“alone before god”

“Alone Before God”

Religious Reform and Warfare, 1500-1648

“Alone Before God”

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The Big Picture

1515 17001600

Protestant Reformation

French Wars of Religion

Wars in the NetherlandsCatholic Reform

Baroque ArtWitchcraft Trials

Thirty Years’ War

The Clash of Dynasties

Land-Hungry MonarchsA Royal RivalryIn June 1520, two of the most powerful

monarchs in Europe met for a tournament and diplomatic discussion. Francis I of France wanted Henry VIII of England to become an ally against the powerful Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V (r. 1519-1556). Both tried to outdo each other with such ostentatious displays of wealth that the meeting became known as the “Field of Golden Cloth.” Henry was offended by Francis outspending him, so he ultimately allied England with Charles and the Holy Roman Empire.

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Henry VIII of England

r. 1509-1547

Francis I of France

r. 1515-1547


Land-Hungry MonarchsThe “Field of Golden Cloth”

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Land-Hungry MonarchsA Royal Rivalry– Charles V: This ruler, the grandson of

Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, inherited a multinational empire that included Habsburg lands in the Netherlands, Spain, Austria, and southern Italy.

– Turkish Expansion: During Charles’s reign, he fought the Ottomans frequently, as Suleiman I (r. 1520-1566) pushed against his eastern flank. In 1529, the Turks laid siege to Vienna, the city at he heart of Habsburg Austria, creating a panic in Europe. But their century of unchecked expansion was stopped at the city’s walls.

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Emperor Charles Vr. 1519-1556


Siege of Vienna from the Turkish Perspective

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The Changing Rules of Warfare– No More Knights: By the 1500s, infantry had completely replaced

knights as the prime weapon of warfare.

– Improved Guns: Unreliable guns and “hand cannons” of the Hundred Years’ War had been replaced by 1500 by long-barreled guns that began to resemble modern muskets. They were far more accurate and their matchlock firing mechanisms were much more dependable.

– Growing Armies: Sheer numbers often determined outcomes of battles, so bigger was indeed better. Around 1500, most armies had fewer than 50,000 men. Later, armies had as much almost 150,000 men, as was the case with Charles V’s army (although it was dispersed throughout his vast lands).

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The Changing Rules of Warfare– Conscription: Mercenaries were not enough to make up these big

armies, so monarchs turned to drafting able-bodied men in their kingdoms. Poorly paid mercenaries and draftees made for many discipline problems, so they were drilled constantly and strict rule were put in place; violators were punished very harshly.

– Expense: The new style of warfare was massively expensive. The new artillery cannon and the massive defensive walls around cities that could resist them cost huge amounts of money, as did the larger navies. For example, Charles V borrowed 5.4 million gold coins from rich merchants to pay his troops between 1520 and 1532, but still fell short.

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Habsburg Wars with the Ottoman Empire and France during Charles V’s Reign, 1520s-1550s

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Winners and Losers– Winners: Very rarely did monarchs win decisive victories in this new

style of warfare. Bankers who lent them money profited by charging high interest, while manufacturers of the new weapons (many in the Netherlands) profited immensely.

– Losers: Bigger armies meant more casualties. The use of gunpowder, artillery shells, and lead shot led to new types of injuries. Limbs crushed by artillery shells were common, leading to a huge rise in amputations. Many of the legless and armless soldiers became beggars in European cities.

– Hunger and Disease: Constant wars led to the ruin of crops and inflation in the price of basic foodstuffs. Hunger, and its counterpart, diseases like typhoid fever, typhus and smallpox, became common in the European countryside of the 1500s. 10


The Cripples by Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1568)

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Biography: Martin GuerrePeasant, Soldier, and Reluctant Family ManA peasant from a well-to-family from a village in Southern France, Martin

Guerre married a village woman, and after eight years, at last conceived a child with his wife. After arguing with his father one day in 1548, he disappeared. Records show that he fled to Spain and joined the Spanish army, fighting in Flanders and the Netherlands. He was shot in the leg and it needed to be amputated. Meanwhile, and impostor claiming to be Martin showed up in his village fourteen years after the real Martin had disappeared. The impostor, Arnaud du Tilh, lived for many years happily with Martin’s wife until he got into a fight with Martin’s uncle, in part due to the new Protestant ideas that had divided the village. The uncle accused Arnaud of impersonating Martin, and hundreds of villagers testified on both sides. During the trial, the real Martin showed up with a peg leg, and Arnaud was sentenced to death. An acclaimed French dramatic film was made of the case in 1982.

