Western Civilization I / Unit 15 WC1 1421 worked example, 60 to 90 seconds
Sequencing the Reformations, 1517 to 1563
The idea
The exam gives four Reformation events and asks their order, and the trap is that Lutheran, Calvinist, English and Catholic tracks overlap. The method is Luther's spine first: fifteen seventeen the Theses, fifteen twenty-one Worms, fifteen twenty-five the peasants' defeat, fifteen fifty-five Augsburg. Then hang the other tracks.
In practice
Hang seven events. Zwingli's death in fifteen thirty-one: between the peasants and Augsburg. Henry's Act of Supremacy in fifteen thirty-four: three years later. Calvin's arrival in Geneva in fifteen thirty-six: two years after that. The Jesuits founded in fifteen forty and the Inquisition reorganized in fifteen forty-two: the Catholic track begins. Trent opens in fifteen forty-five and closes in fifteen sixty-three, so Augsburg in fifteen fifty-five falls inside it. Elizabeth's accession in fifteen fifty-eight and the Index in fifteen fifty-nine: inside Trent too. Read: Theses, Worms, peasants, Zwingli, Supremacy, Geneva, Jesuits, Inquisition, Trent opens, Augsburg, Elizabeth, Index, Trent closes.
Where people slip
The Catholic Reformation started late, the anchor stresses, so a question placing Trent before Worms is wrong by a generation. And Augsburg settled Germany while Trent was still sitting; the two are not cause and effect.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
Builds on
- 14041517: Tetzel, Leo X, and the Ninety-Five Theses
- 1405From Leipzig to Worms: The Priesthood of All Believers
- 1408Speyer, Augsburg, 1555, and a Germany Halved
- 1410Calvin's Geneva: Predestination and the Elect
- 1412Henry VIII's Reformation: Catherine, Anne, and the Act of Supremacy
- 1417The Council of Trent, 1545 to 1563: What It Reaffirmed
Unlocks
- Nothing yet depends on this.
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