Age of Reformation: every key term you need (+ practice quiz)
64 flashcard terms for AP European History Unit 2, written to match the course framework. Study them here, then drill them as interactive flashcards, or test yourself with the 25-question quiz — free, no account needed.
German monk and theology professor whose challenge to Church practices launched the Protestant Reformation. His core doctrines: salvation by faith alone (sola fide) and Scripture as the only religious authority (sola scriptura).
95 Theses (1517)
Luther's list of propositions challenging the sale of indulgences, posted (by tradition) on the Wittenberg church door. Printed copies spread across Germany within weeks, igniting the Reformation.
Indulgences
Church-issued certificates said to reduce punishment for sins in purgatory. Their aggressive sale — especially by Johann Tetzel to fund St. Peter's Basilica — provoked Luther's protest.
Johann Tetzel
Dominican friar whose crude marketing of indulgences ('As soon as a coin in the coffer rings, the soul from purgatory springs') outraged Luther and triggered the 95 Theses.
Sola Fide (Faith Alone)
Luther's central doctrine that salvation comes through faith in God's grace alone — not through good works, sacraments, or purchased indulgences. It undermined the Church's role as mediator of salvation.
Sola Scriptura (Scripture Alone)
The Protestant principle that the Bible is the sole authority in religious matters — rejecting papal decrees, Church tradition, and canon law as equal sources of truth.
Diet of Worms (1521)
The imperial assembly where Luther refused to recant his writings before Emperor Charles V ('Here I stand; I can do no other'). The Edict of Worms declared him an outlaw, but Frederick the Wise of Saxony protected him.
Priesthood of All Believers
Luther's teaching that all Christians have direct access to God without priestly mediation — flattening the spiritual hierarchy between clergy and laity.
Luther's German Bible
Luther translated the New Testament into German (1522), making Scripture accessible to ordinary people. It standardized the German language and embodied sola scriptura in practice.
German Peasants' War (1524–1525)
A massive peasant uprising inspired partly by Reformation ideas of Christian freedom. Luther condemned the rebels, siding with the princes who crushed the revolt — killing perhaps 100,000 peasants.
Charles V (r. 1519–1556)
Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain who ruled the largest European empire since Charlemagne. His efforts to suppress Protestantism failed due to wars with France and the Ottomans, and the empire's fragmentation.
Peace of Augsburg (1555)
Treaty ending religious war in Germany with the principle cuius regio, eius religio ('whose realm, his religion') — each prince chose Lutheranism or Catholicism for his territory. Calvinism was excluded.
Cuius Regio, Eius Religio
'Whose realm, his religion' — the Peace of Augsburg's principle that a territory's ruler determined its religion. Subjects who disagreed could emigrate. It legalized religious division in the Holy Roman Empire.
Ulrich Zwingli (1484–1531)
Swiss reformer in Zurich who went further than Luther — removing images, music, and most rituals from worship. He and Luther split over the Eucharist at the Marburg Colloquy (1529). Zwingli died in battle against Catholic cantons.
John Calvin (1509–1564)
French reformer whose Institutes of the Christian Religion systematized Protestant theology. From Geneva, his ideas spread across Europe — becoming the most internationally influential form of Protestantism.
Predestination
Calvin's doctrine that God has eternally chosen who will be saved (the elect) and who damned — salvation cannot be earned. Believers looked for signs of election in disciplined, godly living.
Geneva — Calvin's 'Godly City'
Under Calvin, Geneva became a model Protestant community governed by the Consistory, which enforced moral discipline. It attracted refugees and trained missionaries who spread Calvinism across Europe.
Huguenots
French Calvinists, who grew to perhaps 10% of France's population — including many nobles. Their conflict with the Catholic majority produced the French Wars of Religion (1562–1598).
Anabaptists
Radical reformers who rejected infant baptism, insisting on voluntary adult baptism. They advocated separation of church and state and pacifism. Persecuted by Catholics and Protestants alike; ancestors of Mennonites and Amish.
Henry VIII (r. 1509–1547)
English king who broke with Rome when the pope refused to annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon. Once honored as 'Defender of the Faith,' he made himself head of the Church of England.
Act of Supremacy (1534)
Parliamentary act declaring the English monarch 'Supreme Head of the Church of England' — severing England from papal authority. Thomas More was executed for refusing to accept it.
