The European Reformation

This is a survey and analysis of the European Reformation of the 16th century. During this period western Christianity underwent the most dramatic changes in its entire history. From Iceland to Transylvania, from the Baltic to the Pyrenees, the Reformation divided churches and communities into "catholic" and "protestant", and created varying regional and national traditions. The new Protestant creed rejected traditional measures of piety - vows, penances, pardons, and masses - in favour of sermons and catechisms, and an everyday morality of diligence, neighbourly charity, and prayer. In the process it involved many of Europe's people for the first time in a political movement inspired by an ideology and nourished by mass communication. Using the most recent research, the author provides a thematic and narrative synthesis of the events and ideas of the Reformation. He examines its social and religious background, its teachers and their message, and explores its impact on contemporary society.