Emperor: A New Life of Charles V
By Geoffrey Parker
Yale, 760pp, £25/$35
Early 16th-century demographics can lead one to wonder how Protestantism managed to establish itself not just as a major religion but also one with considerable political power. Outside northern Germany almost every institution holding significant political power opposed both formal separation from the Church and key elements of the Lutheran agenda until a decade after the publication of the Ninety-five Theses.
Less educated elements of the populace were often attracted by Protestants’ spiritual zeal and repulsed by moral corruption within the Catholic hierarchy, rather than being interested in the precise issues of dogmatic theology. Surely the combined might of a Catholic Europe willing to put military force at the service of religion should have been able to overcome the new movement, even if for some reason the Holy Roman Empire was not up to the task unaided.
