Cromwell had little sympathy with the disobedience of monastic houses, which had long ago ceased to embody the ascetic ideal. ... Cromwell had boasted that he would make Henry VIII the richest prince in Christendom; and the monasteries, with their direct dependence on the pope and their cosmopolitan organizations, were obstacles to that absolute authority of the national state. ... He negotiated the king's marriage to Anne of Cleves as a means of securing the North German princes as allies against the Catholic Holy Roman emperor Charles V. ...

• Word Count: 1288
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Instead of relying on feudal charges for the bulk of their military power, Renaissance princes employed mercenaries in increasing numbers. ... "The "Ninety-Five Theses outlined his theological argument against the use of indulgences, which were based on the notion that Christianity is fundamentally a phenomenon of the inner world of human beings and had little or nothing to do with the outer world, such as temporal punishments. ...

• Word Count: 2755
• Approx Pages: 11
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

He was a theologically conversant, a humanistically trained prince with facility in Latin who both read and wrote theological works and discussed them with his counsellors, and who attended mass daily. ... As long as the king opposed Luther, there was little chance that English reformers would amount to anything more than a bunch of powerless voices from intellectuals haunting Cambridge taverns. ...

• Word Count: 1169
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate