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{{Short description|16th-century movement in Western Christianity}}
{{other uses}}
{{Use British English|date=June 2013}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2021}}
{{Reformation}}
{{Protestantism}}
{{Christianity}}
[[File:Ferdinand_Pauwels_-_Luther_hammers_his_95_theses_to_the_door.jpg|thumb|Martin Luther, pictured above nailing his ''[[Ninety-five theses]]'' to the door of the church in [[Wittenberg]], Germany. This event is seen by many as the start of the Protestant Reformation.]]

The '''Reformation''', also known as the '''Protestant Reformation''' or the '''European Reformation''',<ref>{{cite book |last1=Armstrong |first1=Alstair |title=European Reformation: 1500–1610 (Heinemann Advanced History): 1500–55 |date=2002 |publisher=Heinemann Educational |isbn=0-435-32710-0}}</ref> was a time of major [[Theology|theological]] movement in [[Western Christianity]] in 16th-century [[Europe]] that posed a religious and political challenge to the [[papacy]] and the authority of the [[Catholic Church]]. Towards the end of the [[Renaissance]], the Reformation marked the beginning of [[Protestantism]]. It is considered one of the events that signified the end of the [[Middle Ages]] and the beginning of the [[early modern period]] in Europe.{{sfn|Davies|1996|p=291}} 

The Reformation is usually dated from [[Martin Luther]]'s publication of the ''[[Ninety-five Theses]]'' in 1517, which gave birth to [[Lutheranism]]. Prior to Martin Luther and other [[Protestant Reformers]], there were [[Proto-Protestantism|earlier reform movements]] within Western Christianity.  The end of the Reformation era is disputed among modern scholars. 

In general, the Reformers argued that [[justification (theology)|justification]] was [[sola fide|based on faith in Jesus alone]] and not both faith and [[good works]], as in the Catholic view. In the Lutheran, Anglican and Reformed view, good works were seen as fruits of living faith and part of the process of [[sanctification in Christianity|sanctification]].<ref name="Bray2021">{{cite book |last1=Bray |first1=Gerald |title=Anglicanism |date=3 March 2021 |publisher=Lexham Press |isbn=978-1-68359-437-6 |language=en|quote=The doctrine of justification by faith alone was the central teaching of the Lutheran Reformation and is fully accepted by Anglicans.}}</ref><ref name="Harstad1997">{{cite web |last1=Harstad |first1=Adolph L. |title=Justification Through Faith Produces Sanctification |url=https://els.org/resources/document-archive/convention-essays/essay1997-harstad/ |publisher=[[Evangelical Lutheran Synod]] |date=10 May 2016}}</ref> Protestantism also introduced new [[ecclesiology]]. The general points of theological agreement by the different Protestant groups have been more recently summarized as the [[Three solae|three ''solae'']], though various Protestant denominations disagree on doctrines such as the nature of the [[real presence of Christ in the Eucharist]], with Lutherans accepting a corporeal presence and the [[Reformed Christianity|Reformed]] accepting a spiritual presence.<ref name="Bente2021">{{cite book |last1=Bente |first1=Friedrich |title=Historical Introductions to the Symbolical Books of the Evangelical Lutheran Church |date=2 December 2021 |publisher=Litres |isbn=978-5-04-061695-4 |language=en |quote=In fact Calvin must be regarded as the real originator of the second controversy on the Lord's Supper between the Lutherans and the Reformed}}</ref><ref name="Nevin2012">{{cite book |last1=Nevin |first1=John Williamson |title=The Mystical Presence: And The Doctrine of the Reformed Church on the Lord's Supper |date=19 April 2012 |publisher=Wipf and Stock Publishers |isbn=978-1-61097-169-0 |page=xxviii |language=en |quote=In ''The Mystical Presence'' Neven maintained that John Calvin, the foremost architect of Reformed doctrine, included the real spiritual presence of Christ in the Eucharist.}}</ref>

The spread of [[Gutenberg's printing press]] provided the means for the rapid dissemination of religious materials in the vernacular. The initial movement in Saxony, Germany, diversified, and nearby other reformers such as the Swiss [[Huldrych Zwingli]] and the French [[John Calvin]] developed the [[Continental Reformed Protestantism|Continental Reformed]] tradition. Within a Reformed framework, [[Thomas Cranmer]] and [[John Knox]] led the [[English Reformation|Reformation in England]] and the [[Scottish Reformation|Reformation in Scotland]], respectively, giving rise to Anglicanism and Presbyterianism.<ref name="NullYates2017">{{cite book |last1=Null |first1=Ashley |last2=Yates III |first2=John W. |title=Reformation Anglicanism (The Reformation Anglicanism Essential Library, Volume 1): A Vision for Today's Global Communion |date=14 February 2017 |publisher=Crossway |isbn=978-1-4335-5216-8 |language=en|quote=Therefore, Cranmer fully integrated justificton ''sola fide et sola gratia'' into the doctrine and worship of the Church of Englan. His "Homily on Salvation" taught these principles to every parish in the country on a regular basis. Several of the Articles of Religion make the Protestant understanding of justification normative for Anglican doctrine (Articles 9-14, 17, 22).}}</ref><ref name="González1987">{{cite book |last1=González |first1=Justo L. |title=A History of Christian Thought: From the Protestant Reformation to the twentieth century |date=1987 |publisher=Abingdon Press |isbn=978-0-687-17184-2 |language=en|quote=It is clear that, in rejecting Roman Catholic doctrine on this point, Cranmer has also rejected Luther's views and adopted Calvin's position. The sacrament is not merely a symbol of what takes place in the heart, but neither is it the physical eating of the body of Christ. This must be so, because the body of Christ is in heaven and therefore our participation in it can only be spiritual. Only the believers are the true partakers of the body and blood of Christ, for the unbelievers eat and drink no more than bread and wine—and condemnation upon themseves, for the profanation of the Lord's Table. These views are reflected in the Thirty-nine articles, of which the twenty-eighth says that "the Body of the Christ is given, taken, and eaten, in the Supper, only after an heavently and spiritual manner. The next article says of the wicked that "in no wise are they partakers of Christ," although "to their condemnation [they] do eat and rink the sign or Sacrament of so great a thing." This marked Calvinistic influence would prove very significant for the history of Christianity in England during the seventeenth century}}</ref><ref name="Fortson2017">{{cite book |last1=Fortson III |first1=S. Donald |title=The Presbyterian Story: Origins & Progress of a Reformed Tradition, 2nd Edition |date=4 December 2017 |publisher=Wipf and Stock Publishers |isbn=978-1-7252-3817-6 |page=117 |language=en |quote=in Scotland the story was a striking contrast as a national Sottish Presbyterian Church was the outcome. The Reformation in Sotland, in manifold ways, was the by-product of Herculean efforts by John Knox, "the Father of Presbyterianism."}}</ref> The period also saw the rise of non-Catholic denominations with quite different theologies and politics to the [[Magisterial Reformers]] (Lutherans, Reformed, and Anglicans): so-called [[Radical Reformers]] such as the various [[Anabaptists]], who sought to return to the practices of early Christianity.<ref name="Shah2016"/><ref name="Cremeens2018"/>{{sfn|Pettegree|2000b|p=242}} The [[Counter-Reformation]] comprised the Catholic response to the Reformation, with the [[Council of Trent]] clarifying ambiguous or disputed Catholic positions and abuses that had been subject to critique by reformers.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9026564/Counter-Reformation|title=Counter Reformation|date=9 October 2023 |publisher=[[Encyclopædia Britannica Online]]}}</ref> 

The consequent [[European wars of religion]] saw the deaths of between seven and seventeen million people.

==Terminology==
[[File:Ginevra1.JPG|thumb|alt=A stone wall with the sculptures of four bearded men|The [[Reformation Wall|International Monument to the Reformation]], a statue erected in [[Geneva]] in 1909 depicting [[William Farel]], [[John Calvin]], [[Theodore Beza]], and [[John Knox]], four leaders of the [[Calvinism|Reformed tradition]] of [[Protestantism]]]] 
In the 16th-century context, the term mainly covers four major movements: [[Lutheranism]], [[Calvinism]], the [[Radical Reformation]], and the [[Catholic Reformation]] or [[Counter-Reformation]]. Since the late {{nowrap|20th century}}, historians often use the plural of the term to emphasize that the Reformation was not a uniform and coherent historical phenomenon but the result of parallel movements.{{sfn|Cameron|2012|p=1}} 

Anglican theologian [[Alister McGrath]] explains the term "Reformation" as "an interpretative category—a way of mapping out a slice of history in which certain ideas, attitudes, and values were developed, explored, and applied". Historian [[John Bossy]] criticized the term Reformation<ref>''Christianity in the West 1400-1700 '' (review) {{cite journal |last1=Wooding |first1=Lucy |title=The Canon |journal=Times Higher Education |date=7 January 2010 |issue= 1929 |page=49}}</ref> for "wrongly implying that bad religion  was giving way to good," but also because it has "little application to actual social behaviour and little or no sensitivity to thought, feeling or culture."{{sfn|Duffy|2016}} A French scholar has noted "no Reformation term is indisputable" and that "Reformation studies has revealed that “Protestants” and “Catholics” were not as homogenous as once thought."<ref name=kanga>{{cite thesis |last1=Kanga |first1=Fariba |title=The Construction of the Enemy in French Reformation Martyr Narratives, 1554-1616 |date=2023 |publisher=University of Pennsylvania |url=https://repository.upenn.edu/handle/20.500.14332/59174 |language=en}}</ref> 

Specific terminology includes:
* "Protestant Reformation" excludes the [[Renaissance]] and [[Early Modern Times|early modern]] Catholic reform movements. 
* "[[Magisterial Reformation]]" has a narrower sense, as it refers only to mainstream [[Protestantism]], primarily Lutheranism, Anglicanism and Calvinism, contrasting it with more radical ideas such as the [[Anabaptists]]'.{{sfn|McGrath|2021|pp=2–3}}<ref name="Shah2016">{{cite book |last1=Shah |first1=Timothy Samuel |last2=Hertzke |first2=Allen D. |title=Christianity and Freedom: Volume 1, Historical Perspectives |date=26 April 2016 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-316-55285-8 |language=en |quote=... where nationally dominant magisterial Protestant churches (Lutheran, Anglican, and Presbyterian) became virtual “departments of state” in their governance, as one Reformation historian characterized them.}}</ref><ref name="Cremeens2018">{{cite book |last1=Cremeens |first1=Timothy B. |title=Marginalized Voices: A History of the Charismatic Movement in the Orthodox Church in North America 1972-1993 |date=28 June 2018 |publisher=Wipf and Stock Publishers |isbn=978-1-5326-1708-9 |page=157 |language=en |quote=The “magisterial” Protestant denominations (i.e., Lutheran, Reformed, and Anglican) all claimed to honor the ecumenical Councils of the undivided Church and give a modicum of authority to the Church Fathers}}</ref> 
* "Catholic Reformation" is distinguished by the historian Massimo Firpo from [[Counter-Reformation]]. In his view, Catholic Reformation was "centered on the care of souls ..., episcopal residence, the renewal of the clergy, together with the charitable and educational roles of the new religious orders", whereas Counter-Reformation was "founded upon the defence of orthodoxy, the repression of dissent, the reassertion of ecclesiastical authority".{{sfn|Firpo|2016|p=295}} 
* Some historians have also suggested a persisting "[[Legacy and evaluations of_Erasmus#Erasmian reformation|Erasmian Reformation]]."{{refn|group=note|Historian [[Hendrik Enno van Gelder]] suggested that the Reformations of Luther and Calvin were minor affairs compared to the Reformation of Erasmus and the humanists, "which propelled Christianity further than (the others) could do, away from medieval Catholicism and towards the modern world." Historians [[Edward Gibbon]] and [[Hugh Trevor-Roper]] also wrote of a "third church".<ref name= mansfield>{{cite book |last1=Mansfield |first1=Bruce |title= Erasmus in the Twentieth Century |date=6 May 2003 |publisher=University of Toronto Press |isbn=978-1-4426-7455-4 |url= https://doi.org/10.3138/9781442674554 |chapter=Erasmus in the Twentieth Century: Interpretations 1920-2000|doi=10.3138/9781442674554 }}</ref>{{rp|149}} }}

Several aspects of the Reformation, such as changes in the arts, music, rituals, and communities are frequently presented in specialised studies.{{sfn|Dixon|2012|pp=10–11}}

The historian [[Peter Marshall (historian)|Peter Marshall]] emphasizes that the "call for 'reform' within Christianity is about as old as the religion itself, and in every age there have been urgent attempts to bring it about". [[Charlemagne]] employed a "rhetoric of reform".{{refn|group=note|"This 'rhetoric of reform' crops up in a variety of sources all of which originated in the royal court of Charlemagne and his successors. Subsequently, words such as ''corrigere'', ''emendare'', ''renovare'', ''reformare'' and their synonyms, readily became the instruments for achieving unity, and unity gave the Christian empire of Charlemagne ''pax'', ''caritas'' and ''concordia''."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hen |first1=Yitzhak |title=Medieval Manuscripts in Transition: Tradition and Creative Recycling |date=2006 |publisher=Leuven University Press |jstor=j.ctt9qdxv4.11 |isbn=978-90-5867-520-0 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt9qdxv4.11}}</ref>{{rp|158}} }} Medieval examples include the [[Cluniac Reform]] in the {{nowrap|10th–11th centuries}}, and the 11th-century [[Gregorian Reform]],{{sfn|Marshall|2009|pp=3–4}} both striving against [[Catholic laity|lay]] influence over church affairs.{{sfn|Hamilton|2003|p=45}}{{sfn|Collinson|2005|p=14}} When demanding a church reform, medieval authors mainly adopted a conservative and utopian approach, expressing their admiration for a previous "golden age" or "apostolic age" when the Church had allegedly been perfect and free of abuses.{{sfn|Cameron|2012|p=52}}

When considered as a historical time period, both the starting and ending date of the Reformation have always been debated.{{sfn|Marshall|2009|p=5}} The most commonly used starting date is 31 October 1517—the day when the German theologian [[Martin Luther]] (d. 1546) allegedly nailed up a copy of his [[disputation]] paper on [[indulgences]] and papal power known as the ''[[Ninety-five Theses]]'' to the door of the [[All Saints' Church, Wittenberg|castle church]] in [[Wittenberg]] in [[Electorate of Saxony|Electoral Saxony]].{{refn|group=note|As Wittenberg academics regularly published their disputation papers by posting it to the door of the castle church, the story is quite probable even if it was first mentioned years after the events.{{sfn|Cameron|2012|p=102}}{{sfn|Roper|2022|p=52}}}}{{sfn|Dixon|2012|p=15}} Calvinist historians often propose that the Reformation started when the Swiss priest [[Huldrych Zwingli]] (d. 1531) first preached against abuses in the Church in 1516.{{sfn|Dixon|2012|p=10}} The end date of the Reformation is even more disputed: considered as political/martial strife,  25 September 1555 (when the [[Peace of Augsburg]] was accepted), 23 May 1618 and 24 October 1648 (when the Thirty Years' War began and ended, respectively) are the most commonly mentioned terminuses. The Reformation has always been presented as one of the most crucial episodes of the early modern period, or even regarded as the event separating the [[modern era]] from the [[Middle Ages]].{{sfn|Dixon|2012|pp=14–15}}

The term [[Protestant]], though initially purely political in nature, later acquired a broader sense, referring to a member of any Western church that subscribed to the main Reformation (or [[anti-Catholicism|anti-Catholic]]) [[Five solae#The three solae|principles]].<ref name= "etymonline.com" /> Six princes of the [[Holy Roman Empire]] and rulers of fourteen [[Imperial Free City|Imperial Free Cities]], who issued [[protestation at Speyer|a protest]] (or dissent) against the edict of the [[Diet of Speyer (1529)]], were the first individuals to be called Protestants.<ref name= "etymonline.com">{{cite web|url= http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=protestant|title= Protestant – Origin and meaning |website=Online Etymology Dictionary}}</ref> The edict reversed concessions made to the [[Lutheranism|Lutherans]] with the approval of [[Holy Roman Emperor]] [[Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor|Charles V]] [[Diet of Speyer (1526)|three years earlier]].

==Background==

===Calamities===
{{See also|Little Ice Age|Medieval demography|Black Death|Sweating Sickness}}
[[File:Willem Vrelant (Flemish, died 1481, active 1454 - 1481) - Mass for the Dead - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|Funeral Mass with priest, choristers, bearers or mourners, and beggar receiving alms ({{circa|1460–1480}})]]

[[Europe]] experienced a period of dreadful calamities from the early {{nowrap|14th century}}. These culminated in a devastating [[pandemic]] known as the [[Black Death]], which killed about one-third of Europe's  population.{{sfn|Lindberg|2021|pp=21–24}} Around 1500, the population of Europe was about {{nowrap|60–85 million}} people—no more than {{nowrap|75 percent}} of the mid-14th-century demographic maximum.{{sfn|Cameron|2012|p=4}} Due to a shortage of workforce, the landlords began to restrict the rights of their tenants which led to rural revolts that often ended with a compromise.{{sfn|Cameron|2012|pp=204–205}}

[[File:Hrastovlje Dreifaltigkeitskirche Innen Totentanzzyklus 2.JPG|thumb|right|upright=1.35 |alt=A mural depicting a cardinal, a bishop, a monk and a peasant dancing with skeletons|Detail of the {{lang|fr|[[danse macabre]]}} (1490) by [[John of Kastav]] in the [[Holy Trinity Church (Hrastovlje)|Holy Trinity Church]], [[Hrastovlje]], Slovenia]]
The constant fear of unexpected death was mirrored by popular artistic motifs, such as the allegory of {{lang|fr|[[danse macabre]]}} ('dance of death'). The fear also contributed to the growing popularity of [[Requiem|Masses for the dead]].{{sfn|Lindberg|2021|p=24}} Already detectable among [[Early Christianity|early Christians]], these ceremonies indicated a widespread belief in [[purgatory]]—a transitory state for souls that needed purification before entering [[Heaven in Christianity|heaven]].{{sfn|Hamilton|2003|p=97}} Fear of malevolent magical practice was also growing, and [[witch hunt]]s intensified.{{sfn|Gordon|2022|pp=41, 48}}

At the end of the {{nowrap|15th century}}, the [[sexually transmitted infection]] known as [[syphilis]] spread throughout Europe for the first time. Syphilis destroyed its victims' looks with [[Ulcer (dermatology)|ulcers]] and scabs before killing them. Along with the [[Italian War of 1494–1495|French invasion of Italy]], syphilis contributed to the success of the charismatic preacher [[Girolamo Savonarola]] (d. 1498) who called for a moral renewal in [[Florence]]. He was arrested and executed for [[Heresy in Christianity|heresy]], but his [[Christian meditation|meditations]] remained a popular reading.{{sfn|MacCulloch|2003|pp=90–92}}

===Late Medieval Christianity===
{{Further|Christianity in the 13th century|Christianity in the 14th century|Christianity in the 15th century}}
[[File:Fra Filippo Lippi and Workshop, The Nativity, probably c. 1445, NGA 422.jpg|thumb|upright=1.35|alt=A baby with a halo around his head lying on hay with a kneeling woman and man on his both sides|''The Nativity'' (1445) by [[Filippo Lippi]]. When painting [[Nativity of Jesus in art|Nativity scenes]], [[Renaissance]] artists mainly portrayed maternal love instead of depicting an abstract interpretation of the [[Incarnation (Christianity)|Incarnation]] as [[Romanesque art|Romanesque]] and [[Gothic art|Gothic]] artists had done.{{sfn|Hamilton|2003|p=84}}]]
====Lay community====
Historian [[John Bossy]] (as summarized by [[Eamon Duffy]]<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Duffy |first1=Eamon |title=Rites of passage |journal=TLS |date=2017 |volume=5941 |url=https://www.the-tls.co.uk/religion/religious-culture/how-historians-have-refashioned-the-reformation}}</ref>) emphasized that "medieval Christianity had been fundamentally concerned with the creation and maintenance of peace in a violent world. 'Christianity' in medieval Europe denoted neither an ideology nor an institution, but a community of believers whose religious ideal—constantly aspired to if seldom attained—was peace and mutual love."{{refn|group=note|Bossy's economic argument was that feudalism was largely a zero-sum economy where the advantage of one people or class could only be obtained by disadvantaging some other people or class, frequently using or resulting in violence, in contrast to later mercantile and capitalist economies.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bossy |first1=John |title=Christianity in the West, 1400-1700 |date=1985 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford [Oxfordshire] ; New York |isbn=0192891626}}</ref> }} <ref>{{cite journal |last1=Galpern |first1=A. N. |title=Review of Christianity in the West, 1400-1700 |journal=The American Historical Review |date=1986 |volume=91 |issue=5 |pages=1184–1185 |doi=10.2307/1864415 |jstor=1864415 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1864415 |issn=0002-8762|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

The Catholic Church taught that entry into [[Beatific vision|heaven]] required dying in a {{linktext|state of grace}}.{{sfn|Hamilton|2003|p=97}} Based on [[The Sheep and the Goats|Christ's parable on]] the [[Last Judgement]], the Church emphasized the performance of [[good works]] by the baptized faithful, such as feeding the hungry and visiting the sick, as an important co-condition of salvation.{{sfn|Hamilton|2003|p=68}} 

Villagers and urban laypeople were frequently members of  [[confraternities]] (such as the [[Archconfraternity of the Gonfalone]]),<ref>{{cite web |title=Medieval Confraternities: Prayers, Feasts, and Fees |url=https://www.medievalists.net/2021/11/medieval-confraternities-prayers-feasts-and-fees/ |website=Medievalists.net |date=21 November 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Rudy |first1=Kathryn M. |title=Chapter 2: Confraternities of Laypeople |date=12 September 2024 |pages=73–124 |doi=10.11647/obp.0379.02 |doi-access=free}}</ref>{{refn|group=note|According to historian Konrad Eisenbichler, "After the State and the Church, the most well-organised membership system of medieval and early modern Europe was the confraternity—an association of lay persons who gathered regularly to pray and carry out a charitable activity. In cities, towns, and villages it would have been difficult for someone not to be a member of a confraternity, a benefactor of a confraternity's charitable work, or, at the very least, not to be aware of a confraternity's presence in the community."<ref>{{cite book|last1=Eisenbichler |first1=Konrad |title=Introduction: A World of Confraternities, in A Companion to Medieval and Early Modern Confraternities |date=30 January 2019 |pages=1–19 |doi=10.1163/9789004392915_002}}</ref> Another historian notes that confraternities were "the most sweeping and ubiquitous movement of the central and later Middle Ages".<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Bird |first1=Jessalynn |title=Between Orders and Heresy: Rethinking Medieval Religious Movements, ed. Jennifer Kolpacoff Deane and Anne E. Lester |journal=The English Historical Review |date=14 June 2024 |volume=139 |issue=596 |pages=222–225 |doi=10.1093/ehr/ceae008}}</ref>}} mutual-support [[guilds]] associated with a saint, or religious [[fraternities]] (such as the [[Third Order of Saint Francis]]). The faithful made [[Christian pilgrimage|pilgrimages]] to saints' [[shrine]]s,{{sfn|Cameron|2012|p=14}} but the proliferation in the saints' number undermined their reputation.{{refn|group=note|Saints were often supposed to assist those who faithfully [[supplicated]] and [[Veneration|venerated]] them. There were occurrences where disappointed farmers who thought that an agricultural saint had unjustly failed to assist the weather or harvest dragged down his or her statue or spattered it with mud.{{sfn|Pfaff|2013|pp=196–197}}}}{{sfn|Pfaff|2013|pp=213–214}} There was a strong non-theological Biblical awareness,{{refn|group=note|Historian Frans van Liere asserts that "One cannot understand the medieval world without appreciating the scope of medieval people's engagement with biblical stories, characters, and images.[...]It is a common misconception, especially in Protestant circles, that people (or, at least, the "common" people) in the Middle Ages did not read the Bible." Even in the early Middle Ages, "many people, clergy and laity alike, may have been able to read but not write, and even those who could not were not entirely cut off from the written word, because they could have others read it to them.[...]There was both more illiteracy among the clergy, and more literacy among the laity, than is often supposed.[...]Most medieval Christians came to know the Bible not by reading, but by hearing it."<ref name=introbib>{{cite book |last1=van Liere |first1=Frans |title=An Introduction to the Medieval Bible |publisher=Cambridge University Press|date=31 March 2014 |doi=10.1017/CBO9780511843051.008}}</ref>{{rp|xi,177,179,199,208}}
Historian Eyal Poleg "rejects the Reformers' image of a medieval laity denied access to the Bible. Mediation provided all groups in society, lay and clerical both, with an approach to the Bible, though the understanding of what the Bible was differed for different groups."<ref>{{cite journal |last1=O'Brien |first1=Conor |title=Approaching the Bible in medieval England. By Eyal Poleg. (Manchester Medieval Studies.) Pp. xxi+263 incl. 9 figs, 2 music examples and 2 tables+7 colour plates. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2013. £65. 978 0 7190 8954 1 |journal=The Journal of Ecclesiastical History |date=October 2014 |volume=65 |issue=4 |pages=898–900 |doi=10.1017/S0022046914001067}}</ref> For historian Andrew Gow, "the circulation of vernacular Bibles in late medieval Germany was abundant and ample and thanks to a well-organised manuscript production and the early success of printed press highly accessible to lay people, in particular those living in an urban environment."<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Corbellini |first1=Sabrina |last2=van Duijn |first2=Mart |last3=Folkerts |first3=Suzan |last4=Hoogvliet |first4=Margriet |title=Challenging the Paradigms: Holy Writ and Lay Readers in Late Medieval Europe |journal=Church History and Religious Culture |date=2013 |volume=93 |issue=2 |pages=171–188 |doi=10.1163/18712428-13930202 |jstor=23923202 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23923202 |issn=1871-241X|url-access=subscription }}</ref>{{rp|173}}
 }} especially of the Gospels and Psalms.

New religious movements promoted the deeper involvement of laity in religious practices. The communal fraternities of  the [[Brethren of the Common Life]] did not encourage lay brothers to become priests<ref name=post>{{cite book |last1=Post |first1=R.R. |title=The Modern Devotion: Confrontation with Reformation and Humanism |date=1 January 1968 |doi=10.1163/9789004477155_019}}</ref> and often placed their houses under the protection of urban authorities.{{sfn|MacCulloch|2003|p=22}} They were closely associated with the {{lang|la|[[devotio moderna]]}}, a new method of [[Catholic spirituality]] with a special emphasis on the education of laypeople.{{sfn|McGrath|2004|p=22}} A leader of the movement the Dutch [[Wessel Gansfort]] (d. 1489) attacked abuses of indulgences.{{sfn|MacCulloch|2003|p=119}}

Church buildings were richly decorated with paintings, sculptures, and [[stained glass]] windows. While [[Romanesque art|Romanesque]] and [[Gothic art]] made a clear distinction between the supernatural and the human, Renaissance artists depicted [[God in Christianity|God]] and the saints in a more human way.{{sfn|Hamilton|2003|p=83}}  Historian Caroline Walker Bynum has written of 'a sort of religious materialism' in the period: 'a frenzied conviction that the divine tended to erupt into matter'.<ref name=marshall2015/>

====Sources of authority====

The sources of religious authority included the Bible and its authoritative commentaries, [[sacred tradition|apostolic tradition]], decisions by ecumenical councils, [[scholasticism|scholastic]] theology, and papal authority. Catholics regarded the [[Vulgata|Vulgate]] as the Bible's authentic Latin translation. Commentators applied several methods of interpretations to resolve contradictions within the Bible.{{refn|group=note|For instance, Catholic commentators read the [[Law of Moses]] in a symbolic or mystical sense thinking that the Jewish ceremonies and laws were irrelevant for Christians.{{sfn|Hamilton|2003|p=29}}}} Apostolic tradition verified religious practices with unclear Biblical foundations or which required deduction, such as [[infant baptism]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Grass |first1=Tim |title=Bible, Church and Tradition in the 16th Century Reformation |journal=Journal of European Baptist Studies |date=2003 |volume=3 |issue=2}}</ref>{{rp|22,23,28}} The ecumenical councils' decisions were binding to all Catholics. The crucial elements of mainstream Christianity had been first summarised in the [[Nicene Creed]] in 325. Its western text contained a [[Filioque|unilateral addition]] which contributed to the [[East–West Schism|schism between]] Catholicism and [[Eastern Orthodox Church|Eastern Orthodoxy]].{{sfn|Hamilton|2003|pp=24–31, 140}} The Creed contained the dogma of [[Trinity]] about one God uniting three equal persons: [[God the Father|Father]], [[God the Son|Son]], and [[God the Holy Spirit|Holy Spirit]].{{sfn|MacCulloch|2003|p=180}}{{sfn|Hamilton|2003|p=15}} Church authorities acknowledged that an individual might exceptionally receive direct [[revelation]]s from God but maintained that a genuine revelation could not challenge traditional religious principles.{{refn|group=note|A notable example was the Dominican nun [[Catherine of Siena]] (d. 1380) whose revelations convinced Pope {{nowrap|Gregory XI}} to return his seat from Avignon to Rome.{{sfn|Hamilton|2003|p=32}}}}{{sfn|Hamilton|2003|pp=31–32}} Preaching was an [[Bible_translations_in_the_Middle_Ages#Oral_and_extemporised_translation|important part]] of bishops' and priests' responsibilities.{{refn|group=note|There are over 140,000 sermons, given or transcribed into Latin, still extant just from 1150 to 1350.<ref name=introbib/>{{rp|214}}}}

