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1440
The Effects of the Printing Press
The printing press was innovated with interchangeable parts in 1440 by Johannes Gutenberg to mass-produce religious texts such as the bible. With the printing press, copies of books were made much faster than handwriting books. More people had access to books such as the bible which aided education in the churches. -
1492
The Columbian Exchange and the Great Dying
During the Columbian exchange, people were able to exchange many things such as precious metals, foreign fruits, and animals. However, this also brought about diseases such as small pox and measles which quickly destroyed much of the human population. -
1519
Calvinism
Calvinism involved an argument about God and his view on the people. Basically good Calvinists were supposed to devote themselves to the study of scripture, temperate living, and hard work. -
1525
German Peasants' War
In 1524, there was a peasant uprising in Germany that was inspired by the changes brought about by the reformation. They even built armies. They were inspired by Lutheranism and demanded a reduction in feudal dues and duties. As well as the end of serfdom and justice from the feudal lords. -
1534
Acts of Supremacy and Succession
The English reformation took place in 1534 when the church of England broke away from the authority of the pope and the Roman Catholic Church. This was followed by the king issued the Acts of Supremacy and Succession. This gave Henry the excuse to seize the Catholic lands and wealth. -
1542
The Holy Office
Paul III created a branch of the church that would later be known as the Inquisition. The inquisitions main focus was to watch for signs of heresy like Protestantism and it gave them the rights to interrogate and torture people who were suspicious of heresy. He even said that the bible had to remain in Latin otherwise it would be a sign of heresy. -
1545
Catholic Reformation
The Catholic reformation was the change to counter force Protestantism. It was basically a reform of the Catholic Church that even Catholics recognized as corrupt and had many faults within the papacy. However, it was successful in helping the church shows that they had changed and were not corrupt like before. -
1555
The Peace of Augsburg
The Peace of Augsburg gave princes the right to determine the religion of the territory they took charge of. Many princes now given the opportunity of gaining more power, chose Lutheranism, causing an even larger threat to the Catholic Church. This made Lutheranism legal. -
1560
Effects of Religious Change
Though there was a lot of change in the church which some people found positive, there were many people in the Catholic church who thought the change of the new denominations was negative. This conflict led to wars between countries such as Spain, Catholics, versus France, Protestants. There was no winner to these fights, but it resulted in kings finding a new form of ruling, Absolutism. -
1562
The St Bartholomew's Day Massacre
The situation for Protestants in France, who were called Huguenots, was particularly harsh. The treaty ended the war and allowed new freedoms to the Protestant minority, which enraged the hard line Catholics within the royal court.
