The Protestant Reformation (1517–1648)
The Protestant Reformation was a religious and political transformation that began in the early sixteenth century and permanently changed Christianity and European history. It is traditionally associated with Martin Luther’s publication of his Ninety-Five Theses in 1517, although the movement emerged from much older disputes over theology, church authority, political power, and religious practice. What began as a dispute within the Western Christian Church eventually produced permanent divisions in European Christianity. Large parts of northern and central Europe broke with the authority of the Roman Catholic Church, while Catholic institutions responded with their own reforms and renewed efforts to defend Catholic doctrine. ...