====Clergy====

[[Western Christianity]] displayed a remarkable unity. This was the outcome of the Gregorian Reform that established [[papal supremacy]] over the [[Catholic Church]], and achieved the legal separation of the [[Priesthood in the Catholic Church|Catholic clergy]] from [[Catholic laity|laity]].{{sfn|MacCulloch|2003|pp=26–27}}{{refn|group=note|
The medieval Church operated its own legal system and Roman-law-derived [[Legal_history_of_the_Catholic_Church#Jus_Novum|laws and procedures]] in parallel with the local secular state's legal system: bishops had courts, officers, guards, prisons, etc. These [[Ecclesiastical_court|ecclesiastical courts]] protected priests and religious in various ways from the reach of the distrusted local secular courts and laws, or dealt with laity on issues relating to sacraments, notably marriage and divorce. As well, the Church claimed, but was not always allowed, jurisdiction "over any dispute that arose because one person allegedly wronged another, jurisdiction to protect the poor and unbefriended, and jurisdiction to compensate for the failure of the civil authorities to do justice,[...]and over hard and doubtful cases."<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Rodes |first1=Robert |title=Secular Cases in the Church Courts: A Historical Survey |journal=Journal Articles |date=1 January 1989 |url=https://scholarship.law.nd.edu/law_faculty_scholarship/76}}</ref>  On many issues, appeals could be made to the Pope. In England, a parallel parliament for the clergy even arose, largely to keep their taxes independent, but  distinct from the citizens' Parliament: the [[Convocations of Canterbury and York]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Convocation |url=https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/3cb4163c-fa18-4efc-955e-f774d44b5e87 |website=U.K. National Archives |language=English}}</ref> }} [[Clerical celibacy]] was reinforced through the prohibition of [[clerical marriage]]; [[ecclesiastical court]]s were granted exclusive jurisdiction over clerics, and also over matrimonial causes.{{sfn|Hamilton|2003|pp=34–38}} Priests were [[Holy orders in the Catholic Church|ordained]] by bishops in accordance with the principle of [[apostolic succession]]—a claim to the uninterrupted transmission of their consecrating power from Christ's [[Apostles in the New Testament|Apostles]] through generations of bishops.{{sfn|Hamilton|2003|p=33}} Bishops, [[abbot]]s, [[abbess]]es, and other [[prelate]]s might possess remarkable wealth.{{sfn|Gordon|2022|p=2}} Some of the ecclesiastic leaders also functioned as local secular princes, such as the [[prince-bishop]]s in [[Kingdom of Germany]] and the English [[County Palatine of Durham]], and the [[Grand Masters of the Teutonic Knights]] in their [[Baltic region|Baltic]] {{lang|de|[[Ordensstaat]]}}. Other prelates might be regents or the power behind the throne.{{refn|group=note|Examples of exceptionally influential prelates include the Spanish cardinal [[Francisco Jiménez de Cisneros]] (d. 1517), and the German archbishop [[Matthäus Lang von Wellenburg|Matthäus Lang]] (d. 1540).{{sfn|Cameron|2012|p=29}}}}{{sfn|Cameron|2012|p=29}} Believers were expected to pay the [[tithe]] (one tenth of their income) to the Church.{{sfn|MacCulloch|2003|p=35}} Pluralism—the practice of holding multiple Church offices (or [[benefice]]s)—was not unusual. This led to non-residence, and the absent priests' deputies were often poorly educated and underpaid.{{sfn|Hamilton|2003|p=39}}

The clergy consisted of two major groups, the [[regular clergy]] and the [[secular clergy]]. Regular clerics lived under a [[Christian monasticism|monastic]] rule within the framework of a [[Religious order (Catholic)|religious order]];{{sfn|Hamilton|2003|pp=33, 42}} secular clerics were responsible for pastoral care. The Church was a hierarchical organisation. The pope was elected by high-ranking clergymen, the [[Cardinal (Catholic Church)|cardinals]], and assisted by the professional staff of the [[Roman Curia]]. Secular clerics were organised into territorial units known as [[diocese]]s, each ruled by a [[Bishops in the Catholic Church|bishop]] or [[archbishop]].{{refn|group=note|The archbishops were also the heads of [[ecclesiastical province]]s that included several dioceses.{{sfn|Hamilton|2003|p=33}}}} Each diocese was divided into [[Parish (Catholic Church)|parishes]] headed by parish priests who administered most [[sacrament]]s to the faithful.{{sfn|MacCulloch|2003|pp=26–30}} These were sacred rites thought to transfer [[Grace in Christianity|divine grace]] to humankind. The [[Council of Florence]] declared [[Baptism#Catholicism|baptism]], [[Confirmation in the Catholic Church|confirmation]], [[Marriage in the Catholic Church|marriage]], [[Anointing of the Sick in the Catholic Church|extreme unction]], [[Sacrament of Penance|penance]], the [[Eucharist in the Catholic Church|Eucharist]], and priestly ordination as the seven [[sacraments of the Catholic Church]].{{sfn|Cameron|2012|p=12}} Women were not ordained priests but could live as [[nun]]s in [[convent]]s after taking the three monastic vows of [[Evangelical counsels|poverty, chastity, and obedience]].{{sfn|Hamilton|2003|pp=41, 48–49, 88, 97}}

====Papacy====

[[File:Richental Konzilssitzung Muenster.jpg|thumb|right|upright=1.35|alt=A pope and about a dozen bishops sitting in a large room.|Meeting of cardinals, bishops and theologians with [[Antipope John XXIII]] ({{reign|1410|1415}}) at the [[Council of Constance]] (from the ''Chronicle of the Council of Constance'' by [[Ulrich of Richenthal]])]]

The authority of the papacy was based on a well-organised system of communication and bureaucracy.{{sfn|Wickham|2016|pp=148–149}} The popes claimed the power of [[binding and loosing]] that Christ [[Matthew 16:19|had reportedly]] granted to [[Peter the Apostle]] (d. {{circa}} 66), and offered [[indulgence]]—the reduction of the penalty in both this world ([[penance]]) and in [[Purgatory]] to contrite and pardoned sinners who e.g. gave alms or went on pilgrimages.{{sfn|Hamilton|2003|pp=107–108}} The popes also granted [[Dispensation (Catholic canon law)|dispensations]] to institutions or individuals, exempting them from certain provisions of [[canon law]] (or ecclesiastic law).{{refn|group=note|For instance, religious orders were regularly exempted of the authority of the bishops, or elderly laypeople could be released of the obligation of [[Fasting and abstinence in the Catholic Church|fasting]].{{sfn|Hamilton|2003|p=39}}}}{{sfn|Hamilton|2003|p=39}} 

From 1309 to 1417, the papacy was in turmoil: various election controversies resulted in the [[Western Schism]] (1378-1417) leading to, at the end, three rival claimant Popes. At the [[Council of Constance]], one of the three popes resigned, his two rivals were deposed, and the newly elected [[Pope Martin V|Martin V]] ({{reign|1417|1431}}) was acknowledged as the legitimate pope throughout Catholic Europe.{{sfn|Wickham|2016|p=213}} The relative authority of [[Conciliarism|popes and ecumenical councils]] was in contest.

The [[Renaissance]] popes were also secular rulers: as princes of the [[Papal States]] in Italy, the popes were deeply involved in the power struggles of the peninsula, and the Italian [[List_of_noble_houses#Italy_and_the_Papal_States|noble houses]] vied for election. These popes frequently caused scandal: [[Pope Alexander VI]] ({{reign|1492|1503}}) appointed [[House of Borgia|his relatives]], among them his own [[Legitimacy (family law)|illegitimate]] sons to high offices; [[Pope Julius II]] ({{reign|1503|1513}}) took up arms to recover papal territories lost during his predecessors' reign,{{sfn|MacCulloch|2003|pp=40–41}} prompting the underground satire ''[[Julius Excluded from Heaven]]''.

In the early [[Age of Exploration]], a succession of popes ([[Nicholas V]], [[Sixtus IV]], {{nowrap|Alexander VI}}) successfully arbitrated territorial disputes between Spain and Portugal outside Europe, notably with the [[papal bull]] [[Inter caetera|Inter caetera]] (1493) drawing a line through South America to separate their trade and colonial regions.{{sfn|Kaufmann|2023|pp=14–15}}{{sfn|MacCulloch|2003|pp=64–65}} The Spanish and Portuguese conquests and developing trade networks contributed to the global expansion of Catholicism.{{refn|group=note|The baptism of [[Nzinga a Nkuwu]], [[Kingdom of Kongo|King of Kongo]] ({{reign|1470|1509}}) in 1491 is the earliest example. By the end of the rule of his son [[Afonso I of Kongo|Alfonso I]] ({{reign|1509|1543}}), about {{nowrap|2 million}} people received baptism in Kongo.{{sfn|Ditchfield|2022|p=198}}}}{{sfn|Ditchfield|2022|p=198}} 

The popes were generous patrons of art and architecture. {{nobr|Julius II}} ordered the demolition of the ruined [[Old St. Peter's Basilica|4th-century St. Peter's Basilica]] in preparation for the building of a [[St. Peter's Basilica|new Renaissance basilica]], creating a financial problem.{{sfn|Gordon|2022|p=9}}

====Partial and failed institutional reforms====

The necessity of a church reform {{lang|la|in capite et membris}} ('in head and limbs') was frequently discussed at the ecumenical councils from the late {{nowrap|13th century}}. However, many high stakeholders—popes, prelates, abbots and kings—preferred the {{lang|la|status quo}} because they did not want to lose privileges or revenues.{{sfn|Cameron|2012|pp=44–45}} The system of papal dispensations proved a continual obstacle to the implementation of each revived reform attempt, as the [[Holy See]] had regularly granted privileges or immunities.{{sfn|Hamilton|2003|p=39}}

Within regular clergy, the so-called "[[Congregation (group of houses)|congregations]] of strict observance" spread. These were monastic communities that returned to the strict interpretation of their order's rule.{{refn|group=note|A good example is the Benedictine congregation that began with the reform of monastic life at the [[Abbey of Santa Giustina]] in [[Padua]] under the auspices of the Venetian nobleman [[Ludovico Barbo]] (d. 1443). By 1505, the congregation included nearly 50 abbeys, and had an effect on the reform of further monasteries, such as [[Fontevraud Abbey]] and [[Marmoutier Abbey, Tours|Marmoutier Abbey]] in France.{{sfn|Cameron|2012|pp=47–48}}}} Reformist bishops tried to discipline their clergy through regular [[canonical visitation]]s but their attempts mainly failed due to the resistance of autonomous institutions such as [[cathedral chapter]]s. Neither could they exercise authority over non-resident clerics who had received their benefice from the papacy.{{sfn|Cameron|2012|pp=47–53}} On the eve of the Reformation, the [[Fifth Council of the Lateran]] was the last occasion when efforts to introduce a far-reaching reform from above could have achieved but it was dissolved in 1517 without making decisions on the issues that would soon come to the fore.{{sfn|MacCulloch|2003|pp=84–85}}

===Humanism===
{{Main|Renaissance humanism}}
{{See also|Complutensian Polyglot Bible|Northern Renaissance}}

[[File:Holbein-erasmus.jpg|thumb|right|alt=A middle-aged man with a book in his hands wearing a fur coat and a fur hat|''[[Portrait of Erasmus of Rotterdam]]'' by [[Hans Holbein the Younger]] (d. 1543)]]

A new intellectual movement known as [[Renaissance humanism|Humanism]] emerged in the [[Late Middle Ages]]. The Humanists' slogan {{lang|la|[[ad fontes]]!}} ('back to the sources!') demonstrated their enthusiasm for [[classical antiquity|Classical]] texts and [[textual criticism]].{{sfn|Kaufmann|2023|pp=48–50}} The [[rise of the Ottoman Empire]] led to the mass immigration of [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantine]] scholars to Western Europe, and many of them brought [[manuscript]]s previously unknown to western scholarship. This led to the [[Platonism in the Renaissance|rediscovery of]] the Ancient Greek philosopher [[Plato]] ({{nobr|347/348 BC}}). Plato's ideas about an ultimate reality lying beyond visible reality posed a serious challenge to scholastic theologians' rigorous definitions. Textual criticism called into question the reliability of some of the fundamental texts of papal privilege: humanist scholars, like [[Nicholas of Cusa]] (d. 1464) proved that one of the basic documents of papal authority, the allegedly 4th-century ''[[Donation of Constantine]]'' was a medieval forgery.{{sfn|MacCulloch|2003|pp=75–79}}

As the [[Paper mill|manufacturing of paper]] from rags and the printing machine with [[movable type]] were spreading in Europe, books could be bought at a reasonable price from the {{nowrap|15th century}}.{{refn|group=note|The price of the books decreased by about 85 per cent after printing machines started to work.{{sfn|Rubin|2014|p=6}}}} Demand for religious literature was especially high.{{sfn|MacCulloch|2003|pp=68–70}} The German inventor [[Johannes Gutenberg]] (d. 1468) first published a [[Gutenberg Bible|two-volume printed version]] of the Vulgata in the early 1450s.{{sfn|Gordon|2022|pp=8, 18, 29}} [[High German languages|High]] and [[Low German]], Italian, Dutch, Spanish, Czech and Catalan translations of the Bible were published between 1466 and 1492; in France, the Bible's abridged French versions gained popularity.{{sfn|MacCulloch|2003|pp=70–71}} Laypeople who read the Bible could challenge their priests' sermons, as it happened already in 1515.{{sfn|Gordon|2022|p=30}}

Completed by [[Jerome]] (d. 420), the Vulgate contained the [[Septuagint]] version of the [[Old Testament]].{{sfn|Hamilton|2003|pp=27–28}} The systematic study of Biblical manuscripts revealed that Jerome had sometimes misinterpreted his sources of translation.{{refn|group=note|The Vulgate text of [[Exodus 34]] is a well known case of Jerome's mistranslations: the Hebrew text writes of [[Moses]]'s shining face when narrating the revelation of the [[Ten Commandments]] whereas Jerome describes Moses as wearing a pair of horns as he mistook a Hebrew [[function word]].{{sfn|MacCulloch|2003|p=79}}}}{{sfn|MacCulloch|2003|p=79}} A series of Latin-Greek [[Novum Instrumentum omne|editions of the New Testament]] was completed by the Dutch humanist [[Erasmus]] (d. 1536). These new Latin translations challenged some scriptural [[proof texts]] for some Catholic dogmas.{{refn|group=note|For instance, Erasmus's translations did not support the traditional [[proof text]] for the concepts of [[Infused righteousness|infused grace]]<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Schwarz |first1=W. |title=Examples of Luther's Biblical Translation |journal=The Journal of Theological Studies |date=1955 |volume=6 |issue=2 |pages=199–209 |doi=10.1093/jts/VI.2.199 |jstor=23952721 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23952721 |issn=0022-5185|url-access=subscription }}</ref> and the treasury of merit, by choosing the adjective {{lang|la|gratiosa}} ('gracious') instead of the traditional {{lang|la|gratia plena}} ('full of grace') to address the Virgin Mary in the Latin text of the ''[[Hail Mary]]''.{{sfn|MacCulloch|2003|p=96}}}}{{sfn|MacCulloch|2003|pp=95–97}}

===Dissidents===

{{Main|Proto-Protestantism}}

{{see also|List of Christian heresies|Wycliffe's Bible|Compactata}}

[[File:Burning of Jan Hus during the Council of Constance in 1415 (depicted in the Chronik des Konstanzer Konzils; Prague manuscript).png|thumb|right|alt=A man wearing a hat depicting two demonic figures is being burned. He is surrounded by armed people.|Burning of [[Jan Hus]] at [[Bishopric of Constance|Constance]] (from the ''Chronicle of the Council of Constance'' by [[Ulrich of Richenthal]])]]

After [[Arianism]]—a [[Christology|Christological doctrine]] condemned as [[Heresy in Christianity|heresy]] at ecumenical councils—disappeared in the late {{nowrap|7th century}}, no major disputes menaced the theological unity of the Western Church. Religious enthusiasts could organise their followers into nonconformist groups but they disbanded after their founder died.{{refn|group=note|One of the enthusiasts, [[Henry of Lausanne]] (d. {{circa}} 1148) persuaded French prostitutes to repent their sins, but opposed confessions, and attacked the wealth of the clergy. Although his calls for a church reform attracted many commoners, his movement quickly disintegrated when he died.{{sfn|Hamilton|2003|p=130}}}} The [[Waldensians]] were a notable exception. Due to their efficient organisation, they survived not only the death of their founder [[Peter Waldo]] (d. {{circa}} 1205), but also a series of [[Albigensian Crusades|anti-heretic crusades]]. They rejected the clerics' monopoly of public ministry, and allowed all trained members of their community, men and women alike, to preach.{{sfn|Hamilton|2003|pp=3, 129–135}}

The [[Western Schism]] reinforced a general desire for church reform. The [[University of Oxford|Oxford]] theologian [[John Wycliffe]] (d. 1384) was one of the most radical critics.{{sfn|Marshall|2009|p=4}} He attacked pilgrimages, the veneration of saints, and the doctrine of transubstantiation.{{sfn|Hamilton|2003|pp=135–136}} He regarded the Church as an exclusive community of those chosen by God to salvation,{{sfn|Cameron|2012|p=81}} and argued that the state could seize the corrupt clerics' endowments.{{sfn|Lindberg|2021|p=43}} Known as [[Lollards]], Wycliffe's followers rejected images, clerical celibacy and the [[Twelve_Conclusions_of_the_Lollards#Tenth_conclusion:_war,_battle,_and_crusades|purchase of indulgences]] by crusading lords. The [[Parliament of England]] passed a [[De heretico comburendo|law against heretics]], but Lollard communities survived the purges.{{sfn|Cameron|2012|p=81}}{{sfn|Hamilton|2003|p=136}}

Wycliffe's theology had a marked impact on the [[Charles University|Prague]] academic [[Jan Hus]] (d. 1415). He delivered popular sermons against the clerics' wealth and temporal powers, for which he was summoned to the Council of Constance. Although the German king [[Sigismund of Luxemburg]] ({{reign|1410|1437}}) had granted him safe conduct, Hus was sentenced to death for heresy and [[death by burning|burned at the stake]] on 6 July 1415. His execution led to a [[Bohemian Reformation|nationwide religious movement]] in [[Lands of the Bohemian Crown|Bohemia]], and the papacy called for a [[Hussite Wars|series of crusades]] against Hus's followers. The moderate [[Hussitism|Hussites]], mainly [[Czech nobility|Czech aristocrats]] and academics, were known as [[Utraquism|Utraquists]] for they taught that the Eucharist was to be administered {{lang|la|sub utraque specie}} ('in both kinds') to the laity. The most radical Hussites, called [[Taborites]] after their new town of [[Tábor]], held their property in common. Their [[millenarianism]] shocked the Utraquists who destroyed them in the [[Battle of Lipany]] in 1434.{{sfn|Wickham|2016|pp=246–247}}{{sfn|Cameron|2012|pp=76–77}} By this time, the remaining Catholic communities in Bohemia were almost exclusively German-speaking. The lack of a Hussite church hierarchy enabled the Czech aristocrats and urban magistrates to assume control of the Hussite clergy from the 1470s. The radical Hussites set up their own Church known as the [[History of the Moravian Church#15th century|Union of Bohemian Brethren]]. They rejected the separation of clergy and laity, and condemned all forms of violence and oath taking.{{sfn|MacCulloch|2003|pp=36–37}}

Marshall writes that the Lollards, Hussites and conciliarist theologians "collectively give the lie to any suggestion that torpor and complacency were the hallmarks of religious life in the century before Martin Luther."{{sfn|Marshall|2009|p=4}} Historians customarily refer to Wycliffe and Hus as "Forerunners of the Reformation". The two reformers' emphasis on the Bible is often regarded as an early example of one of the basic principles of the Reformation—the idea {{lang|la|[[sola scriptura]]}} ('by the [[Scriptures]] alone'), although prominent scholastic theologians were also convinced that Scripture, interpreted reasonably and in accord with the Church and the [[Church Fathers]],<ref>{{cite web |last1=Minges |first1=Parthenius |title=John Duns Scotus |url=https://www.catholic.com/encyclopedia/john-duns-scotus |website=Catholic Encyclopedia |publisher=Catholic Answers}}</ref> contained all knowledge necessary for salvation.{{refn|group=note|For instance, [[Duns Scotus]] (d. 1308) stated that "theology does not concern anything except what is contained in Scripture, and what may be drawn from this," though this does not equate theology and Bibe study.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Bychkov |first1=Oleg |title=The Nature of Theology in Duns Scotus and his Franciscan Predecessors |journal=Franciscan Studies |date=2008 |volume=66 |issue=1 |pages=5–62 |doi=10.1353/frc.0.0007 |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/257394 |issn=1945-9718}}</ref> Theologians associated with the [[Augustinians|Augustinian Order]] such as Gregory of Rimini rarely cited other sources of faith.{{sfn|McGrath|2004|pp=138, 144–145}}}}{{sfn|McGrath|2004|pp=137–138}}

==Beginnings==
The Reformation in Germanic countries was instigated by Martin Luther, however historians note that many of his ideas were pre-dated by Wycliff, Huss, [[Erasmus]], [[Zwingli]] and others, both heretic and orthodox. Historian [[Peter Marshall (historian)|Peter Marshall]] has noted "In recent decades, scholars have become increasingly acclimatized to the idea that the Reformation was in important respects a continuation and intensification of trends within later medieval Catholicism, rather than simply a wholesale rejection of it."<ref name=marshall2015>{{cite journal |last1=Marshall |first1=Peter |title=Catholic Puritanism in Pre-Reformation England |journal=British Catholic History |date=October 2015 |volume=32 |issue=4 |pages=431–450 |doi=10.1017/bch.2015.15}}</ref>

=== Luther and the ''Ninety-five Theses'' ===

{{Main|Martin Luther|Ninety-five Theses}}

[[File:Martin Luther by Cranach-restoration.jpg|thumb|right|alt=A round-faced middle-aged man|''Portrait of Martin Luther'' (1529) by [[Lucas Cranach the Elder]]]]

[[Pope Leo X]] ({{reign|1513|1521}}) decided to complete the construction of the new St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.<ref>Huppert, Ann C. Year. "Envisioning New St. Peter's: Perspectiva, Drawings, and the Process of Design." ''University of Kansas Journal'', no. 160</ref> As the sale of certificates of indulgences had been a well-established method of papal fund raising, he announced new indulgences in the papal bull {{lang|la|Sacrosanctis}} in 1515. On the advice of the banker [[Jakob Fugger]] (d. 1525), he appointed the pluralist prelate [[Albert of Brandenburg]] (d. 1545) to supervise the sale campaign in Germany.{{refn|group=note|A member of the [[House of Hohenzollern|Hohenzollern dynasty]], Albert ruled the [[Archbishopric of Mainz|Archbishoprics of Mainz]] and [[Archbishopric of Magdeburg|Magdeburg]] and the [[Bishopric of Halberstadt]] simultaneously. He had borrowed money from Fugger to pay the fees to the Roman Curia for his appointment to the [[episcopal see|see]] of Mainz, and his share in the revenues from the sale of indulgences was expected to allow him to repay the loan.{{sfn|MacCulloch|2003|p=117}}}} The Dominican friar [[Johann Tetzel]] (d. 1519), a leading figure in the campaign, applied unusually aggressive marketing methods. A slogan attributed to him famously claimed that "As soon as the coin into the box rings, a soul from purgatory to heaven springs".{{sfn|Lindberg|2021|p=71}}{{sfn|Marshall|2009|p=15}} [[Frederick III, Elector of Saxony|Frederick the Wise]], [[Prince-elector]] of Saxony ({{reign|1486|1525}}) forbade the campaign because the {{lang|la|Sacrosanctis}} suspended the sale of previous indulgences, depriving him of revenues that he had spent on his collection of [[relic]]s.{{refn|group=note|Frederick rebuilt the [[All Saints' Church, Wittenberg|castle church at Wittenberg]] to store his collection of nearly 20,000 relics. This collection was thought to include a straw from the stable of the [[Nativity of Jesus|Nativity]], the corpse of a [[Massacre of the Innocents|holy innocent]], and drops from the Virgin's [[breast milk]].{{sfn|Cameron|2012|p=15}}}}{{sfn|MacCulloch|2003|p=119}}

The campaign's vulgarity shocked many serious-minded believers,{{sfn|MacCulloch|2003|p=119}} among them Martin Luther, a theology professor at the [[University of Wittenberg]] in Saxony.{{sfn|Marshall|2009|p=15}}{{sfn|Kolb|2006|p=41}} Born into a middle-class family, Luther entered an [[St. Augustine's Monastery (Erfurt)|Augustinian monastery]] after a heavy thunderstorm dreadfully reminded him the risk of sudden death and eternal damnation, but his anxiety about his sinfulness did not abate.{{sfn|Kolb|2006|pp=40–41}} His studies on the works of the Late Roman theologian [[Augustine of Hippo]] (d. 430) convinced him that those whom God chose as his elect received a gift of faith independently of their acts.{{sfn|MacCulloch|2003|pp=114, 116}} He first denounced the idea of justification through human efforts in his {{lang|la|Disputatio contra scholasticam theologiam}} ('Disputation against Scholastic Theology') in September 1517.{{sfn|Kaufmann|2023|p=70}}

On 31 October 1517, Luther addressed a letter to Albert of Brandenburg, stating that the clerics preaching the St. Peter's indulgences were deceiving the faithful, and attached his ''Ninety-five Theses'' to it. He questioned the efficacy of indulgences for the dead, although also stated "{{nowrap|If ...}} indulgences were preached according to the spirit and intention of the pope, {{nowrap|all ...}} doubts would be readily resolved".{{sfn|Kaufmann|2023|p=75}} Archbishop Albert ordered the theologians at the [[University of Mainz]] to examine the document. Tetzel, and the theologians [[Konrad Wimpina]] (d. 1531) and [[Johann Eck]] (d. 1543) were the first to associate some of Luther's propositions with Hussitism. The case was soon forwarded to the Roman Curia for judgement.{{sfn|Kaufmann|2023|pp=75–79}} Pope Leo remained uninterested, and mentioned the case as "a quarrel among friars".{{sfn|Marshall|2009|p=15}}{{sfn|MacCulloch|2003|p=121}}

=== New theology ===

{{Main|Lutheranism}}
{{See also|Luther Bible}}

{{Quote box
 |title     = Luther on the Christian struggles toward God 
 |quote     = Christians should be exhorted to seek earnestly to follow Christ, their Head, through penalties, deaths, hells. And let them thus be more confident of entering heaven through many tribulations rather than through a false assurance of peace. 
 |author    = Martin Luther
 |source    = ''Ninety-five Theses''{{sfn|MacCulloch|2003|p=120}}
 |align     = right
 |width     = 25%
 |bgcolor   = #F5FAFF
 |title_bg  = #CEE0F2
 |qalign    = left
 |salign    = right
 }}
As the historian [[Lyndal Roper]] notes, the "Reformation proceeded by a set of debates and arguments".{{sfn|Roper|2022|p=58}} Luther presented his views in public at the [[Heidelberg Disputation|observant Augustinians' assembly]] in [[Heidelberg]] on 26 April 1518.{{sfn|Kaufmann|2023|pp=77–79}} Here he explained his "[[theology of the Cross]]" about a loving God who had [[Incarnation (Christianity)|become frail]] to save [[Fall of man|fallen]] humanity, contrasting it with what he saw as the scholastic "theology of glory" that in his view celebrated erudition and human acts.{{sfn|MacCulloch|2003|p=121}} It is uncertain when Luther's concept of [[sola fide|justification by faith alone]]—a central element of his theology—crystallised. He would later attribute it to his "tower experience"{{refn|group=note|"Luther himself
had said that he found his new insight "auff diser cloaca auff dem thurm" (on or over the toilet on the tower); however some historians dispute the account.<ref name="auto">{{cite journal |last1=Leppin |first1=Volker |title=Setting Luther into His Historical Place: My Quarrels with the German Orthodoxy in Luther Research |journal=The Sixteenth Century Journal |date=2017 |volume=48 |issue=4 |pages=927–943 |doi=10.1086/SCJ4804009 |jstor=44817117 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44817117 |issn=0361-0160|url-access=subscription }}</ref>}} (1519),<ref>{{cite web |last1=Luther |first1=Martin |title=The Preface to the Complete Edition of Luther's Latin Works |url=https://pages.uoregon.edu/sshoemak/323/texts/Luther%20Tower%20Experience.htm |website=Modern History Sourcebook}}</ref> when he comprehended that God could freely declare even sinners righteous while he was thinking about the words of [[Paul the Apostle]] (d. 64 or 65)—"[[Romans 1:17|the just shall live by faith]]".{{sfn|Cameron|2012|pp=114–121}}{{sfn|MacCulloch|2003|pp=115–116}}

Urged by Luther's opponents, Pope Leo appointed the jurist [[Girolamo Ghinucci]] (d. 1541) and the theologian [[Sylvester Mazzolini]] (d. 1527) to inspect Luther's teaching.{{sfn|Cameron|2012|p=103}} Mazzolini argued that Luther had questioned papal authority by attacking the indulgences, while Luther concluded that only a fundamental reform could put an end to the abuse of indulgences.{{sfn|Lindberg|2021|pp=72–75}} Pope Leo did not excommunicate Luther because Leo did not want to alienate Luther's patron Frederick the Wise.{{refn|group=note|Luther's friendship with Frederick's secretary [[George Spalatin]] (d. 1545) secured him Frederick's favour, and {{nowrap|Leo X}} wanted to influence the forthcoming [[imperial election]] with Frederick's assistance.{{sfn|Roper|2022|p=58}}}} Instead, he appointed Cardinal [[Thomas Cajetan]] (d. 1534) to convince Luther to withdraw some of his theses. Cajetan met with Luther at [[Augsburg]] in October 1518.{{sfn|Cameron|2012|p=102}} The historian Berndt Hamm says that the meeting was the "historical point at which the opposition between the Reformation and Catholicism first emerged",{{refn|group=note|Historian Volker Leppin writes "anti-Catholicism does not lie at the root of Reformation, even if later on it obviously became part of the whole Reformation framework," but notes "the anti-Catholic tendency of Luther research".<ref name="auto"/>}} as Cajetan thought that believers accepting Luther's views of justification would no more obey clerical guidance.{{sfn|Hamm|1999|pp=75–76}}{{sfn|Lindberg|2021|p=79}}

Luther first expressed his sympathy for Jan Hus at a [[Leipzig Debate|disputation in Leipzig]] in June 1519. His case was reopened at the Roman Curia. Cajetan, Eck and other papal officials drafted the papal bull {{lang|la|[[Exsurge Domine]]}} ('Arise, O Lord') which was published on 15 June 1520. It condemned Luther's forty-one theses, and offered a sixty-day-long grace period to him to recant.{{sfn|Cameron|2012|pp=103–104}} Luther's theology quickly developed. In a Latin treatise ''[[On the Babylonian Captivity of the Church]]'', he stated that only baptism and the [[Eucharist in Lutheranism|Eucharist]] could be regarded as sacraments, and priests were not members of a privileged class but servants of the community (hence they became called [[Minister (Christianity)|ministers]] from the Latin word for servant). His German manifesto ''[[To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation]]'' associated the papacy with the [[Antichrist]], and described the Holy See as "the worst whorehouse of all whorehouses" in reference to the funds flowing to the Roman Curia.{{sfn|Kaufmann|2023|pp=82–84}}{{sfn|Roper|2022|pp=60–62}} It also challenged the Biblical justification of clerical celibacy.{{sfn|Lindberg|2021|p=93}} Luther's study ''[[On the Freedom of a Christian]]'' consolidated his thoughts about the believers' inner freedom with [[Great Commandment|their obligation]] to care for their neighbours although he rejected the traditional teaching about good works.{{sfn|Kaufmann|2023|pp=84–85}} The study is a characteristic example of Luther's enthusiasm for paradoxes.{{refn|group=note|For instance, he stated that "A Christian is a perfectly free lord of all, subject to none. A Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant of all, subject to all."{{sfn|MacCulloch|2003|pp=126–127}}}}{{sfn|MacCulloch|2003|pp=126–127}}

