Comparing King Philip II And The Protestant Reformation
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Phillip II was a deeply Catholic king, whose rule focused on protecting the church, breaking away from the rule of the pope, and supporting the Spanish inquisition against those who challenged his power or the rule of Catholicism. He believed that he was protecting the Catholic faith from being corrupted and ruined by heresy.
The Protestant Reformation was the 16th-century cultural disturbance that destroyed Catholic Europe. Reformers such as Martin Luther, who sparked the Reformation, John Calvin, and Henry VIII challenged papal authority and questioned the Catholic Church’s ability to follow out Christian practices. They wanted redistribution of power to go to the bible instead of the church. They argued for religious and political neutrality. The disruption triggered wars, persecutions and the Counter-Reformation, which was the movement to reform the Roman Catholic Church.…show more content… He felt that it was his duty to stop the nations that were turning away from Catholicism. Philip II could control the English Chanel and his ships could have an easy passage from Spain to the Spanish Netherlands, if he had England under his control. One of his greatest and expensive defeats was the Spanish Armada, which took place in 1588. Phillip attempted to use about 130 ships to overthrow England and return it to Catholicism. However, his plan failed, and England remained protestant.
The Netherlands had been a union under King Philip II, since the Pragmatic Sanction. The leader, William I, was outlawed by Philip II, and assassinated in 1584, by a Catholic fanatic after Philip had offered a reward to anyone who killed William, calling him a "pest on the whole of Christianity and the enemy of the human race." The Dutch forces continued to fight on, and used their naval resources to plunder Spanish ships and blockade the Spanish-controlled southern