1. Reformation
1.1. Defining Reformation
1.1.1. Reformation is a notion that the Europeans demanded, which is essentially a change in the way the Church taught and practiced Christianity.
1.2. Reasons for Reform
1.2.1. Catholicism did not assimilate to the vast changes Europe was making in the 13th and 14th centuries.
1.2.2. Church leaders refused to conform to the contemporary European ideals, so as a result the unity of the Church was threatened.
1.3. Martin Luther and his policy of reform
1.3.1. Martin Luther was a German monk who challenged the Church and pushed for reform.
1.3.2. When he was studying the New Testament, he realized that it made more sense to serve Jesus, rather than do "good" work, and save people from their sins.
1.3.3. When Pope Leo X sent out indulgences to pay for a new lavish cathedral in Rome, Luther automatically protested it.
1.3.4. Indulgences are payments to the church by churchgoers for punishment for their sins.
1.3.5. Martin Luther posted a list of 95 theses as a result on the door of the castle church in Wittenburg, Germany. The list stated that only God could forgive sins.
1.3.6. He also preached that Popes are only humans and that the Bible was the true guide to religious truth.
1.4. Martin Luther's fate
1.4.1. His teachings were condemned by Pope Leo in 1520, and he was henceforth excommunicated.
1.4.2. Pope Leo urged the German emperor Charles V to declare Luther as a heretic. However, because Charles was reliant on princes that agreed with Luther's theses, he decided to give him a fair trial.
1.4.3. Luther was tried at the German Diet of Worms in 1521, there he refused to give up his ideas. He was therefore condemned for heresy.
1.5. Protestant Churches
1.5.1. Martin Luther essentially spearheaded the call to reform. His ideas soon spread to other areas of Europe.
1.5.2. Lutheran Churches were put up in Scandinavia, Swiss merchants and preachers left the Catholic Church, and Reformed Churches went into common practice in many areas of Europe.
1.5.3. They were called "Protestant" because they protested against Catholic ideas.
1.5.4. In Protestant Churches, instead of popes, priests, and bishops, their leaders are called ministers. They conducted sermons in the common language rather than Latin.
1.6. Ulrich Zwingli
1.6.1. Ulrich Zwingli was a key player in the Reformation that was taking place in Switzerland.
1.6.2. He lived from 1484 to 1531.
1.6.3. His ideals were separate from Luther's in that instead of wanting to reform the current church practices, he wanted to break completely from it.
1.6.4. Zwingli demanded that images from churches be removed, and monasteries be closed.
1.6.5. His following was based in Zurich, Switzerland against the Catholic forces in 1531. He was promptly killed when he attempted to attack the all-powerful Catholic Church.
1.6.6. However, his ideas still lived on after his death and a Protestant Church was firmly established in Switzerland.
1.7. John Calvin and Calvinist teachings
1.7.1. The first and most powerful Reformed group in Switzerland was one founded by John Calvin.
1.7.2. John Calvin believed that there wasn't anything in the past, present, or future that God did not control. It was God who decided who would be saved and who would not.
1.7.3. In his church, only ministers had the right to interpret scripture, and they ensured that their followers obeyed God's will.
1.7.4. Calvinism taught that their followers were not permitted to dance, play cards, go to the theater, or take part in drinking parties. Those who disobeyed were put imprisoned, executed or banished.
1.7.5. Calvinism surrounds the values of working hard and saving money. Because of this many rich merchants followed this religion.
1.7.6. And because of Calvinism, Geneva ultimately became a safe and orderly place. Streets and buildings were kept clean, new workshops opened, and very few Calvinists were unemployed.
2. Religious Wars
2.1. The Spanish Armada
2.1.1. Spain was the leading Catholic power in Europe under Philip II.
2.1.2. Philip II wanted to eliminate Protestant power by defeating England, which was the leading Protestant power under Elizabeth I.
2.1.3. He ordered the construction of an armada, or a large group of warships.
2.1.4. The Spanish Armada, with its 130 ships, was ready for battle after two years of construction.
2.1.5. Their battalion was so dangerous because of its galleons, or heavy ships with square-rigged sails and long, raised decks.
2.1.6. Meanwhile in England, Elizabeth knew that the Spaniards were about to attack, so she prepared England for war.
2.1.7. She ordered John Hawkins, a naval commander, to reorganize the English fleet.
2.1.8. Hawkins remodeled old ships and built new ones. His naval battalion ended up comprising 134 fighting ships and merchant vessels. Their ships were smaller, but had more ammunition and bigger guns.
2.1.9. The English began their attack by setting fire to eight small ships and sent it off to the Armada. As a result, the Spanish ships broke formation and began to drift.
2.1.10. The Spanish naval commander realized henceforth that they had been defeated and decided to retreat back to Spain. Only half of the Armada reached home.
2.1.11. The English gained respect throughout Europe as champions of the Protestant cause.
2.2. The Huguenots
2.2.1. The large majority of France in the 1500s were Catholics. However, most nobles, doctors, and merchants were Protestant. They were called Huguenots among the French people.
2.2.2. King Francis I, in 1534, denied the Huguenots the right to practice Calvinism. He wanted all French people to exercise Catholicism.
2.2.3. The Catholics, as a result, began to persecute the Huguenots, which started a civil war in 1562.
2.2.4. Catherine de Medici, the ruler at the time, attempted to keep peace by showing favor to the Huguenots. However, she eventually relinquished that attempt and declared her support for the Catholic Church.
2.2.5. She allowed Catholic nobles to kill the leading Huguenots in Paris in 1572. Shortly after, Catholic mobs in other parts of France began to kill Protestants and burn their homes.
2.3. Edict of Nantes
2.3.1. Henry of Navarre, a Huguenot prince, led a militia to defend the Huguenots. In 1580, the king of France was killed, and Henry succeeded the throne.