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The Habsburg-Valois Wars, 1521-1544– Rival Dynasties: The Habsburg, the imperial family of Austria, and the

Valois, the royal family of France, initiated an almost 25-year war over competing claims to lands in Italy. The Italian city-states could not field armies as big as the two great powers, and were devastated by the invaders.

– Weary Imperialists: Neither Charles nor Francis could win a decisive victory, so they negotiated a peace in 1544 by which Francis renounced his claims on Italy. The two Catholic powers agreed to unite to fight their supposed common enemies: the Lutherans and the Turks.

– Habsburgs Split: Charles abdicated his various thrones in 1555 and 1556, and retired to a palace in Spain. He gave his Austrian lands to his brother Ferdinand I (r. 1558-1564); the Low Countries, Spain, and Naples to his son, Philip II (r. 1556-1598). The two branches of the family were never united again. Charles died two years later, suffering from an enlarged jaw and gout. 13

A Tide of Religious Reform

A Tide of Religious Reform– The Best Path to Salvation? At the beginning of the 1500s, the

question of the role of the church in an individual’s path to salvation was being challenged, particularly whether or not it was necessary to remain obedient the pope to attain salvation.

– Seven Sacraments: The church claimed it offered the faithful a path to salvation through its hierarchy and through a system of seven sacraments, and that no salvation was available outside of the church.

– Devotio moderna: A new spiritual emphasis on personal connection to God, bolstered by Renaissance individualism, had arisen in the 1400s. Theologians like Thomas á Kempis (1380-1471) argued that personal piety and ethics were just as important for salvation as religious dogma. A movement outside of official church dogma called the Brethren of the Common Life, whose members tried to live simply like Christ.

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A Tide of Religious Reform“Prince of Humanists”: Desiderius Erasmus (1466-1536) applied techniques of humanist education to Christian thought. Believed to be the illegitimate son of a priest, he sought to become a priest himself, but found traditional religious training boring. He went to England and became friends with Thomas More. He studied Latin, Greek, and Hebrew so he could read the testaments of the bible in the original. He created a new translation of the New Testament that was more faithful to Original. He also criticized the church’s corruption, as in hisSatire, Julius Excluded from Heaven (1517), which depicts Pope Julius II

being denied entry to heaven since he was too worldly. Erasmus’s most famous work was The Praise of Folly (1511), which used a sharp with to promote greater spirituality in religion, and also made fun of himself and virtually everyone else, satirizing almost every aspect of day-to-day life.

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Luther’s Revolution– Martin Luther (1483-1546): Luther was the son of a successful mine owner, and his father expected him tobecome a lawyer so that he could look after the family business. He turned to religious life after being struck down by a lightning bolt, promising to become a monkif he recovered, which he did. He also became a priest and a doctor of religion. Yet he never felt that he was worthy of salvation. Tormented, he found relief in the bible whenhe came upon a passage that promised salvation to all that had faith, not just those who followed ritual. Christ’s sacrifice saved humans as long as they had faith in the Christian God, a concept called “justification by faith.”

16“The righteous shall live by their faith.” – Romans 1:17


Luther’s Revolution– Attack on Indulgences: Aflame with new ideas, Luther challenged church

doctrine on the granting of indulgences. Indulgences supposedly lessened a soul’s time in purgatory. Pope Leo X had issued a special indulgence to finance the new St. Peter’s Church in Rome, and the sale of them infuriated Luther, who thought it impossible for humans to sell off God’s good graces.

– Ninety-Five Theses: tradition says that Luther tacked his Ninety-Five Theses on to the door of the Wittenberg cathedral, but it is more likely that he just sent them to the bishop. His theses touched a nerve, however, and were translated into German and widely reprinted, in part due to the new network of printing presses. His message appealed to intellectuals across Europe: personal conscience was more important for salvation than institutional obedience.

