1.

The German Peasant’s War (1525)

Martin Luther’s search for a purer form of Christianity could appeal to
different groups for different reasons. His doctrine of the priesthood of
all believers, stressing the spiritual equality of all men in the eyes of
God, was particularly powerful for those at the bottom of the hierarchy.

The attempts by peasants in the Holy Roman Empire to realise the

Gospel message – a message which to them promised social as well as
spiritual equality – led to one of the largest popular rebellions in early
modern Europe, with rebel armies made up of as many as 40,000 in
some areas. The violent actions of the peasants were met with violent
condemnation by Luther in print, while harsh suppression by the
authorities meant that tens of thousands lost their lives in the rebellion’s
aftermath.

2. The end of the Kingdom of Münster (1536)

Just a decade after the Peasants War, the spectre of Reformation-inspired
anarchy returned to the Holy Roman Empire. In Münster, a group of
radical Anabaptists took control of the city and established a spiritual
government. Its challenge to the religious and political status quo was
considered immediate and grave: the practice of polygamy within the
community was viewed as just one manifestation of all that was at
threat.

When the new government began to collapse, the Catholic authorities

moved in: the leading Anabaptists were put to the sword, their body
parts placed in cages on the outside of the cathedral. For contemporaries,
Münster and its bloody end was an argument for obedience to the
secular and religious authorities. It also resulted in an enduring suspicion
towards religious radicals: while not all Anabaptists embraced violent
revolution, they became the target of hostility across Europe.

3. The Massacre of Saint Bartholomew’s Day (1572)

This massacre was perhaps the most notorious episode of religious
violence of the Reformation era. On August 24, 1572, in the midst of
celebrations of a marriage between a Catholic princess and a Protestant
king, at least 2,000 French Protestants were murdered on the streets of
Paris.

The news of events in Paris also sparked massacres in other French

cities. While the direct role of the French monarchy in the massacre, and
the exact numbers killed, remain sources of debate, the “popular”
element of the violence was striking: victims were often known to
perpetrators. Catholic powers praised the killings, and the French
Protestant cause saw a wave of exile and conversions.

4. The Thirty Years War (1618-1648)

This war, or series of wars, is sometimes remembered as the last of the
wars of religion. Some of its origins lay with tensions over the religious
settlement offered in the Peace of Augsburg (1555), which allowed for
Lutheran and Catholic territories within the Holy Roman Empire. A
Protestant revolt against Catholic Habsburg rule in Bohemia spiralled
into a conflict in which all the major powers of Europe became involved.

Parts of the German-speaking lands were utterly decimated – some areas

lost between a quarter and a half of their population. The episodes of
violence associated with both Protestant and Catholic troops in the war
were legendary, and stories spread across Europe.

5. Christian violence against non-Christians

As the historian Nicholas Terpstra recently argued, the Reformation-era
drive for purity was turned not only against rival Christian
denominations, but also against non-Christian populations.

In this light, the victory claimed in 1492 by Queen Isabella and King
Ferdinand, rulers of Castille and Aragon, over the Muslim populations
of the Iberian peninsula with the fall of the Kingdom of Granada, is a
more appropriate starting point to the Reformation than Luther’s actions
in Wittenberg.

The “reconversion” of Spain to Christianity, and the expulsion of the

Jewish and Muslim populations of the peninsula were hugely significant
acts of symbolic and practical violence. And, beyond both 1492 and
1517, as Spain and other European nations acquired overseas empires,
they also began to convert and subdue non-European peoples,
sometimes with great violence.