Reformation and Confessionalization

This article provides an overview of the historiography and the major historical developments of the Protestant Reformation, Catholic reform, and confessionalization in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Germany and Europe. In the first part of this article, the historiography of the Reformation and the confessional age is discussed, with particular emphasis on questions of periodization. In the second part, the major historical developments between the late Middle Ages and the middle of the seventeenth century in the German Empire as well as in Europe are summarized.