The information on this page came from The Pocket Bible Handbook by Henry H. Haley.
Prior to the Reformation: Intermingled in these persecutions were politics, real estate and rivalries between nations. The Church owned from 1/3rd to 1/5th of the land in European countries.
Albigenses or Cathari: Located in S. France, N. Spain and N. Italy. A large religious body, the Albigenses preached against the immoralities of the Catholic priesthood and certain doctrines. In 1208 Pope Innocent III ordered a crusade against the Albigenses. The Inquisition was established in 1229 and in 100 years the Albigenses was exterminated.
Waldenses: S. France and N. Italy. Also persecuted by the Catholic Church during the Inquisition.
John Wyclif (1324-1384), England. He was a critic of the Catholic Church and the advocate of the people�s right to read the Bible. Wyclif translated the Bible into English.
Lollards: Followers of John Wyclif.
John Huss: Put the Scriptures ahead of the doctrines of the Catholic Church. He was burned alive at the stake and his followers in Bohemia were persecuted.
Anabaptists: Numerous and persecuted in Germany, Holland and Switzerland and Netherlands.
Spanish Inquisition:
Torquemada (1420-1498) was a Spanish Dominican monk and arch-inquisitor who persecuted Europe for 18 years. Burned to death 10,200 and gave life imprisonment to 97,000. The immolations were usually conducted in public-square at religious festivals. From 1481 to 1808 there were at least 100,000 martyrs and 1,500,000 banished. The Inquisition nearly destroyed Spain in the 16th and 17th centuries.
When the European version of the printing press was invented (1450) the Church condemned it as the tool of the devil.
Martin Luther (1483-1546):
At first a devout monk, Luther saw through the burdensome and physically painful rituals of the Catholic Church in 1508. Became a teacher in the University of Wittenberg, still a Catholic. Rejected the Catholic practice of Indulgences, which was granted by the pope and meant that the person would experience less suffering or no suffering at all in Purgatory (a place that doesn�t even exist). Indulgences were a remission of the punishment for sin and were either a reward for pleasing the pope (like joining the Crusades or killing heretics) or were purchased, making much money for the Catholic Church. This practice began in the year 817. In 1476 this was widened to souls already in Purgatory, family members freeing them with the purchase of a certificate: �as soon as your coin clinks in the chest the souls of your friends will rise out of Purgatory into Heaven.�
10-31-1517: Luther posted on the church door in Wittenberg his 95 theses, mostly about Indulgences, asking for a discussion on the matter. Copies were sent throughout Europe.
12-10-1520: A papal Bull was sent to Luther. He found out that he was ex-communicated and threatened with the death penalty. Luther burned the Bull in public.
1521: Luther appeared before the Diet of Worms, representative of the Holy Roman Empire and the Church. Ordered to retract his beliefs. When Luther refused he was condemned. After hiding for a year he translated the Bible into German.
In 1529 during the Diet of Spires, the Roman Catholic majority ruled that Catholics could teach in Lutheran States, but Lutherans could preach in theirs. The Lutheran princes made formal protest and were called �Protestants�.
1540: All North Germany had become Lutheran. Ordered to return to Rome, the various states and the princes that ruled them united to form the Smalcald League. Pope Paul III urged Emperor Charles V to war and gave him an army. War lasted from 1546 to 1555 and led to the Peace of Augsburg and the recognition of the Lutheran religion.
There were other reformists throughout Europe:
Zwingli 1484-1531 (Switzerland)
John Calvin 1509-1564 (France and Geneva)
William of Orange (Netherlands): After massacres and torture of more than 100,000 Protestants, William lead a revolt in 1572 and won independence for Holland in 1609.
Scandinavia (Denmark, Sweden, Norway): Gustav Adolphus King of Sweden, early 17th century, defeated Rome�s effort to crush Protestant Germany.
Huguenots: French Protestants numbering about 400,000 by the mid 16th century. In 1557 Pope Pius called for their extermination and the Jesuits began hunting them down.
8-24-1572: Catherine de Medici, mother of the king of France, ordered the massacre of Huguenots. 70,000 were murdered in what was known as the St. Bartholomew�s Massacre. The Huguenots then formed a resistance.
1598: The Edict of Nantes granted the Huguenots freedom of worship after 200,000 Huguenots were murdered. Pope Clement VIII despised the Edict. It was revoked in 1685 and 500,000 Huguenots fled to Protestant countries.
Brutal massacres of Protestants led by the Hapsburgs and Jesuits also took place in Bohemia, Austria, Hungary, Poland and Italy.
Spanish Armada:
1588 Pope Gregory XIII got Philip II (Emperor and king of Spain) to war against Protestant England. Pope Sixtus V made it a crusade and offered indulgences. England won the battle at sea against the Spanish Armada and this defeat of Romanism kept England, Scotland, Holland, North Germany, Denmark, Sweden and Norway free from the Catholic Church. England had for many centuries contested the Papal authority. Henry VIII (1509-1507) like many other English kings felt that the English Church should be independent of the Pope and that the English kings should be the head of the church. In 1534 the Church of England repudiated papal authority. The Archbishop of Canterbury was the spiritual leader and Henry was titled �Supreme Head� and presided over political matters. Monasteries and many Roman traditions were ended and Bibles and prayer books written in English were put in the churches. Queen Mary (1553-1558) attempted to restore Romanism. There were many martyrs, but Queen Elizabeth (1558-1603), re-established Protestantism and freedom.
John Knox (1515-1572) Scotland:
Knox was the leader of the Reformation in Scotland. 1547: Captured by the French army and was a galley slave for 19 months in France. 1559 Knox became the leader of the Scottish National Reform Movement. Mary Queen of Scots married Francis II, king of France and son of Catherine de Medici. There was a plot by Pope Pius V and others to assassinate Queen Elizabeth and put Mary on the throne of England. John Knox, aided by England, removed the French and Romanism out of Scotland by 1567.
The Counter-Reformation:
In 50 years time the Protestants had flourished in Germany, Switzerland, Netherlands, Scandinavia, England, Scotland, Bohemia, Austria, Hungary and Poland and also made ground in France. The Catholic Church then organized the Counter-Reformation. After some house cleaning, they were prepared to attack the Protestants by the end of the 16th century. The Jesuits, kings and Emperors of the Holy Roman Empire reclaimed South Germany, Bohemia, Austria, Hungary, Poland and Belgium. Catherine de Medici and her king sons eliminated the Huguenots in France.
