AP European History › Unit 2
In 1517 Martin Luther challenged the Catholic Church, and Western Christianity split. This unit traces Protestant reform, including Calvin and the English Reformation, the Catholic response at the Council of Trent, the wars of religion, and changes in 16th-century society and art. Expect source questions on a document's purpose or point of view, and essays on causes and effects. A common mistake is treating the Reformation as purely religious, missing its political and economic motives. Students also blur Lutheran and Calvinist ideas, overlooking Calvin's stress on predestination.
These are taken from the Regular set, with the answer and explanation shown.
"It has been devised that the Pope, bishops, priests, and monks are called the spiritual estate; princes, lords, artificers, and peasants, are the temporal estate. This is an artful lie and hypocritical device ... that all Christians are truly of the spiritual estate, and there is no difference among them, save of office alone. ...
Therefore I say, Forasmuch as the temporal power has been ordained by God for the punishment of the bad and the protection of the good, we must let it do its duty throughout the whole Christian body, without respect of persons, whether it strike popes, bishops, priests, monks, nuns, or whoever it may be...."
From J. H. Robinson, ed., Readings in European History (1906). Text: Hanover Historical Texts Project
1. Luther most likely addressed this pamphlet to the German nobility because he
Answer: A. By 1520 the pope was moving to condemn Luther. He turned to the princes, who had the power to protect him and to reform the Church in their lands. He later opposed the peasants' revolt, so the peasant-revolt option is wrong.
Common trap: Choosing the Latin option. The pamphlet was written in German, so it was not aimed at Latin readers only.
"So it was determined to exterminate all the Protestants, and the plan was approved by the queen. They discussed for some time whether they should make an exception of the king of Navarre and the prince of Conde. All agreed that the king of Navarre should be spared by reason of the royal dignity and the new alliance. ... The duke of Guise, who was put in full command of the enterprise, summoned by night several captains ... Besme gave him a sword thrust through the body ... So Coligny fell, killed with many thrusts. ... on every side arose the cry, 'To arms!' and the people ran to the house of Coligny."
From J. H. Robinson, ed., Readings in European History (1906). Text: Hanover Historical Texts Project
2. The massacre described in the passage contributed most directly to which later development?
Answer: D. The massacre restarted the civil war. Many French people came to believe that the kingdom needed peace more than religious unity. These politiques shaped the policy that led to the Edict of Nantes in 1598, issued by Henry of Navarre as King Henry IV.
Common trap: Choosing the option that the wars ended in 1572. The massacre made them worse; they lasted until 1598.
Source A [giving reasons why more women than men practice witchcraft]: "And the first is, that they are more credulous; and since the chief aim of the devil is to corrupt faith, therefore he rather attacks them. ... The third reason is that they have slippery tongues, and are unable to conceal from the fellow-women those things which by evil arts they know; and, since they are weak, they find an easy and secret manner of vindicating themselves by witchcraft."
Source B: "Innocent have I come into prison, innocent have I been tortured, innocent must I die. For whoever comes into the witch prison must become a witch or be tortured until he invents something out of his head ... When at last the executioner led me back into the prison, he said to me: 'Sir, I beg you, for God's sake confess something, whether it be true or not. Invent something, for you cannot endure the torture which you will be put to; and, even if you bear it all, yet you will not escape, not even if you were an earl, but one torture will follow after another until you say you are a witch.'"
Source A: translated by Montague Summers (1928). Text: Internet Sacred Text Archive
Source B: from G. L. Burr, ed., The Witch Persecutions (University of Pennsylvania, 1897). Text: Hanover Historical Texts Project
3. Which context best explains why witch trials reached their peak between about 1560 and 1650?
Answer: B. The peak came during the wars of religion, the price inflation of the 1500s and the crop failures of the Little Ice Age. Fear of the devil and of misfortune ran high. Local courts with wide powers, as in Source B, turned fear into trials.
Common trap: Choosing scientific doubt. Doubt about witchcraft grew later and helped end the trials; it did not cause the peak.