Dissolution of the Monasteries
Henry VIII's confiscation of monastic lands and wealth (1536–1541) — enriching the crown, rewarding loyal nobles and gentry, and giving England's elite a financial stake in the Reformation.
Elizabeth I (r. 1558–1603)
Henry VIII's daughter who stabilized England with the Elizabethan Settlement — a moderate Protestantism that retained bishops and ceremony. Her long reign made England a Protestant power.
Elizabethan Settlement
Elizabeth I's religious compromise: the Church of England was Protestant in doctrine (39 Articles) but kept traditional structure and ritual — a middle way (via media) designed to satisfy most subjects.
Counter-Reformation (Catholic Reformation)
The Catholic Church's response to Protestantism: internal reform, doctrinal clarification at the Council of Trent, new religious orders (Jesuits), and renewed enforcement (Inquisition, Index).
Council of Trent (1545–1563)
The Church council that defined Catholic doctrine against Protestantism — reaffirming the seven sacraments, the necessity of both faith and works, Church tradition alongside Scripture, and clerical reform (ending indulgence sales, requiring seminaries).
Jesuits (Society of Jesus)
Founded by Ignatius of Loyola (1540), the Jesuits became the Counter-Reformation's spearhead — elite educators, missionaries to Asia and the Americas, and confessors to Catholic monarchs.
Ignatius of Loyola (1491–1556)
Former Spanish soldier whose Spiritual Exercises trained disciplined spiritual devotion. He founded the Society of Jesus, organized with military-style obedience to the pope.
Roman Inquisition
A Church tribunal (established 1542) to combat heresy in Catholic lands. It tried Galileo (1633) and enforced doctrinal conformity, primarily in Italy.
Index of Forbidden Books
The Church's list of prohibited works (established 1559), including Protestant writings and later scientific and Enlightenment texts. It attempted — with limited success — to control the printed word.
Teresa of Ávila (1515–1582)
Spanish mystic and reformer who founded the Discalced Carmelites, revitalizing convent life. Her writings on prayer made her one of the Counter-Reformation's most influential figures — later the first woman named Doctor of the Church.
Baroque Art as Catholic Propaganda
The Council of Trent endorsed art that inspired emotional devotion. Baroque masters like Bernini and Caravaggio created dramatic, theatrical works that proclaimed Catholic glory against Protestant austerity.
French Wars of Religion (1562–1598)
Decades of civil war between Catholics and Huguenots, entangled with noble factionalism (Guise vs. Bourbon). They ended when Henry IV converted to Catholicism and issued the Edict of Nantes.
St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre (1572)
The slaughter of thousands of Huguenots in Paris and across France, beginning at a royal wedding. It radicalized the religious conflict and horrified Protestant Europe.
Henry IV of France (r. 1589–1610)
First Bourbon king, a former Huguenot who converted to Catholicism ('Paris is worth a Mass') to secure the throne, ending the Wars of Religion. A politique who prioritized state unity over religious purity.
Edict of Nantes (1598)
Henry IV's decree granting Huguenots religious toleration and fortified towns. It established limited religious coexistence — until Louis XIV revoked it in 1685.
Politiques
Rulers and statesmen (like Henry IV and Elizabeth I) who placed political stability above religious uniformity — believing that civil war was worse than tolerating religious difference.
Dutch Revolt (1566–1648)
The Netherlands' rebellion against Spanish rule, sparked by Philip II's taxation and persecution of Calvinists. The Protestant northern provinces became the independent Dutch Republic.
William of Orange (William the Silent)
Leader of the Dutch Revolt against Spain. He championed religious toleration and became the father of the Dutch Republic. Assassinated in 1584.
Philip II of Spain (r. 1556–1598)
Devoutly Catholic ruler of Spain's global empire. He fought Protestantism everywhere — the Dutch Revolt, the Spanish Armada against England — and defended the Mediterranean against the Ottomans (Lepanto, 1571).
Spanish Armada (1588)
Philip II's invasion fleet against Protestant England, defeated by English ships and Atlantic storms. Its failure preserved English Protestantism and marked Spain's naval decline.
Thirty Years' War (1618–1648)
The last and most destructive European religious war, beginning in Bohemia and drawing in most European powers. Germany lost perhaps a third of its population to war, famine, and plague.
