What the Reformation Did to Europe
Three threads to close
- The CED reviews with the same three statements it opened: religious pluralism challenged the concept of a unified Europe, capitalism notwithstanding medieval structures, and the struggle for sovereignty.
- So the review objective asks how the religious developments affected European society.
- That is a wider question than what happened in the churches.
The review objective asks how religious developments affected...
A wider question than what happened in the churches.
Effects on sovereignty
- Some rulers gained: church land, courts and appointments passed to the state (1.5, 2.4).
- Some rulers lost: Westphalia moved the decision to princes, bishops and local leaders (2.4).
- So the religious settlement redistributed authority downward in the Empire and upward in centralising kingdoms — opposite directions, one cause.
Select both directions authority moved.
One cause, two directions.
Effects on society
- City governments took on moral regulation; debates about women's roles opened; witchcraft accusations peaked (2.6).
- None of these is a doctrinal change, and all of them follow from the religious upheaval.
- So the social evidence is the strongest material for this objective, and the most often left out.
Effect on sovereignty, society, or economy and culture?
Sort each consequence of the religious upheaval.
Select all the social effects available for this answer.
Printing is a cause from unit 1, not a social effect of the Reformation.
The religious settlement moved authority in opposite directions. Centralising kingdoms absorbed church land, courts and appointments; Westphalia devolved the religious decision to princes, bishops and local leaders. One cause, two directions — and an answer claiming a single trend has flattened the evidence.
Sovereignty and society meet in the ____ governments of 2.6.
The secular state's reach grew where nobody planned to transfer it.
Effects on the economy and culture
- Some Protestant groups sanctioned wealth as a sign of favour (2.2), which the CED reports without claiming causation.
- Church land changed hands, which moved wealth into lay and princely control.
- And art turned to drama and illusion for patrons who needed their stature to be visible (2.7).
Unit 3's absolutism begins where Westphalia ends.
So an effect reaching past 1648 is a legitimate way to close.
A unit-review routine
- Pick two of the three threads and give one effect on society for each.
- Name a link between them — sovereignty and society meet in the city governments of 2.6.
- Close with an effect that reaches past 1648, since unit 3's absolutism begins where Westphalia ends.
In one kingdom the crown now appoints bishops it once merely petitioned. In the Empire, the same settlement means the emperor no longer decides what a territory believes. Both changes are consequences of the same religious division, and they point opposite ways.
The unit closes on religious pluralism challenging a unified Europe, capitalism notwithstanding medieval structures, and the struggle for sovereignty. Effects on sovereignty ran in opposite directions; effects on society include moral regulation by cities, debates on women's roles and the witchcraft peak; effects on economy and culture include church land changing hands and the turn to drama and illusion.