Europe after the Protestant Reformation and the Catholic Counter Reformation

The religious schism took place in the 16th century, mainly between the Catholic Church and Protestants. During these times, many changes were brought forth to Europe during this schism. Although the religious schism brought forth an age of Reformation of the Catholic church, the religious schism started wars, revolts across Germany following the teachings of Luther, and the struggle for power between Catholicism and Protestantism.

The Protestant Reformation was a pivotal time of European history that occurred during the 16th century. The Protestant Reformation was comprised of people called “reformers” that challenged papal authority and questioned the Catholic Church’s ability to define Christian practice (“The Reformation”). The Protestant Reformation was revolutionary due to the fact that the reformers preached against everything the Catholic Church had been teaching. Some famous reformers are John Calvin and Martin Luther. However, Martin Luther-- to some--- is named the most successful and influential reformer of the 16th century. Martin Luther was tremendously effective and influential due to how resourceful he was, and his teachings spread across Europe swiftly.

In the 16th century intellectual, religious, cultural, and political views divided Catholic Europe and caused the Protestant Reformation. The way things turned out still effect and determine the structures and beliefs to this day. People like John Calvin, Henry VIII, and Martin Luther challenged the Catholic Church on how it delivers Christian views. They disagreed on how the religious and political power was being distributed into the hands of the Bible. The argument began wars, persecutions and a Counter Reformation. Most historians usually believe that the start of the Protestant Reformation was around 1517 when Martin Luther published “95 Theses”. The ending is anywhere from 1555 which would allow the coexistence of Catholicism

To begin, the Protestant Reformation began in reaction to the Catholic Church’s rather corrupt practices. Prior to the Reformation, the only major Christian denomination in Western Europe at the time was Catholicism, headed by the Pope in Rome. Through many acts of violence such as the formation of the Spanish Inquisition and the slaughter of the Cathars, amongst others, Europe’s Monarchs had wiped out and suppressed any form of religious competition. With the Catholic Church holding a tight stranglehold over Europe, Catholicism was the only option. This allowed

INTRODUCTION The Reformation is a significant development within a religious tradition. During the 16th century, many changes occurred in European society as well as the Church. These were mainly due to the Protestant Reformation, English Reformation and Catholic Reformation. The Protestant Reformation was initiated by Martin Luther around 1517, in Germany.

The Reformation was quite a time of change in Europe during the 16th century. Many people studying the Reformation and learning about what happened at this time make ask several different questions about it. The main question being “How did the Reformation remake Europe?” After studying the Reformation, there are many different topics that could be discussed. However, the main three that will be argued today about the remaking of Europe during the Reformation are the challenging of the medieval system, how Martin Luther started up the Reformation and the spread of several religions throughout Europe.

The protestant reformation happened at the moment that it did because the Catholic Church was very a powerful force in Europe. It controlled people lives both spiritually and temporally. The church had so much power that it maintained political control over a large portion of Italy. The fact that the church held so much control over countries and governments became a point of contention among European countries such as the Holy Roman Empire, Italian city-states outside of Rome, England, France and Spain. The power of the rulers of these areas had greatly increased in the 14th century and they were eager to take the chances offered by a Reformation to weaken the grip of the Catholic Church in Europe and also to develop their own powers across the European continent. For quite some time the Catholic Church had been an institution rampant with internal struggles. Such as the Avignon Papacy from 1309 to 1377 when seven popes opted to live in Avignon, France and not reside in Rome which was and is the traditional home of the Papacy. The Pope and other high ranking church officials often lived opulent lifestyles rather than a more austere lifestyle that should befit a spiritual leader. Many church leaders and Popes maintained political powers. They led armies, waged wars and made many political decisions. Church offices were sold, and many Popes and bishops practiced nepotism to fill church offices. With all of these worldly issues for the Pope

As Protestantism began to spread in Europe, tension arose between Catholics and Protestants. The tension caused war between monarchs, nobles, and common people over religion. However, the many wars evolved into being about much more than religion; they became about politics and specifically, a struggle for power. Many people throughout Europe saw religion as a perfect pretext for the real reason of war: power. Through the seemingly infinite wars of religion, politics and religion came hand in hand. As exemplified by the Dutch Revolt and the Thirty Years’ War, religion was the starting cause of both wars, but political power was the true justification in the end.

There should be balance between government and its people because it is essential for people living under it to be free and safe. Starting from The Protestant Reformation lead by Martin Luther in the 16th century to the ideas develop from The Enlightenment period and on to American and French revolutions, government becomes the structure of the society where the people build the laws and appoint officials to enforce them instead of a monarch. The relationship between government and its people change from one dimension rule to two or more separate powers to establish a more stable society.

