Fought after the Protestant Reformation began in 1517, the wars disrupted the religious and political order in the Catholic countries of Europe. By the end of the Thirty Years’ War (1618–1648), Catholic France was allied with the Protestant forces against the Catholic Habsburg Monarchy.

Age of Absolutism

Religious practice was outlawed and replaced with the cult of the Supreme Being, a deist state religion. The program of dechristianization waged against the Christian people of France increased in intensity with the enactment of the Law of 17 September 1793, also known as the Law of Suspects.

By the conclusion of the conflict in 1598, the Protestant Henry of Navarre, heir to the French throne, had converted to Catholicism and been crowned Henry IV of France. In that year, he issued the Edict of Nantes, which granted Huguenots substantial rights and freedoms.

For a German prince, there were three big reasons to break from Rome: First, by opposing the pope, princes could rule without meddling bishops (who were above secular laws). Second, princes could hold onto tithes formerly sent to Rome — a huge drain on their economies.

The major causes of the protestant reformation include that of political, economic, social, and religious background. The religious causes involve problems with church authority and a monks views driven by his anger towards the church.

On January 5, 1531, Pope Clement VII sends a letter to King Henry VIII of England forbidding him to remarry under penalty of excommunication. Henry, who was looking for a way out of his marriage to his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, ignored the pope’s warning.

It was the year 1517 when the German monk Martin Luther pinned his 95 Theses to the door of his Catholic church, denouncing the Catholic sale of indulgences — pardons for sins — and questioning papal authority. That led to his excommunication and the start of the Protestant Reformation.

Martin Luther was a German monk who forever changed Christianity when he nailed his ’95 Theses’ to a church door in 1517, sparking the Protestant Reformation.

Martin Luther posts 95 theses In his theses, Luther condemned the excesses and corruption of the Roman Catholic Church, especially the papal practice of asking payment—called “indulgences”—for the forgiveness of sins.

His “95 Theses,” which propounded two central beliefs—that the Bible is the central religious authority and that humans may reach salvation only by their faith and not by their deeds—was to spark the Protestant Reformation.

He makes three main points in his 95 theses….Here they are, in his own words:

• Selling indulgences to finance the building of St. Peter’s is wrong.
• The pope has no power over Purgatory. “Papal indulgences do not remove guilt.
• Buying indulgences gives people a false sense of security and endangers their salvation.

On 31 October 1517, he published his ’95 Theses’, attacking papal abuses and the sale of indulgences. Luther had come to believe that Christians are saved through faith and not through their own efforts. This turned him against many of the major teachings of the Catholic Church.

No. The original Ninety Five Theses that Martin Luther was said to have pinned on the door of All Saints’ Church in Wittenberg is lost. But, Martin Luther had his theses printed and distributed around. 3 of these prints remained.

Luther had a problem with the fact the Catholic Church of his day was essentially selling indulgences — indeed, according to Professor MacCulloch, they helped pay for the rebuilding of Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome. Later, Luther appears to have dropped his belief in Purgatory altogether.

Luther’s works were to be burned in public, and all Christians who owned, read, or published them faced automatic excommunication as well. Luther now had reason to fear for his life: the punishment for heresy was burning at the stake.

Luther was ordained to the priesthood in 1507. He came to reject several teachings and practices of the Roman Catholic Church; in particular, he disputed the view on indulgences.

Joan of Arc, who was condemned and burned in 1431 in Rouen, France. In 1555 the Protestant bishops Hugh Latimer, Nicholas Ridley, and John Hooper were condemned as heretics and burned at the stake in Oxford, England. Burning at the stake was a traditional form of execution for women found guilty of witchcraft.