Aspects of the Reformation (c1500–1563)

Indulgences (selling remission of sin), simony (buying/selling Church offices), and pluralism (holding multiple posts to collect multiple incomes).

That the Church was riddled with corrupt bishops, ignorant monks and power-obsessed popes — a humanist satire designed to shame the Church into reform from within.

A Dominican friar who sold indulgences in territories near Wittenberg to fund St Peter's Basilica. His aggressive campaign directly provoked Luther to write the Ninety-Five Theses.

Sola fide (by faith alone, not works), sola scriptura (by Scripture alone, not Church tradition), and the priesthood of all believers (every Christian can read and interpret the Bible directly).

(1) Address to the Nobility — German princes should reform the Church themselves; (2) Babylonian Captivity — reduced sacraments from seven to two; (3) Freedom of a Christian — salvation by faith alone.

Johann Eck manoeuvred Luther into saying the Council of Constance had wrongly burned Jan Hus — meaning Luther now rejected both papal and conciliar authority, making reconciliation with Rome almost impossible.

Luther's closest colleague at Wittenberg; he systematised Lutheran theology in Loci Communes (1521) and authored the Augsburg Confession (1530), the definitive statement of Lutheran belief.

He arranged Luther's staged kidnapping and hid him at Wartburg Castle for nearly a year, where Luther survived and translated the New Testament into German while the imperial edict against him went unenforced.

1526: princes were free to determine religion in their own territories — Lutheranism spread legally. 1529: Catholic majority tried to reverse this; six Lutheran princes and fourteen cities issued a formal 'Protest', giving Protestantism its name.

Charles was perpetually distracted by wars with France (Italian Wars) and the Ottoman threat (Suleiman reached Vienna in 1529), and needed the German princes' military support — he could not afford to alienate them by enforcing the edict aggressively.

Luther's principle that Scripture alone (not papal decree or Church tradition) is the supreme authority in Christianity. Radical because it stripped the pope and clergy of their monopoly on religious truth and invited every literate person to judge doctrine for themselves.

Erasmus wanted reform from within — he stayed Catholic, used satire and scholarship to shame the Church, and never challenged papal authority directly. Luther broke with Rome entirely, denied papal and conciliar infallibility, and built an alternative Church structure.

Franz von Sickingen led lesser German nobles against the princes and bishops, hoping to exploit religious upheaval. The princes united and crushed the revolt in 1523. It showed the princes held real power in Germany — not the knights.

A manifesto issued by peasants at the start of the Peasants' War. They cited Scripture to demand an end to serfdom, fair rents, and access to common land — using Luther's religious language to justify social demands.

Luther condemned the peasants in 'Against the Murderous, Thieving Hordes of Peasants' (1525) and urged princes to suppress them. This permanently damaged his support among the poor but tied the Reformation firmly to the German princes.

The radical reformation rejected infant baptism, state churches, and compromise. Anabaptists (who practised adult baptism) were seen as a threat to both social order and mainstream Protestant reform. The Münster disaster (1535) confirmed these fears.

A defensive military alliance of Lutheran princes and cities formed in 1531 at Schmalkalden. It protected Protestant territories and Church lands against Catholic reconquest by the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V.

'Whose realm, his religion' — the ruler of each territory chose whether it would be Catholic or Lutheran. Agreed at the Peace of Augsburg (1555). Subjects who disagreed could emigrate. Calvinism was excluded.

Paul III (1534–49) was the architect: he convened Trent (1545), approved the Jesuits (1540), and created the Roman Inquisition (1542). Paul IV (1555–59) was a repressive enforcer: he expanded the Index of Forbidden Books and rejected dialogue with Protestants.

Ignatius of Loyola founded the Society of Jesus, approved by Paul III in 1540. Three main activities: education (schools and universities), missions to the Americas and Asia, and reconverting Protestant regions in Germany and Poland.

Trent rejected Luther's 'sola fide' — it reaffirmed that both faith AND good works are required for salvation. It confirmed all seven sacraments and reaffirmed transubstantiation. No compromise with Protestant doctrine was offered.

Trent required each diocese to establish a seminary (priest-training college), bishops to reside in their diocese, and condemned simony and absenteeism. It condemned abuses in selling indulgences while retaining the practice itself.

Established by Paul III to try heresy in Italy — a papal body, not a royal one. It was most active in Italian cities and helped prevent Protestantism taking root in Italy. The Spanish Inquisition was under royal (not papal) control.

Effective: Trent renewed internal discipline, Jesuits held southern Europe and began reconversion, Inquisition blocked Protestant spread in Italy. Limited: Germany, England, and Scandinavia remained Protestant; the Peace of Augsburg (1555) legally recognised this division.