II
Elizabeth I (r.1558-1603)
Invasion and defeat of the
Spanish Armada, 1588
Consequence for England?
The French Civil Wars (c.1560-1589)

King Henry II Valois (d.1559)
 Bourbon (Huguenot), Montmorency, and Guise (Catholics) in
competition for power
 2/5 of French nobility were Huguenot
 Huguenot= French Calvinist
 Reasons for converting to Protestantism

Valois Kings of France (1559-1589)
 Francis II (r.1559-1560)
 Charles IX (r.1560-1574)
 Henry III (r.1574-1589)

Marie de Medici (1519-1589)
 (Queen mother and regent)
Catherine de Medici
Protestant Churches in France, 16th c.
Massacre at Vassey, 1562
St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre, 1572
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War of the Three Henrys (1587-1589)
 Henry III Valois (King of France)
 Henry du Guise
 Henry Bourbon
Henry III
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Catholic League and Henry of Guise
 assassination of the king
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Henry du Guise
Henry Bourbon of Navarre
Henry Bourbon
Henry IV of France (r.1589-1610)
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Ended Spanish interference in France
Converted to Catholicism :
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Did this to compromise and make peace
“Paris is worth a mass”
This was an example of politique [the
interest of the state comes first before
any religious considerations]
Fighting for the royal inheritance
Issued the Edict of Nantes in 1598:
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Granted religious rights to Huguenots
Huguenot rights in France?
Did not grant religious freedom for all
Thirty Years’ War (1619-1648)
Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648)
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Failure of the 1555 Peace of Augsburg
 independence of the states within the HRE
 spread of Calvinism
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Divided into four phases
 Bohemian Phase
 Danish Phase
 Swedish Phase
 French Phase
Bohemian Phase (1618-1622)
Bohemian Phase (1618-1622)

Ferdinand of Bohemia
 Habsburg ruler
 intolerant of Protestantism
 Defenestration of Prague 
May, 1618
 Bohemia named a new king
successor, an elector and prince of
the Palatinate, Frederick (who was
also a Calvinist)

Ferdinand II of HRE (1619-1637)
 Frederick was defeated
 Catholicism re-imposed
Defenestration of Prague
Danish Phase (1625-1629)
Danish Phase (1625-1629)
Danish King Christian IV (Lutheran)
renewed the Protestant fight against the
Catholic Habsburgs
 Ferdinand II attempted to crush resistance
 Height of Catholic power during the war
 Albrecht von Wallenstein
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 mercenary war leader (condottieri)
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Edict of Restitution (1629)
 Declared that all church territories secularized
since 1552 were to be returned to the Catholic
Church
 Protestants (except for Lutherans) lost all
religious and political rights
Albrecht von Wallenstein
Swedish Phase (1630-1635)
Swedish Phase (1630-1635)
Gustavus Adolphus (1594-1632),
King of Sweden w/ French support
 Battle of Breitenfeld (1631)
 Protestants regained territory lost
in earlier phase of the war
 Emperor Ferdinand recalled
Wallenstein
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 Gustavus Adolphus killed in battle
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Gustavus Adolphus
German princes still feared the
emperor
 Wallenstein assassinated
French Phase (1635-1648)
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Final and most destructive phase of the war
“International Phase”
Cardinal Richelieu of France (1585-1642)
French interest in a war with Habsburg HRE?
Treaty of Westphalia (1648)
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Major provisions of the treaty:
 Renewal and revision of the Peace of Augsburg
 Switzerland and Dutch Republic gained formal
recognition of independence
 Each German prince became free of HRE
 The pope was denied the right to intervene in HRE
 France, Sweden, and Prussia gained new territories
○ France gained Alsace
○ Sweden gained territories in northern Germany and along
the Black Sea
○ Prussia (Brandenburg) gained territory in central Europe
and along the North Sea
Damages- Thirty Years’ War
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towns destroyed
agriculture disrupted
massive loss of civilian lives
decline in trade
Political Consequences:
• France gained power
• Habsburgs lost power
• The Germanies remained
weak and decentralized
Estimated loss of lives in the Thirty Years’ War
Europe in 1700
English Civil War (Puritan Revolution)
England’s King Charles I beheaded in 1649
England’s Dynastic Change
Tudor
Stuart
What is Parliament?
James I of England (r.1603-1625)
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King James VI of Scotland
Tudors vs. Stuarts in dealing with
Parliament
divine right of kings
The True Law of Free Monarchies (1598)
Puritans and James I
 “no bishop, no king”
James I of England
Charles I of England (r.1625-1649)
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ineffective statesman
divine right monarch
Charles and Parliament
 1629
 1640
 1641
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English Civil War (1642-1649)
 Cavaliers (loyal to the king)
 Roundheads (loyal to Parliament)
Charles I of England
English Civil War and the Commonwealth
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Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658) and
the New Model Army
1648-“Rump Parliament’
1649, Charles I was placed on trial
for treason, found guilty, and
executed
The Commonwealth (1649-1660)
 Puritan Republic
 Oliver Cromwell
 The Protectorate
Oliver Cromwell
Who were the Levellers?