Religious Wars and Catholic Reformation

Council of Trent (1545–1563)

During the 1500s, the Catholic Church was not content to let the leaders of the Protestant Reformation take away believers and diminish the power of the Church. In an effort to overhaul the faith, Church leaders led a Catholic Reformation, or Counter-Reformation. Much to the dismay of Protestants, however, the Church reaffirmed several of the principles that the Protestants questioned as part of their critique.

As a consequence of the Protestant and Catholic Reformations, bloody religious wars would break out between Catholics and Protestants, the largest being the Thirty Years' War.

Essential Question

• What were the major economic, political, and theological issues involved in the Reformation?