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Biblical studies professor Martin Luther finds out that another religious leader has supposedly told followers that buying an indulgence, or making payments to the Roman Catholic Church, was a way to obtain forgiveness of a person’s sins. Luther writes the Ninety-five Theses. This document criticizes the selling of indulgences. Protestants consider publication of the theses to be the beginning of the Reformation.
1521
Luther's bonfireMartin Luther burning the papal bull that condemned his various writings, 1520.
Huldrych ZwingliHuldrych Zwingli, detail of an oil portrait by Hans Asper, c. 1531; in the Kunstmuseum Winterthur, Switzerland.
Courtesy of the Kunstmuseum Winterthur, Switz.; photograph, Schweizerisches Institut für KunstwissenschaftThe Reformation spreads to Switzerland. Former priest Huldrych Zwingli is its leader there. Zwingli opposes religious fasting and believes priests should be allowed to marry. He and Luther agree on some but not all theological matters.
1525
Luther publicly disagrees with other religious reformers on issues of theology. The reform movement splinters. Reformers called Anabaptists emerge. They believe in pacifism, adult baptism, and separation of church and state. Quakers, Baptists, Mennonites, and Hutterites all have their origins in the Anabaptist movement.
1531
Laurentius Petri becomes a Protestant archbishop in Sweden. He is one of the leaders of the Reformation in that country. Eventually, most of Sweden converts to Lutheranism.
In Switzerland French lawyer John Calvin publishes Institutes of the Christian Religion. It becomes one of the most important documents of the Reformation.
1541
Petri and others publish the first Swedish translation of the Bible.
1545
St. Ignatius of LoyolaSt. Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuit order, was a leader of the Roman Catholic Counter-Reformation. The engraving of 1621 by Lucas Vorsterman is after a painting by Peter Paul Rubens.
Courtesy of the Rijksmuseum, AmsterdamThe pope organizes the Council of Trent. This group passes reforms of the Roman Catholic Church. The council is part of the Counter-Reformation, an attempt to improve and renew the church. As a result priests receive more education and better training. Eventually, most of France and Poland and parts of Germany change from Protestant back to Roman Catholic.
Italian reformer Faustus Socinus moves to Poland and establishes what will become the Unitarian movement.
1618
The Thirty Years’ War begins, partly for religious reasons. Much of Europe becomes involved in the struggle between Roman Catholic, Calvinist, and Lutheran powers. The war eventually costs about eight million lives and redraws the map of Europe.
