ap euro reformations and 30 yrs war

Habsburg-Valois Wars (1521-1544)

Long series of wars between the Habsburg Charles V (Holy Roman Emperor, Spain) and the Valois kings of France (Francis I, Henry II), mainly fought over land in Italy. Each side wanted dominance in Europe. They drained money, killed many people, and distracted both rulers from the spread of Protestantism and the Ottoman threat.

Charles V (r. 1519-1556)

Habsburg Holy Roman Emperor and king of Spain who inherited a huge multinational empire (Spain, the Netherlands, Austria, parts of Italy, Spanish lands in the Americas). Fought France, the Ottomans, and the Protestants at once, could not unify his empire religiously, and finally abdicated, splitting his lands between his brother Ferdinand (Austria/HRE) and his son Philip II (Spain, Netherlands).

Francis I (r. 1515-1547)

Valois king of France and rival of Charles V. Competed with Charles for the Holy Roman Emperor title and for Italy, hosted lavish displays like the Field of the Cloth of Gold, and even allied with the Ottoman Turks and German Lutheran princes against the Catholic Habsburgs.

Field of the Cloth of Gold (1520)

Extravagant meeting between Francis I of France and Henry VIII of England, named for the gold fabric on tents and clothing. It was meant to impress and win an alliance against Charles V, but achieved little. Henry then allied with Charles instead.

Henry II of France (r. 1547-1559)

Son of Francis I who continued the wars with the Habsburgs. Died in a jousting accident at the wedding celebration for his daughter, leaving his young sons on the throne and his widow Catherine de Medici as regent, which opened the way to the French Wars of Religion.

Land-hungry monarchs

Sixteenth-century rulers like Charles V and Francis I believed that bigger meant better and tried to expand their territory and build multinational empires. This fueled nearly constant warfare, especially over Italy.

Ottoman Turks and Suleiman the Magnificent

The Ottoman Empire under Suleiman the Magnificent (r. 1520-1566) conquered Belgrade and much of Hungary and besieged Vienna in 1529. They threatened Charles V's eastern lands, forcing him to divide his attention and resources between the Turks, France, and the Protestants.

Siege of Vienna (1529)

Ottoman Turks under Suleiman besieged the Habsburg capital but failed to take it. It showed how serious the Turkish threat was to Central Europe and kept Charles V's brother Ferdinand busy defending the east.

Changes in warfare (gunpowder revolution)

Between about 1520 and 1530s warfare changed as guns (arquebuses and muskets) and cannons became more widespread. Infantry replaced mounted knights, armies grew larger, and war became far more expensive and deadly. Wars were fought for land.

Growing armies

By the 1500s armies were much larger (Charles V's forces peaked around 148,000; at the start of the century most armies had fewer than 50,000). Rulers had to raise money through taxes and loans and hire mercenaries to fill the ranks.

Mercenaries

Professional soldiers hired for pay (often foreigners) who fought for the highest bidder. Armies relied on them but they were unreliable, and they mutinied or plundered when unpaid (as in the 1527 Sack of Rome).

Sack of Rome (1527)

Charles V's unpaid, largely Lutheran-leaning imperial troops looted Rome and held Pope Clement VII prisoner. It humiliated the papacy, made the pope dependent on Charles, and weakened Rome's ability to resist reform or help Henry VIII get an annulment.

Voluntary soldiers

Increasingly, armies included men who volunteered (often to escape poverty or family life) rather than just drafted or hired troops. Example: Martin Guerre joined the Spanish army in Flanders. Rulers like Henry VIII drafted soldiers but allowed volunteers.

Costs and consequences of modern warfare

Gunpowder warfare was very expensive (cannons, fortifications, larger armies), pushed monarchs into debt and heavy taxes, bankrupted states like Spain, raised casualties, and caused devastation for civilians who were plundered by passing armies.

Casualties of war

Guns and cannons caused terrible wounds that medieval medicine could not treat, so amputations became common and many veterans were left disabled and begging. Pieter Bruegel the Elder's painting The Cripples (1568) shows this.

Winners and losers of warfare

Kings seldom won decisive victories, and bankers who lent money to rulers often profited, but ordinary people (peasants, soldiers, civilians) suffered. Spain and France were repeatedly bankrupted by war.

