About the lecture

In this module, we think about the expansion of Lutheranism in the 1530s and 1540s, focusing in particular on the growing support for the Lutherans among certain regions in the Holy Roman Empire, the defeat of the Lutheran forces at the Battle of Mühlberg in 1547, the split of Lutheranism into two 'parties' – those willing to compromise with the Catholics (such as Philip Melanchthon) and those who were not (such as Matthias Flacius) – and the unexpected victory of the Protestants hardliners with the signing of the Peace of Augsburg in 1555.

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.