As opposition to Protestantism in France heats up again, the Protestant church moves underground.

The Peace of Augsburg, which put an end to religious wars in Germany in the sixteenth century, did not last.  This peace was broken as Catholics and Protestants took military action against each other.

The sixteenth century was a pivotal period in the entire history of Christianity as it began to expand to the south and the east.

In the sixteenth century, it was taken for granted that a state must have a single religion to which all subjects must adhere.  But in every land, there were those who disagreed with the faith espoused by the government.

The Catholic reformation continues.

Catholicism faces its own reformation, beginning well before Luther's protest.

Protestantism in France endures amidst persecution and war.

At the dawn of the sixteenth century, no other nation in Western Europe had achieved the degree of national unity that France had attained.  Yet, because of the continuing conflict between Protestants and Catholics, few nations were also as bitterly divided.

In the Low Countries, Protestantism gained adherents from a very early time.  But the advance of Protestantism in these areas soon became involved in the struggle for independence.

Lutheranism continues to expand throughout Western Europe.