People
A German monk who challenged Catholic Church practices and began the Protestant Reformation by publishing his 95 Theses.
Martin Luther
A religious movement during the 1500s that challenged the authority and practices of the Catholic Church and led to the creation of Protestant churches.
Protestant Revolution
A Catholic religious order founded during the Counter-Reformation that focused on education, missionary work, and defending Catholic beliefs
Jesuits
Carefully watching or examining something to gather information.
Observation
English scientist who developed the laws of motion and universal gravitation and helped explain how objects move.
Isaac Newton
Italian scientist who used a telescope to make observations that supported the heliocentric model and challenged traditional ideas about the universe.
Galileo Galilei
A list of arguments written by Martin Luther in 1517 criticizing the Catholic Church's sale of indulgences and other practices.
95 Theses
A meeting of Catholic leaders from 1545–1563 that clarified Catholic beliefs, corrected some abuses, and strengthened Church discipline.
Council of Trent
A systematic process of asking questions, forming hypotheses, testing them, collecting evidence, and drawing conclusions.
Scientific Method
King of England who broke with the Catholic Church after the Pope refused to annul his marriage, leading to the creation of the Church of England.
Henry VIII
Polish astronomer who proposed the heliocentric model, arguing that Earth and the other planets orbit the Sun.
Nicolaus Copernicus
A reduction of punishment for sins that Catholics could receive through certain acts of faith; the selling of indulgences became a major criticism of the Church.
Indulgence
A major European war from 1618–1648 involving religious and political conflicts, especially between Catholic and Protestant states.
Thirty Years War
The scientific study of stars, planets, the Moon, and other objects in space.
Astronomy
An English Humanist and author of Utopia who criticized problems in society and government and remained loyal to Catholicism.
Thomas More
A German Renaissance artist famous for detailed paintings, drawings, and prints that helped spread Renaissance ideas in Northern Europe.
Albrecht Durer
A Protestant reformer who developed Calvinism and strongly emphasized predestination and the authority of the Bible.
John Calvin
The existence and acceptance of multiple religious beliefs or religious groups within the same society or political system.
Religious Pluralism
Newton's idea that every object in the universe attracts every other object through gravity.
Universal Gravitation
A Scottish Protestant reformer who helped establish Presbyterianism in Scotland.
John Knox
A Dutch Christian Humanist who criticized problems within the Catholic Church and called for reform while remaining Catholic
Desiderius Erasmus
A meeting in 1521 where Martin Luther was ordered to reject his teachings, but he refused to take back his criticisms of the Church.
Diet of Worms
The agreements of 1648 that ended the Thirty Years' War and recognized greater religious and political independence for European states.
Peace of Westphalia
English thinker who promoted observation, experimentation, and inductive reasoning as important ways to gain scientific knowledge.
Francis Bacon
A Flemish Renaissance painter known for highly detailed and realistic paintings and for helping develop the use of oil paints.
Jan van Eyck