{{listen|type=music
| filename=Ein' Feste Burg.ogg
| title=''Ein' feste Burg ist unser Gott'' ('A Mighty Fortress Is Our God') sung in German
| description=The German text of Luther's hymn {{lang|de|[[A Mighty Fortress Is Our God|Ein' feste Burg ist unser Gott]]}} sung to the isometric, more widely known arrangement of its traditional melody.
}}

The papal nuncio [[Girolamo Aleandro]] (d. 1542) ordered the burning of Luther's books.{{sfn|Cameron|2012|p=104}} In response, Luther and his followers burned the papal bull along with a copy of the {{lang|la|[[Corpus Juris Canonici]]}}—the fundamental document of medieval ecclesiastic law—at Wittenberg. The [[Decet Romanum Pontificem|papal bull excommunicating Luther]] was published on 3 January 1521.{{sfn|Lindberg|2021|p=83}}{{sfn|Roper|2022|p=62}} The newly elected [[Holy Roman Emperor]] [[Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor|Charles V]] ({{reign|1519|1556}}) wanted to outlaw Luther at the [[Diet of Worms]], but could not make the decision alone.{{sfn|Cameron|2012|p=105}} The [[Holy Roman Empire]] was a confederation of [[List of states in the Holy Roman Empire|autonomous states]], and authority rested with the [[Imperial Diet (Holy Roman Empire)|Imperial Diets]] where the [[Imperial Estate]]s assembled.{{sfn|Marshall|2009|p=12}} Frederick the Wise vetoed the [[imperial ban]] against Luther, and Luther was summoned to [[Worms, Germany|Worms]] to defend his case at the Diet in April 1521. Here he refused to recant stating that only arguments from the Bible could convince him that his works contained errors.{{sfn|Cameron|2012|p=105}}

After Luther and his supporters left the Diet, those who remained sanctioned the imperial ban, threatening Luther's supporters with imprisonment and confiscation of their property.{{sfn|Lindberg|2021|p=85}} To save Luther's life but also to hide his involvement, Frederick arranged Luther's abduction on 4 May.{{sfn|Cameron|2012|p=105}} During his ten-month-long{{sfn|Lindberg|2021|p=85}} staged captivity at Frederick's castle of [[Wartburg]], Luther translated the [[New Testament]] to High German. The historian [[Diarmaid MacCulloch]] describes the translation as an "extraordinary achievement that has shaped the German language ever since", adding that "Luther's gift was for seizing the emotion with sudden, urgent phrases".{{sfn|MacCulloch|2003|pp=128–129}} The translation would be published at the 1522 [[Leipzig Book Fair]] along with Luther's treatise ''On Monastic Vows'' that laid the theological foundations of the dissolution of monasteries.{{sfn|Kaufmann|2023|p=89}} Luther also composed [[List of hymns by Martin Luther|religious hymns]] in Wartburg. They would be first published in collections in 1524.{{sfn|MacCulloch|2003|p=129}} During Luther's absence, his co-workers, primarily [[Philip Melanchthon]] (d. 1560) and [[Andreas Karlstadt]] (d. 1541) assumed the leadership of Reformation in Wittenberg. Melanchthon consolidated Luther's thoughts into a coherent theological work titled {{lang|la|[[Loci communes]]}} ('Common Places').{{sfn|MacCulloch|2003|pp=135–136}}

=== Spread ===

{{See also|Magisterial Reformation}}

[[File:Christ mocked - pope venerated.jpg|thumb|right|upright=1.35|alt=|Woodcuts by [[Lucas Cranach the Elder]] from the ''Passional of Christ and Antichrist'', contrasting Christ who wears the [[Crown of Thorns]] and is mocked ''(on the left)'', with the pope crowned with a [[Papal tiara|tiara]] and adored by bishops and abbots ''(on the right)'']]
Roper argues that "the most important reason why Luther did not meet with Hus's fate was technology: the new medium of print". Luther was publishing his views in short but pungent treatises that gained unexpected popularity: he was responsible for about one-fifth of all works printed in Germany in the first third of the {{nowrap|16th century}}.{{refn|group=note|Between 1517 and 1520, Luther completed 30 treatises, and more than 300,000 of their copies were sold.{{sfn|Rubin|2014|p=7}}}}{{sfn|Roper|2022|pp=68–69}} German printing presses were scattered in many urban centers which prevented their control by central authorities.{{sfn|Marshall|2009|p=17}} Statistical analysis indicates a significant [[correlation]] between the presence of a printing press in a German city and the adoption of Reformation.{{refn|group=note|According to an [[econometric analysis]] by the economist Jared Rubin, "the mere presence of a printing press prior to 1500 increased the probability that a city would become Protestant in 1530 by 52.1 percentage points, Protestant in 1560 by 43.6 percentage points, and Protestant in 1600 by 28.7 percentage points."{{sfn|Rubin|2014|p=26}} Cities with a competitive printing market were even more likely to accept new theologies.{{sfn|Dittmar|Seabold|2015|p=21}}}}{{sfn|Becker|Pfaff|Rubin|2016|p=18}}

Reformation spread through the activities of enthusiastic preachers such as [[Johannes Oecolampadius]] (d. 1531) and [[Konrad Pellikan|Konrad Kürsner]] (d. 1556) in [[Basel]], [[Sebastian Hofmeister]] (d. 1533) in [[Schaffhausen]], and [[Matthäus Zell]] (d. 1548) and [[Martin Bucer]] (d. 1551) in [[Strasbourg]].{{sfn|Cameron|2012|pp=111–112}} They were called "Evangelicals" due to their insistence on teaching in accordance with the [[Gospel]]s (or {{lang|he|Evangelion}}).{{sfn|Pfaff|2013|p=189}} Luther and many of his followers worked with the artist [[Lucas Cranach the Elder]] (d. 1553) who had a keen sense of visualising their message. He produced Luther's idealised portrait setting a template for further popular images printed on the covers of books.{{sfn|Roper|2022|pp=69–71}} Cranach's [[woodcut]]s together with itinerant preachers' explanations helped the mainly illiterate people to understand Luther's teaching.{{sfn|Becker|Pfaff|Rubin|2016|p=205}} The illustrated pamphlets were carried from place to place typically by peddlers and merchants.{{sfn|Kim|Pfaff|2012|p=205}} Laypeople started to discuss various aspects of religion in both private and public all over Germany.{{sfn|Kaufmann|2023|pp=92–93}}

The self-governing [[Free imperial city|free imperial cities]] were the first centers of the Reformation.{{sfn|Pfaff|2013|p=190}} The Evangelical preachers emphasized that many of the well-established church practices had no precedent in the Bible. They offered the Eucharist to the laity in both kinds,{{sfn|Kaufmann|2023|pp=95–96}} and denied the clerics' monopolies, which resonated with popular anti-clericalism.{{sfn|Becker|Pfaff|Rubin|2016|p=9}} It was not unusual that their supporters attacked clerics and church buildings.{{sfn|Kaufmann|2023|p=96}} Violent iconoclasm was common.{{refn|group=note|"Sixteenth-century Protestants and Catholics knew that iconoclasm was not simply a byproduct of the Reformation, or a violent spasm, but its very essence."<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Eire |first1=Carlos M.N. |title=Book reviews: Early Modern European. 'Voracious Idols and Violent Hands: Iconoclasm in Reformation Zurich, Strasbourg, and Basel' by Lee Palmer Wandel. |journal=Catholic Historical Review |date=Oct 1996 |volume=82 |issue=4 |pages=703–704|doi=10.1353/cat.1996.0153  | issn = 0008-8080}}</ref> }}In some cities such as Strasbourg and [[Ulm]], the urban magistrates supported the Reformation; in the cities of the [[Hanseatic League]] the affluent middle classes enforced changes in church life.{{sfn|Rubin|2014|p=9}} Cities located closer to the most important ideological centers of the Reformation—Wittenberg and Basel—adopted its ideas more likely than other towns. This indicates the significance either of student networks,{{sfn|Kim|Pfaff|2012|p=206}} or of neighbours who had rejected Catholicism.{{sfn|Cantoni|2012|p=20}}

The sociologist Steven Pfaff underlines that "ecclesiastical and liturgical reform was not simply a religious question ... since the sort of reforms demanded by Evangelicals could not be accommodated within existing institutions, prevailing customs, or established law". After their triumph, the reformers expelled their leading opponents, dissolved the monasteries and convents, secured the urban magistrates' control of the appointment of priests, and established new civic institutions.{{sfn|Pfaff|2013|p=191}} Evangelical town councils usually prohibited begging but established a common chest for [[poverty relief]] by expropriating the property of dissolved ecclesiastic institutions. The funds were used for the daily support of orphans, old people and the sick, but also for low-interest loans to the impoverished to start a business. Luther was convinced that only educated people could effectively serve both God and the community. Under his auspices, public schools and libraries were opened in many towns offering education to more children than the traditional [[monastic school|monastic]] and [[cathedral school]]s.{{sfn|Lindberg|2021|pp=113–124}}

=== Resistance and oppression ===
[[File:Treasury of St. Ursula, Cologne, the Rhine, Germany-LCCN2002714088.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2 |alt=A golden shrine in a large room|Treasury of [[Saint Ursula]] in the [[Basilica of St. Ursula, Cologne]]. Her popular cult contributed to the townspeople's resistance to Evangelical proselytism in [[Cologne]].{{sfn|Pfaff|2013|p=201}}]]

Resistance to Evangelical preaching was significant in [[County of Flanders|Flanders]], the [[Rhineland]], [[Duchy of Bavaria|Bavaria]] and Austria.{{sfn|Becker|Pfaff|Rubin|2016|p=21}} Here the veneration of local saints was strong, and statistical analysis indicates that cities where indigenous saints' shrines served as centers of vivid communal cults less likely adopted Reformation.{{refn|group=note|Pfaff demonstrates in a study that the presence of a local saint's shrine in a city doubled the likelihood of resisting the Reformation.{{sfn|Pfaff|2013|p=202}}}}{{sfn|Pfaff|2013|p=214}} Likewise, cities with an episcopal see or monasteries more likely resisted Evangelical proselytism.<ref name="Rubin270"/>{{sfn|Curuk|Smulders|2016}} 

Luther's ideas were rejected by most representatives of the previous generation of Humanists. [[Erasmus]] stated that Luther's "unrestrained enthusiasm carries him beyond what is right". [[Jacob van Hoogstraaten]] (d. 1527) compared Luther's theology of salvation "as if Christ takes to himself the most foul bride and is unconcerned about her cleanliness".{{sfn|Cameron|2012|pp=132–134}} Luther's works were burned in most European countries.{{sfn|MacCulloch|2003|p=131}} Emperor Charles initiated the execution of the first Evangelical martyrs, the Augustinian monks [[Jan van Essen and Hendrik Vos]]. They were burned in Brussels on 1 July 1523.{{sfn|Kaufmann|2023|p=138}} Charles was determined to protect the Catholic Church, but the [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman Turks']] expansion towards Central Europe often thwarted him.{{sfn|Iyigun|2008|pp=4, 27}}{{sfn|Becker|Pfaff|Rubin|2016|pp=15, 19}} The [[Spanish Inquisition]] prevented the spread of Evangelical literature in that country, and suppressed the spiritual movement of the {{lang|es|[[Alumbrados]]}} ('Illuminists') who put a special emphasis on personal faith. Some Italian men of letters, such as the Venetian nobleman [[Gasparo Contarini]] (d. 1542) and the Augustinian canon [[Peter Martyr Vermigli]] (d. 1562) expressed ideas resembling Luther's theology of salvation but did not quickly break with Catholicism.{{refn|group=note|Contarini, according to his own words, "changed from great fear and suffering to happpiness" when he concluded, after counsel from a saintly monk on [[Holy Saturday]] 1511, that reliance on asceticism or penances was insufficient, unnecessary and counter-productive{{sfn|Collinson|2005|p=92}} however he did not hold Luther's position on, e.g., the sinfulness of good works.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Gleason |first1=Elizabeth |title=Gasparo Contarini: Venice, Rome, and Reform |date=1993 |publisher=UC Press |location=Berkeley |url=https://publishing.cdlib.org/ucpressebooks/view?docId=ft429005s2&chunk.id=d0e653&toc.depth=1&toc.id=d0e648&brand=ucpress;query=art#1}}</ref>}} They were part of a group known as {{lang|it|[[Spirituali]]}}.{{sfn|Kaufmann|2023|pp=146–147}}{{sfn|Cameron|2012|pp=135–136}} 

The English king [[Henry VIII]] ({{reign|1509|1547}}) commissioned a team of theologians to defend the Catholic dogmas against Luther's attacks. Their treatise titled ''[[Defence of the Seven Sacraments|The Assertion of the Seven Sacraments]]'' was published under Henry's name, and the grateful Pope awarded him with the title [[Defender of the Faith]].{{sfn|MacCulloch|2003|p=131}}{{sfn|Kaufmann|2023|p=142}} In Scotland, the first Evangelical preacher [[Patrick Hamilton (martyr)|Patrick Hamilton]] (d. 1528) was burned for heresy.{{sfn|MacCulloch|2003|p=316}} In France, the theologians of the [[University of Paris|Sorbonne]] stated that Luther "vomited up a doctrine of pestilence". [[Guillaume Briçonnet (Bishop of Meaux)|Guillaume Briçonnet]] (d. 1534), [[Bishop of Meaux]], also condemned Luther but employed reform-minded clerics like [[Jacques Lefèvre d'Étaples]] (d. {{circa}} 1536) and [[William Farel]] (d. 1565) to renew religious life in his diocese. They enjoyed the protection of [[Marguerite de Navarre|Marguerite of Angoulême]] (d. 1549), the well-educated sister of the French king [[Francis I of France|Francis I]] ({{reign|1515|1547}}). The [[Parlement of Paris]] only took actions against them after Francis was captured in the [[Battle of Pavia]] in 1525, forcing many of them into exile.{{sfn|Lindberg|2021|pp=260–262}}

Correspondence between [[Luke of Prague]] (d. 1528), leader of the Bohemian Brethren, and Luther made it clear that their theologies were incompatible even if their views about justification were similar. In Bohemia, [[Kingdom of Hungary (1301–1526)|Hungary]], and [[Kingdom of Poland (1385-1569)|Poland]], Luther's theology spread in the local German communities. King [[Louis II of Hungary|Louis of Bohemia and Hungary]] ({{reign|1516|1526}}) ordered the persecution of Evangelical preachers although his wife [[Mary of Hungary (governor of the Netherlands)|Mary of Austria]] (d. 1558) favoured the reformers. [[Sigismund I the Old]], King of Poland and Grand Duke of [[Grand Duchy of Lithuania|Lithuania]] ({{reign|1506|1548}}) banned the import of Evangelical literature.{{sfn|Kaufmann|2023|pp=150–152}} [[Christian II of Denmark|Christian II]], who ruled the [[Kalmar Union]] of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway ({{reign|1513|1523}}), was sympathetic towards the Reformation but his despotic methods led to revolts. He was replaced by his uncle [[Frederick I of Denmark|Frederick I]] in Denmark and Norway ({{reign|1523|1533}}), and by a local aristocrat [[Gustav I of Sweden|Gustav I Vasa]] in Sweden ({{reign|1523|1560}}).{{sfn|Cameron|2012|p=275}}

==Alternatives==

=== Saxon radicals and rebellious knights ===

{{Further|Radical Reformation|Knights' War}}

Andreas Karlstadt accelerated the implementation of Reformation in Wittenberg. On Christmas Day 1521, he administered the Eucharist in common garment; the next day he announced his engagement to a fifteen-year-old noble girl Anna von Mochau.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Zorzin |first=Alejandro |date=2020-09-01 |title=A Portrait of Andreas Bodenstein von Karlstadt by Lucas Cranach the Elder |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14622459.2020.1807762 |journal=Reformation & Renaissance Review |volume=22 |issue=3 |pages=238–252 |doi=10.1080/14622459.2020.1807762 |issn=1462-2459|url-access=subscription }}</ref> He proclaimed that images were examples of "devilish deceit" which led to the mass destruction of religious art. Enthusiasts began swarming to Wittenberg. The [[Zwickau prophets]], who had been incited by the radical preacher [[Thomas Müntzer]] (d. 1525), claimed that they had received revelations from God.{{sfn|MacCulloch|2003|pp=136–138}}{{sfn|Kaufmann|2023|pp=93–95}} They rejected transubstantiation and attacked infant baptism. Luther defended art as a proof of the beauty of the [[Genesis creation narrative|Creation]], maintained that Christ's Body and Blood were [[Sacramental union|physically present]] in the Eucharist,{{refn|group=note|Luther compared the physical presence of the Body and Blood of Christ in the Eucharist to the heating of a piece of iron that changes its physical features.{{sfn|MacCulloch|2003|pp=139–140}}}} and regarded infant baptism as a sign of membership in the Christian community.{{refn|group=note|Luther likened infant baptism to the [[Brit milah|circumcision of]] Jewish male infants [[Covenant of the pieces|prescribed]] in the [[Book of Genesis]]. His radical opponents would emphasize that the command of circumcision could not justify the baptism of infant girls.{{sfn|MacCulloch|2003|p=145}}}} To put an end to the anarchy, Frederick the Wise released Luther in March 1522. Luther achieved the Zwickau prophets' removal from Wittenberg, calling them fanatics.{{sfn|MacCulloch|2003|pp=138–140}} Karlstadt voluntarily left Wittenberg for [[Orlamünde]] where the local congregation elected him its minister. Luther visited most parishes in the region to prevent radical reforms, but he was often received by verbal or physical abuses. When he wanted to dismiss Karlstadt, the parishioners referred to his own words about the congregations' right to freely elect their ministers, and Karlstadt called him a "perverter of the Scriptures". Karlstadt was expelled from Electoral Saxony without a trial on Luther's initiative.{{sfn|Lindberg|2021|pp=131–134}}

Luther condemned violence but some of his followers took up arms. [[Franz von Sickingen]] (d. 1523), an [[imperial knight]] from the Rhineland, formed an alliance with his peers against [[Richard von Greiffenklau zu Vollrads|Richard von Greiffenklau]], [[Electorate of Trier|Archbishop-elector of Trier]] ({{reign|1511|1531}}), allegedly to lead the Archbishop's subjects "to evangelical, light laws and Christian freedom".{{sfn|Kaufmann|2023|p=93}} Sickingen had demanded the restitution of monastic property to the grantors' descendants, stating that the [[secularisation (church property)|secularisation of church property]] would also improve the poor peasants' situation.{{sfn|Stayer|2006|p=128}} Sickingen and his associates [[Knights' War|attacked the archbishopric]] but failed at the siege of Trier. Sickingen was mortally wounded while defending his [[Nanstein Castle]] against the Archbishop's troops.{{sfn|Kaufmann|2023|p=93}} Luther denounced Sickingen's violent acts.{{sfn|Stayer|2006|p=129}} According to his "[[Two kingdoms doctrine|theory of two kingdoms]]", true Christians had to submit themselves to princely authority.{{sfn|MacCulloch|2003|p=152}}

=== Zwingli ===
{{Main|Theology of Huldrych Zwingli}}

[[File:Ulrich Zwingli by Asper.jpg|thumb|upright=.8|alt=A middle-aged man|[[Huldrych Zwingli]]'s 16th-century portrait by [[Hans Asper]]]]

The Swiss Humanist priest Huldrych Zwingli would claim that he "began to preach the Gospel of Christ in 1516 long before anyone in our region had ever heard of Luther". He came to prominence when [[Affair of the Sausages|attended a meal of sausages]] in [[Zürich]] during [[Lent]] 1522, breaching the rules of [[Fasting and abstinence in the Catholic Church|fasting]].{{sfn|Marshall|2009|p=18}} He held disputations with the urban magistrates' authorization to discuss changes in church life, and always introduced them with the magistrates' support. In 1524, all images were removed from the churches, and fasting and clerical celibacy were abolished. Two years later, a German communion service replaced the Latin liturgy of the [[Mass in the Catholic Church|Mass]], and the Eucharist (or Lord's Supper) was administered on a plain wooden table instead of an embellished [[Altar (Catholic Church)|altar]].{{sfn|Marshall|2009|p=18}}{{sfn|Collinson|2005|p=64}} Two new institutions were organised in Zürich: the {{lang|de|[[Prophezei]]}} (a public school for Biblical studies), and the Marriage and Morals Court (a legal court and moral police consisting of two laymen and two clerics). Both would be copied in other towns.{{sfn|Kaufmann|2023|p=105}} Zwingli's interpretation of the Eucharist differed from both Catholic theology and Luther's teaching. He denied Christ's presence in the sacramental bread and wine, and regarded the Eucharist as a [[Memorialism|commemorative ceremony]] in honor of the [[Crucifixion of Jesus|crucified]] Jesus.{{sfn|MacCulloch|2003|p=142}} The disagreement caused a bitter pamphlet war between Luther and Zwingli.{{sfn|Collinson|2005|pp=65–66}} They both rejected intermediary Eucharistic formulas coined by Bucer.{{sfn|MacCulloch|2003|p=176}}

=== Swiss Brethren ===

{{Main|Swiss Brethren}}

Zwingli's cautious "Magisterial Reformation" outraged the more radical reformers, among them [[Conrad Grebel]] (d. 1526), a Zürich patrician's son who had fallen out with his family for marrying a low born girl. The radicals summarized their theology in a letter to Müntzer in 1524. They identified the Church as an exclusive community of the righteous, and demanded its liberation from the state. They deplored all religious practices that had no Biblical foundations, and endorsed [[believer's baptism|believers' (or adult) baptism]]. 

In January 1525, a former Catholic priest [[George Blaurock]] (d. 1529) asked Grebel to [[Rebaptism|rebaptize]] him, and after his request was granted they rebaptized fifteen other people.{{sfn|Lindberg|2021|pp=198–201}} For this practice, they were called [[Anabaptism|Anabaptists]] ('rebaptizers').{{sfn|MacCulloch|2003|pp=145–146}} As a featuring element of [[Donatism]] and other heretic movements, rebaptism had been a [[capital offence]] since the Late Roman period. After the magistrates had some radicals imprisoned, Blaurock called Zwingli the Antichrist.{{sfn|Lindberg|2021|pp=198–203}} The town council enacted a law that threatened rebaptizers with capital punishment, and the Anabaptist [[Felix Manz]] (d. 1527) was condemned to death and drowned in the [[Limmat River]].{{sfn|MacCulloch|2003|p=146}} He was the first victim of religious persecution by reformist authorities. The purge convinced many Anabaptists that they were the true heirs to early Christians who had [[Persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire|suffered martyrdom]] for their faith. The most radicals took inspiration from the [[Book of Daniel]] and the [[Book of Revelation]] for apocalyptic prophesies. Some of them burnt the Bible reciting St Paul's words, "[[2 Corinthians 3|the letter kills]]".{{sfn|Lindberg|2021|pp=203–204}} In [[St. Gallen]], Anabaptist women cut their hair short to avoid arousing sexual passion, while a housemaid Frena Bumenin proclaimed herself the New Messiah before announcing that she would give birth to the Antichrist.{{sfn|MacCulloch|2003|pp=164–165}}

According to Dr Kenneth R. Davis, "the Anabaptists can best be understood as, apart from their own creativity, a radicalization and Protestantization not of the Magisterial Reformation but of the lay-oriented, ascetic reformation of which [[Erasmus]] is the principle mediator."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Davis |first1=Kenneth Ronald |title=Anabaptism and Asceticism: A Study in Intellectual Origins |date=1974 |publisher=Herald Press |isbn=978-0-8361-1195-8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XIrZAAAAMAAJ |language=en}}</ref>{{rp|292}}

=== Peasants' War ===

{{Main|German Peasants' War}}

[[File:Titelblatt 12 Artikel.jpg|thumb|right|alt=A page depicting men armed with pikes, flails, maces and pitchforks|Title page of the ''[[Twelve Articles]]'', a manifesto by Swabian peasants in March 1525]]

MacCulloch says that the Reformation "injected an extra element of instability" into the relationship between the peasants and their lords, as it raised "new excitement and bitterness against established authority".{{sfn|MacCulloch|2003|p=155}} Public demonstrations in the [[Black Forest]] area indicated a general discontent among the southern German peasantry in May 1524. The Anabaptist preacher [[Balthasar Hubmaier]] (d. 1528) was one of the peasant leaders, but most participants never went beyond traditional anti-clericalism. In early 1525, the movement spread towards [[Upper Swabia]]. The radical preacher Cristopher Schappler and the pamphleteer [[Sebastian Lotzer]] summarized the Swabian peasants' demand in a manifesto known as ''[[Twelve Articles]]''. The peasants wanted to control their ministers' election and to supervise the use of church revenues, but also demanded the abolition of the tithe on meat. They reserved the right to present further demands against non-Biblical seigneurial practices but promised to abandon any of their demands that contradicted the Bible, and appointed fourteen "arbitrators" to clarify divine law on the relationship between peasants and landlords. The arbitrators approached Luther, Zwingli, Melanchthon and other leaders of the Reformation for advice but none of them answered.{{sfn|Stayer|2006|pp=130–135}} Luther wrote a treatise, equally blaming the landlords for the oppression of the peasantry and the rebels for their arbitrary acts.{{sfn|Cameron|2012|p=209}}

[[Georg, Truchsess von Waldburg|Georg Truchsess von Waldburg]] (d. 1531), commander of the army of the aristocratic [[Swabian League]], achieved the dissolution of the peasant armies either by force or through negotiations. By this time the peasant movements reached [[Franconia]] and [[Thüringia]]. The Franconian peasants formed alliances with artisans and petty nobles such as [[Florian Geyer]] (d. 1525) against the patricians and the [[Prince-Bishopric of Würzburg]] but Truchsess forced them into submission.{{sfn|Cameron|2012|pp=207–208}} In Thüringia, Müntzer convinced 300 radicals that they were invincible but they were annihilated [[Battle of Frankenhausen|at Frankenhausen]] by [[Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse|Philip the Magnanimous]], [[Landgrave of Hesse]] ({{reign|1509|1567}}) and [[George, Duke of Saxony]] ({{reign|1500|1539}}). Müntzer who had hidden in an attic before the battle was discovered and executed.{{sfn|Collinson|2005|pp=60–61}}{{sfn|Cameron|2012|p=208}} News of atrocities by peasant bands and meetings with disrespectful peasants during a preaching tour outraged Luther while he was writing his treatise ''[[Against the Murderous, Thieving Hordes of Peasants]]''. In it, he urged the German princes to "smite, slay, and slab" the rebels.{{sfn|Lindberg|2021|p=157}} Moderate observers felt aggrieved at his cruel words. They regarded as an especially tasteless act that Luther married [[Katharina von Bora]] (d. 1552), a former nun while the punitive actions against the peasantry were still in process.{{sfn|Cameron|2012|pp=209–210, 417}} Further peasant movements began in other regions in Central Europe but they were pacified through concessions or suppressed by force before the end of 1525.{{sfn|Cameron|2012|pp=208–209}}

==Consolidation==

===Princely Reformation in Germany===

[[File:Sack of Rome 1527.jpeg|thumb|right|alt=A man is falling from ladder at a tower with a city burning at the background|[[Sack of Rome (1527)|Sack of Rome]] in 1527 by [[Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor|Emperor Charles V]]'s troops (1555) on a woodcut by [[Maarten van Heemskerck]]]]

The Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights [[Albert, Duke of Prussia|Albert of Brandenburg-Ansbach]] ({{reign|1510|1525}}) was the first prince to formally abandon Catholicism. The [[Teutonic Order]] held [[Royal Prussia]] in [[fief]] of Poland. After defeats in a [[Polish–Teutonic War (1519–1521)|war against]] Poland and Lithuania demoralised the Knights, Albert transformed the region into the hereditary [[Duchy of Prussia]] in April 1525. As the secularisation of Prussia represented an open rebellion against Catholicism, it was followed by the establishment of the first Evangelical [[state Church|state church]].{{sfn|MacCulloch|2003|p=158}} In August, Albert's brothers, [[Casimir, Margrave of Brandenburg-Kulmbach|Casimir]] ({{reign|1515|1527}}) and [[George, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach|George]] ({{reign|1536|1543}}) instructed the priests in [[Principality of Bayreuth|Brandenburg-Kulmbach]] and [[Principality of Ansbach|Brandenburg-Ansbach]] to pray the doctrine of justification by faith alone.{{sfn|Cameron|2012|pp=256–257}} The Reformation was officially introduced in Electoral Saxony under [[John, Elector of Saxony|John the Constant]] ({{reign|1525|1532}}) on Christmas Day 1525.{{sfn|Cameron|2012|pp=271–272}} Electoral Saxony's conversion facilitated the adoption of the Reformation in smaller German states, such as [[County of Mansfeld|Mansfeld]] and [[Landgraviate of Hessen|Hessen]].{{sfn|Cantoni|2012|p=524}}{{sfn|Cameron|2012|p=273}} Philip of Hessen founded the [[University of Marburg|first Evangelical university]] at his capital [[Marburg]] in 1527.{{sfn|MacCulloch|2003|p=159}}

At the [[Diet of Speyer (1526)|Diet of Speyer]] in 1526, the German princes agreed that they would "live, govern, and act in such a way as everyone trusted to justify before God and the Imperial Majesty".{{sfn|Lindberg|2021|p=219}} In practice, they sanctioned the principle {{lang|la|[[cuius regio, eius religio]]}} ('whose realm, their religion'), acknowledging the princes' right to determine their subjects' religious affiliation.{{sfn|MacCulloch|2003|p=161}} Fully occupied with the [[War of the League of Cognac]] against France and its Italian allies, Emperor Charles had appointed his brother [[Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor|Ferdinand I, Archduke of Austria]] ({{reign|1521|1564}}) to represent him in Germany. They both opposed the compromise, but Ferdinand was brought into succession struggles in Bohemia and Hungary after their brother-in-law King Louis died in the [[Battle of Mohács]]. In 1527, Charles's mutinous{{sfn|Collinson|2005|p=92}} troops [[Sack of Rome (1527)|sacked Rome]] and took [[Pope Clement VII]] ({{reign|1523|1534}}) under custody. Luther stated that "Christ reigns in such a way that the emperor who persecutes Luther for the pope is forced to destroy the pope for Luther".{{sfn|Lindberg|2021|p=219}}

