-
Period: 1525 to 1542
peasant revolt
peasants led by Thomas Muntzer took Luther’s idea and applied them to society, rising up against the feudal order. Luther condemned them and encouraged the German princes to use force to put down the revolt - around 100,000 soldiers and peasants died over about a year. As part of the Catholic Counter-Reformation (the Catholic Church made peaceful attempts to keep people in the church, such as reforms in the Council of Trent, but they also increased their persecution of heretics) -
Period: 1553 to 1555
Bloody Mary
in England - Mary was a devout catholic whose mother had been rejected by Henry when he established the Anglican Church. His son, Edward, made the English church clearly Protestant but when Mary inherited the throne in 1553 she wanted to return England to Catholicism and carried out bloody purges of Protestants. Around 300 were burned during her 5-year reign and many fled to Europe. She was succeeded by her sister, Elizabeth. -
Period: 1572 to 1573
The St Bartholomew's Day Massacre
this was supposed to be a celebration of peace between French Catholics and the growing Protestant Huguenot movement, as France celebrated the marriage of the King’s Catholic sister to a Protestant nobleman and claimant to the throne (Henry of Navarre). Instead, the royal family ordered assassinations of leading Protestant nobles who had assembled in Paris for the wedding and Catholic mobs took this as approval to start beating to death any Protestants they could find - more than 5000 died.