– The Individual and God: Monastic life made no sense under Luther’s new system of belief, so he left the monastery and married. He believed each person needed to read the bible for himself, and not rely on priests to do the interpretation. 17


Protestant Religious Ideas– Protestant: This term embraces Lutheranism and other sects that

would break away from it later, coming from the “protests” of certain German princes at an assembly (called a “Diet”) in 1529 over a decision to favorable to the Roman church.

– Sacraments: All Protestant groups shared that the idea that it was unnecessary for an ordained priesthood to administer the sacraments, and that all believers were responsible for their own individual salvation, a “priesthood of believers.” Each person stands alone before God, as opposed to Catholic theology, in which no one does so. Protestants rejected pilgrimages to visit saints relics, rejected sacred images and even destroyed some, and rejected transubstantiation, the Catholic belief that the bread and wine of the Eucharist actually became the body and blood of Christ during mass.

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The Reformed Church Takes Root in Germany– Luther Defended: Luther was called before Charles V at the

Diet of Worms and refused to recant his position despite pressure from the emperor to do so. At another time, it is likely that Luther would have been tried and executed for heresy. But the delicate political situation in Germany and the protection of his prince, Frederick the Wise of Saxony, kept him out of trouble. Many German princes embraced Luther’s call to stop sending money to Rome for reasons of economy, benefitted by confiscating wealthy Catholic properties, and by using the religious issue to weaken the Holy Roman Emperor.

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The Reformed Church Takes Root in Germany– Peasant’s War: Peasants, overburdened by manorial dues, took up Luther’s

call for religious reform to improve their lot, demanding a reduction of manorial dues and more access to land, resorting to violence in 1524. Luther was not a social revolutionary and denounced the revolutionaries. The princes brutally crushed the rebellion, killing more than 100,000 peasants. Many princes appreciated Luther’s support at the time, and thus concluded that his movement aligned with their political needs. Charles V was in no position to suppress the new movement, as even his army contained many Lutherans. He tried to have Lutherans and Catholics reconcile in the 1540s, but these attempts failed.

– Peace of Augsburg: Charles V successor, Ferdinand I, met with the princes to negotiate a settlement to stop the religious turmoil. The Peace of Augsburg made Lutheranism a legitimate alternative to the Catholic church in Germany. It was decided that the ruler decided the religion of any principality, and those who disagreed could move to another state.

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Bringing Reform to the States in Switzerland– Swiss Reformation: Switzerland in the 1500s was a land of thirteen

loosely linked “cantons,” each having its own independent government. This separateness facilitated the acceptance of new religious ideas.

– Ulrich Zwingli (1484-1531): Living in the Canton of Zurich, this reformer had been influenced by the writings of Erasmus. In 1519, he became the priest of Zurich’s main church, and preached that Christian should practice only things written in scripture, which did not include veneration of saints, pilgrimages, purgatory, priestly celibacy, and most of the sacraments. In 1523, the city government approved Zwingli’s reforms, and Zurich became a Protestant city.

– Civil War: On 1529, civil war broke out between the Catholic and Protestant cantons, and Zingli died on the battlefield in 1531. Eventually the Swiss worked out a peace deal similar to the Augsburg treaty.

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Anabaptists: The Radical Reformers– Anabaptists: The most radical reformers were called

“Anabaptists” (meaning “Re-Baptizers”) by their opponents, and were comprised mostly of artisans and peasants. The believed that baptism should be reserved for adults, who could make a conscious choice.

– Church v. State: The Anabaptists believed in total separation of church and state, and some went as far as saying that the “saved” should not participate in politics.

– Radical Reformers: In 1534, a preacher named Melchior and his followers seized the city of Münster, burned all books but the bible, abolished private property, and established polygamy as they awaited the second coming of Christ. 22


Calvinism and the Growing Middle Class– John Calvin (1509-1564): The brilliant French scholar was

preparing to become a lawyer when he read Luther’s work, and it had a profound effect on him, turning him to the study of theology. After talking publicly about his ideas, he was forced to flee France and settle in the Swiss city of Geneva.