After his experiences with radical communities, Luther no more wrote of the congregations' right to elect their ministers (or [[pastor]]s). Instead, he expected that princes acting as "emergency bishops" would prevent the disintegration of the Church.{{sfn|MacCulloch|2003|p=161}} Close cooperation between clerics and princely officials at church visitations paved the way for the establishment of the new church system.{{sfn|Lindberg|2021|p=220}} In Electoral Saxony, princely decrees enacted the Evangelical ideas.{{sfn|Cameron|2012|p=272}} Liturgy was simplified, the church courts' jurisdiction over secular cases was abolished, and state authorities took control of church property.{{sfn|Lindberg|2021|p=220}} The Evangelical equivalent to bishop was created with the appointment of a former Catholic priest [[Johannes Bugenhagen]] (d. 1558) as [[Superintendent (Christianity)|superintendent]] in 1533.{{sfn|Cameron|2012|p=272}} The church visitations convinced Luther that the villagers' knowledge of the Christian faith was imperfect.{{refn|group=note|Many of the believers could not cite the [[Ten Commandments]], the [[Apostles' Creed]], or the [[Lord's Prayer]].{{sfn|Stayer|2006|p=141}}}} To deal with the situation, he completed two [[cathecism]]s—the ''[[Luther's Large Catechism|Large Catechism]]'' for the education of priests, and the ''[[Luther's Small Catechism|Small Catechism]]'' for children.{{sfn|Stayer|2006|p=141}} Records from Brandenburg-Ansbach indicates that Evangelical pastors often attacked traditional communal activities such as church fairs and [[Spinning bee#In other countries|spinning bees]] for debauchery.{{sfn|Stayer|2006|p=142}}

{{Quote box
 |title     = Evangelical Imperial Estates on their protestation at the Diet of Speyer 
 |quote     = "In matters concerning God's honor and our soul's salvation everyone must stand before God and answer by himself, nobody can excuse himself in that place by the actions of decisions of others whether they be a minority or majority." 
 |author    = Five imperial princes and representatives of fourteen imperial cities
 |source    = ''[[Protestation at Speyer]]'' (1529){{sfn|Lindberg|2021|p=220}}
 |align     = right
 |width     = 25%
 |bgcolor   = #F5FAFF
 |title_bg  = #CEE0F2
 |qalign    = left
 |salign    = right
 }}

Taking advantage of Emperor Charles' victories in Italy, {{nowrap|Ferdinand I}} achieved the reinforcement of the imperial ban against Luther at the [[Diet of Speyer (1529)|Diet of Speyer]] in 1529. In response, five imperial princes and fourteen imperial cities{{refn|group=note|The protestation was signed by John the Constant, Philip the Magnanimous, George of Brandenburg-Ansbach, [[Wolfgang, Prince of Anhalt-Köthen]] ({{reign|1508|1566}}), and [[Ernest I, Duke of Brunswick]] ({{reign|1527|1546}}), and the delegates of Strasbourg, Nuremberg, Ulm, Constance, [[Lindau]], [[Memmingen]], [[Kempten]], [[Nördlingen]], [[Heilbronn]], [[Reutlingen]], [[Isny im Allgäu]], St. Gallen, Weissenburg (now [[Wissembourg]], France), and [[Windesheim, Germany|Windesheim]] at Speyer.{{sfn|Lindberg|2021|p=221}}}} presented a formal {{lang|la|[[Protestation at Speyer|protestatio]]}}. They were mocked as "Protestants", and this appellation would be quickly applied to all followers of the new theologies.{{refn|group=note|Although not unusual, the use of the appelation "Protestant" when describing events before 1529 is anachronistic.{{sfn|McGrath|2021|p=4}}}}{{sfn|Lindberg|2021|pp=220–221}} To promote Protestant unity, Philip the Magnanimous [[Marburg Colloquy|organised a colloquy]] (or theological debate) between Luther, Melanchton, Zwingli and Oecolampadius at Marburg early in October 1529,{{sfn|MacCulloch|2003|p=168}} but they could not coin a common formula on the Eucharist.{{sfn|Cameron|2012|p=192}} During the discussion, Luther remarked that "Our spirit has nothing in common with your spirit", expressing the rift between the two mainstream versions of the Reformation. Zwingli's followers started to call themselves the "[[Reformed Church|Reformed]]", as they regarded themselves as the true reformers.{{sfn|Eire|2022|p=95}}

===Stalemate in Switzerland===

{{Further|First War of Kappel|Second War of Kappel}}
{{See also|Old Swiss Confederacy}}

In 1526, the villagers of the autonomous [[Graubünden]] region in [[Old Swiss Confederacy|Switzerland]] agreed that each village could freely choose between Protestantism and Catholicism, setting a precedent for the coexistence of the two denominations in the same jurisdiction.{{sfn|MacCulloch|2003|p=160}} Religious affiliation in the Mandated Territories (lands jointly administered by the Swiss cantons) became the subject of much controversy between Protestant and Catholic cantons. The Protestant cantons concluded a military alliance early in 1529, the Catholic cantons in April.{{sfn|MacCulloch|2003|p=170}}{{sfn|Cameron|2012|p=225}} After a bloodless [[First War of Kappel|armed conflict]], the Mandated communities were granted the right to choose between the two religions by a majority vote of the male citizens. Zwingli began an intensive proselityzing campaign which led to the conversion of most Mandated communities to Protestantism. He set up a council of clergymen and lay delegates for church administration, thus creating the forerunners of [[Presbytery (church polity)|presbyteries]].{{sfn|MacCulloch|2003|p=171}} Zürich imposed an economic blockade on the Catholic cantons but the Catholics [[Second War of Kappel|routed]] Zürich's army in 1531. The Catholics' victory stopped the Protestant expansion in Switzerland.{{sfn|Cameron|2012|p=225}}{{sfn|MacCulloch|2003|p=172}} 

Zwingli was killed in the battlefield, and succeeded by a former monk [[Heinrich Bullinger]] (d. 1575) in Zürich. Bullinger developed Zwingli's Eucharistic formula in an attempt to reach a compromise with Luther, saying that the faithful made spiritual contact with God during the commemorative ceremony.{{refn|group=note|Bullinger stated that "Believers ... bring Christ to the Supper in their hearts; they do not receive him in the Supper."{{sfn|Lindberg|2021|p=180}}}}{{sfn|MacCulloch|2003|pp=173–174}}

===''Schleitheim Articles''===

[[File:Titelseite Schleitheimer Artikel.jpg|thumb|right|alt=A page with printed text|Title page of the ''[[Schleitheim Confession|Schleitheim Articles]]'' passed at the pacifist Anabaptists' assembly in 1527]]

The historian [[Carter Lindberg]] states that the "Peasants' War was a formative experience for many leaders of Anabaptism".{{sfn|Lindberg|2021|p=204}} [[Hans Hut]] (d. 1527) continued Müntzer's apocalyticism but others rejected all forms of violence.{{sfn|Stayer|2006|p=138}} 

The pacifist [[Michael Sattler]] (d. 1527) took the chair at an Anabaptist assembly at [[Schleitheim]] in February 1527. Here the participants adopted an anti-militarist program now known as the ''[[Schleitheim Confession|Schleitheim Articles]]''. The document ordered the believers' separation from the evil world, and prohibited oath-taking, bearing of arms and holding of civic offices. Facing Ottoman expansionism, the Austrian authorities considered this pacifism as a direct threat to their country's defense. Sattler was quickly captured and executed. During his trial, he stated that "If the Turks should come, we ought not to resist them. For [[Matthew 5:21|it is written:]] Thou shalt not kill."{{sfn|Lindberg|2021|pp=204–207}}{{sfn|Cameron|2012|p=328}}

Total segregation was alien to Hübmaier who tried to achieve a peaceful coexistence with non-Anabaptists.{{sfn|Collinson|2005|p=70}} Expelled from Zürich, he settled in the [[Margraviate of Moravia|Moravian]] domains of Count Leonhard von Liechtenstein at Nikolsburg (now [[Mikulov]], Czech Republic). He baptised infants on the parents' request for which hard-line Anabaptists regarded him as an evil compromiser. He was sentenced to death and burned at the stake for heresy on {{nowrap|Ferdinand I}}'s orders. His execution inaugurated a period of intensive purge against rebaptisers. His followers relocated to Austerlitz (now [[Slavkov u Brna]], Czech Republic) where refugees from Tyrol joined them. After the Tyrolian [[Jakob Hutter]] (d. 1536) assumed the leadership of the community, they began to held their goods in common. The Bohemian Brethren symphatised with the [[Hutterites]] which facilitated their survival in Moravia.{{sfn|MacCulloch|2003|pp=161–165}}

===Confessions===
[[File:Rijksdag van Augsburg, 1530 Ware ende eygenlycke afbeeldinghe van de hooch aensienlycke vergaderinge gehouden int jaer 1530 den 25 juny op den bisschoplycken sael binnen de stadt Augsborch (titel op object), RP-P-OB-46.329.jpg|thumb|[[Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor]] receives the [[Augsburg Confession]], 1530]]
Back in Germany in January 1530, {{nowrap|Charles V}} asked the Protestants to summarize their theology at the following Diet in [[Augsburg]]. As the imperial ban prevented Luther from attending the Diet, Melanchthon completed the task. Melanchthon sharply condemned Anabaptist ideas and adopted a reconciliatory tone towards Catholicism but did not fail to emphasize the most featuring elements of Evangelical theology, such as justification by faith alone. The twenty-eight articles of the ''[[Augsburg Confession]]'' were presented at the Diet on 25 June. Four south German Protestant cities—Strasbourg, Constance, Lindau, and Memmingen—adopted a separate confessional document, the ''[[Tetrapolitan Confession]]'' because they were influenced by Zwingli's Eucharistic theology. On Charles's request, Eck and other Catholic theologians completed a response to the ''Augsburg Confession'', called {{lang|la|[[Confutatio Augustana|Confutatio]]}} ('refutation'). Charles ordered the Evangelical theologians to admit that their argumentation had been completely refuted. Instead, Melanchthon wrote a detailed explanation for the Evangelical articles of faith, known as the ''[[Apology of the Augsburg Confession]]''.{{sfn|Cameron|2012|p=192}}{{sfn|Lindberg|2021|pp=221-224}}

Charles wanted to attack the Protestant princes and cities but the Catholic princes did not support him fearing that his victory would strengthen his power. The Diet passed a law prohibiting further religious innovations and ordering the Protestants to return to Catholicism until 15 April 1531. Luther had previously questioned the princes' right to resist imperial power, but by then he had concluded that a defensive war for religious purposes could be regarded as a [[Just war theory|just war]].{{sfn|Lindberg|2021|pp=224–226}} The [[Schmalkaldic League]]—the Protestant Imperial Estates' defensive alliance—was signed by five princes and fourteen cities on 27 February 1531.{{refn|group=note|Electoral Saxony, Hesse, [[Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg|Brunswick-Lüneburg]], [[Anhalt-Köthen]], [[County of Mansfeld|Mansfeld]], Strasbourg, Ulm, Constance, Reutlingen, Memmingen, Lindau, [[Biberach an der Riß]], Isny im Allgäu, [[Lübeck]], [[Magdeburg]], and [[Bremen]] were the founding members of the Schmalkaldic League.{{sfn|Lindberg|2021|p=352}}}} As a [[Siege of Güns#Campaign of 1532|new Ottoman invasion]] prevented the Habsburgs from wage war against the Protestants, a peace treaty was signed at Nuremberg in July 1532.{{sfn|Cameron|2012|pp=351–352}}

===Royal Reformation in Scandinavia===

{{Main|Reformation in Denmark–Norway and Holstein|Reformation in Sweden}}

Relationship between the papacy and the Scandinavian kingdoms was tense, as both {{nowrap|Frederick I}} of Denmark and Norway, and {{nowrap|Gustav I}} of Sweden appointed their own candidates to vacant episcopal sees.{{sfn|Cameron|2012|pp=275–277}} In 1526, the Danish Parliament prohibited the bishops to seek confirmation from the Holy See, and declared all fees payable for their confirmation as royal revenue.{{sfn|Grell|1998|p=106}} The former [[Knights Hospitaller|Hospitaller knight]] [[Hans Tausen]] (d. 1561) delivered Evangelical sermons in [[Viborg, Denmark|Viborg]] under royal protection from 1526. Four years later, the Parliament rejected the Catholic prelates' demand to condemn Evangelical preaching.{{sfn|Cameron|2012|pp=275–276}} After Frederick's death the bishops and conservative aristocrats prevented the election of his openly Protestant son [[Christian III of Denmark|Christian]] as his successor.{{sfn|Grell|1998|p=111}} [[Christopher, Count of Oldenburg]] ({{reign|1526|1566}}) took up arms on the deposed {{nowrap|Christian II}}'s behalf, but the war known as [[Count's Feud]] ended with the victory of Frederick's son who ordered the arrest of the Catholic bishops. {{nowrap|Christian III}} ({{reign|1534|1559}}) was crowned king by Bugenhagen. Bugenhagen also ordained seven superintendents to lead the [[Church of Denmark]]. Christian declared the ''Augsburg Confession'' as the authoritative articles of faith in 1538,{{sfn|Cameron|2012|pp=276–277}} but pilgrimages to the most popular shrines continued, and the Eucharistic liturgy kept Catholic elements, such as kneeling.{{sfn|Grell|2006|p=269}}

In the Danish dependencies of Norway and Iceland, the Reformation required vigorous governmental interventions.{{sfn|Cameron|2012|p=279}} The last Catholic [[Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Nidaros|Archbishop of Nidaros]] in Norway [[Olav Engelbrektsson]] (d. 1538) was a staunch opponent of the changes, but was succeeded by the Evangelical [[Gjeble Pederssøn]] (d. 1557) as superintendent.{{sfn|Grell|2006|pp=269–270}} In Iceland, [[Jón Arason]], [[Bishop of Hólar]] (d. 1550)—the last Nordic Catholic bishop—took up arms to prevent the Reformation, but he was captured and executed by representatives of royal authority.{{refn|group=note|Bishop Jón was arrested along with two of his sons by a royalist wealthy peasant [[Daði Guðmundsson]] (d. 1563). Their guards executed them because they feared that Catholic Icelanders would come to their bishop's rescue.{{sfn|Hjálmarsson|2012|pp=73–74}}}}{{sfn|Hjálmarsson|2012|pp=71–74}}
 
{{nowrap|Gustav I}} of Sweden appointed the Evangelical preacher [[Laurentius Andreae]] (d. 1552) as his chancellor, and the Evangelical scholar [[Olaus Petri]] (d. 1552) as a minister at Stockholm. Petri translated the Gospels to Swedish. On his advice, Gustav dissolved a Catholic printing house that published popular [[Anti-Protestantism|anti-Protestant]] literature under the auspices of [[Hans Brask]] (d. 1538), [[Bishop of Linköping]]. Gustav also expelled the radical German pastor [[Melchior Hoffman]] (d. {{circa}} 1543) from Sweden for [[Iconoclasm|iconoclastic]] propaganda.{{sfn|Grell|1998|p=124}}{{sfn|Cameron|2012|p=277}} The royal treasury needed extra funds to repay the loans borrowed from the Hanseatic League to finance the [[Swedish War of Liberation|war against]] {{nowrap|Christian II}}. Gustav persuaded the [[Riksdag|legislative assembly]] to [[Reduction of Gustav I of Sweden|secularise church property]] by threatening the delegates with his abdication.{{sfn|Cameron|2012|p=277}} The peasantry remained very cautious about changes in church life. This together with heavy taxation led to uprisings. To appease the rebels, Gustav declared that he had not sanctioned the changes, and dismissed Andreae in 1531, Petri in 1533.{{sfn|Grell|2006|pp=124–125}} He continued the transformation of church life in Sweden and Finland after the Reformation was fully introduced in Denmark. He was assisted by two Evangelical theologians [[Georg Norman]] (d. 1552/1553) and [[Mikael Agricola]] (d. 1557).{{sfn|Grell|1998|p=125}} In 1539, Norman was appointed as supertindent of the [[Church of Sweden]], and Gustav took the title of "Supreme Defender of the Church".{{sfn|Cameron|2012|pp=278–279}}

==Catholic reform==
{{See also|Counter-Reformation}}

===Beginnings===
The religious upheaval in Germany and the sack of Rome convinced many Catholics that their Church was in need of a profound reform. [[Pope Paul III]] ({{reign|1534|1549}}) appointed prominent representatives of the Catholic reform movement as cardinals, among them Contarini, [[Reginald Pole]] (d. 1558), and [[Giovanni Pietro Caraffa]] (d. 1559). They [[Consilium de Emendanda Ecclesia|completed a report]] condemning the corruption of church administration and the waste of church revenues.{{refn|group=note|Among others, the report suggested the dissolution of most monastic orders, allowing only the strictest orders to survive.{{sfn|Collinson|2005|p=94}}}} Contarini, Pole and other {{lang|it|Spirituali}} were ready to make concessions to the Protestants but their liberalism shocked Caraffa and other conservative prelates.{{sfn|MacCulloch|2003|pp=207–211}}

Negotiations between moderate Catholic and Protestant theologians were not unusual. In 1541, Bucer and the Catholic theologian [[Johann Gropper]] (d. 1559) drafted a compromise formula on [[justification (theology)|justification]].{{refn|group=note|The compromise included the statement that "the sinner is justified by a living and effectual faith".{{sfn|Collinson|2005|p=92}}}} The draft was discussed along with other issues at a colloquy during the [[Diet of Regensburg (1541)|Diet of Regensburg]] but no compromise was reached, not least due to opposition by both Luther and the Holy See.{{sfn|Cameron|2012|pp=353–354}} Contarini, who represented the papacy at the Diet, died in 1541; many {{lang|it|Spirituali}} such as Vermigli fled from Italy to avoid persecution.{{sfn|MacCulloch|2003|p=224}} [[Hermann of Wied]], [[Archbishop-elector of Cologne]] ({{reign|1515|1546}}) completed a reform program with Bucer's assistance, criticising prayers to the saints and traditional Eucharistic theology, and proposing sermons about justification by faith.{{sfn|MacCulloch|2003|pp=262–263}} The canons of the [[Cologne Cathedral]] requested Gropper to write a critical response to it,{{sfn|MacCulloch|2003|p=263}} and achieved Hermann's deposal by the Roman Curia.{{sfn|Cameron|2012|p=354}}

===New Orders===
[[File:Exercitia Spiritualia 1ed2.jpg|thumb|right|alt=A page with printed text|Title page of the first edition of the ''[[Spiritual Exercises]]'' by [[Ignatius of Loyola]], published in 1548]]
The spread of new monastic orders was an important element of the Catholic reform movement. Most new orders placed great value on pastoral care.{{refn|group=note|The [[Theatines]] offered pastoral care for the needy and the sick, especially for those who suffered from syphilis,{{sfn|Collinson|2005|p=93}} the [[Order of Friars Minor Capuchin|Capuchins]] were itinerant friars also preaching to the poor and the sick.{{sfn|Kaufmann|2023|p=213}}}} Among them, the [[Society of Jesus]] (or Jesuits) became the most influential.{{sfn|Kaufmann|2023|pp=212–214}} Its founder [[Ignatius of Loyola]] (d. 1556) was born to a Basque noble family. He chose a military career but abandoned it after being wounded [[Italian War of 1521–1526|during a siege]]. He started to write a devotional guide, the ''[[Spiritual Exercises]]'', during his ascetic retreat [[Cave of Saint Ignatius|at a cave]].{{sfn|Lindberg|2021|pp=333–334}} [[Ignatian spirituality|His mysticism]] arouse the Spanish Inquisition's suspicion but the {{lang|it|Spirituali}} supported him. {{nowrap|Paul III}} sanctioned the establishment of the Jesuits on Contarini's influence in 1540.{{sfn|MacCulloch|2003|pp=215–216}} The new order quickly developed: when Loyola died, the Society had about 1,000 members; in less than a decade, it numbered around 3,500. The maintenance of a well organised schooling system was the Jesuits' most prominent feature. Their [[Collegium Germanicum et Hungaricum|Roman collegium]] prepared future priests to discuss and reject Protestant theologies primarily in Germany, Bohemia, Poland, and Hungary.{{sfn|O'Malley|2006|pp=224, 227, 231}}

===Council of Trent===
{{main|Council of Trent}}
{{nowrap|Paul III}} decided to convoke the nineteenth ecumenical council to handle the crisis caused by the Reformation. The [[Council of Trent]] met in a series of sessions from December 1545 to 1548, 1521 to 1522, and 1562 to 1563.<ref group=note>"It ran in two tracks: alongside the reformulation of Catholic doctrine in contrast to Protestant teaching stood the many general…reform decrees which would influence the life of Catholicism for centuries to come.{{cite journal |last1=Campi |first1=Emidio |title=Was the Reformation a German Event? |journal=The Myth of the Reformation |date=19 June 2013 |pages=9–31 |doi=10.13109/9783666550331.9|isbn=978-3-525-55033-5 }}</ref>{{sfn|Collinson|2005|pp=94–95}}  The topics dealt with included the Creed, the Sacraments including transubstantiation and ordination,{{sfn|MacCulloch|2003|p=267}} justification, and improvement in the quality of priests by diocesan seminaries and annual canonical visitations.{{sfn|MacCulloch|2003|p=294}} The council reaffirmed that apostolic tradition was as authentic a source of faith as the Bible, and emphasized the importance of good works in salvation, rejecting two important elements of Luther's theology.{{sfn|MacCulloch|2003|pp=227–229}} Before being closed in December 1563, the Council mandate the papacy to revise liturgical books and complete a new catechism.{{sfn|Ditchfield|2022|p=212}} [[Carlo Borromeo]], [[Archbishop of Milan]] (d. 1582) adopted a more practical approach. He completed a handbook covering everyday details of church life, including the delivery of sermons, arrangement of church interiors, and hearing confessions.{{sfn|Ditchfield|2022|p=228}} After the council, papal authority was reinforced through the establishment of central offices known as [[Congregation (Roman Curia)|congregations]]. One of them became responsible for the [[Index Librorum Prohibitorum|list of forbidden literature]]. All church officials and university teachers were required to take a Tridentine confessional oath that included an oath of "true obedience" to the papacy.{{sfn|Kaufmann|2023|pp=211–212}}

Lindberg suggests that (following Trent) the "spirituality of Catholic reform was the ascetic, subjective, and personal piety", as expressed in public processions, the "perpetual" [[Eucharistic adoration|adoration of the Eucharist]], and the reaffirmed veneration of Mary the Virgin and the saints.{{sfn|Lindberg|2021|p=344}}

==New waves==

===English reformation under Henry VIII===
{{Main|English Reformation}}

[[File:1491 Henry VIII.jpg|thumb|right|alt=A round-faced bearded middle-aged man wearing a hat decorated with a large feather|''Portrait of {{nowrap|King Henry VIII}}'' (early 1530s) by [[Joos van Cleve]]]]

In England, reformist clerics such as [[Thomas Bilney]] (d. 1531) and [[Robert Barnes (martyr)|Robert Barnes]] (d. 1540) spread Luther's theology among Cambridge and Oxford scholars and students.{{sfn|Cameron|2012|p=284}} The young priest [[William Tyndale]] (d. 1536) translated the New Testament to English using Erasmus's [[Novum Instrumentum omne#Third edition|Latin-Greek edition]].{{sfn|Marshall|2022|pp=250–251}} By around 1535, more than 15,000 copies of his translation had been distributed in secret.{{sfn|Kaufmann|2023|p=181}} Tyndale's biographer [[David Daniell (author)|David Daniell]] (d. 2016) writes that the translation "gave the English language a plain prose style of the very greatest importance", and his "influence has been greater than any other writer in English".{{sfn|Lindberg|2021|p=299}}

The Lord Chancellor Cardinal [[Thomas Wolsey]] (d. 1530) had strong links to the Roman Curia, he was unable to achieve the [[Declaration of nullity|annulment]] of the marriage of {{nowrap|Henry VIII}} and the middle-aged [[Catherine of Aragon]] (d. 1536).{{refn|group=note|{{nowrap|Charles V}} was Catherine's nephew, and after the sack of Rome by imperial troops Pope {{nowrap|Clement VII}} did not dare to offend Charles by annulling the marriage of his aunt.{{sfn|Cameron|2012|p=285}}}}{{sfn|Cameron|2012|pp=284–285}} They had needed a papal dispensation to marry because Catherine was the widow of Henry's brother [[Arthur, Prince of Wales]] (d. 1502). As she had not produced a male heir, Henry became convinced that their [[incest]]uous marriage drew the [[Divine retribution|wrath of God]].{{sfn|MacCulloch|2003|p=193}}

Henry charged a group of scholars including [[Thomas Cranmer]] (d. 1556) with collecting arguments in favour of the annulment. They concluded that the English kings had always had authority over the clergy, and the [[Book of Leviticus]] forbade marriage between a man and his brother's widow in all circumstances.{{sfn|Marshall|2022|p=253}} In 1530, [[English Reformation Parliament|the Parliament]] limited the jurisdiction of church courts. Wolsey had meanwhile lost Henry's favour and died, but More tried to convince Henry to abandon his plan about the annulment of his marriage. In contrast, Cranmer and Henry's new chief advisor [[Thomas Cromwell]] (d. 1540) argued that the marriage could be annulled without papal interference.{{sfn|Cameron|2012|p=285}} Henry who had fallen in love with Catherine's lady-in-waiting [[Anne Boleyn]] (d. 1536) decided to marry her even if the marriage could lead to a total break with the papacy.{{sfn|Marshall|2022|p=252}} During a visit in Germany, Cranmer [[Margarete Cranmer|married]] but kept his marriage in secret. On his return to England, Henry appointed him as the new [[Archbishop of Canterbury]], and the Holy See confirmed the appointment.{{sfn|MacCulloch|2003|p=194}}

The links between the English Church and the papacy were severed by Acts of Parliament.{{refn|group=note|Henry's lawyers took inspiration from the {{lang|la|[[Defensor pacis]]}} ('The Defender of Peace'), a legal treatise by [[Marsiglio of Padua]] (d. {{circa}} 1342) who argued that the Church was subordinated to the state.{{sfn|Lindberg|2021|pp=302–303}}}}{{sfn|Collinson|2005|p=110}} In April 1533, the [[Ecclesiastical Appeals Act 1532|Act of Appeals]] decreed that only English courts had jurisdiction in cases of last wills, marriages and grants to the Church, emphasizing that "this realm of England is an Empire".{{sfn|Marshall|2022|p=254}}{{sfn|Cameron|2012|pp=285–286}} A special church court annulled the marriage of Henry and Catherine, and declared their only daughter [[Mary I of England|Mary]] (d. 1558) [[Legitimacy (family law)|illegitimate]] in May 1533.{{sfn|Kaufmann|2023|p=180}} {{nowrap|Pope Clement VII}} did not sanction the judgement and excommunicated Henry.{{sfn|Lindberg|2021|p=302}} Ignoring the papal ban, Henry married Anne, and she gave birth to a daughter [[Elizabeth I|Elizabeth]] (d. 1603).{{sfn|Cameron|2012|p=286}} Anne was a staunch supporter of the Reformation, and mainly her nominees were appointed to the vacant bishoprics between 1532 and 1536.{{sfn|MacCulloch|2003|p=194}} In 1534, the [[Act of Supremacy]] declared the king the "only supreme head of the [[Church of England]]".{{sfn|Collinson|2005|p=110}} Many of those who refused to swear a special oath of loyalty to the king—65 from about 400 defendants—were executed. More and [[John Fisher]], [[Bishop of Rochester]] (d. 1535) were among the most prominent victims.{{sfn|Cameron|2012|p=286}} Cromwell gradually convinced Henry that a "purification" of church life was needed. The number of [[Calendar of saints|feast days]] was reduced by about 75 per cent, pilgrimages were forbidden, [[Dissolution of the monasteries|all monasteries were dissolved]] and their property was seized by the Crown.{{sfn|Kaufmann|2023|p=181}}

The [[Parliament of Ireland]] passed similar acts but they could only be fully implemented in the [[The Pale|lands under direct English rule]]. Resistance against the Reformation was vigorous. In 1534, the powerful [[Thomas FitzGerald, 10th Earl of Kildare|Lord Thomas FitzGerald]] (d. 1537) staged a revolt. Although it was crushed, thereafter Henry's government did not introduce drastic changes in the [[Church of Ireland]].{{sfn|MacCulloch|2003|pp=196–197}} In England, the dissolution of monasteries caused a popular revolt known as the [[Pilgrimage of Grace]]. The "pilgrims" demanded the dismissal of  "heretic" royal advisors but they were overcame by royalist forces.{{sfn|Marshall|2009|pp=255–256}}{{sfn|Cameron|2012|p=287}} The principal articles of faith of the Church of England were summarized in the ''[[Six Articles (1539)|Six Articles]]'' in 1539. It reaffirmed several elements of traditional theology, such as transubstantiation and clerical celibacy.{{sfn|Lindberg|2021|p=303}}

As Anne Boleyn did not give birth to a son, she lost Henry's favour. She was executed for adultery, and Elizabeth was declared a bastard. Henry's only son [[Edward VI|Edward]] (d. 1553) was born to Henry's third wife [[Jane Seymour]] (d. 1537). In 1543, an [[Third Succession Act|Act of Parliament]] returned Mary and Elizabeth to the line of the succession behind Edward.{{sfn|Kaufmann|2023|pp=181–182}}{{sfn|MacCulloch|2003|pp=195, 279}} Henry [[Rough Wooing|attacked Scotland]] to enforce the marriage of Edward and the infant [[Mary, Queen of Scots]] ({{reign|1542|1567}}) but her mother [[Mary of Guise]] (d. 1560) reinforced Scotland's [[Auld Alliance|traditional alliance]] with France.{{sfn|Cameron|2012|pp=295–296}} The priest [[George Wishart]] (d. 1546) was the first to preach Zwinglian theology in Scotland. After he was burned for heresy, his followers, among them [[John Knox]] (d. 1572), assassinated Cardinal [[David Beaton]], [[Archbishop of St Andrews]] (d. 1546), but French troops crushed their revolt.{{sfn|Lindberg|2021|pp=316–317}}

===Münster===

[[File:MuensterUnderSiege1534.jpg|thumb|right|upright=1.35|alt=A fortified town on a river surrounded by soldiers|[[Münster]] besieged by [[Prince-Bishopric of Münster|Prince-bishop]] [[Franz von Waldeck]]]]

Having been banished from Sweden, Hoffman was wandering in southern Germany and the Low Countries. He turned Anabaptist{{sfn|Haude|2006|p=244}} but suspended adult baptism to avoid persecution.{{sfn|MacCulloch|2003|p=199}} He denied that Christ had become flesh,{{refn|group=note|The lay preacher Clement Ziegler was the first to proclaim (in 1524) that Christ had had a celestial body before Mary gave birth to him. Hoffman went as far as comparing Mary with a bag, likely unaware that he adopted a metaphor from the Gnostic theologian [[Valentinus (Gnostic)|Valentinus]] (d. {{circa}}  180). According to Valentinus, Christ passed through Mary "as water through a pipe".{{sfn|MacCulloch|2003|p=182}}}} and preached that [[Revelation 7|144,000 elect]] were to gather in Strasbourg to witness [[Second Coming|Christ's return]] in 1533.{{sfn|Haude|2006|p=244}} His followers known as Melchiorites swarmed into the city, presenting an enormous challenge for its charity provisions. Hoffman also came to Strasbourg, but the authorities arrested him. After the deadline for Christ's return passed uneventfully, many disappointed Melchiorites accepted the leadership of a charismatic Dutch baker [[Jan Matthijszoon]] (d. 1534). He blamed Hoffman for the suspension of adult baptism, and proclaimed the city of [[Münster]] as the [[New Jerusalem]]. Although Münster was an [[Prince-Bishopric of Münster|episcopal see]], the town council had installed a Protestant pastor [[Bernhard Rothmann]]  (d. {{circa}} 1535) in clear defiance to the new prince-bishop [[Franz von Waldeck]] ({{reign|1532|1553}}). Those who expected a radical social transformation from the Reformation flocked to Münster. The radicals assumed full control of the town in February 1534.{{sfn|MacCulloch|2003|pp=183, 199–200}}