2.3.2. Henry, under overwhelming pressure, converted back to Catholicism. He did, however, end the conflict between the Protestants and the Catholics.
2.3.3. He signed the Edict of Nantes in 1598, which gave Huguenots the right to worship. France was henceforth the first European nation to allow to Christian religions.
2.4. The Thirty Years War & the Peace of Westphalia
2.4.1. The German states began to experience conflict over the terms of the Peace of Augsburg during the 1590s and the early 1600s.
2.4.2. Catholic and Protestant alliances then arose because of it. The Catholic alliance was led by the German emperor himself, Ferdinand II.
2.4.3. Bohemia, a Protestant state, rebelled against Ferdinand's rule and declared a Protestant prince as their leader.
2.4.4. Ferdinand's armies defeated the Bohemians in a gruesome battle and he henceforth declared himself the king of Bohemia. He did not allow Protestants to worship.
2.4.5. This conflict began the Thirty Years' War. Half the armies in Europe fought in Germany as a result.
2.4.6. Protestant Denmark and Sweden invaded Germany to stop the spread of Catholicism. They also hoped to conquer German territory.
2.4.7. This war was less about religion and more about a struggle for territory and wealth.
2.4.8. After a serious defeat, the German emperor decided that there must be peace in 1643. Representatives of European nations came to sign the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, which ended the war.
2.4.9. After the treaty was signed, Europeans no longer fought over religion. Instead, they gained power through trade and expansion overseas.
3. Church of England
3.1. Reformation in England
3.1.1. The Church in England's reformation was not led by church leaders, but by a monarch.
3.1.2. The reformation began because of a conflict that occurred between King Henry VIII and Pope Clementine VII in 1527. It began not for religious reasons, but for political reasons.
3.1.3. King Henry VII was married to Catherine of Aragon, and she was unable to give him a son. They had only one daughter named Mary.
3.1.4. King Henry had then fallen in love with a young woman of the court named Anne Boleyn. He urged the Pope if he could divorce Catherine so that he may marry Anne Boleyn.
3.1.5. The Pope refused to allow the divorce, and as a result, Henry declared that the Pope no longer had power over the Church in England. He was henceforth excommunicated.
3.1.6. English Parliament passed in 1534 that the king was the head of the Church in England. Any English Church leader that did not accept the law would then forth be declared a heretic.
3.2. Edward and Mary (England)
3.2.1. King Edward VI was the nine year old son of Henry VIII that succeeded the throne when he passed.
3.2.2. However, because he was only nine years old and far too sick to rule England, a council of nobles governed the country for him. The nobles were Protestants, so in turn they brought Protestant ideals into the English Church.
3.2.3. When Edward passed in 1553, the council of nobles wanted to bring forth a Protestant noblewoman to take the throne. However, it was to no avail because England refused to accept any ruler who was not a Tudor.
3.2.4. Mary was the rightful heir to the throne, as she is King Henry's daughter. She was, however, Catholic.
3.2.5. When Mary became queen, she reverted the Pope to be the head of the English church and essentially forced all English men and women to convert back to Catholicism.
3.2.6. Many Protestants did not oblige this ruling, and were therefore persecuted. More than 300, including Thomas Cranmer, were burned at the stake for heresy.
3.3. Queen Elizabeth's church
3.3.1. When Mary died in 1558, Elizabeth I, King Henry VIII's second child succeeded the throne.
3.3.2. Elizabeth did not share the same religious ideas that her half-sister did. She was a protestant herself, and her first order of business was to end the Pope's authority in the English Church.
3.3.3. Because of Elizabeth's tolerance for both religions, she worked to set up a Church to appeal to as many people as possible.
3.3.4. Though the new and reformed English Church was ultimately Protestant, Catholic ideals still remained within it.
3.3.5. The English Church henceforth was then lead by a monarch and used Cranmer's prayer book to teach Protestant beliefs.
3.3.6. English men and women were free to choose either to join the English Church or to not join. Some chose not to join Elizabeth's Church because it employed Catholic ways. They were called Puritans.
4. Counter-Reformation
4.1. Ignatius Loyola and the Jesuits
4.1.1. While the Protestants worked to disband from the Church, church-reformers worked to improve it from the inside.
4.1.2. Ignatius of Loyola was one of the best known Catholic reformers in Spain.
4.1.3. In 1521, Ignatius vowed to give up his life to serve God and the Roman Catholic Church.
4.1.4. He founded the Society of Jesus in 1540, and its followers were named Jesuits.
4.1.5. Jesuits traveled around the world in places like India, China, and Japan to spread Catholic ideas.
4.1.6. Jesuits were like monks in that they wore black robes and vowed to live a simple life. They set up schools, helped the poor, and preached to the people. They also taught universities and served in royal courts.
4.1.7. In addition to all that they do, they also tried to defend the Catholic Church with good deeds and reason. They also tried to persuade Protestants to convert back to Catholicism.
4.1.8. It was because of the Society of Jesus that countries like Poland, Bohemia, and Hungary became loyal once again to the Catholic Church.
4.2. Council of Trent
4.2.1. The Council of Trent was established by the Pope to strengthen the Roman Catholic Church.
4.2.2. This Council is comprised of a handful of bishops to discuss reforms and to defend Catholic teachings.
4.2.3. They met at various times between 1545 and 1564 in Trent, Italy.
4.2.4. Many Church practices were disbanded because of the Council of Trent, such as the sale of indulgences. However, they had also added strict rules for church leaders. Each diocese was told to build a seminary or a school to train priests.
4.2.5. It was also the Council's job to explain Catholic doctrine. They said that good works, as well as faith, helped people to get into heaven. They also declared that it would only be preached in Latin.