– Appeal to Rising Middle Class: Calvin approved of Luther’s ideas, but gave them his own emphasis. While Luther focused on individual salvation, Calvin focused on the majesty, power, and justice of God.

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Calvinism and the Growing Middle Class– Predestination: This concept that Calvin originated was the belief that

God preordained who would be saved or damned even before the individual was born. If God were just, according to Calvin, everyone would be damned since all humans are sinners. But God through his mercy plucked individuals out of the fire of damnation, making them members of the “elect.”

– Spread of Calvinism: Geneva became a hotbed of religious activity, and between 1555 and 1562, Calvin sent out 100 preachers to all corners of Europe, even where authorities were hostile. Groups in French cities converted to Calvinism, becoming known as Huguenots. John Knox (1514-1572), a Scottish man, met Calvin, and then took his message back to Scotland, making Calvinism the dominant Protestant sect there.

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Henry VIII and the English Church– An Unlikely Ally: Protestant sentiments were

growing in England in the 1520s, but Henry VIII (r. 1509-1547) seemed like an unlikely ally to religious reformers. He had even written an attack against Martin Luther in 1521 called Defense of the Seven Sacraments, for which the pope gave him a special title, “Defender of the Faith.”

– Seeking a Male Heir: Yet Henry’s need to secure a maleheir superseded his religious devotion. His wife, Catherine of Aragon, was pregnant six times, but had only one healthy child who survived: the future Queen Mary.

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Henry VIII and the English Church– Anne Boleyn: Henry had fallen in love with a beautiful and intelligent

young woman, Anne Boleyn, who refused hisadvances until she was certain that he would marry her, which at last came about in 1533.

– Henry’s Annulment: Henry’s top advisors,Thomas Cromwell and the Archbishop ofCanterbury, Thomas Cranmer, devised a planto obtain an annulment of Henry’s marriage toCatherine: have Parliament pass a law makingthe Archbishop of Canterbury the highest ecclesiastical authority in England, cutting off the authority of the pope. When this was done, Cranmer then granted Henry the annulment.Anne gave birth to a daughter soon thereafter, named Elizabeth. 26


Henry VIII and the English Church– Church of England: The pope excommunicated Henry and Cranmer

in 1534, and Parliament passed an “Act of Supremacy” that declared the king the supreme head of the Church of England, making the break with Rome complete. But Henry did not dismiss Catholic doctrine; for example, he still believed in transubstantiation, which Luther had dismissed. He did like Luther’s idea about the worthlessness of monastic life, and took the opportunity to confiscate church lands to enrich his coffers.

– Edward VI: Henry’s third wife, Jane Seymour, at last gave birth to a son, Edward, who was sickly but intelligent. Edward took the throne at Henry’s death in 1547, but only ruled for six years before dying. He and his regents did, however, make England officially a Protestant country.

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Mary and Elizabeth– “Bloody Mary”: Edward’s successor, Mary I (r. 1553-1558), the

daughter of Henry and Catherine, was a devout Catholic and wanted to roll back the Protestant reforms of her half-brother. She had 280 Protestants burned for “religious treason,” including Thomas Cranmer. She angered much of the public by marrying Philip II of Spain, but she did not have any heirs.

– Elizabeth I (r. 1558-1603): The throne then went to Anne Boleyn’s daughter, Elizabeth, who earned the name “Good Queen Bess.” A brilliant politician, she remain unmarried largely for political reasons. In matters of religion, she was a moderate Protestant who did not obsess over theology. She allowed different Protestants to worship together in the national church. 28


Mary and Elizabeth

29Mary I Elizabeth I


Europe Divided– Scotland’s Church: Scotsman John Knox had met Calvin in

Geneva and was deeply impressed by him. Calvinism brought to Scotland by John Knox took deep root. The Calvinists focused more on individual conscience than ecclesiastical authority, and the Scottish went even further with this idea. They organized their church not with bishops, but by vesting authority with local church elders. This type of organization came to be known as Presbyterianism.

