1. How did humanism spread from Italy to the rest of Europe? What were the principal goals of Northern humanism, and how did these resemble and differ from those of Italian humanism?
2. Who were the major humanists of Germany, France, Spain, and England? What were their most notable achievements?
3. Who was Erasmus, and how do his accomplishments exemplify Christian humanism?
4. What conditions during the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries created discontent with the Catholic Church? How did many Europeans respond to those conditions? What additional social and political conditions made Germany fertile ground for the Protestant Reformation?
5. What were the basic principles of Luther's reformist doctrine? How did Catholic and civil authorities respond to his ideas? How did his religious thought provoke political uprisings in Germany, and how did Lutheranism finally achieve recognition?
6. Who were the major exponents of Reformed Protestantism? How did their religious ideas resemble and differ from those of Luther, and how did they try to realize their ideas through social action?
7. How did Calvinism spread through Western Europe, and what political opposition did it face? How did resistance theory develop in response to this opposition, and how did Calvinists try to apply it?
8. Who were the Anabaptists, and what ideas did they and other radical sects preach? How did they try to realize their ideas, and what opposition did they encounter?
9. What was the general Christian attitude toward Jews during the Northern Renaissance and Reformation? How did Luther's thought about Jews evolve during his life? How did the attitude of Reformed Protestants develop?
10. How did the Catholic Reformation try to strengthen the church in response to the Protestant challenge? What role did the Council of Trent, the Society of Jesus, and the Index of Forbidden Books play in this effort?
11. How did the Reformation contribute to the emergence of modern civilization?