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Essay On The Protestant Reformation

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The Protestant Reformation was the 16th-century religious, political, intellectual and cultural upheaval that splintered Catholic Europe, setting in place the structures and beliefs that would define the continent in the modern era. To begin, the Protestant Reformation began in reaction to the Catholic Church’s rather corrupt practices. Prior to the Reformation, the only major Christian denomination in Western Europe at the time was Catholicism, headed by the Pope in Rome. Through many acts of violence such as the formation of the Spanish Inquisition and the slaughter of the Cathars, amongst others, Europe’s Monarchs had wiped out and suppressed any form of religious competition. With the Catholic Church holding a tight stranglehold over Europe, Catholicism was the only option. This allowed …show more content…

This period of fighting saw massacres of Huguenots (French Protestants) by the Catholic monarchs of France, most prominently during the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre of 1572 (where almost 30,000 French Protestants were killed across France in targeted assassinations and mob beatings). Eventually the wars would culminate with the Edict of Nantes in 1598, a treaty issued and signed by King Henry IV of France, who had converted from Protestantism to Catholicism and called for general tolerance. England, too, experienced political upheaval. When King Edward VII died in 1553, Protestant ministers sought to prevent his Catholic sister Mary I from succeeding him, and so crowned his cousin, Lady Jane Grey. Nine days later, however, Mary and her supporters gained power and Jane was executed. Mary sought to re-establish Catholicism through the executions of many Protestants, giving her the infamous title of "Bloody Mary." In 1558 her Protestant sister Elizabeth would succeed her, and Protestantism and stability would return to

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