Protestantism

General wave of religious dissent against Catholic church; generally held to have begun with Martin Luther's attack on Catholic beliefs in 1517; included many varieties of religious belief.

Martin Luther

German monk; initiated Protestant Reformation in 1517 by nailing 95 theses to door of Wittenberg church; emphasized primacy of faith over works stressed in Catholic church; accepted state control of Church.

John Calvin

French Protestant (16th century) who stressed doctrine of predestination; established center of his group at Swiss canton of Geneva; encouraged ideas of wider access to government, wider public education; Calvinism spread from Switzerland to northern Europe and North America.

Anglican church

Form of Protestantism set up in England after 1534; established by Henry VIII with himself as head at least in part to obtain a divorce from his first wife; became increasingly Protestant following Henry's death.

Catholic Reformation

Restatement of traditional Catholic beliefs in response to Protestant Reformation (16th century). During the mid-to-late 1500s (especially at the Council of Trent, which lasted from 1545 to 1563), the Catholic Church worked to eliminate the worst of its financially and spiritually corrupt practices.

• sponsored creation of impressive religious art and architecture (gave birth to Baroque movement)
• approved formation of Society of Jesus (Jesuits)

Society of Jesus, or Jesuits

• Formed during Catholic Reformation
• Called itself the "Church Militant"
• worked tirelessly as missionaries, educators, diplomats, and confessors to kings and queens to keep Catholic parts of Europe from slipping into the Protestant orbit
• played an active role in European political life well into the 1700s

Saint Ignatius of Loyola

Founder of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), the new religious order formed during the Catholic Counter-Reformation.

The Thirty Years' War