— 1519: Eck debates Karlstadt and Luther at Leipzig; Zwingli launches Swiss reformation. Charles I of Spain is elected Holy Roman Emperor as Charles V; Hernán Cortes enters Aztec capital.

— 1520: Luther writes To the Chris-tian Nobility, On the Babylonian Captiv-ity of the Church, and The Freedom of a Christian; burns papal bull and canon law. Suleiman I becomes sultan of the Ottoman (Turkish) Empire.

— 1521: Luther is excommunicated at Diet of Worms and hidden at Wart-burg Castle; religious unrest begins in Wittenberg. Leo X titles Henry VIII “Defender of the Faith.” Thomas Müntzer publishes Prague Manifesto.

— 1522: Luther returns to Wittenberg; Zwingli argues his first Reformation debates and marries secretly. Hadrian VI becomes pope. Ignatius Loyola writes Spiritual Exercises; Adam Petri prints Luther’s New Testament. Spanish complete circumnavigation of globe.

— 1523: First two Protestant martyrs are burned at the stake; Calvin goes to Paris to study; disputations are held in Zurich. Clement VII becomes pope.

— 1524: Luther debates Karlstadt on the Lord’s Supper; Theatine religious order is founded. Diet of Nuremberg fails to enforce Edict of Worms; Eras-mus writes On Freedom of the Will.

— 1524-1525: Peasants’ War is fought in Germany.

— 1525: Anabaptist movement begins in Zurich; Bolt Eberle becomes first

Anabaptist martyr; Luther marries Katharine von Bora. Luther writes Against the Robbing and Murdering Hordes and Bondage of the Will against Erasmus.

— 1526: Reformation spreads to Sweden and Denmark. Tyndale’s edition of the New Testament is published.

— 1527: Luther debates Zwingli on the Lord’s Supper; Hans Denck dies. First Protestant university (Marburg) is founded; Schleitheim Confession of Anabaptist beliefs is promulgated. Imperial troops sack Rome; plague strikes Wittenberg.

— 1528: Balthasar Hubmaier is martyred; Calvin goes to Orleans to study law. Tyndale publishes The Obedience of a Christian Man.

— 1529: Luther and Zwingli attend Marburg Colloquy but reach no agreement on the Lord’s Supper; name “Protestant” is  first used. Second Diet of Speyer enforces Edict of Worms and declares death pen-alty for rebaptism. Luther publishes Large Catechism and Small Catechism. Turks lay siege to Vienna.

— 1530: Diet of Augsburg attempts to end division in Holy Roman Empire; Melchior Hoffmann baptizes 300 Anabaptists. Melanchthon pres-ents Augsburg Confession at the Diet of Augsburg; Tyndale publishes The Practice of Prelates.

— 1531: Zwingli is killed in battle at Kappel. Schmalkaldic League, a political body of German Protes-tants, forms against Charles V.

— 1532: Diet of Regensburg and Peace of Nuremberg guarantee religious toleration in face of Turkish threat.

— 1533: Calvin and Nicolas Cop flee Paris; Calvin undergoes what he later calls a “sudden conversion”; Jakob Hutter joins Moravian group who become known as Hutterites. Thomas Cromwell declares Henry VIII’s marriage to Catherine null and void; Henry marries Anne Boleyn. Three-year-old Ivan the Terrible ascends Russian throne.

The Reformation timeline from Christian History Institute

This timeline is available with interactive hot links at www.christianhistoryinstitute.org under issue #120. (Compiled from Christian History issues 5, 12, 48, 115, and 118, with additions by the editors.) © 2016 Christian History magazine.

— 1440: Printing press is invented around this time.

— 1453: Turks capture Constantinople.

— 1455: Gutenberg completes printing the Bible.

— 1469: Desiderius Erasmus is born.

— 1470 : Portuguese explorers discover Gold Coast of Africa.

— 1478: Spanish Inquisition begins.

— 1485? Andreas von Karlstadt is born.

— 1483: Martin Luther and Gasparo Contarini are born.

— 1484: Huldrych Zwingli is born.

— 1485? Balthasar Hubmaier is born.

— 1489: Thomas Cranmer is born.

— 1491: Henry VIII and Martin Bucer are born.

— 1492: Columbus sails to the Americas.

— 1494: William Tyndale is born.

— 1496: Menno Simons is born.

— 1497: Philipp Melanchthon is born.

— 1498: Girolamo Savonarola is burned at the stake in Florence.

— 1499: Swiss gain independence.

— 1500? Hans Denck is born.

— 1502: Frederick, elector of Saxony, founds Wittenberg University.

— 1505: Luther vows to become a monk.

— 1506: Leonardo da Vinci paints Mona Lisa. Pope Julius II orders work on St. Peter’s in Rome.

— 1508: Michelangelo begins Sistine Chapel ceiling.

— 1509: John Calvin is born; Henry VIII assumes throne of England, marries Catherine of Aragon.

— 1512: Luther leaves monastery to teach at Wittenberg.

— 1513: John Knox is born. Leo X becomes pope. Vasco Núñez de discovers the Pacific Ocean.

— 1515: Teresa of Ávila is born.

— 1516: Erasmus’s Greek New Testament and Thomas More’s Utopia are published.

— 1517: Fifth Lateran Council ends after passing several reforming decrees. Luther writes 95 Theses; Machiavelli writes The Prince.

— 1534: Henry VIII is declared supreme head of the English church. Jan van Leiden is crowned king in Münster; Paul III becomes pope.

