Protestantism: Did you mean...?

"The Holy Roman Empire was in no way holy, nor Roman, nor an empire," wrote Voltaire, and this interpretation still dominates the popular imagination, so the Holy Roman Empire is treated as a bad joke, a pale parody of the glory of Rome...

Henry of Navarre became the nominal ruler of France after the assassination of Henry III of France (r. 1574-1589), whose marriage to Louise de Lorraine produced no heir. After years of attempts to deny the throne to Navarre, his enemies realized...

Huldrych Zwingli (l. 1484-1531) died in the second of the Kappel Wars in 1531, a conflict between Catholic and Protestant forces. Afterwards, two accounts of his death emerged – one Catholic and one Protestant – differing in detail and notable...

On Faith and Works (1532) by Cardinal Thomas Cajetan (l. c. 1468-1534) is a refutation of the central arguments of Martin Luther (l. 1483-1546) concerning justification before God as faith-based, having nothing to do with one’s works. Cajetan...

Located in what is the present-day German province of Schleswig-Holstein, the Dithmarschen Republic (1227-1559) was a republic by commoners who developed quasi-democratic institutions, including their own written constitution. Fiercely independent...

The assassination attempt on Gaspard II de Coligny, Admiral of France (l. 1519-1572) on 22 August 1572 was the spark igniting the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre beginning on 24 August and continuing in Paris for the next five days and elsewhere...

At the dawn of the French Wars of Religion (1562-1598), Montpellier in southern France had a significant Protestant minority that controlled the city's institutions. The Edict of Nantes in 1598 ended the wars and Protestants retained territorial...

After the Reformation, the Roman Catholic Church began to reform some of its abuses. The Catholic Reformation, though, was not only a reaction to Protestantism, but also a flowering of Roman Catholic practice. Ignatius of Loyola and the Jesuits...

The Dutch Revolt (the Eighty Years' War) was the Dutch war of independence against Spain. For 80 years the Dutch waged war against the Spanish crown. How did the Dutch Revolt start? The Reformation early 1500s caused many people in the Low...

Katharine Cleland's study of clandestine marriage in Irregular Unions: Clandestine Marriage in Early Modern English Literature enhances readers' understanding of such marriage by showing its literary importance. As Cleland argues, the three...