Bishop Franz and his allies, among them Philip of Hessen, attacked Münster but could not capture it. Under Matthijszoon's rule, private property and the use of money was outlawed in the town. Believing that God would protect him, Matthijszoon made a sortie against the enemy, but he was killed. Another charismatic Dutchman, [[John of Leiden]] (d. 1536)—a former tailor—succeeded him. Leiden announced that he was receiving revelations from God, and proclaimed himself "king of righteousness" and "the ruler of the new [[Zion]]". Church and state were united, and all sinners were executed.{{sfn|Lindberg|2021|pp=208–209}} Leiden legalized [[polygyny]], and ordered all women who were twelve or older to marry. The protracted siege demoralized the defenders, and Münster fell through treason on 25 June 1535. After the fall of Münster, most Anabaptist groups adopted a pacifist approach under the leadership of a former priest [[Menno Simons]] (d. 1561).{{sfn|Haude|2006|p=245}} He associated the Anabaptist communities with the New Jerusalem. His followers would be known as [[Mennonites]].{{sfn|Haude|2006|p=253}} Nearly all Anabaptist communities were destroyed in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland,{{sfn|Marshall|2009|p=114}} but moderate Anabaptist groups survived in [[East Frisia]],{{sfn|Lindberg|2021|p=287}} and were mainly tolerated in England.{{sfn|Haude|2006|pp=253–254}}

===Calvin and the ''Institutes of the Christian Religion''===

[[File:MCC-31320 Portret van Johannes Calvijn (1509-1564)-uitsnede.jpg|thumb|right|upright=.8|alt=A long-faced bearded middle-aged man wearing a hat|''Portrait of John Calvin'' ({{circa}} 1550) by an unknown French painter]]

The future reformer [[John Calvin]] (d. 1564) was destined to a church career by his father, a lay administrator of the [[Ancient Diocese of Noyon|Bishopric of Noyon]] in France.{{refn|group=note|Calvin was only twelve when received a benefice at the [[Noyon Cathedral]].{{sfn|Eire|2022|p=98}}}} He studied theology at the Sorbonne, and law at [[University of Orléans|Orléans]] and [[University of Bourges|Bourges]]. He read treatises by Lefèvre and Lefèvre's disciples at the newly established {{lang|fr|[[Collège de France|Collège Royal]]}}, and abandoned Catholicism under the influence of his Protestant friends, particularly the physician [[Nicolas Cop]] (d. 1540).{{sfn|Eire|2022|pp=98–101}} The persecution of French Protestants intensified after the so-called [[Affair of the Placards]]. In October 1534, placards (or posters) attacking the Mass were placed at many places, including the door to the royal bedchamber in [[Château d'Amboise]]. In retaliation, twenty-four Protestants were executed, and many intellectuals had to leave France.{{sfn|MacCulloch|2003|pp=188–189}}

Calvin was one of the religious refugees. He settled in Basel and completed the first version of his principal theological treatise, the ''[[Institutes of the Christian Religion]]'' in 1536. He would be rewriting and expanding it several times until 1559. As the historian [[Carlos Eire]] writes, "Calvin's text was blessed with a lawyer's penchant for precision, a humanist's love for poetic expression and rhetorical flourishes, and a theologian's respect for paradox".{{sfn|Eire|2022|pp=102–103}} With Eire's words, Calvin "revived [[Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image|the jealous God]] of the Old Testament". He warned King Francis that the persecution of the faithful would incur the wrath of God upon him but sharply distanced moderate Protestants from Anabaptists.{{refn|group=note|In the preface to the ''Institutes'', Calvin described moderate Protestants as examples of "chastity, generousity, mercy, continence, patience, modesty, and all other virtues",{{sfn|Eire|2022|p=103}} contrasting them with the Anabaptists who in his view "only wished to govern themselves in accordance with their foolish brains, under the pretence of wishing to obey God"{{sfn|MacCulloch|2003|p=190}}}}{{sfn|MacCulloch|2003|p=190}}{{sfn|Eire|2022|pp=103–104}} Already the first edition of the ''Institutes'' contained references to two distinguishing elements of Calvin's theology, both traceable back to Augustine: his conviction that the [[original sin]] had completely corrupted human nature, and his strong belief in "[[Predestination in Calvinism|double predestination]]". In his view, only strict social and ecclesiastic control could prevent sins and crimes,{{sfn|Eire|2022|pp=105–107}} and God did not only decide who were saved but also those who were destined to damnation.{{sfn|Cameron|2012|p=156}}{{sfn|Kingdon|2006|p=113}}

In 1536, Farel convinced Calvin to settle in [[Geneva]]. Their attempts to implement radical reforms in discipline brought them into conflicts with those who feared that the new measures would lead to clerical despotism.{{sfn|Kingdon|2006|p=106}} After they refused to acknowledge the urban magistrates' claim to intervene in the process of excommunication, they were banished from the town. Calvin moved to Strasbourg where Bucer made a profound impact on him.{{sfn|Eire|2022|p=109}} Under Bucer's influence, Calvin adopted an intermediate position on the Eucharist between Luther and Zwingli, denying Christ's presence in it but acknowledging that the rite included a real spiritual communion with Christ.{{sfn|Eire|2022|p=109}}

{{Quote box
 |title     = Calvin on the "double pedestrination" 
 |quote     = No one who wishes to be thought religious dares simply deny predestination, by which God adopts some to hope of life, and sentences others to eternal death...For all are not created in an equal condition; rather eternal life is fore-ordained for some, eternal damnation for others. 
 |author    = John Calvin
 |source    = ''Institutes of the Christian Religion'' (1559){{sfn|Eire|2022|p=107}}
 |align     = right
 |width     = 25%
 |bgcolor   = #F5FAFF
 |title_bg  = #CEE0F2
 |qalign    = left
 |salign    = right
 }}

After Calvin and Farel left Geneva, no pastors were able to assume the leadership of the local Protestant community. Fearing of a Catholic restoration, the urban magistrates convinced Calvin to come back to Geneva in 1541. Months after his return, the town council enacted ''The Ecclesiastical Ordinances'', a detailed regulation summarizing Calvin's proposals for church administration.{{sfn|Kingdon|2006|pp=106–107}} The ''Ordinances'' established four church offices. The pastors were responsible for pastoral care and discipline; the doctors instructed believers in the faith; the [[Elder (Christianity)|elders]] (or presbyters) were authorized to "watch over the life of each person" and to report those who lived a "disorderly" life to the pastors; and [[deacon]]s were appointed to administer the town's charity. All townspeople were obliged to regularly attend church services. Calvin established a special court called the consistory to hear cases of moral lapse such as [[Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain|blasphemy]], adultery, disrespect to authorities, gossiping, witchcraft and participation in rites considered superstitious by church authorities. The consistory was composed of the pastors, the elders, and an urban magistrate, and the townspeople were encouraged to report sinful acts to it. First-time offenders mainly received lenient sentences such as fines, but repeat offenders were banished from the town or executed.{{sfn|Eire|2022|pp=110–112}} Resistance against the ''Ordinances'' was significant. Many continued visit shrines and pray to saints, while many patricians insisted on liberal traditional customs for which Calvin called them "[[Libertines (Geneva)|Libertines]]".{{sfn|Eire|2022|pp=112–113}}

===Reformation in Britain===

{{See also|Enclosure|History of the Puritans under Elizabeth I}}

{{nowrap|Henry VIII}} died on 27 January 1547. His nine-year-old son {{nowrap|Edward VI}} ({{reign|1547|1553}}) succeeded him, and Edward's maternal uncle [[Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset]] (d. 1552) assumed power as [[Lord Protector]]. Somerset halted the persecution of religious dissidents, making England a safe haven for religious refugees from all over Europe. They established their own congregations, served by prominent pastors, such as the Polish [[Jan Łaski]] (d. 1560) and the Spanish [[Casiodoro de Reina]] (d. 1594). Most of them adhered to Reformed theology.{{sfn|Lindberg|2021|p=306}} Cranmer introduced further religious reforms: images were removed from the churches, the doctrine of purgatory was rejected, and all endowments for prayers for the dead (or [[chantry|chantries]]) were confiscated. With the introduction of Cranmer's ''[[Book of Common Prayer (1549)|Book of Common Prayer]]'', the Mass was replaced by a vernacular liturgy.{{refn|group=note|The new Anglican liturgy was heavily influenced by Evangelical church services, and Archbishop Hermann of Cologne's liturgical proposals.{{sfn|MacCulloch|2003|p=249}}}}{{sfn|Marshall|2022|p=261}}

Marshall notes, that it is "safe to say that the greater part of the population disliked what was taking place". The liturgical changes caused popular revolts [[Prayer Book Rebellion|in Devon and Cornwall]] and other places but they were quickly suppressed, just like the riot against the dissolution of chantries in East Yorkshire. Even [[Kett's Rebellion|in Norfolk]], where the peasants adopted a Protestant rhetoric, they assembled under the banners of their parish saints.{{sfn|Marshall|2022|pp=263–264}} Somerset's opponents take advantage of the unrest to get rid of him. He was replaced by [[John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland|John Dudley]] (d. 1553) who was made [[Duke of Northumberland]].{{sfn|MacCulloch|2003|p=249}} Cranmer continued the liturgical reforms, and the [[Book of Common Prayer (1552)|new version]] of the ''Book of Common Prayer'' rejected the dogma of transubstantiation.{{sfn|Marshall|2022|pp=261–262}} He completed the ''[[Forty-two Articles]]'', a new confessional document combining elements of Reformed and Evangelical theologies.{{sfn|Lindberg|2021|p=307}}

Edward died of tuberculosis on 6 July 1553. He had designated his Protestant relative [[Jane Grey]] (d. 1554) as his heir to prevent the succession of his Catholic sister Mary, but most English remained loyal to the Tudor dynasty. Initially, {{nowrap|Mary I}} ({{reign|1553|1558}}) took advantage of her royal prerogatives to dismiss married clergy, appoint Catholic priests to bishoprics, and restore the Mass.{{sfn|Lindberg|2021|pp=308–309}} She had to make concessions to landowners who had seized church property to achieve the restoration of papal supremacy by the Parliament in November 1554. Cranmer was forced to sign six documents condemning his own acts but withdrew his recantations while being burned for heresy in public in March 1556. Reginald Pole was appointed as the new archbishop of Canterbury, but he was accused of heresy after his old enemy Carafa had been elected pope as {{nowrap|Paul IV}} ({{reign|1555|1559}}).{{sfn|MacCulloch|2003|pp=273–276}} The restoration of the altars and images gained popular support in many places, but recatholisation faced significant resistance—around 300 Protestants were burned, and about 1,000 were forced into exile during Mary's reign.{{sfn|Marshall|2022|pp=268–269}} Her marriage with {{nowrap|Philip II}} of Spain was unpopular, and she died childless on 17 November 1558.{{sfn|Lindberg|2021|p=310}}

Mary's sister and successor {{nowrap|Elizabeth I}} ({{reign|1558|1603}}) sought a {{lang|la|[[via media]]}} ('middle way') between religious extremists. Her [[1st Parliament of Elizabeth I|first Parliament]] restored the royal leadership of the Church of England, and introduced a [[Book of Common Prayer (1559)|modified version]] of the ''Book of Common Prayer''. The Anglican liturgy retained elements of Catholic ceremonies, such as priestly vestments, and contained ambiguous sentences about the Eucharist, suggesting the real presence of Jesus's Blood and Body for conservatives, and a memorial service for reformers. Elizabeth supervised the revision of the Anglican articles of faith in person. The subsequent ''[[Thirty-nine Articles]]'' were formulated in a way that adherents to the major mainstream Protestant theologies could accept them. However, the most resolute Protestants were determined to purify the Church of England from the remnants of Catholic ceremonies, hence they were called [[Puritans]]. They were especially influential at the universities. Many of them rejected the authority of bishops, the Presbyterians emphasized the equal status of all priests, whereas the Congregationalists wanted to strengthen the position of local communities in church administration.{{sfn|Lindberg|2021|pp=310-314}}

England's recatholisation contributed to the triumph of Reformation in Scotland. [[James Hamilton, Duke of Châtellerault|James Hamilton, 2nd Earl of Arran]] (d. 1575), heir presumptive to Queen Mary of the Scots, assumed the leadership of the Protestant lords. Incited by Knox's passionate sermons, anti-Catholic sentiments led to a popular revolt of elementary force in 1559, causing the destruction of monasteries and friaries.{{sfn|MacCulloch|2003|pp=283–286}}

===Servetus and the ''Restoration of Christianity''===

[[File:Servet Christianismi restitutio.gif|thumb|right|alt=A page with printed text|Title page of the ''Restoration of Christianity'' (1553) by [[Michael Servetus]]]]

The first radicals who rejected the dogma of Trinity were put on trial in Augsburg in 1527. A scholar from [[Kingdom of Navarre|Navarre]] [[Michael Servetus]] (d. 1553) adopted [[Nontrinitarianism|antitrinitarian]] theology in the 1530s. MacCulloch proposes that Servetus rejected the Trinity, a dogma extremely offensive to Jews and Muslims, because he wanted to present Christianity as a [[Universalism|universal religion]].{{sfn|MacCulloch|2003|pp=182–183}} After studying medicine and anatomy in Paris,{{refn|group=note|Servetus was one of the first to discover the [[pulmonary circulation]].{{sfn|Lindberg|2021|p=253}}}} Servetus became the court physician of the elderly [[Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Vienne|Catholic archbishop of Vienne]] in southern France. While in [[Vienne, Isère|Vienne]], he sent the first (unpublished) versions of his theological work, the ''Restoration of Christianity'' to Calvin. He disrespectfully described the Trinity as a three-headed [[Cerberus]], attacked infant baptism, and denied original sin. He also wrote insulting comments on Calvin's ''Institutes''. The ''Restoration'' was published anonymously in Lyon in 1553, but the Catholic Inquisition identified Servetus as its author by using documents from Calvin's personal files. Servetus fled from France but attended a church service delivered by Calvin in Geneva. He was recognised and arrested, and the urban authorities sentenced him to death with Calvin's consent. He was burned at the stake on 27 October 1553.{{sfn|Lindberg|2021|p=253}}{{sfn|MacCulloch|2003|pp=237–238}}

Bucer, Melanchthon and other leading Protestant theologians agreed with Servetus's execution. Only the Basel-based schoolmaster and Bible translator [[Sebastian Castellio]] (d. 1563) condemned it in a manifesto for religious toleration. He also addressed a letter to Calvin, echoing Erasmus his [[Erasmus#Death_in_Basel|posthumous benefactor]], stating "To burn a heretic is not to defend a doctrine, but to kill a man".{{sfn|Lindberg|2021|pp=254–255}} Erasmus was a Trinitarian himself, but had noted that the theological formulation had [[Development of doctrine|developed]] from the time of the Apostles, which fueled many subsequent antitrinitarians who took this to mean it that the idea was unbiblical.  {{refn|group=note|Erasmus' ideas also were re-expressed in Basel by exiled Italian reformer [[Celio_Secondo_Curione|Cælio Secondo Curione]] who in 1554 produced a book on God's mercy ''Coelii secundi curionis de amplitudine beati regni dei''. Curiusly, this book was re-write of a re-re-translation of Erasmus' 1524 ''[[Works_of_Erasmus#Concio_de_immensa_Dei_misericordia_(1524)|De immensa Dei misericordia]]'' which presented an [[De_libero_arbitrio_diatribe_sive_collatio#Background|alternative]] to the Lutheran/Calvinistic emphasis on pre-destination: God was not arbitrary but merciful.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Overell |first1=M. Anne |title=The Cambridge Connection and the 'Strangeness' of Italian Reformers, 1547–1556 |journal=The Cambridge Connection in Tudor England |date=29 November 2021 |pages=180–204 |doi=10.1163/9789004382251_008|isbn=978-90-04-38225-1 }}</ref>}}

Antitrinitarian theology survived among Italian exiles in Basel. [[Lelio Sozzini]] (d. 1562), a scholar from [[Siena]], argued that Biblical texts calling Jesus "[[Son of God (Christianity)|Son of God]]" did not refer to his divinity but to his faultless humanity. His nephew, [[Fausto Sozzini]] (d. 1604) rejected [[original sin]] and the [[Satisfaction theory of atonement|theory of satisfaction]] (the concept that Christ's sufferings brought about atonement to God the Father for the original sin). Their followers became known as [[Socinians]].{{sfn|Kaufmann|2023|p=228}}

After Servetus's execution Calvin strengthened his position as the leading figure of Reformed Protestantism.{{sfn|MacCulloch|2003|p=238}} In Geneva, the Libertines rose up but they were quickly overcame, and forced into exile or executed. The confiscation of the property of the wealthy [[Ami Perrin]] (d. 1561) and his family provided the city with funds to create an academy. It served both as a preparatory school for local youths and as a [[seminary]] for Reformed ministers. Calvin's chief assistant [[Theodore Beza]] (d. 1605) was appointed as its first rector. The academy quickly developed into a principal center of theologian training for students from all over Europe, earning Geneva the nickname "the Protestant Rome". It was especially popular among French Protestants.{{sfn|Eire|2022|pp=120–121}}

==Wars of religion and tolerance==

===Schmalkaldic Wars===

{{Main|Schmalkaldic War|Second Schmalkaldic War}}

[[File:Carlos V en la Batalla de Mühlberg, por Tiziano.jpg|thumb|right|alt=A fully armed bearded man riding a horse with a lance in his right hand|''Portrait of Emperor {{nowrap|Charles V}} at the 1547 Battle of Mühlberg'' (1548) by [[Tizian]]]]

Scandals and internal conflicts weakened the Protestants' position in Germany in the early 1540s.{{sfn|Cameron|2012|p=354}} Philip the Magnanimous committed [[bigamy]] by secretly marrying a [[Margarethe von der Saale|lady-in-waiting of his court]] although [[Christine of Saxony|his wife]] was still alive. Bucer, Luther, and Melanchthon had discretely sanctioned the bigamious marriage allegedly to prevent adultery.{{sfn|Cameron|2012|p=354}}{{sfn|MacCulloch|2003|p=222}} In 1542, Philip and John the Constant's successor, [[John Frederick I, Elector of Saxony|John Frederick I]] ({{reign|1532|1547}}) invaded the [[Duchy of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel]] which brought disapproval from other princes. Disputes over lands renewed the old rivalry between the [[Treaty of Leipzig|Ernestine and Albertine]] branches of the [[House of Wettin|Wettin dynasty]] of Saxony. Taking advantage of the situation, Emperor Charles built a broad coalition of Catholic and Evangelical princes against Hesse and Electoral Saxony. The coalition included the Albertine duke [[Maurice, Elector of Saxony|Maurice of Saxony]] ({{reign|1541|1553}}). During the ensuing [[Schmalkaldic War]], Charles and his allies won a decisive victory, and Maurice was rewarded with John Frederick's title of elector.{{sfn|Cameron|2012|pp=354–356}}

The triumphant {{nowrap|Charles V}} regulated religious issues with an imperial edict known as the ''[[Augsburg Interim]]''. The ''Interim'' sanctioned clerical marriage and the communion in both kinds in Protestant territories, but denied further concessions. Maurice issued an alternative regulation called the ''[[Leipzig Interim]]'' for Saxony which ordered the clergy to wear [[surplice]]s. Melanchthon supported the ''Leipzig Interim'', stating that such issues were "matters indifferent" but uncompromising Lutheran theologians such as [[Nicolaus von Amsdorf]] (d. 1565) and [[Matthias Flacius]] (d. 1575) rejected all concessions to imperial demands. Different views on justification and the Eucharist caused further heated debates between Melanchton's followers, known as [[Philippists]], and their opponents, called [[Gnesio-Lutherans]] ('authentic Lutherans') in the 1550s. The ''Augsburg Interim'' was only implemented in the southern German Protestant cities. This led to the expulsion of recalcitrant clerics, including Bucer from Strasbourg.{{sfn|MacCulloch|2003|pp=264–265}}{{sfn|Cameron|2012|pp=356–357, 372–374}} Alarmed by Charles's triumph, Calvin and Bullinger agreed on a consensual Eucharistic formula, now known as {{lang|la|[[Consensus Tigurinus]]}} ('Consensus of Zürich'), emphasising that Christ "makes us participants of himself" in the Lord's Supper, but also stating that God "uses the ministry of the sacraments" without infusing divine power into them. Luther had died in 1546 but his followers rejected the ''Consensus''.{{refn|group=note|The Evangelical pastor [[Joachim Westphal (of Hamburg)|Joachim Westphal]] (d. 1574) described Calvin as "the cow" and Bullinger as "the bull" in a pamphlet against the ''Consensus'' in 1552.{{sfn|MacCulloch|2003|p=244}}}} The rift between Evangelical and Reformed Protestants widened to the extent that Reformed refugees faced an unfriendly reception at Evangelical countries.{{sfn|MacCulloch|2003|pp=244–245}} In Bohemia, Hussite and Evangelical aristocrats and townspeople rose up against {{nowrap|King Ferdinand I}}. Although Ferdinand crushed the revolt, he had to sanction religious plurality in Moravia as a reward for the Moravian Estates' loyalty during the Bohemian revolt.{{sfn|MacCulloch|2003|p=265}}

Distrusting Emperor Charles, Maurice brokered a coalition of Evangelical princes, and promised four prince-bishoprics to King [[Henry II of France]] ({{reign|1547|1559}}) for financial support. Maurice and his allies [[Second Schmalkaldic War|invaded the Habsburgs' domains]], forcing Charles to flee. Signed on 10 August 1552, the [[Peace of Passau]] prescribed that the religious issues were to be discussed at the following Imperial Diet. The Diet was opened at Augsburg on 5 February 1555. Already exhausted, Charles appointed Ferdinand to represent him. Ferdinand's negotiations with the Evangelical princes ended with the [[Peace of Augsburg]] on 25 September. The document reaffirmed the principle {{lang|la|cuius regio, eius religio}}, but the Imperial Estates could only choose between Catholicism and the ''Augsburg Confession''. Evangelical imperial free cities had to tolerate the existence of Catholic communities within their walls, and prince-bishoprics [[Reservatum ecclesiasticum|could not be secularised]] in case the bishop abandoned the Catholic faith.{{sfn|Lindberg|2021|p=231}}{{sfn|Cameron|2012|pp=357–358}} Charles, who did not sign the peace treaty, abdicated, ceding his imperial title to Ferdinand, and his vast empire to his son [[Philip II of Spain]] ({{reign|1556|1598}}).{{sfn|MacCulloch|2003|p=266}}

===French Wars of Religion===

{{Main|French Wars of Religion}}
{{See also|Colloquy of Poissy|Succession of Henry IV of France}}

Many French Protestants did not risk to profess their faith in public. They were known as [[Nicodemite]]s after [[Nicodemus]], a [[Pharisee]] who visited Jesus in secret. Calvin condemned this practice describing those who attended the Mass as soldiers "in the army of Antichrist". Under his influence, the French Protestants started to stay away from Catholic church services. They were called [[Huguenots]] for uncertain reason.{{sfn|Eire|2022|pp=115–119}} The poet [[Clément Marot]] (d. 1544) provided them with popular stirring songs by translating forty-nine Psalms to French.{{sfn|Lindberg|2021|p=268}} {{nowrap|Francis I}} promised to exterminate heresy in France in a [[Treaty of Crépy|peace treaty]] with {{nowrap|Charles V}} in 1544. Next year, Waldensians [[Mérindol massacre|were massacred]] in the [[Luberon]] region. In 1547, {{nowrap|Henry II}} established a special court for heresy cases, named {{lang|fr|[[Chambre Ardente|la chambre ardente]]}} ('the burning chamber'). The lawyer [[Jean Crespin]] (d. 1572) completed a [[martyrology|catalogue of martyrs]] to commemorate the victims of the purges, and it gained immense popularity in the Protestant communities all over Europe.{{sfn|Cameron|2012|pp=366–367}} After around 1555, prominent French aristocrats converted to Protestantism, including Marguerite of Angoulême's daughter, [[Jeanne d'Albret]], (d. 1572), Jeanne's husband [[Antoine of Navarre|Antoine de Bourbon]] (d. 1562), and [[Gaspard II de Coligny]] (d. 1572), [[admiral of France]]. Their patronage encouraged less distinguished Huguenots to express their faith in public.{{sfn|Cameron|2012|p=383}} In 1559, delegates from seventy-two congregations attended the first synod of the [[Reformed Church of France]], representing about 1.5–2 million believers. The synod adopted the ''[[Gallican Confession]]'', a confessional document drafted by Calvin.{{Sfn|Lindberg|2021|pp=268–269}}{{sfn|Diefendorf|2006|p=151}}

Fully preoccupied with a [[Italian War of 1551–1559|new war]] against Emperor Charles, {{nowrap|Henry II}} did not take severe measures against the Huguenot nobility.{{sfn|Lindberg|2021|p=270}} After his sudden death after an accident, his eldest son [[Francis II of France|Francis II]] ({{reign|1559|1560}}) ascended the throne. His wife, Mary, Queen of Scots was the niece of [[Francis, Duke of Guise]] (d. 1563) and [[Charles, Cardinal of Lorraine]] (d. 1574), two leaders of the most resolute Catholic faction of the nobility.{{sfn|Diefendorf|2006|p=153}} The queen mother [[Catherine de' Medici]] (d. 1589) distrusted them but the persecution of Huguenots intensified under their influence.{{sfn|Lindberg|2021|p=270}} When Francis died by an ear infection, Calvin considered his fate as divine deliverance. Francis was succeeded by his brother [[Charles IX of France|Charles IX]] ({{reign|1560|1574}}) under Catherine's regency.{{sfn|Lindberg|2021|pp=270–273}} She [[Edict of Saint-Germain|enacted]] the Huguenots' right to freely attend church services and hold public assemblies because she wanted to avoid a civil war along religious lines.{{sfn|Cameron|2012|p=384}}

[[File:Gregory XIII medal.jpg|thumb|right|upright=1.35|alt=Two sides of a medal, one depicting a bearded man in monk's habit, the other an armed angel killing people|[[Pope Gregory XIII]]'s medal commemorating the [[St. Bartholomew's Day massacre]] in Paris with the inscription "VGONOTTORVM STRAGES 1572" ('Massacre of Huguenots, 1572')]]

Uncompromising Catholics and Huguenots considered their confrontation inevitable.{{sfn|MacCulloch|2003|p=294}} The first of the [[French Wars of Religion]]—a series of armed conflicts between Catholics and Huguenots—began after Guise's retainers [[Massacre of Vassy|massacred]] more than fifty Huguenots at [[Wassy|Vassy]] on 1 March 1562.{{sfn|Cameron|2012|p=384}}{{sfn|Diefendorf|2006|p=154}} As Antoine de Bourbon had returned to Catholicism, his brother [[Louis I, Prince of Condé]] (d. 1569) assumed the leadership of a Huguenot revolt.{{sfn|Diefendorf|2006|p=154}}{{sfn|Collinson|2005|p=137}} They concluded a [[Treaty of Hampton Court (1562)|treaty with]] England in September 1562.{{sfn|Lindberg|2021|p=274}} To achieve a reconciliation, Catherine de'Medici married off her daughter [[Margaret of Valois]] (d. 1615) to the Protestant son of Jeanne d'Albret and Antoine de Bourbon, [[Henry IV of France|Henry de Bourbon]], King of Navarre ({{reign|1572|1610}}). Mutual mistrust between Catholics and Huguenots, and the Parisians' determination to cleanse their city of heresy led to the [[St. Bartholomew's Day massacre]] after the wedding. On 24 August 1572, a fanatic mob slaughtered 2,000–3,000 Protestants in Paris, and by early October further 6,000–7,000 Huguenots fell victim to pogroms in other cities and towns.{{sfn|Diefendorf|2006|pp=158–159}} Many Huguenots returned to the Catholic Church or fled from France, and those who remained gathered in southern and southern-west France and continued the armed resistance.{{sfn|Cameron|2012|p=385}} Known as "[[Malcontents (France)|Malcontents]]", moderate Catholics concluded that only concessions to the Huguenots could restore peace.{{sfn|Diefendorf|2006|p=158}}

{{nowrap|Charles IX}} died in May 1574 leaving an almost empty treasury to his brother [[Henry III of France|Henry III]] ({{reign|1574|1567}}).{{sfn|Diefendorf|2006|pp=158–159}} Henry adopted a moderate religious policy but the uncompromising Catholics established the [[Catholic League (French)|Catholic League]] in 1576. They entered into a [[Treaty of Joinville|secret alliance]] with {{nowrap|Philip II}} of Spain to prevent the spread of Protestantism. In 1589, the monk [[Jacques Clément]] mortally wounded King Henry. He named Henry de Bourbon as his heir, but the League and many cities refused to obey to a Huguenot king. {{nowrap|Henry IV}} secured the support of moderate Catholics by converting to Catholicism. He defeated his French opponents and their Spanish allies, and put an end to the civil war early in 1598. He enacted many of the demands of the Huguenots, about fifteen per cent of the population, in the [[Edict of Nantes]]. Among others, they were allowed to attend religious services in many places, and their right to hold public offices was confirmed.{{sfn|Lindberg|2021|pp=279–280}}

===Revolt in the Netherlands===
{{Main|Eighty Years' War}}
[[File:Beeldenstorm (Iconoclastic Fury) in Antwerpen 1566 Frans Hogenberg.jpg|thumb|right|upright=1.3 |alt=People dragging down sculptures and breaking windows in a large church|Engraving of the sack of the [[Cathedral of Our Lady (Antwerp)|Church of Our Lady in Antwerp]] (1566) by [[Frans Hogenberg]]]]