Gunpowder

Invented in China, adopted in Europe by the 14th century. Corned (grained) powder made it stable and effective, allowing mobile cannons on battlefields and ships. It transformed warfare, and efforts to understand it helped drive early chemistry.

Tide of religious reform

Medieval Catholic Church was the central institution of Western Christendom, but by the early 1500s growing criticism of church corruption, wealth, and the sale of indulgences led reformers to challenge Rome and eventually split Christianity.

Path to salvation (medieval Catholic view)

Catholics believed salvation came through the church and its sacraments, good works, and the intercession of saints and the Virgin Mary. Many people grew anxious about whether they were saved.

Devotio moderna

"Modern devotion": a late medieval movement stressing personal piety, inner spiritual life, and simple devotion over elaborate church ritual. It spread through the Brethren of the Common Life and influenced Thomas a Kempis's The Imitation of Christ (c. 1425) and later reformers.

Thomas a Kempis

Author (traditionally) of The Imitation of Christ, a famous devotional book of the devotio moderna that taught people to follow Christ through personal piety and ethical living rather than ritual.

Brethren of the Common Life

Lay religious community of the Netherlands tied to devotio moderna. It stressed personal piety and education, and it influenced Erasmus and other northern humanists.

Christian humanism (northern humanism)

Northern Renaissance movement that used humanist techniques (study of original languages and texts) to reform Christianity. It emphasized a simple, inward piety and returning to the Bible and early church fathers (ad fontes).

Desiderius Erasmus (1466-1536)

"Prince of the Humanists," Dutch scholar who edited a Greek New Testament, criticized church corruption in works like The Praise of Folly (1511), and promoted the "philosophy of Christ." He wanted reform from within and never left the Catholic Church. Critics said "Erasmus laid the egg that Luther hatched."

The Praise of Folly (1511)

Erasmus's satire attacking corrupt clergy, superstition, and empty ritual in the church, written with wit to promote a purer, more spiritual Christianity.

Vulgate vs. Greek New Testament

Erasmus produced a new Greek edition of the New Testament with a fresh Latin translation, showing errors in the Vulgate (Jerome's Latin Bible). It became a basis for later vernacular translations.

Julius Excluded from Heaven

Anonymous satire (often linked to Erasmus) mocking Pope Julius II, the warrior pope, as unfit for heaven. It shows how humanists attacked papal worldliness.

Martin Luther (1483-1546)

German monk and professor at Wittenberg who started the Protestant Reformation. Terrified of damnation after a lightning storm, he became a monk, but found peace in the idea of salvation by faith alone. He challenged indulgences, papal authority, and church tradition.

Luther's lightning storm vow

Caught in a thunderstorm, Luther cried to St. Anne, "Help me and I will become a monk." He kept his vow and entered an Augustinian monastery, despite his father's wish that he become a lawyer.

Luther's spiritual crisis

Despite fasting, prayer, and confession, Luther felt he could never be good enough for God. He suffered intense anxiety about sin and damnation until he studied the Bible (Romans 1:17, "the just shall live by faith").

Justification by faith

Luther's central teaching: people are saved by God's grace through faith in Christ, not by good works or church rituals. Humans cannot earn salvation, so it is a gift from God.

Sola scriptura

"By Scripture alone": Luther's principle that the Bible, not the pope or church tradition, is the sole authority in religious matters. Led to translating the Bible into vernacular languages.

Priesthood of all believers

Protestant idea that all Christians are equal before God and can approach him directly. No ordained priest is needed as an intermediary, and the clergy are not spiritually superior to ordinary believers.

Indulgences

Certificates issued by the church that remitted (reduced) the temporal punishment for sins, including time in purgatory. By the 1500s they were sold for money, which reformers saw as corrupt. Based on the "treasury of merit" of Christ and the saints.

Purgatory

In Catholic belief, a place or state where souls of the dead are purified of their sins before entering heaven. Prayers, good works, and indulgences were thought to shorten a soul's time there. Protestants rejected it as unscriptural.

Treasury of merit

Catholic doctrine that Christ and the saints stored up surplus good works that the pope could distribute to the faithful through indulgences.

Johann Tetzel

Dominican friar who sold indulgences in Germany (to help finance the new St. Peter's Basilica in Rome). He was said to promise "As soon as the coin in the coffer rings, the soul from purgatory springs," which outraged Luther.