— 1535: Henry VIII executes Thomas More, John Fisher, and Carthu-sian monks in London; Ursuline religious order is founded; diplo-mat Gasparo Contarini is made a cardinal. Anabaptist uprising at Münster is put down; Charles V forms Catholic Defense League.

— 1536: Luther agrees to Wittenberg Concord on the Lord’s Supper, but Zwingli does not accept it; William Tyndale is burned at the stake; Denmark and Norway become Lutheran; Erasmus dies; Henry VIII begins to dissolve monasteries; Calvin is persuaded to remain in Geneva; Menno Simons begins to lead Anabaptists in the Netherlands; Paul III sets up a commission for reform headed by Contarini. Anne Boleyn is executed; Henry marries Jane Seymour, who dies in 1537 after giving birth to the future Edward VI. First edition of Calvin’s Institutes is published.

— 1537: Luther draws up Schmalkaldic Articles as his “theological last will and testament.”

— 1538: Calvin and Farel are ban-ished from Geneva; Calvin goes to Strasbourg and meets Bucer.

— 1539: Calvin is asked to respond to Cardinal Sadoleto on behalf of Geneva. Frankfurt Truce is

declared between Charles V and the Schmalkaldic League.

— 1540: Calvin marries Idelette Storder de Bure; Society of Jesus (Jesuits) is formed; conferences at Hagenau and Worms fail to reconcile Protestants and Catholics; Henry VIII executes William Horne; Edmund Campion is born. Philip of Hesse enters bigamous marriage with Luther’s consent; Henry VIII marries Anne of Cleves and after divorcing her marries Catherine Howard. Calvin’s Commentary on Romans is published.

— 1541: Calvin returns to Geneva; Melanchthon and Bucer reach agreement with Contarini and other Catholic delegates at Confer-ence of Regensburg, but Luther and Rome reject their work; Karlstadt dies. Michelangelo completes The Last Judgment in the Sistine Chapel.

— 1542: John of the Cross born; Cardinal Contarini dies.

Catherine Howard is executed; Paul III establishes the Inquisition. Calvin writes a treatise on free will.

— 1543: Henry VIII (d. 1547) marries Catherine Parr, who will outlive him. Copernicus writes that the earth revolves around the sun.

— 1545: Council of Trent convenes for reform of the Catholic Church.

— 1546-1547: Schmalkaldic War is fought between Protestant and Catholic territories in Germany.

— 1546: Martin Luther dies.

— 1547: Henry VIII’s Protestant son, Edward VI, succeeds him. Armed Diet held in Augsburg.

— 1548: Augsburg Interim makes some concessions to Protestantism, but many Catholic and Protestant leaders refuse to accept it.

— 1549: John Knox is released from French imprisonment; Idelette Calvin dies; Martin Bucer goes to England; Consensus Tigurinus and the first edition of the Book of Common Prayer are published.

— 1550: Julius III becomes pope.

— 1551: Martin Bucer dies.

— 1552: Katharine Luther dies.

— 1553: Edward VI’s Catholic half-sister, Mary, succeeds him; Servetus is executed for heresy with Calvin’s approval.

— 1554: Knox travels to Geneva and meets Calvin.

— 1555: Mary burns Hugh Latimer, Nicholas Ridley, and Thomas Cranmer at the stake. Peace of Augsburg allows German rulers to determine religion of their regions; Marcellus II becomes pope but dies 22 days later; Paul IV becomes pope.

— 1557: Geneva Bible is published.

— 1558: Theodore Beza joins Calvin in Geneva. Mary’s Protestant half-sister, Elizabeth, succeeds her.

— 1559: Matthew Parker becomes archbishop of Canterbury. Pius IV becomes pope. Final edition of Institutes is published; Genevan Academy is established.

— 1560: Philip Melanchthon dies. Catholicism is abolished in Scotland. John Jewel writes An Apology for the Church of England.

— 1561: Menno Simons dies.

— 1562: Teresa of Ávila establishes her first convent.

— 1563: Thirty-Nine Articles are drafted; Council of Trent concludes.

— 1563: Foxe’s Book of Martyrs is published.

— 1566: Pius V becomes pope. Icono-clasm riots rage in the Netherlands.

— 1568: John of the Cross establishes religious order for men. Eighty Years’ War begins in the Netherlands.

— 1564: Calvin dies; the word “Puritan” is used in England for the first time.

— 1572: John Knox dies. Gregory XIII becomes pope. St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre of Huguenots occurs.

— 1575: Congregation of the Oratory is founded.

— 1580: Edmund Campion arrives in England as a Jesuit missionary. Lutheran Book of Concord is published in German.

— 1581: Elizabeth I executes Cam-pion. Richard Hooker publishes Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity.

— 1582: Teresa of Ávila dies. Pope Gregory XIII introduces the Gregorian calendar.

— 1585: Sixtus V becomes pope.

— 1590: Urban VII becomes pope, dies after 12 days. Gregory XIV succeeds him.

— 1591: John of the Cross dies. Innocent IX becomes pope.

— 1592: Clement VIII becomes pope.

— 1593: Discalced Carmelites become a separate religious order. Puritan assemblies and activities are outlawed in England.

— 1603: Elizabeth I is succeeded in England by her Protestant cousin, James VI of Scotland.

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Basel

The Council of Trent (1545–1563)John Knox

Queen Elizabeth I

St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre, 1572

John CalvinLuther preaching

Martin and Katie Luther

Huldrych Zwingli

Christopher Columbus

Balboa