– Europe Divided: Protestantism by its nature always seemed ready to split into many different sects, and it continued to do so. It wasn’t just Protestant and Catholic, but many different variations that took route all over Europe.

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Religions in Europe, ca. 160031

The Catholic Reformation

Catholic Reformation or Counter-Reformation?– Before Luther: Several predecessors of Luther worked to reform the

Church well before he wrote his Theses. Savonarola in Florence, for example, called for the reform of the papacy, as had Erasmus in his satires. Even popes themselves had called councils to try to address the worst abuses.

– Catholic Reformation vs. Counter-Reformation: Catholics call this movement of reform the Catholic Reformation, while Protestants call it the Counter-Reformation, seeing it as a response to the Protestant challenge. Yet many of the Catholic movements for reform had been ongoing since the time of Great Schism, the Conciliar movement, and the rule of active Renaissance popes. Yet the Habsburg-Valois Wars had slowed this movement because they preoccupied the popes and the two most powerful Catholic monarchs, the King of France and Holy Roman Emperor.

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The Stirring of Reform in Spain– Ferdinand and Isabella: The marriage of these two monarchs in 1469

helped to create a powerful and unified Spanish state, joining the kingdoms of Leon-Castile and Aragon. They immediately began centralizing the state and weakening the power of the nobility. They also obtained permission from the pope to create their own Inquisition, which focused on rooting out converted Jews and Muslims who supposedly still secretly practiced their former religions. The Spanish Inquisition in some ways were a precursor to modern secret police.

– Cardinal Ximénez: The most influential religious figure in Spain at this time was Cardinal Ximénez de Cisneros, who was an admirer of Erasmus and who brought Christian humanist values to Spain. He was also confessor to the queen, Bishop of Toldedo, and Grand Inquisitor of the Spanish Inquistion.

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The Society of Jesus– Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556): This soldier of a noble family served the

Spanish monarchy until a cannonball crushed both of his legs. While recuperating, he read stories of Christian saints and Thomas à Kempis’s Imitation of Christ, and then decided to become a soldier for God. He wrote a book called The Spiritual Exercises, which emphasized satisfying spiritual longing by remaining disciplined and totally obedient to the Catholic Church.

– Jesuits Established: In 1540, the pope acknowledged Ignatius’s new movement and allowed the establishment of a new monastic order, the Society of Jesus, also known as the Jesuits. The Jesuits emphasized Christian humanist education above all, and became highly effective “shock troops” against Protestantism. They could use logic and rhetoric to dismantle Protestant arguments. They also proved excellent missionaries, being sent to the New World and Far East to convert people to Catholicism.

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Baroque Art– Baroque Paintings: Several great painters like the Flemish Artists

Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) and El Greco (1547-1614) took up the subjects that supported the Catholic cause. El Greco, who was born on the island of Crete but worked in Spain, often created paintings that reflected and supported Catholic theology, like in the Burial of Count Orgaz (ca. 1586), which showed the “community of the dead” that supported a soul’s voyage in the afterlife. Catholics did not “stand alone before god” in judgment, as did Protestants.

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The Council of Trent, 1545-1563– Calling the Council: After the Habsburg-Valois Wars ended, Charles

V pressured the pope to convene a council to reform the worst abuses. It met periodically over the next eighteen years.

– Reforming Corruption: The council banned the sale of indulgences and the office of indulgence-seller.

– Affirming Doctrine: The Council determined that Catholics did not stand alone before God, like Luther claimed, and the community of faithful, both living and dead, played a role in salvation. Praying to saints and the Virgin Mary could help with salvation. the church also reaffirmed the existence of purgatory.

– Scripture and Tradition: Catholics argued that the body of practices and writing that had accrued over the last 1,000 years could help with salvation, and that the Bible alone was not the only source. 36


Catholics on the Offense– Spanish Inquisition: The Inquisition now went on

the offensive against Lutherans and Calvinists as well as secretly practicing Jews an Muslims, and also policed Catholic practice. In 1542, the Inquisition was reestablished in Rome, and in 1557, the papacy began to publish an Index of Forbidden Books to prevent Catholics from encountering anti-Catholic ideas (the list was abolished only in 1966).

