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Charles V 1500-1558, Holy Roman emperor (1519-1558) and king of Spain as Charles I (1516-1556). He summoned the Diet of Worms (1521) and the Council of Trent (1545-1563). Holy Roman emperor (1519-56), king of Spain (as Charles I, 1516-56), and archduke of Austria (as Charles I, 1519-21), who inherited a Spanish and Habsburg empire extending across Europe from Spain and the Netherlands to Austria and the Kingdom of Naples and reaching overseas to Spanish America. He struggled to hold his empire together against the growing forces of Protestantism, increasing Turkish and French pressure, and even hostility from the Pope. At last he yielded, abdicating his claims to the Netherlands and Spain in favour of his son Philip II and the title of emperor to his brother Ferdinand I and retiring to a monastery.
Martin Luther 1483-1546, German theologian and leader of the
Reformation. His opposition to the wealth and corruption of the papacy
and his belief that salvation would be granted on the basis of faith
alone. rather than by works caused his excommunication from the Catholic Church (1521). Luther confirmed the Augsburg Confession in 1530, effectively establishing the Lutheran Church. German priest and scholar whose questioning of certain church practices led to the Protestant Reformation He is one of the pivotal figures of Western civilization, as well as of Christianity. By his actions and writings he precipitated a movement that was to yield not only one of the three major theological units of Christianity but was to be a seedbed for social, economic, and political thought. For further treatment of the historical context and consequences of Luther’s work.
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Elizabeth I 1533-1603, Queen of England and Ireland (1558-1603) who
succeeded the Catholic Mary I and reestablished Protestantism in
England. Her reign was marked by several plots to overthrow her, the
execution of Mary Queen of Scots (1587), the defeat of the Spanish
Armada (1588), and domestic prosperity and literary achievement. Although her small kingdom was threatened by grave internal divisions, Elizabeth’s blend of shrewdness, courage, and majestic self-display inspired ardent expressions of loyalty and helped unify the nation against foreign enemies. The adulation bestowed upon her both in her lifetime and in the ensuing centuries was not altogether a spontaneous effusion; it was the result of a carefully crafted, brilliantly executed campaign in which the queen fashioned herself as the glittering symbol of the nation’s destiny. This political symbolism, common to monarchies, had more substance than usual, for the queen was by no means a mere figurehead. While she did not wield the absolute power of which Renaissance rulers dreamed, she tenaciously upheld her authority to make critical decisions and to set the central policies of both state and church. The latter half of the 16th century in England is justly called the Elizabethan Age: rarely has the collective life of a whole era been given so distinctively personal a stamp.
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William Shakespeare’s house, Stratford-upon-Avon, Eng.
Corbis-Bettmann
William Shakespeare 1564-1616, English playwright and poet whose body of works is considered the greatest in English literature. His plays,
many of which were performed at the Globe Theatre in London, include
historical works, such as Richard II, comedies, including Much Ado about
Nothing and As You Like It, and tragedies, such as Hamlet, Othello, and
King Lear. He also composed 154 sonnets. The earliest collected edition
of his plays, the First Folio, contained 36 plays and was published
posthumously (1623). English poet, dramatist, and actor, often called the English national poet and considered by many to be the greatest dramatist of all time. He occupies a position unique in world literature. Other poets, such as Homer and Dante, and novelists, such as Leo Tolstoy and Charles Dickens, have transcended national barriers; but no writer’s living reputation can compare with that of Shakespeare, whose plays, written in the late 16th and early 17th centuries for a small repertory theatre, are now performed and read more often and in more countries than ever before. The prophecy of his great contemporary, the poet and dramatist Ben Jonson, that Shakespeare “was not of an age, but for all time,” has been fulfilled.
John Calvin 1509-1564 French-born Swiss Protestant theologian who broke with the Roman Catholic Church (1533) and set forth the tenets of his theology, known today as Presbyterianism, in Institutes of the Christian Religion (1536). He was a French theologian and ecclesiastical statesman. He was the leading French Protestant Reformer and the most important figure in the second generation of the Protestant Reformation. His interpretation of Christianity, advanced above all in his Institutio Christianae religionis, and the institutional and social patterns he worked out for Geneva deeply influenced Protestantism elsewhere in Europe and in North America. The Calvinist form of Protestantism is widely thought to have had a major impact on the formation of the modern world.
Council of Trent was the 19th ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic church (1545-63), highly important for its sweeping decrees on self-reform and for its dogmatic definitions that clarified virtually every doctrine contested by the Protestants. Despite internal strife, external dangers, and two lengthy interruptions, the council played a vital role in revitalizing the Roman Catholic church in many parts of Europe.
Though Germany demanded a general council following the excommunication of the German Reformation leader Martin Luther Pope Clement VII held back for fear of renewed attacks on his supremacy. France, too, preferred inaction, afraid of increasing German power. Clement’s successor, Paul III, however, was convinced that Christian unity and effective church reform could come only through a council. After his first attempts were frustrated, he convoked a council at Trent (northern Italy), which opened on Dec. 13, 1545.which established the foundations of the Counter Reformation.
Bibliography
All information was found at www.britannica.com and at www.comptons.com. Also a little was pulled from Microsoft Encarta.(not much though)