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THE MAKING OF EUROPE / EARLY EUROPEAN HISTORY

From Hutton Webster's, Early European History (1917); edited for this on-line publication, by ELLOPOS

XXIV. THE REFORMATION AND THE RELIGIOUS WARS, 1517-1648 A.D.

Em. Macron, Rediscovering the Path to Europe

» Contents of this Chapter

Decline of the Papacy   * Heresies and Heretics   * Martin Luther and the Beginning of the Reformation in Germany, 1517-1522 A.D.   * Charles V and the Spread of the German Reformation, 1519-1556 A.D.   * The Reformation in Switzerland: Zwingli and Calvin   * The English Reformation, 1533-1558 A.D.   * The Protestant Sects   * The Catholic Counter Reformation   * Spain under Philip II, 1556-1598 A.D.   * Revolt of the Netherlands   * England under Elizabeth, 1558-1603 A.D.   * The Huguenot Wars in France   * The Thirty Years' War, 1618-1648 A.D.

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THE "GREAT SCHISM," 1378-1417 A.D.

Following the "Babylonian Captivity" came the "Great Schism." Shortly after the return of the papal court to Rome, an Italian was elected pope as Urban VI. The cardinals in the French interest refused to accept him, declared his election void, and named Clement VII as pope. Clement withdrew to Avignon, while Urban remained in Rome. Western Christendom could not decide which one to obey. Some countries declared for Urban, while other countries accepted Clement. The spectacle of two rival popes, each holding himself out as the only true successor of St. Peter, continued for about forty years and injured the Papacy more than anything else that had happened to it.

COUNCIL OF CONSTANCE, 1414-1418 A.D.

The schism in western Christendom was finally healed at the Council of Constance. There were three "phantom popes" at this time, but they were all deposed in favor of a new pontiff, Martin V. The Catholic world now had a single head, but it was not easy to revive the old, unquestioning loyalty to him as God's vicar on earth.

 

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THE MAKING OF EUROPE / EARLY EUROPEAN HISTORY: Table of Contents

url: www.ellopos.net/politics/european-history/default.asp

IN PRINT

Cf. The Ancient Greece * The Ancient Rome
Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium) * Western Medieval Europe * Renaissance in Italy