Pope Leo X (r. 1513-1521)

Medici pope who authorized the 1517 indulgence to fund St. Peter's. He condemned Luther in the bull Exsurge Domine (1520) and excommunicated him in 1521.

Ninety-five Theses (1517)

Luther's list of arguments against the sale of indulgences, traditionally said to be posted on the door of the Wittenberg church on October 31, 1517. Quickly translated into German and spread widely by the printing press.

Printing press and the Reformation

Printing spread Luther's pamphlets, sermons, and Bible translations rapidly across Germany, turning a local dispute into a mass movement. Luther's ideas reached townspeople and peasants, and Protestants stressed literacy so people could read the Bible.

Leipzig Debate (1519)

Luther debated the Catholic theologian Johann Eck, who pushed him to admit he denied the authority of popes and councils (like claiming Jan Hus was right). Luther moved toward a full break with Rome.

Diet of Worms (1521)

Imperial assembly where Charles V ordered Luther to recant. Luther refused ("Here I stand, I cannot do otherwise"), saying his conscience was captive to God's word. Charles issued the Edict of Worms making him an outlaw. Luther stood before the emperor to defend his stance on religion and was not executed.

Edict of Worms (1521)

Charles V's decree declaring Luther an outlaw and banning his writings. It was never effectively enforced in German states whose rulers protected Luther.

Frederick the Wise

Elector of Saxony and Luther's prince, who protected him after Worms (hiding him at Wartburg Castle). Backed by German princes like Frederick, Luther survived. Lucas Cranach the Younger painted Luther and the Wittenberg reformers under his patronage.

Why German princes backed Luther

Reasons included conscience, German nationalism (resentment of Rome taking German money), the chance to seize church lands and wealth, and a way to weaken the Holy Roman Emperor and increase their own independence.

Luther's call for separation from Rome

Luther urged Germans to break with the papacy, attacking papal power and abuses in writings such as the Address to the Christian Nobility, and appealed to nationalism and local rulers.

Protestant vs. Catholic values

Protestants focused on individual faith, the Bible, and direct worship of God rather than learning from a priest. Catholics emphasized the church hierarchy, sacraments, tradition, saints, and good works.

Sacraments

Rituals believed to convey God's grace. Catholics recognized seven (baptism, confirmation, Eucharist, penance, marriage, holy orders, last rites). Luther and most Protestants accepted only two, baptism and the Eucharist (Lord's Supper), since they appear in the Bible.

Transubstantiation

Catholic doctrine that during Mass the bread and wine become the actual body and blood of Christ while keeping their appearance. Luther and other Protestants rejected it, though they disagreed on how Christ is present.

Protestant

Name from the 1529 Diet of Speyer, where Lutheran princes "protested" the revocation of toleration for Lutheranism. Came to mean any Christian who broke from Rome (except the Eastern Orthodox).

Iconoclasm

The destruction of religious images (statues, paintings, stained glass) as idolatry. Many Calvinists and Protestants smashed church art, for example in the Netherlands in 1566.

Peasants' War (1524-1525)

German peasant revolt inspired partly by Luther's ideas, with demands listed in the Twelve Articles (an end to serfdom, lower dues and taxes, use of common lands, and rights based on the Bible). Luther backed the nobles and denounced the peasants, since he misinterpreted as political rebellion what he saw as a religious call. Over 75,000 peasants were killed.

Twelve Articles (1524)

Peasant list of grievances that appealed to the Bible and Luther's ideas to demand fair treatment, relief from heavy dues and taxes, and the freedom to choose their pastors.

Luther's "Against the Robbing and Murdering Hordes of Peasants"

Luther's treatise urging princes to crush the rebellious peasants, arguing that Christians must obey secular rulers. It cost him support among the poor but gained him the loyalty of the nobles.

Diet of Speyer (1526 and 1529)

Imperial assemblies on the Lutheran question. In 1526 each prince could choose his religion for his own land; in 1529 the Catholic majority reversed that, leading Lutheran princes to "protest."

Peace of Augsburg (1555)

Settlement ending the first religious wars in the Holy Roman Empire. Each prince could choose Catholicism or Lutheranism for his territory (cuius regio, eius religio, "whose rule, his religion"). Subjects who disagreed could move. Calvinists and Anabaptists were not recognized.

