The Reformation in Europe

At the start of the 16th century many people in Western Europe were dissatisfied with the Catholic Church: services were in Latin, which ordinary people did not understand, church taxes were heavy and the clergy’s wealth was great. Indulgences — church letters granting release from punishment for sins — being sold for money drew special objection. In 1517 Martin Luther, a professor at Wittenberg University, published his “95 Theses” against indulgences; they were soon translated into German and spread across Germany. In 1521 at the Diet of Worms Luther refused to recant; his followers were called Lutherans. The Great Peasants’ War of 1524–1525 (one of its leaders was Thomas Müntzer) ended in defeat; from 1529 the Lutherans began to be called “Protestants” (those who protested). In Geneva John Calvin founded his teaching (Calvinism), which praised hard work and thrift and so appealed to entrepreneurs. In 1540 the Catholic Church formed the Jesuit order, founded by Ignatius Loyola, and fought the Reformation through the Inquisition and a list of banned books (the Counter-Reformation). As a result Western Europe split into Catholic and Protestant parts, and national churches and secular power grew stronger.