– Philip II (r. 1556-1588): Charles V’s heir to Spain and the Netherlands had an unrivaled zeal for religion and empire. Philip faced two dire threats to the Catholic faith: the Turks in the Mediterranean, and the Protestants to the North.

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Catholics on the OffenseBattle of Lepanto: Philip assembled alarge navy with his own ships and those of Italian city-states like Venice to challenge the Turks’ naval supremacy. The navy had 208 galleons, sleek and fast ships armed with cannons. This fleetconfronted a slightly bigger Turkish fleet off the coast of Greece in 1571, and defeated it decisively, losing only ten ships compared to the Turks’ 200vessels lost. Tens of thousands of men died, and accounts told of the seabeing red with blood. But the victory raised the spirits of Catholicseverywhere.

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Europe Erupts Again: A Century of Religious Warfare, 1559-1648

French Wars of Religion, 1562-1598– Religious and Political Loyalty Challenged: Ever since Constantine

supported the Roman Church, the European assumption was that political and religious loyalty were virtually one in the same. The Reformation began to challenge this long-accepted idea. Furthermore, the wars between 1559 and 1648 were not only about religious practice, but about the state and what role it should play in relation to religion.

– Catholics vs. Huguenots: Calvinism had obtained a strong hold in villages and towns of southwest France by the 1550s. Despite being only 7 percent of the population, they were well organized and succeeded in recruiting almost 40 percent of France’s nobility. Two major noble families were on the opposite sides of the coming struggle: the Guises were Catholics, while the Bourbons were Huguenots (the French name for Catholics.)

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French Wars of Religion, 1562-1598– Catholic Kings: Francis I (r. 1515-1547), and his heir, Henry II (r.

1547-1559), were both kings who based their authority on their Catholic stance. Yet Henry’s death in 1559 due to a freak jousting accident undermined the Catholic foundation of French royal power.

– Catherine de’ Medici: Henry’s widow, Catherine de’ Medici, ruled as regent for her young son Charles IX, who became king in 1561. But she found her power destabilized by the struggle between the Catholic Guises and the Huguenot Bourbons, during which violence frequently broke out over a thirty-six-year period. The cycle began when the Duke of Guise massacred a Huguenot congregation in 1562.

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French Wars of Religion, 1562-1598– Saint Bartholomew’s Day Massacre: On August 23, 1572, a wedding

was to take place between Catherine’s daughter and the Bourbon leader of the Huguenots, Henry of Navarre. The Guise family persuaded the young king, Charles IX (r. 1560-1574) that the wedding was a plot against him. The king ordered his guard to slaughter the Protestant leadership ion Paris, which occurred on St. Bartholomew’s Day. Catholics went on a six-day rampage, killing Protestants in Paris and the provinces, and thousands were murdered. Henry Navarre, however, managed to escape.

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French Wars of Religion, 1562-1598– Continued Violence: When Charles IX died of tuberculosis in 1574, his

younger brother Henry III (r. 1574-1589) took the throne. His reign was characterized by religious violence, and he himself was assassinated without an heir in 1589.

– Peace in France: Henry of Navarre, the Huguenot prince who escaped the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre, was next in line for the throne. Realizing that the Catholic majority would never accept a Protestant King, he converted to Catholicsim, reportedly saying, “Paris is worth a mass.” Becoming Henry IV (r. 1589-1610), he issued the Edict of Nantes in 1598, which introduced religious tolerance. (The edict would be revoked later by King Louis XIV.)

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French Wars of Religion, 1562-1598

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Henry IV of Francer. 1589-1610(formerly Henry of Navarre)author of the Edict of Nantes (1598)


A “Council of Blood” in the Netherlands, 1566-1609– Dutch Revolt: Philip II of Spain wished to tighten his authority over the

Netherlands, so he restructured the Catholic Church to weaken the local nobility, billeted troops locally, and levied new taxes. In response, riots broke out, and the Dutch Protestants—still a small minority—began an informal revolt against the Spanish overlords in 1566.