Cuius regio, eius religio

Latin for "whose region, his religion": the principle in the Peace of Augsburg that the ruler of a state determined its religion.

Huldrych Zwingli (1484-1531)

Swiss reformer in Zurich who preached from Scripture, rejecting practices not found in the Bible (saints, pilgrimages, purgatory, clerical celibacy). He disagreed with Luther on the Eucharist, seeing it as symbolic. Died in battle in 1531.

Marburg Colloquy (1529)

Meeting arranged by Philip of Hesse to unite Lutherans and Zwinglians. They agreed on most points but split over the Eucharist (Luther insisted Christ's body was truly present, Zwingli said it was symbolic), so no unity was achieved.

Swiss civil war (1529-1531)

Conflict between Protestant and Catholic cantons that ended with Zwingli dying on the battlefield in 1531. The settlement let each canton decide its own religion.

Anabaptists

"Rebaptizers": radical reformers who held that baptism should be for adults who consciously choose faith. They favored separation of church and state, often pacifism, and were persecuted by Catholics and Protestants alike. Protestant ideas spread to Switzerland, and Anabaptist groups formed with radical reforms that Lutherans and Catholics saw as a threat.

Menno Simons (1496-1561)

Dutch Anabaptist leader whose followers, the Mennonites, practiced pacifism and spread into Germany and Poland.

Radical reformers (Munster, 1534)

Some Anabaptists became revolutionaries. In 1534 in Munster, Germany, they took political control under Jan Matthys and John of Leiden, abolished private property, and practiced polygamy until the city was retaken and the leaders executed. Catholics and Protestants then persecuted all Anabaptists.

Church and state (Anabaptist view)

Anabaptists believed church and state should be separate and that true Christians should avoid government service and war. Their views threatened social order.

John Calvin (1509-1564)

French reformer who settled in Geneva. His Institutes of the Christian Religion (1536) systematically presented Protestant theology. Taught predestination and made Geneva a model Protestant city and a center for training missionaries.

Institutes of the Christian Religion (1536)

Calvin's major work, a clear, logical summary of Protestant theology that became the foundation of Calvinism and spread across Europe.

Predestination

Calvin's belief that God has already decided who will be saved (the "elect") and who will be damned, before birth. People cannot earn salvation by works. Believers looked for signs of election in their lives.

Calvinism and the middle class

Calvinism appealed to urban merchants and the growing middle class. It valued hard work, discipline, and thrift as signs of God's favor. Max Weber's The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1904) argued this work ethic helped spur capitalism, though historians debate this.

Geneva

Swiss city governed under Calvin as a strict, disciplined Protestant community with church authorities regulating behavior. It became a major center of Reformation training; between 1555 and 1562 Calvin sent out hundreds of preachers (and missionaries) across Europe.

Spread of Calvinism

Calvinism spread to France (Huguenots), the Netherlands, Scotland (John Knox), parts of Germany, and later England and America. Its organized, international network and trained preachers made it highly adaptable.

John Knox (c. 1514-1572)

Scottish reformer who studied under Calvin in Geneva and led the Scottish Reformation, founding the Presbyterian Church of Scotland (1560), run by elders rather than bishops.

Presbyterian

Church structure governed by elders (presbyters) in congregations and assemblies instead of bishops, associated with Calvinists in Scotland.

Huguenots

French Calvinist Protestants. A minority (about 7 percent of the population) but included many nobles and townspeople, and they were persecuted by the Catholic crown. Led politically by the Bourbons.

Marie Dentiere (c. 1495-1561)

Former abbess who became a Reformation supporter in Geneva. Her 1539 letter to Marguerite of Navarre defended women's right to study Scripture and to preach, arguing that women should be allowed to teach and spread the Gospel.

Women and the Reformation

Reformation ideas valued Bible reading, so girls and women were encouraged to learn to read. But Protestant reformers still limited women's public roles. Dentiere defended women's role in religious discussion and teaching.

Marriage after the Reformation

Protestants rejected clerical celibacy and the idea that marriage was a sacrament. Luther married the former nun Katharina von Bora and modeled the loving partnership of a pastor's household. Marriage became a partnership of companionship, though patriarchy remained.

Courtship and marriage changes

Protestants and Catholics emphasized marital harmony. Arranged marriages were still common for property and family reasons, but parents more often let children consider compatibility, and courtship customs grew more complex.