More Protestants fell victim to persecution in the seventeen provinces of [[Habsburg Netherlands]] than in any other country between 1523 and 1555.{{refn|group=note|Around 1,900 individuals were executed for heresy; about two-thirds of them were Anabaptists.{{sfn|Cameron|2012|p=387}}}}{{sfn|Lindberg|2021|p=283}} The ruthless persecution prevented the establishment of Evangelical congregations although Luther's ideas were widely discussed in [[Flemish people|Flemish]] communities.{{sfn|Lindberg|2021|pp=285–286}} Reformed theology spread among the [[Walloons]] through individuals' correspondence with Calvin and the Genevan academy from the 1540s. Nicodemism was not unusual but uncompromising Protestants disturbed Catholic ceremonies.{{refn|group=note|In [[Tournai]], a Protestant man seized the sacramental bread during the mass, condemning "papist idolatry". An other man called a Catholic cleric a false prophet in [[Ghent]].{{sfn|Lindberg|2021|p=288}}}}{{sfn|Lindberg|2021|pp=287–288}} The preacher [[Guido de Bres]] (d. 1567) established the first permanent Reformed congregations.{{sfn|Cameron|2012|p=387}} He was a main contributor to the ''[[Belgic Confession]]'', a confessional document based on the ''Gallican Confession'', first published in [[Walloon language|Walloon]] in 1561, and in Dutch in 1562. The ''Confession'' sharply criticised the Anapabtists, and emphasized the importance of church discipline.{{sfn|Cameron|2012|p=387}}{{sfn|Lindberg|2021|pp=288–289}}

In 1566, {{nowrap|[[Compromise of Nobles|300 nobles]]}} requested {{nowrap|Philip II's}} [[List of governors of the Habsburg Netherlands|governor]] [[Margaret of Parma]] (d. 1586) to moderate anti-heretic legislation. Although the petitioners were mocked as "[[Geuzen|beggars]]",{{sfn|Lindberg|2021|p=289}} Margaret was open to a compromise. Protestant refugees returned from abroad, and religious enthusiasts stirred up public demonstrations.{{sfn|MacCulloch|2003|p=302}} On the night of 20–21 August 1566, a Protestant mob sacked the [[Cathedral of Our Lady (Antwerp)|Antwerp Cathedral]], introducing a [[Beeldenstorm|popular iconoclastic movement]] that spread all over the Netherlands.{{sfn|Cameron|2012|p=388}}{{sfn|Eire|2022|p=129}} In 1567, Philip appointed [[Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, 3rd Duke of Alba]] (d. 1582) to crush the riots. Alba arrived at the head of a 20,000-strong army, and introduced a reign of terror, leading to the execution of thousands of people.{{sfn|Lindberg|2021|p=289}} A prominent aristocrat [[William the Silent]], [[Prince of Orange]] (d. 1584) assumed the leadership of the resistance. His "Sea Beggars"—a squadron of privateers—seized the provinces of [[County of Holland|Holland]] and [[County of Zeeland|Zeeland]] by 1572,{{sfn|Cameron|2012|pp=388–389}} although the Reformed communities were in the minority in most towns.{{refn|group=note|For instance, Protestants made up less than 3 per cent of the population in the town of [[Alkmaar]] in 1576.{{sfn|Collinson|2005|p=139}}}}{{sfn|Collinson|2005|p=139}}

{{nowrap|Philip II's}} government faced bankruptcy and his unpaid Spanish troops [[Sack of Antwerp|sacked Antwerp]] in 1576. This led to a [[Eighty Years' War, 1576–1579|general revolt]] against Spanish rule. The Catholic aristocrat [[Philippe III de Croÿ]], [[Duke of Aarschot]] (d. 1595), made an alliance with William the Silent but rivalry between Catholics and Protestants did not abate. In 1581, the northern provinces united under William's leadership, and [[Act of Abjuration|renounced allegiance]] to Philip. In the south, Margaret of Parma's son [[Alexander Farnese, Duke of Parma|Alessandro Farnese]] crushed the revolts,{{sfn|Cameron|2012|p=389}} forcing about 100,000 Protestants to seek refugee in the north.{{sfn|Lindberg|2021|p=290}} Developed from the union of seven northern provinces, the [[Dutch Republic]] remained under the loose leadership of the [[House of Orange-Nassau|House of Orange]].{{sfn|Cameron|2012|p=389}} The Reformed pastors were eager to transform the whole society along their ideas. They failed because William preferred a more tolerant approach, and significant Protestant groups associated church discipline with Catholicism. As a consequence, Evangelical, Annabaptist and Catholic communities survived in the Dutch Republic.{{sfn|Lindberg|2021|p=291}} Heterodox theologies could also spread, such as the views of [[Jacobus Arminius]] (d. 1609) who argued that an individual could resist divine grace. Although [[Arminianism]] was rejected at the international [[Synod of Dort]] in 1619, it continued to influence Protestant theologians.{{sfn|Cameron|2012|p=390}}

===Edict of Torda===

After King Louis's death at Mohács, two claimants [[John Zápolya]] ({{reign|1526|1540}}) and Ferdinand I of Habsburg ({{reign|1526|1564}}) competed for the Hungarian throne.{{sfn|Daniel|1998|pp=49–51}} They were Catholic but neither of them risked to alienate potential supporters by anti-Protestant purges.{{sfn|Tóth|2006|pp=210–211}} The [[Transylvanian Saxons|Transylvanian Saxon]] leader [[Markus Pemfflinger]] (d. 1537) promoted Evangelical preaching in the Saxon metropolis Hermanstadt ([[Sibiu]], Romania) from around 1530. Evangelical teaching spread among ethnic Hungarians, Slovaks, and Croats after Protestant aristocrats started to appoint Evangelical preachers to the churches under their [[jus patronatus|patronage]] in the 1530s. After Zápolya's death, the Ottomans [[Siege of Buda (1541)|conquered]] central Hungary, his widow [[Isabella Jagiellon]] (d. 1559) assumed the regency for their infant son [[John Sigismund Zápolya]] ({{reign|1540|1571}}) in [[Eastern Hungarian Kingdom|eastern Hungary]] under Ottoman suzerainty, and Ferdinand ruled [[Royal Hungary]] in the north and west.{{sfn|Daniel|1998|pp=51–52, 62, 65}} Often in need of funds, Ferdinand seized church revenues, while Isabella and her treasurer the Catholic bishop [[George Martinuzzi]] (d. 1551) secularised the estates of the [[Roman Catholic Diocese of Transylvania|Transylvanian bishopric]].{{sfn|Tóth|2006|p=213}} The Transylvanian Saxons adopted the ''Augsburg Confession'' in 1544; five years later, [[Pentapolitana|five free royal boroughs]] accepted an Evangelical confession in Royal Hungary.{{sfn|Cameron|2012|p=282}}

Two former Catholic priests [[Matthias Dévay|Mátyás Dévai Bíró]] (d. 1547) and [[Mihály Sztárai]] (d. 1575) were among the first Hungarian pastors to teach Zwinglian Eucharistic theology. "[[Sacramentarianism]]" (the denial of Christ's presence in the Eucharist) and rebaptism were outlawed by the [[Diet of Hungary|Diet]] in Royal Hungary in 1548.{{sfn|Daniel|1998|p=65}} John Sigismund was open to religious innovations. Under the influence of his court chaplain [[Ferenc Dávid]] (d. 1579), he adhered to Reformed theology from 1562, and accepted antitrinitarian views during the last years of his life.{{refn|group=note|An exceptionally flexible theologian, Ferenc Dávid was bishop of the Evangelical, Reformed and Unitarian Churches during his life. John Sigismund was also heavily influenced by his antitrinitarian court physician [[Giorgio Biandrata]] (d. 1588).{{sfn|Tóth|2006|p=215}}{{sfn|MacCulloch|2003|p=254}}}} The [[Edict of Torda]] legalised three Protestant denominations—Evangelical, Reformed and [[Unitarian Church of Transylvania|Unitarian]]—in eastern Hungary in 1568.{{sfn|Tóth|2006|pp=215–216}} Eastern Hungary transformed into the autonomous [[Principality of Transylvania (1570–1711)|Principality of Transylvania]] under Ottoman suzerainty [[Treaty of Speyer (1570)|in 1570]]. The coexistence of four officially recognised churches—Catholicism and the three legalised Protestant denominations—remained a lasting feature of religious politics in Transylvania.{{sfn|MacCulloch|2003|pp=254–255, 443}} The most radical antitrinitarians rejected the New Testament and held Saturday (or [[Wheel of the Year|Sabbat]]h) as weekly holiday; hence they were called [[Szekler Sabbatarians|Sabbatarians]].{{sfn|Tóth|2006|p=216|}}

===Warsaw Confederation===

As the Bohemian Brethren were famed for their diligence, many [[Szlachta|Polish aristocrats]] eagerly settled them on their estates.{{sfn|Palmitessa|2006|p=194}} Ethnic Poles became receptive to Protestant ideas, especially to Calvin's theology from the 1540s. The {{lang|pl|[[Hetmans of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth|Hetman]]}} [[Jan Tarnowski]] (d. 1561) entered into correspondence with Calvin in 1540; in 1542, [[Jan Łaski]] (d. 1560) converted although [[Jan Łaski (1456–1531)|his uncle (and namesake)]] had been the [[Primate of Poland]]. In 1548, Sigismund the Old's tolerant son [[Sigismund II Augustus]] ({{reign|1548|1572}}) ascended the throne. Two years later, the first synod of the [[Polish Reformed Church]] assembled at [[Pińczów]].{{sfn|Cameron|2012|p=281}} Proposals for the introduction of vernacular liturgy and communion in both kinds, and the abolition of clerical celibacy were forwarded by Sigismund Augustus to the Holy See but [[Pope Paul IV]] ({{reign|1555|1559}}) rejected them.{{sfn|MacCulloch|2003|pp=256–257}} The Catholic prelates tried to put Protestant nobles and married priests on trial for heresy but the legislative assembly, or [[Sejm]] suspended such persecutions on the initiative of the Protestant [[Marshal of the Sejm]] [[Rafał Leszczyński (1526–1592)|Rafał Leszczyński]] and Tarnowski in 1552.{{sfn|Cameron|2012|p=281}} In 1556, Łaski organised a synod in the hope of reuniting all non-Lutheran Protestants but failed. At the meeting, [[Piotr of Goniądz]] (d. 1573) openly attacked infant baptism and the doctrine of Trinity.{{sfn|MacCulloch|2003|p=257}} The antitrinitarian [[Polish Brethren]] established their own church, known as Minor Church in contrast with the Reformed Major Church.{{sfn|Palmitessa|2006|p=195}} From 1565, Polish nobles could no more be persecuted on religious grounds which allowed them to freely choose between competing theologies.{{sfn|Cameron|2012|p=281}} By this time, around one-fifth of the nobility had converted to the Reformed faith, and most secular members of the [[Senate of Poland|Senate]] were Protestant. Relationship between Poland and Lithuania was redefined by the 1569 [[Union of Lublin]] which created the [[Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth]].{{sfn|MacCulloch|2003|pp=330–331}} After Sigismund Augustus died, the Sejm passed the [[Warsaw Confederation]] prescribing that only candidates who promised to protect religious freedom could be elected king.{{sfn|Cameron|2012|p=281}}

===Counter-Reformation and regional conflicts===

The continuous expansion of Protestantism stopped in Germany after the Peace of Augsburg. The [[Duchy of Bavaria|Bavarian]] duke [[Albert V, Duke of Bavaria|Albert V]] ({{reign|1550|1579}}) took the lead of recatholicisation. He overcame the opposition of Evangelical nobles, and exiled all clerics who refused to take the Tridentine oath.{{sfn|Whaley|2013|p=392, 394}} With Albert's support, the Jesuits opened a college in [[Ingolstadt]] that accepted Evangelical and Hussite students.{{sfn|O'Malley|2006|p=231}} {{nowrap|Emperor Ferdinand I's}} eldest son and successor, [[Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor|Maximilian II]] ({{reign|1564|1576}}) pursued a tolerant religious policy but his brothers, [[Ferdinand II, Archduke of Austria|Ferdinand II of the Tyrol]] ({{reign|1564|1595}}) and [[Charles II, Archduke of Austria|Charles II of Inner Austria]] ({{reign|1564|1590}}) were determined to subdue their Protestant subjects. After the predominantly Evangelical Estates of Inner Austria who controlled taxation extracted concessions from {{nowrap|Charles II}}, he promoted Catholicism by appointing Catholics to state offices even if he needed to hire Bavarian and Tyrolian nobles.{{sfn|MacCulloch|2003|p=436}}

Interreligious conflicts led to wars in many regions of Central Europe. The [[Cologne War]] broke out after [[Gebhard Truchsess von Waldburg]], Archbishop-elector of Cologne ({{reign|1577|1583}}), abandoned Catholicism and married his Protestant lover [[Agnes von Mansfeld-Eisleben]] (d. 1637) in 1582. The war ended with the victory of his Catholic opponent [[Ernest of Bavaria|Ernest]] ({{reign|1583|1612}}), a younger son of {{nowrap|Albert V}}.{{sfn|Whaley|2013|pp=402–403}} The [[Strasbourg Bishops' War]] began when both the Catholic and Protestant canons of the [[Strasbourg Cathedral]] elected their own candidate to the [[Prince-Bishopric of Strasbourg|see of Strasbourg]] in 1592. At the end, the Protestant candidate [[Johann Georg von Brandenburg]] (d. 1624) renounced in favor of his opponent [[Charles of Lorraine (bishop of Metz and Strasbourg)|Charles of Lorraine]] ({{reign|1592|1607}}).{{sfn|Whaley|2013|pp=412–413}}

{{nowrap|Charles II's}} son and successor [[Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor|Ferdinand II]] ({{reign|1590|1637}}) set up "reformation commissions"—a group of clerics and state officials led by a senior clergyman—to visit the Inner Austrian parishes between 1598 and 1601. The commissioners seized and destroyed Evangelical churches, burned Protestant books and expelled Evangelical priests, often with the support of the local (mainly [[Slovenians|Slovenian]]) peasantry.{{sfn|MacCulloch|2003|p=437}}{{sfn|Whaley|2013|p=430}} His cousin [[Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor|Emperor Rudolf II]] ({{reign|1576|1612}}) introduced anti-Protestant measures in Royal Hungary and Transylvania, [[Bocskai uprising|provoking a rebellion]]. The Ottomans supported the rebels whose leader, the Reformed aristocrat [[Stephen Bocskai]] was proclaimed prince of Transylvania ({{reign|1605|1606}}). Rudolph appointed his brother [[Matthias, Holy Roman Emperor|Matthias]] to conduct negotiations with Bocskai, and the [[Treaty of Vienna (1606)|peace treaty]] sanctioned the freedom of the Evangelical and Reformed Churches in Royal Hungary in 1606.{{sfn|Whaley|2013|pp=434–435}}{{sfn|MacCulloch|2003|p=444}} Rudolph was forced to cede Hungary, Austria and Moravia to Matthias in 1608, and to [[Letter of Majesty|confirm religious freedom]] in Bohemia in 1609.{{sfn|Whaley|2013|p=436}}

== Reformation outside Germany ==
The Reformation also spread widely throughout Europe, starting with Bohemia, in the Czech lands, and, over the next few decades, to other countries.

=== Nordic countries ===
{{See also|Reformation in Denmark-Norway and Holstein|Religion in Iceland#The Reformation|Religion in Norway#From Reformation to 1964|Religion in Sweden#Lutheran Reformation|Reformation in Sweden}}
[[File:Henrik sormi.JPG|thumb|The seal of the [[Bishopric of Turku|Diocese of Turku]] (Finland) during the 16th and 17th centuries featured the finger of St Henry. The post-Reformation diocese included the relic of a pre-Reformation saint in its seal.|alt=]]

All of [[Scandinavia]] ultimately adopted Lutheranism over the course of the 16th century, as the monarchs of Denmark (who also ruled Norway and Iceland) and Sweden (who also ruled Finland) converted to that faith.

==== Iceland ====
{{Main|Icelandic Reformation}}
[[Martin Luther|Luther]]'s influence had already reached [[Iceland]] before King Christian's decree. The [[Germans]] fished near Iceland's coast, and the [[Hanseatic League]] engaged in commerce with the Icelanders. These Germans raised a Lutheran church in [[Hafnarfjörður]] as early as 1533. Through German trade connections, many young [[Icelanders]] studied in [[Hamburg]].{{sfn|Hjálmarsson|1993|p=69}} In 1538, when the kingly decree of the new Church ordinance reached Iceland, bishop [[Ögmundur]] and his clergy denounced it, threatening excommunication for anyone subscribing to the German "heresy".{{sfn|Hjálmarsson|1993|p=70}} In 1539, the King sent a new governor to Iceland, [[Klaus von Mervitz]], with a mandate to introduce reform and take possession of church property.{{sfn|Hjálmarsson|1993|p=70}} Von Mervitz seized a monastery in [[Viðey]] with the help of his sheriff, [[Dietrich of Minden]], and his soldiers. They drove the monks out and seized all their possessions, for which they were promptly excommunicated by Ögmundur.

=== Great Britain ===
==== England ====
{{Main|English Reformation}}
{{See|Edwardian Reformation}}
The [[English Reformation]] is a complex historical series of events and reversals, whose nature and effect has been debated by historians.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Redworth |first1=Glyn |title=Whatever happened to the English Reformation? |journal=History Today |date=October 1987 |volume=37 |pages=29–36}}</ref><ref name=peeps>{{cite journal |last1=Konkola |first1=Kari |last2=MacCulloch |first2=Diarmaid |title=People of the Book: Success in the English Reformation |journal=History Today |date=October 2003 |volume=53 |issue=10 |pages=23–29}}</ref>{{rp|23}} The results of the reformation included an [[established church]] with a "Prayer Book consciously aligned with Swiss theology,...(but) the most elaborate liturgy of any Protestant Church in Europe" practiced in Cathedrals, with plain, sermon-centred services in parish churches,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=MacCulloch |first1=Diarmaid |title=The myth of the English reformation |journal=History Today |date=July 1991 |volume=41 |issue=7 |pages=28–35}}</ref>{{rp|30}} politically imposed by a "literate Protestant elite".<ref name=peeps/>{{rp|28}}

According to political historian Gregory Slysz "The dissolution of the monasteries [...] brought social catastrophe to England" for the next 50 or so years, due to the closure of the numerous associated urban almshouses for poor relief and hospitals, worsened by spiraling inflation and a doubling of the population.<ref name=slysz>{{cite journal |last1=Slysz |first1=Gregory |title=The impact of the dissolution of Westminster Abbey on the provision of social welfare, c. 1540-1600 |journal=American Benedictine Review |date=2018}}</ref> Popular revolts by grassroots Catholics against the changes, such as the [[Prayer Book Rebellion]] in the South and the [[Pilgrimage of Grace]] and [[Bigod's rebellion]] in the North, were ruthlessly put down by government forces with the loss of thousands of lives.
===== English North America =====
{{Main|History of the Puritans in North America}}
The most famous emigration to America was the migration of Puritan separatists from the Anglican Church of England. They fled first to Holland, and then later to America to establish the English [[Massachusetts Bay Colony|colony of Massachusetts]] in New England, which later became one of the original United States. These Puritan separatists were also known as "the [[Pilgrim Fathers|Pilgrims]]". After establishing a colony at [[Plymouth Colony|Plymouth]] (which became part of the colony of Massachusetts) in 1620, the Puritan pilgrims received a charter from the [[King of England]] that legitimised their colony, allowing them to do trade and commerce with merchants in England, in accordance with the principles of [[mercantilism]]. 

The Pilgrims held radical Protestant disapproval of Christmas, and its celebration was outlawed in Boston from 1659 to 1681.<ref name="Barnett">{{cite book |last=Barnett |first=James Harwood |year=1984 |title=The American Christmas: A Study in National Culture |publisher=Ayer Publishing |isbn=978-0-405-07671-8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-sRH9skUh6oC&q=Christmas+Puritan+New+England&pg=PA2 |page=3}}</ref> The ban was revoked in 1681 by the English-appointed governor [[Edmund Andros]], who also revoked a Puritan ban on festivities on Saturday nights.<ref name="Barnett"/> Nevertheless, it was not until the mid-19th century that celebrating Christmas became fashionable in the Boston region.<ref>{{cite book |last=Marling |first=Karal Ann |year=2000 |title=Merry Christmas!: Celebrating America's Greatest Holiday |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0-674-00318-7 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EUc13_ourtYC&q=Christmas+Puritan+New+England&pg=PA44 |page=44}}</ref>

==== Wales ====
{{Further|History of Wales#Early modern period}}
Bishop [[Richard Davies (bishop)|Richard Davies]] and dissident Protestant cleric [[John Penry]] introduced Calvinist theology to Wales. In 1588, the Bishop of Llandaff published the entire Bible in the [[Welsh language]]. The translation had a significant impact upon the Welsh population and helped to firmly establish Protestantism among the [[Welsh people]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.churchinwales.org.uk/life/heritage/a-wonderful-inheritance/5-the-protestant-reformation/ |title=The Church in Wales: The Protestant Reformation |access-date=21 April 2017 |archive-date=22 September 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180922111036/https://www.churchinwales.org.uk/life/heritage/a-wonderful-inheritance/5-the-protestant-reformation/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> The Welsh Protestants used the model of the [[Synod of Dort]] of 1618–1619. Calvinism developed through the Puritan period, following the restoration of the monarchy under Charles II, and within Wales' [[Calvinistic Methodist]] movement. However few copies of Calvin's writings were available before the mid-19th century.<ref>D. Densil Morgan, "Calvinism in Wales: c. 1590–1909," ''Welsh Journal of Religious History'' (2009), Vol. 4, pp.&nbsp;22–36</ref>

==== Scotland ====
{{main|Scottish Reformation|Church of Scotland|Presbyterianism}}
[[File:John Knox preaching.JPG|thumb|[[John Knox]] was a leading figure in the Scottish Reformation]]

The Reformation in Scotland's case culminated ecclesiastically in the establishment of a church along [[Reformed theology|reformed]] lines, and politically in the triumph of English influence over that of France. [[John Knox]] is regarded as the leader of the Scottish reformation.

The [[Scottish Reformation Parliament|Reformation Parliament]] of 1560 repudiated the pope's authority by the ''[[Papal Jurisdiction Act 1560]]'', forbade the celebration of the [[Mass (liturgy)|Mass]] and approved a [[Protestant]] [[Confession of Faith]]. It was made possible by a revolution against French hegemony under the regime of the [[regent]] [[Mary of Guise]], who had governed Scotland in the name of her absent daughter [[Mary, Queen of Scots]] (then also [[Queen consort|Queen]] of France).

Although Protestantism triumphed relatively easily in Scotland, the exact form of Protestantism remained to be determined. The 17th century saw a complex struggle between [[Presbyterianism]] (particularly the [[Covenanter]]s) and [[Anglicanism|Episcopalianism]]. The Presbyterians eventually won control of the [[Church of Scotland]], which went on to have an important influence on Presbyterian churches worldwide, but Scotland retained a relatively large [[Scottish Episcopal Church|Episcopalian minority]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Wormald|first=Jenny|title=Court, kirk, and community: Scotland, 1470–1625|date=1991 |publisher=Edinburgh University Press|isbn=0-7486-0276-3|location=Edinburgh|oclc=26132044}}</ref>

=== France ===
{{main|Massacre of Mérindol|Huguenot|Reformed Church of France|French Wars of Religion}}

Catholicism remained the official state religion, and the fortunes of French Protestants gradually declined over the next century, culminating in Louis XIV's [[Edict of Fontainebleau]] (1685), which revoked the Edict of Nantes and made Catholicism the sole legal religion of France, leading some Huguenots to live as [[Nicodemite]]s.<ref>"[https://books.google.com/books?id=AMdQCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA395 Nicodemism]", ''The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church''. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2000.</ref> In response to the Edict of Fontainebleau, [[Frederick William I, Elector of Brandenburg]] declared the [[Edict of Potsdam]] (October 1685), giving free passage to Huguenot refugees and tax-free status to them for ten years.

In the late 17th century, 150,000–200,000 Huguenots fled to England, the Netherlands, Prussia, Switzerland, and the English and Dutch overseas colonies.<ref>''1685 and the French Revolution'', Andrew Jainchill, ''The French Revolution in Global Perspective'', ed. Suzanne Desan, Lynn Hunt, and William Max Nelson, (Cornell University Press, 2013), 57.</ref> A significant community in France remained in the [[Cévennes]] region. A separate Protestant community, of the [[Lutheranism|Lutheran]] faith, existed in the newly conquered province of [[Alsace]], its status not affected by the Edict of Fontainebleau.

=== Spain ===
{{Main|History of Spain#Phillip II and the wars of religion|Protestantism in Spain}}
{{multiple image
 | align = right
 | total_width = 300

 | image1 = Francisco de Enzinas-Nuevo Testamento.001.jpg
 | caption1 = The New Testament translated by Francisco de Enzinas into the [[Spanish language]] (Castilian), published in [[Antwerp]] (1543)

 | image2 = Leizarraga biblia 01.png
 | caption2 = The New Testament translated by [[Joanes Leizarraga]] into the [[Basque language]] (1571) on the orders of Navarre's Calvinist queen, [[Jeanne III of Navarre]]
}}

In the early 16th century, Spain had a different political and cultural milieu from its Western and Central European neighbours in several respects, which affected the mentality and the reaction of the nation towards the Reformation. Spain, which had only recently managed to complete the reconquest of the Peninsula from the [[Moors]] in 1492, had been preoccupied with converting the Muslim and Jewish populations of the newly conquered regions through the establishment of the [[Spanish Inquisition]] in 1478. The rulers of the nation stressed political, cultural, and religious unity, and by the time of the Lutheran Reformation, the Spanish Inquisition was already 40 years old and had the capability of quickly persecuting any new movement that the leaders of the Catholic Church perceived or interpreted to be religious heterodoxy.{{sfn|Pettegree|2000a|p=304}} [[Emperor Charles V|Charles V]] did not wish to see Spain or the rest of Habsburg Europe divided, and in light of continual threat from the Ottomans, preferred to see the Catholic Church reform itself from within. This led to a [[Counter-Reformation]] in Spain in the 1530s. During the 1520s, the Spanish Inquisition had created an atmosphere of suspicion and sought to root out any religious thought seen as suspicious. As early as 1521, the Pope had written a letter to the Spanish monarchy warning against allowing the unrest in Northern Europe to be replicated in Spain. Between 1520 and 1550, printing presses in Spain were tightly controlled and any books of Protestant teaching were prohibited.

[[File:Contemporary illustration of the Auto-da-fe held at Validolid Spain 21-05-1559..jpg|thumb|Contemporary illustration of the [[auto-da-fé]] of [[Valladolid]], in which fourteen Protestants were burned at the stake for their faith, on 21 May 1559|alt=]]

Between 1530 and 1540, Protestantism in Spain was still able to gain followers clandestinely, and in cities such as [[Seville]] and [[Valladolid]] adherents would secretly meet at private houses to pray and study the Bible.{{sfn|Estep|1986|p=299}} Protestants in Spain were estimated at between 1000 and 3000, mainly among intellectuals who had seen writings such as those of [[Erasmus]]. Notable reformers included Juan Gil and Juan Pérez de Pineda who subsequently fled and worked alongside others such as [[Francisco de Enzinas]] to translate the Greek [[New Testament]] into the Spanish language, a task completed by 1556. Protestant teachings were smuggled into Spain by Spaniards such as Julián Hernández, who in 1557 was condemned by the Inquisition and burnt at the stake. Under [[Philip II of Spain|Philip II]], conservatives in the Spanish church tightened their grip, and those who refused to recant such as Rodrigo de Valer were condemned to life imprisonment. On May 21, 1559, sixteen Spanish Lutherans were burnt at the stake; 14 were strangled before being burnt, while two were burnt alive. In October another 30 were executed. Spanish Protestants who were able to flee the country were to be found in at least a dozen cities in Europe, such as [[Geneva]], where some of them embraced [[Calvinism|Calvinist]] teachings. Those who fled to England were given support by the [[Church of England]].{{Citation needed|date= March 2021}}

The [[Kingdom of Navarre]], although by the time of the Protestant Reformation a minor principality territoriality restricted to southern France, had French [[Huguenot]] monarchs, including [[Henry IV of France]] and his mother, [[Jeanne III of Navarre]], a devout Calvinist.

Upon the arrival of the Protestant Reformation, Calvinism reached some [[Basques]] through the translation of the Bible into the [[Basque language]] by [[Joanes Leizarraga]]. As Queen of Navarre, Jeanne III commissioned the translation of the [[New Testament]] into Basque{{refn|group=note|See the wikipedia entry on [[Joanes Leizarraga]], the priest who did the translation. His manuscript is considered to be a cornerstone in Basque literature, and a pioneering attempt towards Basque language standardization.}} and [[Béarnese language|Béarnese]] for the benefit of her subjects.

=== Italy ===
{{further|Reformation in Italy|Girolamo Savonarola}}
[[File:Waldenser-Wappen.jpg|thumb|upright|Waldensian symbol ''Lux lucet in tenebris'' ("Light glows in the darkness")]]

Word of the Protestant reformers reached Italy in the 1520s but never caught on. Its development was stopped by the Counter-Reformation, the Inquisition and popular disinterest. Not only was the Church highly aggressive in seeking out and suppressing heresy, but there was a shortage of Protestant leadership. No-one made a new Protestant translation of the Bible into Italian to compete with the existing Catholic vernacular translations; few tracts were written. No core of Protestantism emerged. The few preachers who did take an interest in "Lutheranism", as it was called in Italy, were suppressed, or went into exile to northern countries where their message was well received. As a result, the Reformation exerted almost no lasting influence in Italy, except for strengthening the Catholic Church and pushing for an end to ongoing abuses during the Counter-Reformation.<ref name=McCulloch401>MacCulloch ''Reformation'' pp.&nbsp;401–417</ref>{{sfn|Firpo|2004|p=169 ff}}

Some Protestants left Italy and became notable activists of the Eastern European Reformation, mainly in the [[Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth]] (e.g. [[Giorgio Biandrata]], [[Bernardino Ochino]], Giovanni Alciato, Giovanni Battista Cetis, [[Fausto Sozzini]], [[Francesco Stancaro]] and [[Giovanni Valentino Gentile]] some of whom propagated [[Nontrinitarianism]] there and were chief instigators of the movement of [[Polish Brethren]].<ref name=Church457>Church "Literature of the Italian reformation" ''Journal of Modern History'' pp.&nbsp;457–473</ref>) Some also fled to England and Switzerland, including [[Peter Vermigli]].

