Schmalkaldic Wars Scandals and internal conflicts weakened the Protestants' position in Germany in the early 1540s. Philip the Magnanimous committed
bigamy by secretly marrying a
lady-in-waiting of his court although
his wife was still alive. Bucer, Luther, and Melanchthon had discretely sanctioned the bigamious marriage allegedly to prevent adultery. In 1542, Philip and John the Constant's successor,
John Frederick I () invaded the
Duchy of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel which brought disapproval from other princes. Disputes over lands renewed the old rivalry between the
Ernestine and Albertine branches of the
Wettin dynasty of Saxony. Taking advantage of the situation, Emperor Charles built a broad coalition of Catholic and Evangelical princes against Hesse and Electoral Saxony. The coalition included the Albertine duke
Maurice of Saxony (). During the ensuing
Schmalkaldic War, Charles and his allies won a decisive victory, and Maurice was rewarded with John Frederick's title of elector. The triumphant regulated religious issues with an imperial edict known as the
Augsburg Interim. The
Interim sanctioned clerical marriage and the communion in both kinds in Protestant territories, but denied further concessions. Maurice issued an alternative regulation called the
Leipzig Interim for Saxony which ordered the clergy to wear
surplices. Melanchthon supported the
Leipzig Interim, stating that such issues were "matters indifferent" but uncompromising Lutheran theologians such as
Nicolaus von Amsdorf (d. 1565) and
Matthias Flacius (d. 1575) rejected all concessions to imperial demands. Different views on justification and the Eucharist caused further heated debates between Melanchton's followers, known as
Philippists, and their opponents, called
Gnesio-Lutherans ('authentic Lutherans') in the 1550s. The
Augsburg Interim was only implemented in the southern German Protestant cities. This led to the expulsion of recalcitrant clerics, including Bucer from Strasbourg. Alarmed by Charles's triumph, Calvin and Bullinger agreed on a consensual Eucharistic formula, now known as ('Consensus of Zürich'), emphasising that Christ "makes us participants of himself" in the Lord's Supper, but also stating that God "uses the ministry of the sacraments" without infusing divine power into them. Luther had died in 1546 but his followers rejected the
Consensus. The rift between Evangelical and Reformed Protestants widened to the extent that Reformed refugees faced an unfriendly reception at Evangelical countries. In Bohemia, Hussite and Evangelical aristocrats and townspeople rose up against . Although Ferdinand crushed the revolt, he had to sanction religious plurality in Moravia as a reward for the Moravian Estates' loyalty during the Bohemian revolt. Distrusting Emperor Charles, Maurice brokered a coalition of Evangelical princes, and promised four prince-bishoprics to King
Henry II of France () for financial support. Maurice and his allies
invaded the Habsburgs' domains, forcing Charles to flee. Signed on 10 August 1552, the
Peace of Passau prescribed that the religious issues were to be discussed at the following Imperial Diet. The Diet was opened at Augsburg on 5 February 1555. Already exhausted, Charles appointed Ferdinand to represent him. Ferdinand's negotiations with the Evangelical princes ended with the
Peace of Augsburg on 25 September. The document reaffirmed the principle , but the Imperial Estates could only choose between Catholicism and the
Augsburg Confession. Evangelical imperial free cities had to tolerate the existence of Catholic communities within their walls, and prince-bishoprics
could not be secularised in case the bishop abandoned the Catholic faith. Charles, who did not sign the peace treaty, abdicated, ceding his imperial title to Ferdinand, and his vast empire to his son
Philip II of Spain ().