– Philip Responds: Enraged, Philip sent the largest land army ever assembled to crush the Netherlands into submission. In 1572, official war broke out, igniting a forty-year armed struggle. A Spanish general known as the “Iron Duke of Alba” presided over what he called the “Council of Troubles,” but what Protestants called the “Council of Blood,” in which thousands of Protestants were slaughtered.

– Protestants Fight Back: Calvinists preachers gave citizens permission to kill the invaders. Some even opened the dikes to drown Spanish troops. They found a capable leader in William of Orange, who was assassinated but then served as a martyr to the Protestant cause. 44


Elizabeth, Henry, and the Spanish Armada– Elizabeth Refuses Philip: Henry VIII’s daughter, Mary (r. 1553-

1558) had married Philip II. But when she died, Philip proposed marriage to her successor and half-sister, Elizabeth I. But Protestant Elizabeth refused his attentions and even dared support the Protestant Dutch against him.

– Armada against England: Philip responded by throwing the full force of his navy against England, launching a huge fleet across the English Channel in 1588. Instead of a great victory like at Lepanto, the Armada was beaten badly. Well armed English ships did considerable damage, but then an onslaught of violent storms in the North Sea finished the job (the English called this the “Protestant Wind”).

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Elizabeth, Henry, and the Spanish Armada

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Defeat of the Spanish Armada,August 1588


Peace in the Netherlands– Dutch Resistance: Philip never succeeded in crushing the Dutch

revolt, beyond the deaths of both Philip and Elizabeth. In 1609, both sides drew up an agreement that gave the northern provinces considerable autonomy (the Dutch would not actually have full independence until the peace of Westphalia in 1648).

– Religious Separation: Protestants moved north into the Protestant Dutch Republic, while Catholics moved south into the Spanish Netherlands (which later became Belgium). Religious conflict was not over in Europe, however. Instead it moved East into the Holy Roman Empire.

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Europe Erupts Again: A Century of Religious Warfare

The Thirty Years’ War, 1618-1648– Temporary Peace: The Peace of Augsburg of 1555 only temporarily brought

peace to the Holy Roman Empire. As various Protestant sects spread across the various principalities, tensions built up until conflict once again erupted in 1618.

– War Breaks Out: When Ferdinand II (r. 1619-1637), a Catholic prince, took over Bohemia (now the modern Czech Republic), the Protestant nobles were angered. When representatives of Ferdinand met with a group of Protestant nobles, the nobles threw the prince’s men out of a third-story window of the royal castle in Prague, only surviving because they landed in a pile of manure (this was known as the “Defenestration of Prague” and was a Czech tradition: Hussites had thrown Catholic city council members out of window in 1419). This small act triggered a massive civil war in which Catholics and Protestants across the Holy Roman Empire faced off on the battlefield.

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The Thirty Years’ War, 1618-1648– Battle of the White Mountain: In 1620, Ferdinand won a stunning victory

over the Bohemian Protestants, in which his enemies were killed or exiled. It seemed as if the war was over, but the Protestants continued to fight.

– Wallenstein: A Bohemian nobleman and soldier of fortune named Albrecht von Wallenstein realized the emperor would need a new army to carry out the fight. He asked for permission to raise funds for the army wherever it was, forcing local princes to a war tax. Previously, losers of a conflict paid for war through sacking and looting. With Wallenstein’s innovation, potential winners and losers paid for the war. Wallenstein became very rich and seemed to be on his way to reclaiming the northern part of the empire from the Protestants. The emperor even issued an Edict of Restitution in 1629, ordering the return of Protestant lands to Catholic nobility.

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The Thirty Years’ War, 1618-1648– From Religion to Politics: By 1630, the tide of the war began to change

not for religious reasons, but for political ones. For example, the Catholic king of France chose to support the Protestants in order to weaken his rival, the Catholic Holy Roman Emperor.

– Swedish King Gustavus Adophus (r. 1611-1632): The Swedish intervened on behalf of the Protestants; the Swedish kind was appalled at the treatment of the Protestants. The Swedes tuned tide in favor of the Protestants since they brought innovative ideas about gunpowder weapons. They used cannons not just against fortifications, but turned them against infantry to devastating effect. In 1632, Gustavus won a decisive battle against Wallenstein, but was killed during the fight. The loss turned the emperor against Wallenstein, who was assassinated a few months later.

