You are not currently logged in. Please create an account or log in to view the full course.
- Description
About this Course
About the Course
In this course, Professor Alec Ryrie (University of Durham) explores the Reformation in Europe from the rise of Zwingli in the 1520s to the death of Calvin in 1564. In the first module, we think about the expansion of Lutheranism in the Holy Roman Empire, focusing in particular on how the Lutheran forces of the Schmalkaldic League survived military defeat at Mühlberg to gain recognise from the Holy Roman Emperor with the Peace of Augsburg in 1555. In the second module, we think about the Catholic response to the Protestant Reformation, including the Diet of Regensburg and the Council of Trent. After that, we move from the Holy Roman Empire to the Confederacy of Switzerland, thinking in particular about the Reformed Protestant of Huldrych Zwingli, before moving on in the fourth module to focus on the life and career of John Calvin and the spread of Calvinism throughout Europe. In the fifth module, we think about some of more radical groups of the Protestant reformation – most notably the Anabaptists – and the rise of religious tolerance, before ending the course in the sixth module with a brief recap of the major changes in the period.
About the Lecturer
Professor Alec Ryrie is currently Professor in the Department of Theology and Religion at Durham University. He is a historian of Protestant Christianity. His specialism is the history of England and Scotland in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, but I have interests in the emergence and development of Protestant and radical beliefs, identities and spiritualities more widely in that era and beyond. His recently published book Protestants: The Radicals Who Made the Modern World gives an overview of the history of Protestantism as a whole from Luther to the present. He is also one of the co-editors of the Journal of Ecclesiastical History.