French Wars of Religion Many French Protestants did not risk to profess their faith in public. They were known as
Nicodemites after
Nicodemus, a
Pharisee who visited Jesus in secret. Calvin condemned this practice describing those who attended the Mass as soldiers "in the army of Antichrist". Under his influence, the French Protestants started to stay away from Catholic church services. They were called
Huguenots for uncertain reason. The poet
Clément Marot (d. 1544) provided them with popular stirring songs by translating forty-nine Psalms to French. promised to exterminate heresy in France in a
peace treaty with in 1544. Next year, Waldensians
were massacred in the
Luberon region. In 1547, established a special court for heresy cases, named ('the burning chamber'). The lawyer
Jean Crespin (d. 1572) completed a
catalogue of martyrs to commemorate the victims of the purges, and it gained immense popularity in the Protestant communities all over Europe. After around 1555, prominent French aristocrats converted to Protestantism, including Marguerite of Angoulême's daughter,
Jeanne d'Albret, (d. 1572), Jeanne's husband
Antoine de Bourbon (d. 1562), and
Gaspard II de Coligny (d. 1572),
admiral of France. Their patronage encouraged less distinguished Huguenots to express their faith in public. In 1559, delegates from seventy-two congregations attended the first synod of the
Reformed Church of France, representing about 1.5–2 million believers. The synod adopted the
Gallican Confession, a confessional document drafted by Calvin. Fully preoccupied with a
new war against Emperor Charles, did not take severe measures against the Huguenot nobility. After his sudden death after an accident, his eldest son
Francis II () ascended the throne. His wife, Mary, Queen of Scots was the niece of
Francis, Duke of Guise (d. 1563) and
Charles, Cardinal of Lorraine (d. 1574), two leaders of the most resolute Catholic faction of the nobility. The queen mother
Catherine de' Medici (d. 1589) distrusted them but the persecution of Huguenots intensified under their influence. When Francis died by an ear infection, Calvin considered his fate as divine deliverance. Francis was succeeded by his brother
Charles IX () under Catherine's regency. She
enacted the Huguenots' right to freely attend church services and hold public assemblies because she wanted to avoid a civil war along religious lines. 's medal commemorating the
St. Bartholomew's Day massacre in Paris with the inscription "VGONOTTORVM STRAGES 1572" ('Massacre of Huguenots, 1572') Uncompromising Catholics and Huguenots considered their confrontation inevitable. The first of the
French Wars of Religion—a series of armed conflicts between Catholics and Huguenots—began after Guise's retainers
massacred more than fifty Huguenots at
Vassy on 1 March 1562. As Antoine de Bourbon had returned to Catholicism, his brother
Louis I, Prince of Condé (d. 1569) assumed the leadership of a Huguenot revolt. They concluded a
treaty with England in September 1562. To achieve a reconciliation, Catherine de'Medici married off her daughter
Margaret of Valois (d. 1615) to the Protestant son of Jeanne d'Albret and Antoine de Bourbon,
Henry de Bourbon, King of Navarre (). Mutual mistrust between Catholics and Huguenots, and the Parisians' determination to cleanse their city of heresy led to the
St. Bartholomew's Day massacre after the wedding. On 24 August 1572, a fanatic mob slaughtered 2,000–3,000 Protestants in Paris, and by early October further 6,000–7,000 Huguenots fell victim to pogroms in other cities and towns. Many Huguenots returned to the Catholic Church or fled from France, and those who remained gathered in southern and southern-west France and continued the armed resistance. Known as "
Malcontents", moderate Catholics concluded that only concessions to the Huguenots could restore peace. died in May 1574 leaving an almost empty treasury to his brother
Henry III (). Henry adopted a moderate religious policy but the uncompromising Catholics established the
Catholic League in 1576. They entered into a
secret alliance with of Spain to prevent the spread of Protestantism. In 1589, the monk
Jacques Clément mortally wounded King Henry. He named Henry de Bourbon as his heir, but the League and many cities refused to obey to a Huguenot king. secured the support of moderate Catholics by converting to Catholicism. He defeated his French opponents and their Spanish allies, and put an end to the civil war early in 1598. He enacted many of the demands of the Huguenots, about fifteen per cent of the population, in the
Edict of Nantes. Among others, they were allowed to attend religious services in many places, and their right to hold public offices was confirmed.