Defenestration of Prague (1618)
Bohemian Protestants threw two Catholic imperial officials from a castle window, igniting the Thirty Years' War. The officials survived — landing, by Catholic account, on angels' wings; by Protestant account, on a dung heap.
Gustavus Adolphus
Swedish king and military innovator who intervened for the Protestant cause in the Thirty Years' War (1630), winning major victories before dying in battle at Lützen (1632).
Cardinal Richelieu's Intervention
Catholic France, guided by Richelieu, funded Protestant Sweden and later entered the Thirty Years' War against Catholic Habsburg Spain and Austria — proving the war had become political, not religious.
Peace of Westphalia (1648)
The treaty ending the Thirty Years' War. It recognized Calvinism, confirmed cuius regio eius religio, granted German states sovereignty, recognized Dutch independence — and established the modern state system based on sovereign equality.
Witch Craze (c. 1450–1750)
Waves of witchcraft trials that executed 40,000–60,000 people, roughly 80% of them women. Fueled by religious anxiety, social tension, misogyny, and manuals like the Malleus Maleficarum.
Malleus Maleficarum (1486)
'The Hammer of Witches' — an influential witch-hunting manual by two Dominican inquisitors that codified beliefs about witchcraft and shaped prosecutions for two centuries.
Reformation and Literacy
Protestantism's emphasis on reading Scripture drove literacy campaigns and vernacular education — for girls as well as boys in some regions. Print culture and Protestantism reinforced each other.
Reformation and Marriage
Protestants rejected clerical celibacy and monasticism, elevating marriage as the ideal Christian life. Luther himself married a former nun, Katharina von Bora. The pastor's household became a Protestant social model.
Reformation and Women
Effects were mixed: Protestant women gained biblical literacy and the dignity of the pastor's wife role, but lost convents — the one institution offering women community, education, and authority outside marriage.
Confiscation of Church Property
Protestant rulers seized monastic lands and Church wealth — a powerful material incentive for elites to support the Reformation, from Henry VIII's England to the German princes.
Pamphlet Wars
The Reformation was the first mass-media religious movement — cheap printed pamphlets, often with woodcut illustrations for the illiterate, spread Luther's ideas and anti-papal satire across Europe.
Weber Thesis
Sociologist Max Weber's argument (1905) that Calvinist values — discipline, hard work, reinvestment rather than luxury — fostered the 'spirit of capitalism.' Influential but much debated by historians.
Schmalkaldic League
An alliance of Lutheran princes formed (1531) to defend Protestantism against Charles V. Though defeated militarily, Protestant resilience forced the Peace of Augsburg.
Marburg Colloquy (1529)
The failed meeting between Luther and Zwingli to unify Protestantism. They agreed on most points but split irreconcilably over the Eucharist — revealing Protestantism's tendency to fragment.
Book of Common Prayer
The Church of England's liturgical book (first issued 1549 under Edward VI), giving English Protestantism a distinctive worship in the vernacular. Revised under Elizabeth as part of the Settlement.
Mary I ('Bloody Mary', r. 1553–1558)
Henry VIII's Catholic daughter who tried to restore Catholicism in England, burning nearly 300 Protestants. Her persecution backfired, associating Catholicism with cruelty in English memory.
Presbyterianism — John Knox
Calvinism in Scotland, established by John Knox. The Scottish Kirk was governed by elders (presbyters) rather than bishops — a church structure that would later clash with Stuart kings.
Religious Refugees
The Reformation era produced waves of refugees — Huguenots fleeing France, English Protestants fleeing Mary I, Anabaptists fleeing everyone. Refugee communities spread skills, capital, and religious ideas across borders.
Decline of Papal Authority
The Reformation permanently broke the pope's spiritual monopoly over Western Europe. Even in Catholic lands, monarchs gained greater control over national churches — religion increasingly served the state.
State Churches
The Reformation strengthened the link between religion and state power: Lutheran state churches in Germany and Scandinavia, the Church of England, and royal control of Catholic churches in France and Spain.
Erasmus vs. Luther
Erasmus wanted reform within the Church through education and satire; Luther broke with Rome entirely. Their 1524–25 debate over free will marked the split between Christian humanism and Protestant theology. 'Erasmus laid the egg that Luther hatched.'
Poor Relief Reform
Protestant cities replaced monastic charity with organized municipal poor relief — distinguishing the 'deserving' from 'undeserving' poor. Care of the needy shifted from Church to civic authorities.