A portrait of Martin Luther in a black cap, painted by Lucas Cranach the Elder
Martin Luther (1483–1546), probably 1532
Marked Wittenberg

SubjectIn outline · lessons being written

The Reformation

In 1517 Martin Luther challenged the Catholic Church. Printing spread his ideas, and Western Christianity split into Catholic and Protestant churches, followed by more than a century of conflict.

Date
1517 to 1648IX · Oceans crossed
Place
Wittenberg · Worms · Geneva · TrentEurope
Laid out as
A revolutionHow things were before, the moment it turned, and how things were after.
Lessons
6 planned, none written yet

The lessons we plan

Titles may change as they are written

BeforeOne Western church, led by the pope in Rome.

  1. IIndulgences
  2. IILuther’s 95 theses
  3. IIIPrinting and pamphlets
  4. IVHenry VIII breaks with Rome
  5. VThe Catholic Reformation
  6. VIThe Thirty Years’ War

AfterCatholic and Protestant churches, and states that chose between them.

Still to come

The people and objects these lessons will cover

People

  • Martin Luther
  • Katharina von Bora
  • John Calvin
  • Henry VIII
  • Ignatius of Loyola

Objects

  • Luther’s German Bible
  • Pamphlet woodcuts

Where it sits

All of human history, era by era

Early human ancestryOur species and the Old Stone AgeFarming and the New Stone AgeFirst cities and the Bronze AgeThe Iron Age and growing statesThe classical worldAfter the empiresMedieval networks and empiresOceans crossedRevolutions and the first factoriesIndustry, empire and world warThe world since 1945

1517 to 1648. Each era is drawn the same width, so the earliest are squeezed: era II alone is over 300,000 years.

Nearby in time and place

This page is an outline. The summary above is a starting point; each lesson, when it is written, will give its sources, its pictures and where historians disagree. Spotted a mistake?