Revolt in the Netherlands (1566) by
Frans Hogenberg More Protestants fell victim to persecution in the seventeen provinces of
Habsburg Netherlands than in any other country between 1523 and 1555. The ruthless persecution prevented the establishment of Evangelical congregations although Luther's ideas were widely discussed in
Flemish communities. Reformed theology spread among the
Walloons through individuals' correspondence with Calvin and the Genevan academy from the 1540s. Nicodemism was not unusual but uncompromising Protestants disturbed Catholic ceremonies. The preacher
Guido de Bres (d. 1567) established the first permanent Reformed congregations. He was a main contributor to the
Belgic Confession, a confessional document based on the
Gallican Confession, first published in
Walloon in 1561, and in Dutch in 1562. The
Confession sharply criticised the Anapabtists, and emphasized the importance of church discipline. In 1566, requested
governor Margaret of Parma (d. 1586) to moderate anti-heretic legislation. Although the petitioners were mocked as "
beggars", Margaret was open to a compromise. Protestant refugees returned from abroad, and religious enthusiasts stirred up public demonstrations. On the night of 20–21 August 1566, a Protestant mob sacked the
Antwerp Cathedral, introducing a
popular iconoclastic movement that spread all over the Netherlands. In 1567, Philip appointed
Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, 3rd Duke of Alba (d. 1582) to crush the riots. Alba arrived at the head of a 20,000-strong army, and introduced a reign of terror, leading to the execution of thousands of people. A prominent aristocrat
William the Silent,
Prince of Orange (d. 1584) assumed the leadership of the resistance. His "Sea Beggars"—a squadron of privateers—seized the provinces of
Holland and
Zeeland by 1572, although the Reformed communities were in the minority in most towns. government faced bankruptcy and his unpaid Spanish troops
sacked Antwerp in 1576. This led to a
general revolt against Spanish rule. The Catholic aristocrat
Philippe III de Croÿ,
Duke of Aarschot (d. 1595), made an alliance with William the Silent but rivalry between Catholics and Protestants did not abate. In 1581, the northern provinces united under William's leadership, and
renounced allegiance to Philip. In the south, Margaret of Parma's son
Alessandro Farnese crushed the revolts, forcing about 100,000 Protestants to seek refugee in the north. Developed from the union of seven northern provinces, the
Dutch Republic remained under the loose leadership of the
House of Orange. The Reformed pastors were eager to transform the whole society along their ideas. They failed because William preferred a more tolerant approach, and significant Protestant groups associated church discipline with Catholicism. As a consequence, Evangelical, Annabaptist and Catholic communities survived in the Dutch Republic. Heterodox theologies could also spread, such as the views of
Jacobus Arminius (d. 1609) who argued that an individual could resist divine grace. Although
Arminianism was rejected at the international
Synod of Dort in 1619, it continued to influence Protestant theologians.
Edict of Torda After King Louis's death at Mohács, two claimants
John Zápolya () and Ferdinand I of Habsburg () competed for the Hungarian throne. They were Catholic but neither of them risked to alienate potential supporters by anti-Protestant purges. The
Transylvanian Saxon leader
Markus Pemfflinger (d. 1537) promoted Evangelical preaching in the Saxon metropolis Hermanstadt (
Sibiu, Romania) from around 1530. Evangelical teaching spread among ethnic Hungarians, Slovaks, and Croats after Protestant aristocrats started to appoint Evangelical preachers to the churches under their
patronage in the 1530s. After Zápolya's death, the Ottomans
conquered central Hungary, his widow
Isabella Jagiellon (d. 1559) assumed the regency for their infant son
John Sigismund Zápolya () in
eastern Hungary under Ottoman suzerainty, and Ferdinand ruled
Royal Hungary in the north and west. Often in need of funds, Ferdinand seized church revenues, while Isabella and her treasurer the Catholic bishop
George Martinuzzi (d. 1551) secularised the estates of the
Transylvanian bishopric. The Transylvanian Saxons adopted the
Augsburg Confession in 1544; five years later,
five free royal boroughs accepted an Evangelical confession in Royal Hungary. Two former Catholic priests
Mátyás Dévai Bíró (d. 1547) and
Mihály Sztárai (d. 1575) were among the first Hungarian pastors to teach Zwinglian Eucharistic theology. "
Sacramentarianism" (the denial of Christ's presence in the Eucharist) and rebaptism were outlawed by the
Diet in Royal Hungary in 1548. John Sigismund was open to religious innovations. Under the influence of his court chaplain
Ferenc Dávid (d. 1579), he adhered to Reformed theology from 1562, and accepted antitrinitarian views during the last years of his life. The
Edict of Torda legalised three Protestant denominations—Evangelical, Reformed and
Unitarian—in eastern Hungary in 1568. Eastern Hungary transformed into the autonomous
Principality of Transylvania under Ottoman suzerainty
in 1570. The coexistence of four officially recognised churches—Catholicism and the three legalised Protestant denominations—remained a lasting feature of religious politics in Transylvania. The most radical antitrinitarians rejected the New Testament and held Saturday (or
Sabbath) as weekly holiday; hence they were called
Sabbatarians.