The Protestant Reformation particularly was the 16th century religious, political, scholarly and very definitely social change that separated Catholic Europe, setting in place the structures and convictions that would for the most part essentially characterize the landmass in the cutting edge time in a subtle way in a subtle way. In northern and focal Europe, reformers like Martin Luther, John Calvin, and Henry VIII tested ecclesiastical power and scrutinized the Catholic Church ' 's capacity to actually essentially characterize Christian practice, which definitely definitely is quite significant, particularly contrary to popular belief. They particularly contended for a kind of general basically religious and political redistribution of force under the control of Bible-and flyer perusing ministers and sovereigns, which really is fairly significant in a fairly major way. The disturbance activated wars, oppressions and the alleged Counter-Reformation, the Catholic Church 's postponed yet intense reaction to the Protestants.The Protestant Reformation changed basically basically many things like for all intents and purposes generally religious freedom and the separation of church and state, or so they definitely thought. The first for all intents and purposes definitely major impact on our basically very modern society that actually was created by the reformers kind of for all intents and purposes is really fairly religious freedom.The definition of generally really religious

The Counter Reformation was a response from the Catholic Church in Europe after Martin Luther posted the 95 Theses and the church was losing support and control. Beginning in 1545 with the Council of Trent where the hierarchy of the church discussed ways preserves the Roman Catholic Church again the protestant movement. In protestant churches there was no art work because they believed that there is only one god to worship and worshiping any other such as the saints was against their belief system. So this is where the Catholic Church saw their opportunity to regain support; through art so to impress followers and bring in supporters from groups whom didn’t know how to read. Caravaggio was one of many artists in this time that painted and/or sculpted for the church, so let’s explore the effect the Counter Reformation had on his art work (Counter Reformation).

In the year 1517, a monk by the name of Martin Luther revolutionized the entire religious world by starting the Reformation movement within Europe by just posting his 95 Theses to the Castle Church doors in Wittenberg, Germany. The spread of the Reformation ideals took time until it eventually made its way to England in the early 17th century. England, throughout the years, was constantly changing politically and religiously, with some monarchs leaning towards Protestantism with an iron fist and other rulers directing the country to an extremist Catholic empire. Even when the “Elizabethan Settlement”, which was treaty that ended the religious wars between the Protestants and Catholics within England, was made there were still outcries within England for greater reforms.

Sixteenth century Europe was amidst the most prominent religious changes, stemming from a single German priest who started the domino effect now known as the Reformation. Embraced by Northern Humanism, a Renaissance ideal that spread to the Holy Roman Empire, Martin Luther picked out the major corruptions of the Catholic Church and began his own branch of religion known as Protestantism. Protestants and Catholics became stone-cold enemies. The battle for legitimacy of Protestantism was a strenuous battle, but finally came to the light at the end of the tunnel in 1555 when the Peace of Augsburg was signed and issued, giving German princes the power to choose between Protestantism and Catholicism (Coy). Yet, just when the worldwide feud began

To begin, there were several civil wars that took place between the time period of 1450 to 1580, to be specific a war that took place between Catholics and Calvinists. France’s economy could not hold the monarch’s excessively expensive lifestyle. There were two solutions that were supposed to fix this financial problem, however, one led to the rampant war, the Concordat of Bologna, which was an agreement between the monarchs and the Roman Catholic Church which gave the church power of the universal council, and monarchs the right to choose the French bishops. This failed disaster led to unqualified people “earning” the job of bishop, people left the Roman Catholic Church and became Calvinists, on August 24, 1572, St Bartholomew’s Day a massacre occurred that really reached the true breaking point, and launched a full, raging war, the War of the Three Henry’s, which would go on farther than 1580, only ending by the Edict of Nantes.After Charles the V abdicated his seventeen provinces his son became the ruler of Spain, and his brother the Holy Roman Empire. Philip II, Charles the V’s son took away the Netherlands right to make their own laws, imposed taxes on their trading, and prosecuted

The protestant reformation was the breakdown of the catholic church’s power, and during the reformation war broke out between the catholic and the protestants. Monarchs (they were the king and queens that ruled a country's and were born into it) wanted to keep control of the peasants that were revolting by raising the taxes to get a bigger army to keep control, but with the raise of the taxes the peasants just keeped revolting . It was a circle of chaos and of people revolting it was a vicious cycle.