Reformation and literacy

Protestants stressed Bible reading, so Luther and others pushed for schools and education for boys and girls. Jan Amos Comenius argued universal education would help everyone. Cities in Saxony funded public schools.

Reformation and work

Protestants gave dignity to ordinary work and glorified "calling," valuing hard work over idle contemplation or begging. This changed attitudes toward the poor, charity, and monasticism.

Poor relief and charity

Protestant cities closed monasteries, banned begging, and created civic systems of relief for the "deserving poor." Charity became a community responsibility rather than a religious duty to earn salvation.

Decline of magic

Protestants rejected saints, relics, and rituals that Catholics used for protection (like blessings and "white magic"), so ordinary people lost familiar defenses against misfortune. This left anxiety, while some old folk practices persisted.

Anxiety and spiritual insecurity

Religious change, warfare, plague, and economic hardship created fear. Protestants without saints and purgatory felt more alone before God, and many people feared the devil.

Witch hunts (1560-1640)

Intense persecution of suspected witches in Europe, peaking between 1560 and 1640. Perhaps 100,000 were executed, and about 80 percent of the accused were women (often poor, single, or elderly). Fear of the devil, religious conflict, and social stress contributed. Printing spread witch pamphlets and the Malleus Maleficarum (Hammer of Witches).

Joan Prentis and her familiars

English woman executed for witchcraft in 1589. Her trial was publicized in a pamphlet (a woodcut shows her with the animal "familiars" thought to be spirits sent by the devil).

Malleus Maleficarum

"Hammer of Witches," a 15th-century handbook for inquisitors on finding and prosecuting witches. It was widely reprinted thanks to the printing press.

Fear of the devil

Many Europeans believed Satan was at work in the world. Church authorities stressed that witches were in league with the devil, and accusations (often under torture) spread quickly.

Henry VIII (r. 1509-1547)

Tudor king of England who broke with the Roman Catholic Church because the pope would not annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon (who had not produced a male heir). He had six wives and made himself head of the Church of England.

Catherine of Aragon

First wife of Henry VIII and aunt of Charles V, who bore only a daughter, Mary. Henry wanted an annulment, which Pope Clement VII (under Charles V's influence) refused.

Anne Boleyn

Henry's second wife, mother of Elizabeth I. Henry's desire to marry her and have a male heir drove his break with Rome. She was beheaded in 1536 for alleged adultery.

Henry's annulment

Henry asked the pope to annul his marriage to Catherine. When refused, he had Parliament pass laws ending papal authority; Archbishop Thomas Cranmer then ruled the marriage void in 1533, allowing Henry to marry Anne.

Thomas Cranmer

Archbishop of Canterbury who annulled Henry's marriage and later wrote The Book of Common Prayer (1549). He was burned under Mary I.

Thomas Cromwell

Henry's chief minister who engineered the break with Rome, passed laws through Parliament, and oversaw the dissolution of the monasteries.

Act of Supremacy (1534)

Parliament declared the king (not the pope) the supreme head of the Church of England. Refusing to accept it was treason.

Church of England (Anglican Church)

Separate national church created by Henry VIII's break with Rome. At first mostly Catholic in doctrine, it became more Protestant under Edward VI and was settled as a middle path under Elizabeth I.

Thomas More (1478-1535)

English humanist (author of Utopia) and Henry's chancellor who refused to swear the Act of Supremacy because his conscience would not let him accept the king as head of the church. Executed in 1535.

Dissolution of the monasteries

Henry closed English monasteries and seized their lands and wealth to fill the treasury, selling much of it to nobles and gentry who then had a stake in the Reformation.

Jane Seymour

Henry's third wife, who finally bore him a son, Edward VI (1537), and died soon after.

Edward VI (r. 1547-1553)

Sickly son of Henry VIII who became king as a boy. England was run by regents who pushed the country toward real Protestantism, including the Book of Common Prayer and the Act of Uniformity (1549).

Act of Uniformity (1549)

Law requiring use of Cranmer's Book of Common Prayer in all English churches.

Mary I ("Bloody Mary") (r. 1553-1558)

Catholic daughter of Henry and Catherine, who restored Catholicism, married Philip II of Spain, and burned about 280 Protestants as heretics (including Cranmer). Her persecution made Catholicism unpopular and created Protestant martyrs. She had no heir.