Warsaw Confederation As the Bohemian Brethren were famed for their diligence, many
Polish aristocrats eagerly settled them on their estates. Ethnic Poles became receptive to Protestant ideas, especially to Calvin's theology from the 1540s. The
Jan Tarnowski (d. 1561) entered into correspondence with Calvin in 1540; in 1542,
Jan Łaski (d. 1560) converted although
his uncle (and namesake) had been the
Primate of Poland. In 1548, Sigismund the Old's tolerant son
Sigismund II Augustus () ascended the throne. Two years later, the first synod of the
Polish Reformed Church assembled at
Pińczów. Proposals for the introduction of vernacular liturgy and communion in both kinds, and the abolition of clerical celibacy were forwarded by Sigismund Augustus to the Holy See but
Pope Paul IV () rejected them. The Catholic prelates tried to put Protestant nobles and married priests on trial for heresy but the legislative assembly, or
Sejm suspended such persecutions on the initiative of the Protestant
Marshal of the Sejm Rafał Leszczyński and Tarnowski in 1552. In 1556, Łaski organised a synod in the hope of reuniting all non-Lutheran Protestants but failed. At the meeting,
Piotr of Goniądz (d. 1573) openly attacked infant baptism and the doctrine of Trinity. The antitrinitarian
Polish Brethren established their own church, known as Minor Church in contrast with the Reformed Major Church. From 1565, Polish nobles could no more be persecuted on religious grounds which allowed them to freely choose between competing theologies. By this time, around one-fifth of the nobility had converted to the Reformed faith, and most secular members of the
Senate were Protestant. Relationship between Poland and Lithuania was redefined by the 1569
Union of Lublin which created the
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. After Sigismund Augustus died, the Sejm passed the
Warsaw Confederation prescribing that only candidates who promised to protect religious freedom could be elected king.
Regional conflicts The continuous expansion of Protestantism stopped in Germany after the Peace of Augsburg. The
Bavarian duke
Albert V () took the lead of recatholicisation. He overcame the opposition of Evangelical nobles, and exiled all clerics who refused to take the Tridentine oath. With Albert's support, the Jesuits opened a college in
Ingolstadt that accepted Evangelical and Hussite students. eldest son and successor,
Maximilian II () pursued a tolerant religious policy but his brothers,
Ferdinand II of the Tyrol () and
Charles II of Inner Austria () were determined to subdue their Protestant subjects. After the predominantly Evangelical Estates of Inner Austria who controlled taxation extracted concessions from , he promoted Catholicism by appointing Catholics to state offices even if he needed to hire Bavarian and Tyrolian nobles. Interreligious conflicts led to wars in many regions of Central Europe. The
Cologne War broke out after
Gebhard Truchsess von Waldburg, Archbishop-elector of Cologne (), abandoned Catholicism and married his Protestant lover
Agnes von Mansfeld-Eisleben (d. 1637) in 1582. The war ended with the victory of his Catholic opponent
Ernest (), a younger son of . The
Strasbourg Bishops' War began when both the Catholic and Protestant canons of the
Strasbourg Cathedral elected their own candidate to the
see of Strasbourg in 1592. At the end, the Protestant candidate
Johann Georg von Brandenburg (d. 1624) renounced in favor of his opponent
Charles of Lorraine (). son and successor
Ferdinand II () set up "reformation commissions"—a group of clerics and state officials led by a senior clergyman—to visit the Inner Austrian parishes between 1598 and 1601. The commissioners seized and destroyed Evangelical churches, burned Protestant books and expelled Evangelical priests, often with the support of the local (mainly
Slovenian) peasantry. His cousin
Emperor Rudolf II () introduced anti-Protestant measures in Royal Hungary and Transylvania,
provoking a rebellion. The Ottomans supported the rebels whose leader, the Reformed aristocrat
Stephen Bocskai was proclaimed prince of Transylvania (). Rudolph appointed his brother
Matthias to conduct negotiations with Bocskai, and the
peace treaty sanctioned the freedom of the Evangelical and Reformed churches in Royal Hungary in 1606. Rudolph was forced to cede Hungary, Austria and Moravia to Matthias in 1608, and to
confirm religious freedom in Bohemia in 1609. == Reformation outside Germany ==