In 1532, the [[Waldensians]], who had been already present centuries before the Reformation, aligned themselves and adopted the Calvinist theology. The [[Waldensian Evangelical Church|Waldensian Church]] survived in the [[Western Alps]] through many persecutions and remains a Protestant church in Italy.{{sfn|Cameron|1984}}{{page needed|date=March 2015}}

=== Slovenia ===
{{Main|Religion in Slovenia#Protestantism}}
[[File:Primoz-Trubar (rotated).jpg|thumb|upright|right|[[Primož Trubar]], a Lutheran reformer in Slovenia]]

[[Primož Trubar]] is notable for consolidating the [[Slovene language]] and is considered to be the key figure of Slovenian cultural history, in many aspects a major Slovene historical personality.<ref name="Voglar I">{{cite news |url=http://www.locutio.si/index.php?no=42&clanek=990 |title=Primož Trubar v enciklopedijah in leksikonih I |language=sl |trans-title=Primož Trubar in Encyclopedias and Lexicons I |journal=Locutio |volume=11 |issue=42 |date=30 May 2008 |first=Dušan |last=Voglar |access-date=7 February 2011 |publisher=Maribor Literary Society}}</ref> He was the key figure of the Protestant Church of the [[Slovene Lands]], as he was its founder and its first superintendent. The first books in Slovene, ''[[Catechismus]]'' and ''[[Abecedarium (Trubar)|Abecedarium]]'', were written by Trubar.<ref>{{cite journal |url=http://www.srl.si/sql_pdf/SRL_2013_4_01.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www.srl.si/sql_pdf/SRL_2013_4_01.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live |title=Nova odkritja o slovenski protestantiki |language=sl|trans-title=New Discoveries About the Slovene Protestant Literature |first=Kozma |last=Ahačič |journal=Slavistična Revija |volume=61 |date=2013 |issue=4 |pages=543–555}}</ref>

=== Greece ===
{{Main|Timeline of Eastern Orthodoxy in Greece (1453–1821)}}
The Protestant teachings of the Western Church were also briefly adopted within the Eastern Orthodox Church through the [[Greek people|Greek]] [[Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople|Patriarch]] [[Cyril Lucaris]] in 1629 with the publishing of the ''Confessio'' (Calvinistic doctrine) in [[Geneva]]. Motivating factors in their decision to adopt aspects of the Reformation included the [[East–West Schism|historical rivalry]] and mistrust between the [[Greek Orthodox Church|Greek Orthodox]] and the Catholic Churches along with their concerns of [[Jesuit]] priests entering Greek lands in their attempts to propagate the teachings of the [[Counter-Reformation]] to the Greek populace. He subsequently sponsored [[Maximos of Gallipoli]]'s [[Bible translations into Greek|translation of the New Testament]] into the [[Modern Greek language]] and it was published in Geneva in 1638. Upon Lucaris's death in 1638, the conservative factions within the Eastern Orthodox Church held two synods: the Synod of Constantinople (1638) and [[Synod of Iași]] (1642) criticising the reforms and, in the 1672 convocation led by [[Patriarch Dositheos II of Jerusalem|Dositheos]], they officially condemned the Calvinistic doctrines.

In 2019, [[Christos Yannaras]] told [[Norman Russell (theologian)|Norman Russell]] that although he had participated in the [[Zoë movement]], he had come to regard it as [[Crypto-Protestant]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Metaphysics as a Personal Adventure, by Norman Russell |url=https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2019/4-january/books-arts/book-reviews/metaphysics-as-a-personal-adventure-by-norman-russell |access-date=2023-05-18 |website=www.churchtimes.co.uk}}</ref>

== Spread ==
[[File:HolyRomanEmpire 1618.png|thumb|upright=1|Religious fragmentation in Central Europe at the outbreak of the [[Thirty Years' War]] (1618).|alt=]]

The Reformation spread throughout Europe beginning in 1517, reaching its peak between 1545 and 1620. The greatest geographical extent of Protestantism occurred at some point between 1545 and 1620. In 1620, the [[Battle of White Mountain]] defeated Protestants in Bohemia (now the Czech Republic) who sought to have the 1609 [[Letter of Majesty]] upheld.
 
The [[Thirty Years' War]] began in 1618 and brought a drastic territorial and demographic decline when the House of Habsburg introduced counter-reformational measures throughout their vast possessions in Central Europe. Although the [[Thirty Years' War]] concluded with the [[Peace of Westphalia]], the French [[Counter-Reformation#Politics|Wars of the Counter-Reformation]] continued, as well as the expulsion of Protestants in Austria.

[[File:The Protestant Reformation.svg|thumb|upright=1|Approximation of the Reformation at its peak, superimposed on modern European borders.]]

[[File:The Counterreformation.svg|thumb|upright=1|Approximations of the Reformation & the [[Counter-Reformation]] at the commonly-used end year of  1648, superimposed on modern European borders.]]

According to a 2020 study in the ''American Sociological Review'', the Reformation spread earliest to areas where Luther had pre-existing social relations, such as mail correspondents, and former students, as well as where he had visited. The study argues that these social ties contributed more to the Reformation's early breakthroughs than the printing press.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Becker|first1=Sascha O.|last2=Hsiao|first2=Yuan|last3=Pfaff|first3=Steven|last4=Rubin|first4=Jared|date=1 October 2020|title=Multiplex Network Ties and the Spatial Diffusion of Radical Innovations: Martin Luther's Leadership in the Early Reformation|journal=American Sociological Review|volume=85|issue=5|pages=857–894|doi=10.1177/0003122420948059|issn=0003-1224|doi-access=free}}</ref>

== Conclusion and legacy ==
There is no universal agreement on the exact or even the approximate date the Reformation ended. Various interpretations emphasise different dates, entire periods, or argue that the Reformation never really ended.<ref>{{cite book|last=Olson |first=Roger E. |chapter-url= https://www.ministrymatters.com/all/entry/8332/is-the-protestant-reformation-over-can-the-schism-end
|date=21 August 2017|chapter=Is the Protestant Reformation Over? Can The Schism End?|title= Ministry matters
|quote=Protestant Reformation was a long process begun a century earlier by Bohemian priest John Hus and, at least according to many Protestants, is ever ongoing. “Reformed and always reforming” was the motto of many of the Reformation's leaders and remains a crucial ideal and challenge today. |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220120232437/https://www.ministrymatters.com/all/entry/8332/is-the-protestant-reformation-over-can-the-schism-end |archive-date= January 20, 2022 |url-status= live}}</ref> However, there are a few popular interpretations. The [[Peace of Augsburg]] in 1555 officially ended the religious struggle between the two groups and made the legal division of Christianity permanent within the [[Holy Roman Empire]], allowing rulers to choose either [[Lutheranism]] or Catholicism as the official [[Creed|confession]] of their state. It could be considered to end with the enactment of the [[Creed#Christian confessions of faith|confessions of faith]]. Other suggested ending years relate to the [[Counter-Reformation]] or the 1648 [[Peace of Westphalia]]. From one Catholic perspective, the [[Second Vatican Council]] ended the Counter-Reformation.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Wills|first=Garry|url=https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2019/11/07/changeless-catholic-church/|title=Changing the 'Changeless' Church|journal= New York Review of Books |date= 7 November 2019|access-date=14 March 2020|issn=0028-7504}}</ref>
*In the history of theology or philosophy, the Reformation era ended with the Age of Orthodoxy. The Orthodox Period, also termed the [[Template:17th-century scholasticism|Scholastic Period]], succeeded the Reformation with the 1545–63 [[Council of Trent]], the 1562 Anglican ''[[Thirty-nine Articles]]'', the 1580 ''[[Book of Concord]]'', and other [[Creed#Christian confessions of faith|confessions of faith]]. The Orthodox Era ended with the development of both [[Pietism]] and [[The enlightenment|the Enlightenment]].
* The [[Peace of Westphalia]] might be considered to be the event that ended the Reformation.<!-- According to other interpretations, the Reformation could truly be considered to have ended in the middle 18th century, as the Peace of Westphalia did not specify, nor did it mean that it concluded; that is around time the First Great Awakening (1730–1755) took place. Historians{{who |date=September 2021}} who hold this interpretation often argue that the emergence of Pietism prolonged the Reformation up to this point; -->

=== Thirty Years' War: 1618–1648 ===
[[File:Westfaelischer Friede in Muenster (Gerard Terborch 1648).jpg|thumb|upright=1.4|[[Treaty of Westphalia]] allowed [[Calvinism]] to be freely exercised, reducing the need for [[Crypto-Calvinism]]]]

The Reformation and Counter-Reformation era conflicts are termed the [[European wars of religion]]. In particular, the [[Thirty Years' War]] (1618–48) devastated much of [[Early Modern history of Germany|Germany]], killing between 25 and 40% of its population.<ref>{{Cite web |date= 2023-05-16 |title=History of Europe {{!}} Summary, Wars, Map, Ideas, & Colonialism |url= https://www.britannica.com/topic/history-of-Europe |access-date= 2023-05-18 |website= Britannica}}</ref> The Catholic [[House of Habsburg]] and its allies fought against the Protestant princes of Germany, supported at various times by Denmark, Sweden and [[Kingdom of France|France]]. The Habsburgs, who ruled Spain, Austria, the [[Lands of the Bohemian Crown|Crown of Bohemia]], [[Kingdom of Hungary|Hungary]], [[Slovene Lands]], the [[Spanish Netherlands]] and much of Germany and Italy, were staunch defenders of the Catholic Church.

Two main tenets of the [[Peace of Westphalia]], which ended the Thirty Years' War, were:
* All parties would now recognise the [[Peace of Augsburg]] of 1555, by which each prince would have the right to determine the religion of his own state, the options being Catholicism, Lutheranism, and now Calvinism (the principle of {{Lang|la|[[cuius regio, eius religio]]}}).
* Christians living in principalities where their denomination was ''not'' the established church were guaranteed the right to practice their faith in public during allotted hours and in private at their will.

The treaty also effectively ended the Papacy's pan-European political power. [[Pope Innocent X]] declared the treaty "null, void, invalid, iniquitous, unjust, damnable, reprobate, inane, empty of meaning and effect for all times" in his apostolic brief ''Zelo Domus Dei''. European sovereigns, Catholic and Protestant alike, ignored his verdict.{{sfn|Cross|2005}}{{page needed|date=March 2015}}

=== Consequences of the Reformation ===
In nations that remained Catholic, or reverted to it, remaining Protestants sometimes lived as [[crypto-Protestantism |crypto-Protestants]], also called [[Nicodemite]]s, contrary to the urging of John Calvin, who wanted them to live their faith openly.<ref>Eire, Carlos M. N. "Calvin and Nicodemism: A Reappraisal".  ''Sixteenth Century Journal'' X:1, 1979.</ref> Some [[Crypto-Protestantism|crypto-Protestants]] have been identified as late as the 19th century after immigrating to Latin America.<ref name="Martínez Fernández">{{Cite journal |last=Martínez Fernández |first= Luis|title=Crypto-Protestants and Pseudo-Catholics in the Nineteenth-Century Hispanic Caribbean |journal=Journal of Ecclesiastical History |volume=51|issue=2|pages= 347–65 |year=2000|doi=10.1017/S0022046900004255 |s2cid=162296826}}</ref> 

In Britain from the Elizabethan period, dissenters called [[Recusancy|Recusants]] included both Catholic families and [[English Dissenters]] (Quakers, Ranters, Diggers, Grindletonians, etc.): almost the entire Irish population were recusants from the imposed Protestant Church of Ireland.<ref>Burton, Edwin, Edward D'Alton, and Jarvis Kelley. ''1911 Catholic Encyclopedia, Penal Laws III: Ireland''.</ref>

Travel and migration between countries became more difficult. "In 1500, a Christian could travel from one end of Europe to another without fear of persecution; by 1600, every form of Christianity was illegal somewhere in Europe."<ref>Wandell, Lee Palmer (2011) ''The Reformation'', Cambridge University Press ''apud'' {{cite web |last1= Leithart |first1=Peter |title=How the Reformation Failed |url= https://theopolisinstitute.com/how-the-reformation-failed/ |website= Theopolis Institute |date=18 April 2017}}</ref> Two prolonged series of conflicts, the [[French Wars of Religion]] (1562–1598) and the [[Thirty Years' War]] (1618–1648) resulted in between [[European wars of religion#Death toll|six and sixteen million deaths]].

As well as wars, most countries and colonies of Europe enacted discriminatory legislation, these only winding down in the late 18th century [[Age of Enlightenment]]. For example, the [[Popery Act]]s (1699 and 1704) disallowed Irish Catholic schooling and purchase of land, and changed inheritance law; it was repealed by the 1778 and 1791 [[Catholic Relief Act]]s. The [[Quebec Act]] (1774) re-allowed Catholics to worship and hold public office, but was one of the [[Intolerable Acts]] that precipitated the [[American Revolutionary War]].   In the countries of the [[Holy Roman Empire]], the [[Patent of Toleration]] (1781, 1782) allowed religious toleration for non-Catholic Christians and Jews. In France, the [[Edict of Toleration]] (1787) proposed the non-persecution of non-Catholics and Jews. However vestiges of Reformation-period legal discrimination continued: for example, currently, a Roman Catholic, or someone married to a Roman Catholic, may not be crowned the [[Succession_to_the_British_throne#Religion|British Monarch]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Succession |url=https://www.royal.uk/encyclopedia/succession?page=8 |website=www.royal.uk |language=en}}</ref>

=== Radical Reformation ===
{{main|Radical Reformation}}

In parts of Germany, Switzerland, and Austria, a majority sympathised with the Radical Reformation despite intense persecution.<ref name=horsch>{{cite book |last=Horsch|first=John|title= Mennonites in Europe|date=1995|publisher= Herald Press|isbn= 978-0-8361-1395-2|page=299}}</ref> Although the surviving proportion of the European population that rebelled against Catholic, [[Lutheranism|Lutheran]] and [[Zwinglian]] churches was small, Radical Reformers wrote profusely and the literature on the Radical Reformation is disproportionately large, partly as a result of the proliferation of the Radical Reformation teachings in the United States.<ref>{{cite book|title= The European Reformation|author= Euan Cameron|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|year=1991|isbn= 978-0-19-873093-4 |place=New York}}</ref>

Despite significant diversity among the early Radical Reformers, some "repeating patterns" emerged among many Anabaptist groups. Many of these patterns were enshrined in the [[Schleitheim Confession|''Schleitheim Confession'' (1527)]] and include [[Believer's baptism|believers' (or adult) baptism]], memorial view of the [[Eucharist|Lord's Supper]], belief that Scripture is the final authority on matters of faith and practice, emphasis on the [[New Testament]] and the [[Sermon on the Mount]], interpretation of Scripture in community, separation from the world and a [[Two kingdoms doctrine|two-kingdom theology]], [[pacifism]] and [[nonresistance]], communal ownership and economic sharing, belief in the freedom of the will, non-swearing of oaths, "yieldedness" (''Gelassenheit'') to one's community and to God, the [[Shunning|ban]] (i.e., shunning), salvation through divinization (''Vergöttung'') and ethical living, and discipleship (''Nachfolge Christi'').<ref>Andrew P. Klager, "Ingestion and Gestation: Peacemaking, the Lord's Supper, and the Theotokos in the Mennonite-Anabaptist and Eastern Orthodox Traditions", ''Journal of Ecumenical Studies'' 47, no. 3 (summer 2012): pp. 441–42.</ref>

=== Literacy ===
[[Image:Lutherbibel.jpg|thumb|right|[[Modern High German]] translation of the [[Christian Bible]] by the Protestant reformer [[Martin Luther]] (1534).<ref name= "Lobenstein-Reichmann">{{cite encyclopedia |author-last= Lobenstein-Reichmann |author-first=Anja |date=29 March 2017 |title=Martin Luther, Bible Translation, and the German Language |url= https://oxfordre.com/religion/display/10.1093/acrefore/9780199340378.001.0001/acrefore-9780199340378-e-382 |encyclopedia=Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Religion |location= [[Oxford]] |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |doi=10.1093/acrefore/9780199340378.013.382 |url-access=subscription |isbn= 978-0-19934037-8}}</ref>  The widespread popularity of the [[Luther Bible|Bible translated into High German by Luther]] helped establish modern Standard High German.<ref name= "Lobenstein-Reichmann"/>]]

The Protestant Reformation was a triumph of [[literacy]] and the new [[printing press]].<ref name= Cameron>{{cite book|author=Euan Cameron |title=The European Reformation|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=_6a3kgsbkBIC|date=1 March 2012|publisher= OUP Oxford|isbn= 978-0-19-954785-2}}{{page needed|date= March 2015}}</ref>{{refn|group=note|In the end, while the Reformation emphasis on Protestants reading the Scriptures was one factor in the development of literacy, the impact of printing itself, the wider availability of printed works at a cheaper price, and the increasing focus on education and learning as key factors in obtaining a lucrative post, were also significant contributory factors.{{sfn|Pettegree|2000a|p= 543}}}}<ref name= Rubin270>Rubin, "Printing and Protestants" Review of Economics and Statistics pp.&nbsp;270–86</ref><ref name= ":1">{{Cite web|url= http://cep.lse.ac.uk/pubs/download/dp1367.pdf |archive-url= https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://cep.lse.ac.uk/pubs/download/dp1367.pdf |archive-date= 2022-10-09 |url-status=live|title= Media, Markets and Institutional Change: Evidence from the Protestant Reformation}}</ref> [[Luther Bible|Luther's translation of the Bible into High German]] (the [[New Testament]] was published in 1522; the [[Old Testament]] was published in parts and completed in 1534) was also decisive for the [[German language]] and its evolution from [[Early New High German]] to Modern Standard German.<ref name="Lobenstein-Reichmann"/> Luther's translation of the Bible promoted the development of non-local forms of language and exposed all speakers to forms of German from outside their own area.<ref>Birgit Stolt, "Luther's Translation of the Bible." ''[[Lutheran Quarterly]]'' 28.4 (2014): 373–400.</ref> The publication of Luther's Bible was a decisive moment in the [[History of Germany#Culture and literacy|spread of literacy in early modern Germany]],<ref name= "Lobenstein-Reichmann"/> and stimulated as well the printing and distribution of religious books and pamphlets. From 1517 onward, religious pamphlets flooded Germany and much of Europe.{{sfn|Edwards|1994}}{{page needed |date=March 2015}}{{refn|group= note|In the first decade of the Reformation, Luther's message became a movement, and the output of religious pamphlets in Germany was at its height.{{sfn|Pettegree|Hall|2004|p=786}}}}

By 1530, over 10,000 publications are known, with a total of ten million copies. The Reformation was thus a media revolution.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2015-08-19 |title=Media, markets and institutional change: Evidence from the Protestant Reformation |url=https://cepr.org/voxeu/columns/media-markets-and-institutional-change-evidence-protestant-reformation |access-date=2025-02-10 |website=CEPR |language=en}}</ref> Luther strengthened his attacks on Rome by depicting a "good" against "bad" church. From there, it became clear that print could be used for propaganda in the Reformation for particular agendas, although the term propaganda derives from the Catholic ''[[Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples|Congregatio de Propaganda Fide]]'' (''Congregation for Propagating the Faith'') from the Counter-Reformation. Reform writers used existing styles, cliches and stereotypes which they adapted as needed.{{sfn|Edwards|1994}}{{page needed|date=March 2015}} Especially effective were writings in German, including Luther's translation of the Bible, his [[Luther's Small Catechism|Smaller Catechism]] for parents teaching their children, and his [[Luther's Large Catechism|Larger Catechism]], for pastors.

Illustrations in the German Bible and in many tracts popularised Luther's ideas. [[Lucas Cranach the Elder]] (1472–1553), the great painter patronised by the electors of Wittenberg, was a close friend of Luther, and he illustrated Luther's theology for a popular audience. He dramatised Luther's views on the relationship between the Old and New Testaments, while remaining mindful of Luther's careful distinctions about proper and improper uses of visual imagery.{{sfn|Weimer|2004|pp = 387–405}}

===Outcomes===
Protestants have to some extent developed [[Protestant culture|their own culture]], with major contributions in education, the humanities and sciences, the political and social order, the economy and the arts and many other fields.<ref name= "Karl Heussi 1956 pp. 317–319">Karl Heussi, ''Kompendium der Kirchengeschichte'', 11. Auflage (1956), Tübingen (Germany), pp. 317–19, 325–26</ref> Various outcomes of the Reformation have been suggested by scholars: improved [[human capital]] formation, the disputed [[Protestant work ethic]], improved [[economic development]], the modern state, and "dark" outcomes:{{sfn|Becker|Pfaff|Rubin|2016}}

==== Human capital formation ====
Claims include:
* Higher literacy rates,<ref name= "Becker 531–596">{{Cite journal|last1= Becker|first1=Sascha O.|last2= Woessmann |first2=Ludger|date=1 May 2009|title=Was Weber Wrong? A Human Capital Theory of Protestant Economic History|journal=The Quarterly Journal of Economics |volume=124|issue=2 |pages= 531–96|doi=10.1162/qjec.2009.124.2.531|issn=0033-5533|citeseerx= 10.1.1.657.9590|hdl= 1893/1653|s2cid= 3113486}}</ref>{{refn|group=note| Some historians restrict this to the Mercantile countries (Holland, England)<ref name=allen>1800s Germany had the literacy rate as neighbouring France.{{cite journal |last1=Allen |first1=Robert C. |title=Progress and Poverty in Early Modern Europe |journal=The Economic History Review |date=2003 |volume=56 |issue=3 |pages=403–443 |doi=10.1111/j.1468-0289.2003.00257.x |jstor=3698570 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3698570 |issn=0013-0117}}</ref> or the influence of the [[Age of Enlightenment]].<ref >{{Cite book|last=Vincent |first=David |editor-first1=John L. |editor-first2=Eileen H. |editor-last1=Rury |editor-last2=Tamura |title=The Oxford Handbook of the History of Education |year=2019 |chapter=The Modern History of Literacy |chapter-url=https://oro.open.ac.uk/69072/3/69072.pdf |access-date=December 21, 2023 |at=7 |doi=10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199340033.013.30 |isbn=978-0-199-34003-3 }}</ref> }} 
* Lower gender gap in school enrollment and literacy rates.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Becker|first1=Sascha O.|last2= Woessmann |first2=Ludger|date=1 December 2008|title=Luther and the Girls: Religious Denomination and the Female Education Gap in Nineteenth-century Prussia |journal= Scandinavian Journal of Economics |volume=110|issue=4 |pages= 777–805|doi=10.1111/j.1467-9442.2008.00561.x|s2cid= 146303270 |issn=1467-9442}}</ref>
* Higher primary school enrollment.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1 = Becker|first1=Sascha O.|last2= Woessmann |first2=Ludger|date=1 May 2010 |title=The effect of Protestantism on education before the industrialization: Evidence from 1816 Prussia|journal=Economics Letters|volume=107|issue=2|pages=224–28|doi= 10.1016/j.econlet.2010.01.031|citeseerx=10.1.1.517.2101|s2cid= 154922179}}</ref>
* Higher public spending on schooling and better educational performance of military conscripts.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Boppart|first1=Timo|last2= Falkinger|first2=Josef |last3= Grossmann |first3=Volker|last4=Woitek|first4=Ulrich|last5=Wüthrich|first5= Gabriela|date=1 April 2013|title=Under which conditions does religion affect educational outcomes?|journal= Explorations in Economic History|volume=50|issue=2|pages=242–66|doi= 10.1016/j.eeh.2012.12.001|s2cid= 154150626 |url= https://www.zora.uzh.ch/id/eprint/77611/1/Under_which_Conditions_Boppart.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://www.zora.uzh.ch/id/eprint/77611/1/Under_which_Conditions_Boppart.pdf |archive-date= 2022-10-09 |url-status= live}}</ref>
* Higher capability in reading, numeracy, essay writing, and history.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1= Boppart|first1=Timo|last2=Falkinger|first2=Josef|last3=Grossmann|first3= Volker|date=1 April 2014|title= Protestantism and Education: Reading (the Bible) and Other Skills|journal= Economic Inquiry |volume=52|issue=2|pages=874–95|doi= 10.1111/ecin.12058 |s2cid=10220106|issn=1465-7295|url=https://www.cesifo-group.de/DocDL/cesifo1_wp3314.pdf |archive-url= https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://www.cesifo-group.de/DocDL/cesifo1_wp3314.pdf |archive-date= 2022-10-09 |url-status= live}}</ref>

==== Protestant ethic {{anchor|Protestant work ethic}} ====
{{Main|Protestant work ethic}}
Claims include:
* More hours worked.<ref>{{Cite SSRN|last=Spenkuch|first=Jörg L.|date=20 March 2011|title=The Protestant Ethic and Work: Micro Evidence from Contemporary Germany|ssrn=1703302}}</ref>
* Divergent stated attitudes about the absolute priority of work between Protestants and Catholics.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Schaltegger |first1= Christoph A.|last2=Torgler|first2= Benno|date=1 May 2010|title= Work ethic, Protestantism, and human capital|journal=Economics Letters|volume=107|issue=2|pages=99–101 |doi= 10.1016/j.econlet.2009.12.037|url=https://eprints.qut.edu.au/32407/1/COVERSHEET_C32407.pdf |archive-url= https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://eprints.qut.edu.au/32407/1/COVERSHEET_C32407.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status= live}}</ref>
* Fewer referendums on leisure, state intervention, and redistribution in Swiss cantons with more Protestants.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1= Basten|first1=Christoph|last2= Betz|first2=Frank|title=Beyond Work Ethic: Religion, Individual, and Political Preferences |journal=American Economic Journal: Economic Policy |volume=5|issue= 3|pages=67–91 |doi=10.1257/pol.5.3.67|year=2013 |url= http://www.aeaweb.org/aej/pol/app/2011-0231_app.pdf |archive-url= https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www.aeaweb.org/aej/pol/app/2011-0231_app.pdf |archive-date= 2022-10-09 |url-status= live|hdl= 1814/62006}}</ref>
* Lower life satisfaction when unemployed.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1= van Hoorn|first1=André|last2= Maseland |first2=Robbert|date=1 July 2013 |title= Does a Protestant work ethic exist? Evidence from the well-being effect of unemployment|journal=Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization|volume= 91|pages=1–12 |doi= 10.1016/j.jebo.2013.03.038|url=https://pure.rug.nl/ws/files/17796724/van_Hoorn_2013_JEBO_AC_Does_a_Protestant_work_ethic_exist.pdf |archive-url= https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://pure.rug.nl/ws/files/17796724/van_Hoorn_2013_JEBO_AC_Does_a_Protestant_work_ethic_exist.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status= live|hdl=11370/edf4c610-0828-4ba7-b222-9ce36e3c58be|s2cid= 73683588 |hdl-access=free}}</ref>
* Pro-market attitudes.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Hayward|first1=R. David|last2=Kemmelmeier |first2= Markus |date= 1 November 2011|title=Weber Revisited A Cross-National Analysis of Religiosity, Religious Culture, and Economic Attitudes |journal=Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology |volume=42|issue=8|pages=1406–1420 |doi= 10.1177/0022022111412527 |s2cid= 9101480 |issn=0022-0221}}</ref>
* Higher relative income growth in Protestant cities compared to Catholic cities (correlated with larger growth in Protestant city size.)<ref name= "Becker 531–596"/>

==== Economic development ====
[[File:Katharina-v-Bora-1526.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Katharina von Bora]] played a role in shaping social ethics during the Reformation.]]
Claims include:
* Different levels of income tax revenue per capita, % of labor force in manufacturing and services, and incomes of male elementary school teachers.<ref name="Becker 531–596"/>
* Growth of Protestant cities.<ref>{{Cite journal|last= Cantoni |first=Davide|date=1 August 2015|title=The Economic Effects of the Protestant Reformation: Testing the Weber Hypothesis in the German Lands|journal=Journal of the European Economic Association |volume= 13 |issue= 4|pages=561–98|doi=10.1111/jeea.12117 |issn= 1542-4774|hdl= 10230/11729 |s2cid=7528944 |hdl-access= free}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url= http://voxeu.org/article/protestant-reformation-economic-institutions-and-development|title=Origins of growth: How state institutions forged during the Protestant Reformation drove development |website=VoxEU |access-date= 26 April 2016|date=26 April 2016}}</ref>
* Greater entrepreneurship among religious minorities in Protestant states.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1= Nunziata|first1=Luca|last2=Rocco|first2= Lorenzo|date=1 January 2014|title=The Protestant Ethic and Entrepreneurship: Evidence from Religious Minorities from the Former Holy Roman Empire|journal=Mpra Paper |url= https://ideas.repec.org/p/pra/mprapa/53566.html|publisher=University Library of Munich, Germany}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1= Nunziata |first1=Luca|last2=Rocco|first2= Lorenzo |date=20 January 2016|title= A tale of minorities: evidence on religious ethics and entrepreneurship |journal= Journal of Economic Growth |volume=21|issue=2|pages= 189–224|doi= 10.1007/s10887-015-9123-2 |s2cid= 55740195|issn= 1381-4338}}</ref>
* Different social ethics facilitating impersonal trade.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Arruñada|first=Benito|date=1 September 2010|title=Protestants and Catholics: Similar Work Ethic, Different Social Ethic*|journal=The Economic Journal |volume=120 |issue= 547 |pages=890–918|doi=10.1111/j.1468-0297.2009.02325.x|issn= 1468-0297 |hdl=10230/624|s2cid=6753991 |hdl-access=free}}</ref>
*Industrialization.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Spater|first1=Jeremy|last2= Tranvik|first2=Isak|date=1 November 2019|title=The Protestant Ethic Reexamined: Calvinism and Industrialization |journal= Comparative Political Studies|volume=52|issue= 13–14 |pages=1963–94|doi= 10.1177/0010414019830721 |s2cid= 204438351 |issn=0010-4140}}</ref>

==== Modern states ====
Claims include:
* The Reformation has been credited as a key factor in the development of the state system.<ref>{{cite book | url= http://press.princeton.edu/titles/8934.html |last =Nexon|first = D.H.| title = The Struggle for Power in Early Modern Europe: Religious Conflict, Dynastic Empires, and International Change |date = 20 April 2009|publisher = Princeton University Press|isbn = 978-0-691-13793-3}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Philpott|first=Daniel|date= 1 January 2000|title=The Religious Roots of Modern International Relations |journal=World Politics|volume=52|issue=2|pages=206–45|doi= 10.1017/S0043887100002604|s2cid= 40773221|issn= 1086-3338}}</ref>
* The Reformation has been credited as a key factor in the formation of transnational advocacy movements.<ref>{{Cite journal |last = Stamatov |first=Peter |date=1 August 2010 |title=Activist Religion, Empire, and the Emergence of Modern Long-Distance Advocacy Networks|journal= American Sociological Review |volume=75|issue=4|pages=607–28|doi= 10.1177/0003122410374083|s2cid= 145615068 |issn=0003-1224|hdl= 10016/33305 |hdl-access=free}}</ref>
* The Reformation impacted the Western legal tradition.<ref>{{Cite book |url= http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674022300&content=reviews |title=Law and Revolution | volume = II |author=Harold J. Berman | date=30 September 2006 |publisher= Belknap Press of Harvard University Press |isbn= 978-0-67402230-0 |access-date=19 April 2016}}</ref>
* Enabling professional [[Bureaucracy|bureaucracies]] to emerge in Europe.<ref>{{Cite journal |last= Figueroa |first=Valentín |date=2023 |title=The Protestant Road to Bureaucracy |url= https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/article/885481 |journal=World Politics |volume= 75 |issue=2 |pages=390–437 |doi=10.1353/wp.2023.0006 |issn= 1086-3338|url-access=subscription }}</ref>
* Establishment of state churches.<ref>{{Cite journal|last= Gorski |first=Philip S.|date=1 January 2000|title=Historicizing the Secularization Debate: Church, State, and Society in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe, ca. 1300 to 1700 |jstor= 2657295|journal=American Sociological Review |volume=65|issue=1 |pages= 138–67 |doi=10.2307/2657295|s2cid= 147029738}}</ref>
* Poor relief and social welfare regimes.<ref>{{Cite journal|last= Pullan |first=Brian|date= 1 January 1976 |title=Catholics and the Poor in Early Modern Europe|jstor=3679070|journal= Transactions of the Royal Historical Society|volume=26|pages= 15–34 |doi= 10.2307/3679070|s2cid= 161899850}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Kahl |first= Sigrun|date=1 April 2005|title= The religious roots of modern poverty policy: Catholic, Lutheran, and Reformed Protestant traditions compared |journal=European Journal of Sociology / Archives Européennes de Sociologie|volume=46|issue=1|pages= 91–126|doi=10.1017/S0003975605000044|issn=1474-0583|hdl= 11858/00-001M-0000-0012-4DFA-2 |s2cid= 9584702|hdl-access=free}}</ref>
* [[James Madison]] noted that [[Martin Luther]]'s [[two kingdoms doctrine|doctrine of the two kingdoms]] marked the beginning of the modern conception of [[separation of church and state]].<ref>{{cite book |last1= Madison |first1=James |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=I6tLmjLqRfAC&pg=PA242 |title= Madison to Schaeffer, 1821 |year= 1865 |pages= 242–43}}</ref>
* The Calvinist and Lutheran doctrine of the [[lesser magistrate]] contributed to [[resistance theory in the Early Modern period]] and was employed in the [[United States Declaration of Independence]].
* Reformers such as Calvin promoted [[mixed government]] and the [[separation of powers]],<ref>Clifton E. Olmstead (1960), ''History of Religion in the United States'', Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, pp.&nbsp;9–10</ref><ref name= "ReferenceA">Jan Weerda, ''Calvin'', in ''Evangelisches Soziallexikon'', col. 210–11</ref> which governments such as the United States subsequently adopted.<ref>Heinrich August Winkler (2012), ''Geschichte des Westens. Von den Anfängen in der Antike bis zum 20. Jahrhundert'', 3rd Ed., Munich (Germany), {{ISBN|978-3-406-59235-5}}, pp. 290ff.</ref><ref>{{cite web | title= Constitution Day 2021: Mixed Government, Bicameralism, and the Creation of the U.S. Senate | url= https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/senate-stories/constitution-day-2021-mixed-government-bicameralism.htm | date=September 17, 2021 | work=U.S. Senate | access-date= December 30, 2021}}</ref>

====World demographics====
{{pie chart|thumb = right
|caption = [[List_of_Christian_denominations_by_number_of_members|World Christianity]] by tradition in 2024 as per [[World Christian Encyclopedia|World Christian Database]]<ref name="WorldChristian Database">{{cite web |url=https://www.gordonconwell.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/13/2024/01/Status-of-Global-Christianity-2024.pdf |title=Status of Global Christianity, 2024, in the Context of 1900–2050 |publisher=Center for the Study of Global Christianity, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary |quote=Christian total 2,508,432,000; Catholics 1,278,009,000; Protestants 625,606,000; Independents 421,689,000; Orthodox 293,158,000; Unaffiliated 123,508,000|access-date=23 May 2024}}</ref>
|label1 = [[Catholic]]
|value1 = 48.6
|color1 = Purple
|label2 = [[Protestant]]
|value2 = 23.8
|color2 = Darkblue
|label3 = [[Non-denominational Christianity|Independent]]
|value3 = 16.0
|color3 = Orange
|label4 = [[Eastern Orthodoxy|Orthodox]]
|value4 = 11.1
|color4 = Lightblue
|label5 = Other
|value5 = 0.5
|color5 = Green}}
Today, classical Protestantism (including Anglicans) has between [[List_of_Christian_denominations_by_number_of_members#Historical_Protestantism_–_300–600_million|300 and 625 million worldwide adherents]],<ref name= "gordonconwell.edu">{{cite web |url= https://www.gordonconwell.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/13/2024/01/Status-of-Global-Christianity-2024.pdf |title=Status of Global Christianity, 2024, in the Context of 1900–2050 |publisher=Center for the Study of Global Christianity, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary |access-date=23 May 2024|quote=Protestants: 625,606,000; Independents: 421,689,000; Unaffiliated Christians: 123,508,000}}</ref> up to one quarter of all Christians.

