The age of religious wars, 1559-1689

Richard S. Dunn, DUNN RICHARD S.

"During the years covered in this volume, Europe experienced a tumultuous period of civil wars and rebellions. Although each upheaval had its distinct character, a common thread running through the age was strife between adherents of the Catholic and Protestant churches. From the day in 1517 that Martin Luther had posted his ninety-five theses, religion became embroiled in politics. But the period of greatest militancy on both sides--of crusaders and martyrs, of plots and assassinations, of mobs and armies--began some forty years after Luther ignited the fuse of religious controversy. There was more to this age than warfare. A new centralization of political and economic power arose within the states of Europe, fostered by the rise of absolutist political theory and the spread of the mercantilist doctrine. Among the great rulers of the age were Phillip II of Spain; Queen Elizabeth I...