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The Thirty Years’ War, 1618-1648– Protestant Victories: Gustavus started a new phase of the war (from 1632

to 1648), during which the emperor lost all of his previous gains. By 1635, Ferdinand had to agree to suspend the Edict of Restitution and to grant amnesty to Protestant nobles. In return, they joined together to drive out the Swedes. However, the Catholic king of France, launched a war against the Holy Roman Empire in 1635, commencing a fourteen-year conflict that devastated the German lands as French and Swedish troops swept through.

– Devastation: By the 1640s, all of the original princes who had started the war were long dead and their heirs were exhausted. Contemporaries were stunned by the total devastation, with some historians claiming that Germany lost nearly a third of its population. Spain went bankrupted and never recovered its leading position in Europe. France and Sweden emerged as the leading powers.

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The Thirty

Years’ War,

1618-1648

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Peace at Westphalia– Political Results: The series of agreements that ended the war were

known collectively as the Peace of Westphalia. German princes had the freedom to choose the religion of their states, but the individual’s right to choose was still not recognized. However, Calvinism for the first time was recognized with Lutheranism and Catholicism as an accepted religious option. The Northwest—England, Holland, and the Scandinavian states—remained Protestant, while the south remained Catholic.

– Balance of Power: An idea imported from the Italian city-states influenced the framers of the peace. The idea that each actor should remain relatively equal in power and that no one actor should be dominant was how the Peace of Westphalia system operated. This idea would dominate European relations up through the twentieth century.

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Europe

in 1648

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Life After the Reformation

New Definitions of Courtship and Marriage– Marriage: The Protestant exclusion of marriage as a sacrament changed

the institution in unexpected ways. Luther himself had left monastic life and married his wife, Katherina, having five children. Luther wrote how that this relationship was part of God’s plan. Calvin also ridiculed the Roman Church’s idea celibacy. Couples began to expect mutual love between man and wife rather than just fulfilling a duty. In the late sixteenth century, the Catholic Church even reflected this change, using the word love in reference to relationships between husband and wife.

– Courtship: Arranged marriages continued, but during this period, each potential partner began to have the right to see if each was compatible with the other, and daughters had some say in vetoing a match.

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Forging a Link Between Education and Work– Valuing Literacy: The Reformation on both sides valued

literacy and education. Erasmus urged all to read the Bible, as did Luther. Luther encouraged the public funding of schools in Saxony. Higher literacy allowed for new types of work to become more common, and benefitted a rising middle class.

– Valuing Work: In the medieval social structure, those who worked were seen as the bottom of the social structure. But Protestants saw work differently. Luther wrote that work was a virtuous activity, and one sociologist wrote in the early twentieth century of the rise of a “Protestant work ethic.”

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• Anxiety and Spiritual Insecurity– Charitable Institutions: Protestantism forced a decline in

charitable institutions, with the idea that each individual was responsible for his or her own plight. Protestant states passed “poor laws” that forced the impoverished into workhouses and outlawed begging. These laws were never entirely enforceable, but did much to shape negative attitudes toward the poor.

– Decline of “Magic”: The Protestants abandoned beliefs in magic and miraculous cures, which the Catholic Church still embraced.

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Searching for Scapegoats: The Hunt for Witches– Fear of the Devil: Europeans had longed believed in magical charms and

spells that could effect the weather. Catholic priests had long offered prayers and countercharms to counteract the effects of those who cast spells with bad intentions. Yet in the 1500s, casters of spells—known as witches—became linked increasingly with the devil, holding ceremonies in his service. Many people were accused of working as the devil’s assistants. A monk even published a handbook for hunting witches, called the Malleus Maleficarum (the “Hammer of the Witches”).

– Persecutions: Both Catholics and Protestants hunted witches, with trials peaking in Europe between 1560 and 1640. roughly 100,000 people were executed, while 200,000 were put on trial. These trials perhaps reflect the tremendous anxiety over the social and political upheaval of the era.

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