And general Protestantism—broadly defined to also include Evangelical, Pentecostal, non-conformist and non-denominationalists<ref group= note>Over half of this population are in [[List_of_Christian denominations_by_number_of_members#Modern_Protestantism_–_400–500_million|Modern 
Protestant]] denominations such as Pentecostal churches which are not derived from the historical Reformation denominations; and the remaining Historical denominations include [[Arminian]] denominations such as [[List of Christian denominations by number of members#Methodism – 60–80 million|Methodists]] which do not hold to certain key Reformation doctrines, such as ''sola fide''.</ref>—constitutes the [[List of Christian denominations by number of members|second-largest form]] of Christianity (after Catholicism), with between 850,000 and 1.17 billion adherents worldwide (between 40% and 45% of all Christians)<ref name= "pewforum1">{{cite web|url= http://www.pewforum.org/files/2011/12/Christianity-fullreport-web.pdf |title= Pew forum: Grobal Christianity |date=19 December 2011 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20131101114257/http://www.pewforum.org/files/2011/12/Christianity-fullreport-web.pdf |access-date=14 May 2014|archive-date=1 November 2013}}</ref>{{refn|group=note|Most current estimates place the world's Protestant population in the range of 800 million to more than 1&nbsp;billion. For example, author Hans Hillerbrand estimated a total Protestant population of 833,457,000 in 2004,<ref name= "books.google.pl">{{cite book|last = Hillerbrand|first=Hans J.|title= Encyclopedia of Protestantism: 4-volume Set|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PMSTAgAAQBAJ&pg=RA2-PA349|year=2004|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-135-96028-5|page=2}}</ref> while a report by Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary – 1,170,803,000 (with inclusion of independents as defined in this article) in 2024.<ref name= "gordonconwell.edu" />}} divided into an estimated 45,000 denominations.<ref>{{cite web |title=Quick Facts About Global Christianity |url=https://www.gordonconwell.edu/center-for-global-christianity/research/quick-facts/ |website=Center for the Study of Global Christianity |language=en}}</ref>

==== Other outcomes ====
Other claims include:
* Witch trials became more common in regions or other jurisdictions where Protestants and Catholics contested the religious market.<ref>{{Cite web|url= http://economics.yale.edu/sites/default/files/witch_trials.pdf|title=Witch Trials|url-status= dead|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20160513034745/http://economics.yale.edu/sites/default/files/witch_trials.pdf|archive-date=13 May 2016}}</ref>
* Christopher J. Probst, in his book ''Demonizing the Jews: Luther and the Protestant Church in Nazi Germany'' (2012), shows that a large number of German Protestant clergy and theologians during [[Nazi Germany]] used Luther's hostile publications towards the Jews and Judaism to justify at least in part the anti-Semitic policies of the National Socialists.<ref>{{Cite web |title= Demonizing the Jews: Luther and the Protestant church in Nazi Germany / Christopher J. Probst |url= https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/bib226337 |access-date= 2023-05-18 |website=Collections | publisher =United States Holocaust Memorial Museum}}</ref>
* In its decree on [[Unitatis redintegratio |ecumenism]], the [[Second Vatican Council]] of Catholic bishops declared that by contemporary dialogue that, while still holding views as the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church, between the churches "all are led to examine their own faithfulness to Christ's will for the Church and accordingly to undertake with vigor the task of renewal and reform" (''Unitatis Redintegratio'', 4).
* Beer production switched from using herbs to hops.<ref>{{cite web |last1= Martyris |first1=Nina |title=The Other Reformation: How Martin Luther Changed Our Beer, Too |work=NPR |date=31 October 2017 |url= https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2017/10/31/561117731/the-other-reformation-how-martin-luther-changed-our-beer-too |access-date= 29 November 2023}}</ref>

=== Historiography ===
Margaret C. Jacob argues that there has been a dramatic shift in the historiography of the Reformation. Until the 1960s, historians focused their attention largely on the great leaders and theologians of the 16th century, especially Luther, Calvin, and Zwingli. Their ideas were studied in depth. However, the rise of the [[social history|new social history]] in the 1960s led to looking at history from the bottom up, not from the top down. Historians began to concentrate on the values, beliefs and behavior of the people at large. She finds, "in contemporary scholarship, the Reformation is now seen as a vast cultural upheaval, a social and popular movement, textured and rich because of its diversity."{{sfn|Jacob|1991|p= 215}}

For example, historian John Bossy characterized the Reformation as a period where Christianity was re-cast not as "a community sustained by ritual acts, but as a teaching enforced by institutional structures," for Catholics as well as Protestants;<ref group= note>"But in the Renaissance era, and even more so in the Reformation period which followed, reliance on symbol and image gave way to the privileging of the printed or spoken word. Peace remained a fundamental Christian aspiration, but ritual and sacrament gave way to persuasion and instruction as the means to achieve it."{{harvnb|Duffy|2016}}.</ref><ref group= note>"Until the seventeenth century, …Christianity meant a body of people, but since then it refers only to a body of beliefs." {{cite journal |last1= Lewis |first1= Eleanor V. |title= (Review) Christianity in the West, 1400–1700. By John Bossy. New York: Oxford University Press, 1985 |journal= Church History |date= June 1986 |volume= 55 |issue=2 |pages= 225–26 |doi= 10.2307/3167429 |jstor= 3167429 |s2cid=162279854}}</ref> and sin was re-cast from the [[seven deadly sins]] —wrong because antisocial— to transgressions of the [[Ten Commandments]] —wrong as affronts to God.

=== Music and art ===
{{Further|Protestantism#Arts}}
{{div col|colwidth=21em}}
'''Painting and sculpture'''
*[[Northern Mannerism#Northern Mannerism, politics and religion|Northern Mannerism]]
*[[Lutheran art#Reformation era|Lutheran art]]
*[[German Renaissance#Art|German Renaissance Art]]
*[[Swedish art#Renaissance and Baroque art|Swedish art]]
*[[English art#16th and 17th centuries|English art]]
*[[Old master print#The North after Dürer|Woodcuts]]
*[[Art in the Protestant Reformation and Counter-Reformation|Art conflicts]]
*[[Beeldenstorm]]

'''Building'''
*[[Church architecture#The Reformation and its influence on church architecture|Influence on church architecture]]

'''Literature'''
*[[Elizabethan literature|Elizabethan]]
*[[Metaphysical poets]]
*[[Propaganda during the Reformation|Propaganda]]
*[[Welsh-language literature#16th and 17th centuries|Welsh]]
*[[Scottish literature#Early modern era|Scottish]]
*[[Irish literature#The manuscript tradition|Anglo-Irish]]
*[[German literature#German Renaissance and Reformation|German]]
*[[Czech literature#Reformation|Czech]]
*[[Swiss literature#Emergence of vernacular literature|Swiss]]
*[[Slovak literature#1500-1650|Slovak]]
*[[Sorbian literature|Sorbian]]
*[[Romanian literature#Beginning of Writing and Publishing in Romanian|Romanian]]
*[[Danish literature#16th and 17th centuries|Danish]]
*[[Faroese literature#Reformation era|Faroese]]
*[[Norwegian literature#"Four Hundred Years of Darkness"|Norwegian]]
*[[Swedish literature#Reformation literature|Swedish]]
*[[Finnish literature#Pre-Nineteenth century|Finnish]]
*[[Icelandic literature#Middle Icelandic literature|Icelandic]]
*[[Dutch Renaissance and Golden Age literature|Dutch Renaissance and Golden Age]]
*[[Folklore of the Low Countries#In folk tales|Folklore of the Low Countries]]
*[[Renaissance humanism#Sixteenth century and beyond|16th century Renaissance humanism]]
*[[16th century in poetry]]
*[[16th century in literature]]
*[[English Renaissance theatre]]

'''Musical forms'''
*[[Hymnody of continental Europe#Reformation|Hymnody of continental Europe]]
*[[Early music of the British Isles#Reformation|Music of the British Isles]]
*[[Hymn tune#The Reformation|Hymn tune]]
*[[Lutheran chorale]]
*[[Lutheran hymn]]
*[[Anglican church music#History|Anglican church music]]
*[[Exclusive psalmody]]
*[[Anglican chant]]
*[[Homophony]] vs. [[Polyphony#European polyphony|Polyphony]]

'''Liturgies'''
*[[Reformed worship#General principles and historical overview|Reformed worship]]
*[[Regulative principle of worship#John Calvin's Liturgy|Calvin's liturgy]]
*[[Formula missae]]
*[[Deutsche Messe]]
*[[Ecclesiastical Latin]]
*[[Mass (music)#Renaissance|Lutheran and Anglican Mass]] in music
*[[Cyclic mass]] vs. [[Paraphrase mass]]
*[[Pre-Tridentine Mass|Roman]] vs. [[Use of Sarum|Sarum]] Rites
*[[Sequence (musical form)|Sequence]] (retained by Lutherans, mostly banned by Trent)

'''Hymnals'''
*[[First Lutheran hymnal|First]] and [[Erfurt Enchiridion|Second]] Lutheran hymnals
*[[Eyn geystlich Gesangk Buchleyn|First Wittenberg hymnal]]
*[[Swenske songer eller wisor 1536|Swenske songer]]
*[[Thomissøn's hymnal]]
*[[Ausbund]]
*''[[Book of Common Prayer]]''
*[[Metrical psalter]]s
*[[Souterliedekens]]
*[[Book of Common Order]]
*[[Genevan Psalter]]
*[[Hymnbooks of the Church of Scotland#Scottish Psalter (1564)|Scottish Psalter]]

'''Secular music'''
*[[English Madrigal School]]
*''[[Greensleeves]]''
*[[Madrigal#Continental Europe|German madrigals]]
*[[Moravian traditional music#History|Moravian traditional music]]
*[[Meistersinger]]
{{div col end}}

Partly due to Martin Luther's love for music, music became important in Lutheranism. The study and practice of music was encouraged in Protestant majority countries. Songs such as the Lutheran hymns or the Calvinist Psalter became tools for the spread of Protestant ideas and beliefs, as well as identity flags. Similar attitudes developed among Catholics, who in turn encouraged the creation and use of music for religious purposes.{{sfn|Bertoglio|2017}}

== See also ==
{{Div col|colwidth=18em}}
* [[Catholic Church and ecumenism]]
* [[Catholic-Protestant relations]]
* [[Criticism of Christianity]]
* [[Criticism of Protestantism]]
* [[Concordat of Worms]]
* [[Confessionalization]]
* [[European City of the Reformation]]
* [[Historiography of religion]]
* [[List of Protestant Reformers]]
* [[Protestantism in Germany]]
* [[Sectarian violence among Christians]]
* [[Women in the Protestant Reformation]]
{{div col end}}

== Notes ==
{{Reflist|group=note}}

==References==
{{reflist|20em}}

==Bibliography==
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*{{cite book|last=Hamilton|first=Bernard|orig-year=1986|year=2003|title=Religion in the Medieval West |edition=2nd|publisher=[[Hodder Education]]|isbn=978-0-340-80839-9}}
*{{cite book|last=Hamm|first=Berndt|year=1999 |chapter=What was the Reformation Doctrine of Justification |pages=53–90|editor-last=Dixon|editor-first=C. Scott|title=The German Reformation: The Essential Readings |series=Blackwell Essential Readings in History|publisher=[[Blackwell Publishers]]|isbn=0-631-20811-9}}
*{{cite book|last=Haude|first=Sigrun|orig-year=2000|year=2006|chapter=Anabaptism|pages=237–256|editor-last=Pettegree|editor-first=Andrew |title=The Reformation World|publisher=[[Routledge]]|isbn=978-0-415-16357-6}}
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*{{cite book|last=Kaufmann|first=Thomas |translator=Tony Crawford|year=2023|title=The Saved and the Damned: A History of the Reformation|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|isbn=978-0-19-884104-3}}
*{{cite journal|last1=Kim|first1=Hyojoung |last2=Pfaff|first2=Steven|title=Structure and Dynamics of Religious Insurgency: Students and the Spread of the Reformation|journal=[[American Sociological Review]] |volume=77 |issue=2|pages=188–215|publisher=[[American Sociological Association]]|date=February 2012 |doi=10.1177/0003122411435905 |s2cid=144678806 |url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0003122411435905|issn=0003-1224|url-access=subscription}}
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*{{cite book |last=Pettegree |first=Andrew |title=The Reformation World |date=2000b |publisher=Psychology Press |isbn=978-0-415-16357-6 }}
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*{{cite journal|last=Pfaff|first=Steven|title=The true citizens of the city of God: the cult of saints, the Catholic social order, and the urban Reformation in Germany|journal=[[Theory and Society]]|publisher=[[Springer Publishing|Springer]]|date=12 March 2013 |jstor=43694683 |issn=0304-2421 |volume=42|issue=2|pages=189–218 |doi=10.1007/s11186-013-9188-x|s2cid=144049459}}
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*{{cite journal |last=Rubin |first=Jared |title= Printing and Protestants: An Empirical Test of the Role of Printing in the Reformation |journal=Review of Economics and Statistics |date=2014 |volume=96 |issue=2 |pages=270–286 |doi=10.1162/REST_a_00368|s2cid=52885129 |url=https://digitalcommons.chapman.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1099&context=economics_articles }}
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{{refend}}

==Further reading==
=== Surveys ===
{{refbegin|30em}}
* Appold, Kenneth G. ''The Reformation: A Brief History'' (2011) [https://www.questia.com/library/120083934/the-reformation-a-brief-history online]
* Collinson, Patrick. ''The Reformation: A History'' (2006)
* Elton, Geoffrey R. and Andrew Pettegree, eds. ''Reformation Europe: 1517–1559'' (1999) [https://www.amazon.com/Reformation-Europe-1517-1559-Blackwell-Histories/dp/0631213848/ excerpt and text search]
*  Elton, G.R., ed. ''The New Cambridge Modern History, Vol. 2: The Reformation, 1520–1559'' (1st ed. 1958) [https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.111462 online free]
* Gassmann, Günther, and Mark W. Oldenburg. ''Historical dictionary of Lutheranism'' (Scarecrow Press, 2011).
* Hillerbrand, Hans J. ''The Protestant Reformation'' (2nd ed. 2009)
* Hsia, R. Po-chia, ed. ''A Companion to the Reformation World'' (2006)
* Lindberg, Carter. ''The European Reformations'' (2nd ed. 2009)
*  Mourret, Fernand. ''History of the Catholic Church'' (vol 5 1931) online free; pp.&nbsp;325–516; by French Catholic scholar
* {{cite book |last=Naphy |first=William G. |title=The Protestant Revolution: From Martin Luther to Martin Luther King Jr. |year=2007 |publisher=BBC Books |isbn=978-0-563-53920-9}}
* {{cite book|title=The History of the Protestant Reformation; In Germany and Switzerland, and in England, Ireland, Scotland, the Netherlands, France, and Northern Europe|last=Spalding|first=Martin|date=2010|publisher=General Books LLC}}
* Reeves, Michael. ''The Unquenchable Flame: Discovering the Heart of the Reformation'' (2nd ed. 2016)
* Spitz, Lewis William (2003). ''The Protestant Reformation: 1517–1559''.
{{refend}}

===Theology===
{{refbegin|30em}}
* Bagchi, David, and David C. Steinmetz, eds. ''The Cambridge Companion to Reformation Theology'' (2004)
* {{cite book |last=Bainton |first=Roland |author-link=Roland Bainton |title=The Reformation of the Sixteenth Century |year=1952 |publisher=The Beacon Press |location=Boston |isbn=978-0-8070-1301-4 |url=https://archive.org/details/reformationofsix00rola }}
* Barrett, Matthew, and Michael Horton. ''Reformation Theology: A Systematic Summary'' (2017).
* [[Carl Braaten|Braaten, Carl E.]] and Robert W. Jenson. ''The Catholicity of the Reformation''. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1996. {{ISBN|0-8028-4220-8}}.
* Cunningham, William. ''The Reformers and the Theology of the Reformation'' (2013).
* Payton, James R. Jr. ''Getting the Reformation Wrong: Correcting Some Misunderstandings'' (IVP Academic, 2010)
* {{cite book |last=Pelikan |first=Jaroslav |author-link=Jaroslav Pelikan |title=Reformation of Church and Dogma (1300–1700) |year=1984 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |location=Chicago |isbn=978-0-226-65377-8 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/christiantraditi00jaro }}
{{refend}}

=== Primary sources in translation ===
{{refbegin|30em}}
* Fosdick, Harry Emerson, ed. ''Great Voices of the Reformation [and of other putative reformers before and after it]: an Anthology'', ed., with an introd. and commentaries, by Harry Emerson Fosdick. (Modern Library, 1952). xxx, 546 pp.
* Janz, Denis, ed. ''A Reformation Reader: Primary Texts with Introductions'' (2008) [https://www.amazon.com/dp/0199231311 excerpt and text search]
* Littlejohn, Bradford, and Jonathan Roberts eds. ''Reformation Theology: A Reader of Primary Sources with Introductions'' (2018).
* [[Martin Luther|Luther, Martin]] ''Luther's Correspondence and Other Contemporary Letters'', 2 vols., tr. and ed. by Preserved Smith, Charles Michael Jacobs, The Lutheran Publication Society, Philadelphia, Pa. 1913, 1918. vol.2 (1521–1530) from [[Google Books]]. Reprint of Vol. 1, Wipf & Stock Publishers (March 2006). {{ISBN|1-59752-601-0}}.
* Spitz, Lewis W. ''The Protestant Reformation: Major Documents''. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1997. {{ISBN|0-570-04993-8}}.{{refend}}

=== Historiography ===
{{refbegin|30em}}
* {{cite journal |last=Bates |first=Lucy |title=The Limits of Possibility in England's Long Reformation |journal=[[The Historical Journal]] |year=2010 |volume=53 |issue=4 |pages=1049–1070 |jstor=40930369 |doi=10.1017/S0018246X10000403|s2cid=159904890 }}
* {{cite journal |last=Bradshaw |first=Brendan |title=The Reformation and the Counter-Reformation |journal=[[History Today]] |year=1983 |volume=33 |issue=11 |pages=42–45}}
* {{cite journal |last=Brady | first=Thomas A. Jr. |title=People's Religions in Reformation Europe |journal=The Historical Journal |year=1991 |volume=24 |issue=1 |pages=173–182 |jstor=2639713|doi=10.1017/S0018246X00013984 |s2cid=162991792 }}
* {{cite journal |last=de Boer |first=Wietse |title=An Uneasy Reunion The Catholic World in Reformation Studies |journal=[[Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte]] |year=2009 |volume=100 |issue=1 |pages=366–387 |doi=10.14315/arg-2009-100-1-366|s2cid=170395778 }}
* {{cite book |editor1-last=Dickens |editor1-first=A.G. |editor2-first=John M. |editor2-last=Tonkin |title=The Reformation in Historical Thought |publisher=Harvard University Press |year=1985 |postscript=,}} 443&nbsp;pp. [https://www.amazon.com/Reformation-Historical-G-Dickens/dp/0674753119/ excerpt]
* {{cite journal |last=Fritze |first=Ronald H. |title=The English Reformation: Obedience, Destruction and Cultural Adaptation |journal=[[Journal of Ecclesiastical History]] |year=2005 |volume=56 |issue=1 |pages=107–115 |doi=10.1017/S0022046904002106|s2cid=162920265 }}
* [[Francis Aidan Gasquet|Gasquet, F. A.]] (1900) [https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/50328 The Eve of the Reformation]
* {{cite journal |last=Haigh |first=Christopher |title=The recent historiography of the English Reformation |journal=The Historical Journal |year=1982 |volume=25 |issue=4 |pages=995–1007 |jstor=2638647 |doi=10.1017/s0018246x00021385|s2cid=154848886 }}
* {{cite journal |last=Haigh |first=Christopher |title=The English Reformation: A Premature Birth, a Difficult Labour and a Sickly Child |journal=The Historical Journal |year=1990 |volume=33 |issue=2 |pages=449–459 |jstor=2639467 |doi=10.1017/s0018246x0001342x|s2cid=162341988 }}
* {{cite journal |last=Haigh |first=Christopher |title=Catholicism in Early Modern England: Bossy and Beyond |journal=The Historical Journal |volume=45 |issue=2 |year=2002 |pages=481–494 |jstor=3133654 |doi=10.1017/S0018246X02002479|s2cid=163117077 }}
* {{cite web|last1=Heininen |first1=Simo |last2=Czaika |first2=Otfried |url=http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0159-2012080109 |title=Wittenberg Influences on the Reformation in Scandinavia |website=[[European History Online]] |location=Mainz |publisher=[[Institute of European History]] |year=2010 |access-date=17 December 2012}}
* Howard, Thomas A. and Mark A. Noll, eds. ''Protestantism after 500 Years'' (Oxford UP, 2016) pp.&nbsp;384. 
* {{cite book |editor-last=Hsia |editor-first=Po-Chia |title=A Companion to the Reformation World |year=2006}}
* {{cite journal |last=Hsia |first=R. Po-chia |title=Reformation on the Continent: Approaches Old and New |journal=[[Journal of Religious History]] |year=2004 |volume=28 |issue=2 |pages=162–170 |doi=10.1111/j.1467-9809.2004.00212.x|doi-access=free }}
* {{cite journal |last=Hsia |first=R. Po-Chia |title=The Myth of the Commune: Recent Historiography on City and Reformation in Germany |journal=[[Central European History]] |year=1987 |volume=20 |issue=3 |pages=203–215 |jstor=4546103 |doi=10.1017/s0008938900012061|s2cid=146309764 }}
* {{cite journal |last=Karant-Nunn |first=Susan C. |title=Changing One's Mind: Transformations in Reformation History from a Germanist's Perspective |journal=[[Renaissance Quarterly]] |year=2005 |volume=58 |issue=2 |pages=1101–1127 |jstor=10.1353/ren.2008.0933 |doi=10.1353/ren.2008.0933|s2cid=170423375 }}
* Kooi, Christine. "The Reformation in the Netherlands: Some Historiographic Contributions in English." ''Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte'' 100.1 (2009): 293–307.
* {{cite journal |last=MacCulloch |first=Diarmaid |title=The Impact of the English Reformation |journal=The Historical Journal |year=1995 |volume=38 |issue=1 |pages=151–153 |jstor=2640168 |doi=10.1017/s0018246x00016332|s2cid=162582384 }}
* {{cite journal |last1=MacCulloch |first1=Diarmaid |last2=Laven |first2=Mary |last3=Duffy |first3=Eamon |title=Recent Trends in the Study of Christianity in Sixteenth-Century Europe |journal=Renaissance Quarterly |year=2006 |volume=59 |issue=3 |pages=697–731 |jstor=10.1353/ren.2008.0381|doi=10.1353/ren.2008.0381 }}
* {{cite journal |last=Marnef |first=Guido |title=Belgian and Dutch Post-war Historiography on the Protestant and Catholic Reformation in the Netherlands |journal=Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte |year=2009 |volume=100 |issue=1 |pages=271–292 |doi=10.14315/arg-2009-100-1-271|s2cid=164021053 }}
* {{cite journal |last=Marshall |first=Peter |title=(Re)defining the English Reformation |journal=[[Journal of British Studies]] |year=2009b |volume=48 |issue=3 |pages=564–586 |jstor=27752571 |doi=10.1086/600128|url=http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/97/1/WRAP_Marshall_redefining.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/97/1/WRAP_Marshall_redefining.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live }}
* {{cite journal |last=Menchi |first=Silvana Seidel |title=The Age of Reformation and Counter-Reformation in Italian Historiography, 1939–2009 |journal=Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte |year=2009 |volume=100 |issue=1 |pages=193–217 |doi=10.14315/arg-2009-100-1-193|s2cid=201096496 }}
* {{cite web |last=Nieden |first=Marcel |url=http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0159-2012072708 |title=The Wittenberg Reformation as a Media Event |website=[[European History Online]] |location=Mainz |publisher=[[Institute of European History]] |year=2012 |access-date=17 December 2012}}
* {{cite journal |last=Scott |first=Tom |title=The Common People in the German Reformation |journal=The Historical Journal |year=1991 |volume=24 |issue=1 |pages=183–192 |jstor=2639714|doi=10.1017/S0018246X00013996 |s2cid=161111542 }}
* {{cite journal |last=Scott |first=Tom |title=The Reformation between Deconstruction and Reconstruction: Reflections on Recent Writings on the German Reformation |journal=[[German History (journal)|German History]] |year=2008 |volume=26 |issue=3 |pages=406–422 |doi=10.1093/gerhis/ghn027}}
* {{cite journal |last=Walsham |first=Alexandra |title=The Reformation and 'The Disenchantment of the World' Reassessed |journal=Historical Journal |year=2008 |volume=51 |issue=2 |pages=497–528 |jstor=20175171 |doi=10.1017/S0018246X08006808|doi-access=free |hdl=10036/69938 |hdl-access=free }}
* Walsham, Alexandra. "Toleration, Pluralism, and Coexistence: The Ambivalent Legacies of the Reformation." ''Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte-Archive for Reformation History'' 108.1 (2017): 181–190. [https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/bitstream/handle/1810/275919/Toleration%20ARG.docx?sequence=1 Online]
* {{cite journal |last=Wiesner-Hanks |first=Merry |title=Gender and the Reformation |journal=Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte |year=2009 |volume=100 |issue=1 |pages=350–365 |doi=10.14315/arg-2009-100-1-350|s2cid=192966856 }}
{{refend}}

== External links ==
{{commons category|Reformation}}
* [http://history.hanover.edu/early/prot.html Internet Archive of Related Texts and Documents] Hannover U.
* [http://www.tyndale.ca/seminary/mtsmodular/reading-rooms/history/16th-century 16th Century Reformation Reading Room]: Extensive online resources, Tyndale Seminary
* [https://www.loc.gov/rr/rarebook/coll/195.html The Reformation Collection] From the [https://www.loc.gov/rr/rarebook/ Rare Book and Special Collections Division] at the [[Library of Congress]]
* [https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/chrstuni/lutheran-fed-docs/rc_pc_chrstuni_doc_2013_dal-conflitto-alla-comunione_en.html An ecumenical official valuation by Lutherans and Catholics 500 years later], Vatican.
* [http://historyscoper.com/protestantscope.html TLW's Protestantscope™ (Protestant Historyscope)]
* {{cite EB1911 |wstitle=Reformation, The |volume=23 |pages=4–22 |first=James Harvey |last=Robinson |short=1}}

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