1534
St. Ignatius of Loyola founds the Society of Jesus, the Jesuits.

Henry VIII splits from Rome, and begins the Anglican Church. Henry VIII declared his Divine Rite of Kings, that is by virtue of being a nation’s King, he can make Ecclesiastical judgments that can override the Pope. The Oath of Supremacy was administered to Bishops and heads of Monastic establishments.

Michelangelo completed the work in Florence for the Medici family. He never again returned to Florence, although he is buried there.

From April 15 to May 2 the Nuns of Chambery’s Poor Clare Order repaired the burnt are of the Holy Shroud. They sewed triangular patches on the linen.

Paul III becomes Pope.

1535
Anglican Protestant church formed.

Miles Coverdale, an Anglican Bishop, prepared the first complete English Bible to be printed. He used much of Tyndale’s version and translated portions of Luther’s German version for good measure. His Bible became known as the Coverdale Bible.

Franciscan Missionaries arrive in California.

St. Thomas More is Martyred in England. He was beheaded for renouncing King Henry VIII’s Divine Rite of Kings.

St. John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester and Cardinal is Martyred in England. His last words were: “I am dying for the Faith of Christ’s Holy Catholic Church” and asked the people to pray that he might be steadfast to the end. After that he recited Te Deum and the Psalm, In Te Domine Speravi, he was blindfolded, and with one blow from the axe, his head was severed from his body. His blood and the blood of St. Thomas More is on the hands of King Henry VIII.

St. Teresa of Avila founded the Carmelite Order for Nuns.

1535-1540
The English Carthusian Martyrs, with Blessed Richard Reynolds and Blessed John Hale. The First Martyr of the Tudor persecution was Blessed John Houghton, the Prior of the London Charterhouse of the Carthusian Order. He and fifty other priests, lay brothers, and one Deacon gave their lives to Christ and renounced King Henry VIII’s claim to supremacy over the Church. Blessed John Hale was the Vicar of Iseworth, Blessed Richard Reynolds was a Bridgettine monk.

1536
Catherine of Aragon died a Holy, pious death in England. She would not permit Holy Mass to be said before the Canonical hour had arrived. After receiving Our Blessed Lord in the Holy Eucharist she passed away.

Ann Boleyn was beheaded in England. Moments after Ann’s execution, King Henry VIII married Jane Seymour, his third wife.

John Calvin publishes his Institute and leads the first group of Geneva Protestants.

Menno Simons rejected his priesthood and became an Anabaptist elder.

Michelangelo began creating his famous Last Judgment for the Altar wall of the Sistine Chapel.

1537
Queen Jane Seymour died twelve days after giving birth to Prince Edward VI.

Birth of Lady Jane Grey in Bradgate, near Leicester. She would become the Nine Days Queen.

1538
John Calvin and several other clergymen were banished by the Geneva leaders for strict doctrines.

Martyrdom of Blessed John Forest. He was burned at the stake in Wales along with a wooden statue of St. Derfel, who was much venerated in Wales. A prediction had once been made that it would set a forest on fire.

Henry VIII orders the destruction of the Priory and Shrine of Walsingham. The land was sold for 90 English pounds to Thomas Sidney who built a private mansion on the spot.

1539
The first missionaries, the Franciscans, come to the Americas.

St. Angela Merici founds the Ursaline Nuns.

Death of St. Anthony Zaccaria, Founder of the Clerks Regular of St. Paul.

Martyrdom of Blessed Adrian Fortescue. He was a cousin of Ann Boleyn on his mother’s side. He was a father of five children, with two wives. He was a Justice of the Peace for Oxford County and a Knight of Bath. He too was beheaded for retaining his Catholic Faith. Ever since his death, the Knights of Malta had a Cultus for him.

Martyrdom of Blessed Richard Whiting, Abbot of Glastonbury, and his companions. He was named Abbot of Glastonbury by Cardinal Wolsey in 1525. The Cardinal said of him: “...an upright and religious monk, a provident and discreet man, and priest commendable for his life, virtues, and learning.” St. Thomas More was among those who signed his Commission. The good Abbot and his monks, in 1534, did take the Oath of supremacy, (the King is Head of the Church), and assured them nothing would come of it. An investigation found copies of the King’s divorce papers and Abbot Whiting was questioned and found guilty for denying the supremacy of the King.

Martyrdom of Blessed Hugh Faringdon, Abbot of Reading, and his companions.

Martyrdom of Blessed John Beche, Abbot of Clochester.

1540
Henry VIII marries his fourth wife, the Protestant, Ann of Cleves. Henry had never seen her before the wedding. He married her for political reasons. When Ann came over to be married, Henry was disgusted with her. Always impulsive and weak as he was, he fell into a furious temper with Thomas Cromwell for having let him into such a botheration at this unsuitable marriage. Ann was given a pension when she and Henry divorced six months later, then married Catherine Howard.

Lutheranism becomes the official religion of Sweden.

The Society of Jesus, the Jesuits, receive official Papal Sanction.

Martyrdom of Blessed Edward Powell. He was a priest and one of the four appointed canonists to Queen Catherine in the matter of the King’s nullity suit.

Martyrdom of Blessed Richard Fetherson, a secular priest and a doctor of theology who spoke in favor of the Queen’s marriage. He was hanged, drawn and quartered together with Blessed Edward Powell and Blessed Thomas Able. Three Protestants were also burned at the stake that same day.

Thomas Cromwell was executed on July 28. He was always a man indifferent to religion, an atheist concerned only with this world and therefore utterly without scruple. Coming face to face with death he accepted the Catholic truth.

1541
Martyrdom of Blessed Margaret Pole, widow. She was the niece of King Edward IV and Richard III. Margaret Plantagenet was the child of their brother, the Duke of Clarence by Isabel, daughter of Richard Neville Warwick, the Kingmaker. Henry VII, whose wife was her first cousin, gave her in marriage to Sir Reginald Pole.

Martyrdom of Blessed David Gonson, Knight of St. John. He was executed at Southwark for denying the royal supremacy over the Church.

Death of Andreas Karlstadt. He founded the Sacramentarians. His heretical sect rejected the doctrine of a corporal presence in the Eucharist, but admitted the spiritual presence. It was he who debated Father Johann Eck and at the age of 41, married a 15 year old girl.

Birth of St. John of the Cross.

1542
Henry VIII has his fifth wife, Catherine Howard, executed for immoral misconduct. She was beheaded at the Tower of London.

Birth of Mary Stuart in Scotland.

Father Padilla, a Franciscan, became the first Martyr in what is now the United States, near Kansas City.

John Knox rejected his Catholic Faith and his priesthood and sided with the Protestant movement; until his death, he was most active in attacking the Catholic Church. He founded the Presbyterian church. They believe in predestination; deny the authority of the Pope, Free-Will; the Sacraments; Purgatory; Good works; and the forgiveness of sins.

1543
Philip II becomes Regent of Spain and marries his cousin, Maria, Infanta of Portugal.

King Henry VIII marries for the sixth time to Catherine Parr.

Nicholas Copernicus publishes The Revolutions of the Celestial Bodies. He died later in this same year.

1543-1547
Philip II defends the Church against his father, Charles V, the Emperor.

1544
Birth of Francis II, grandson of King Francis I of France.

Blessed John Larke, Rector of Chelsea, Blessed Jermyn Gardiner, Secretary and probably a relative of Bishop Stephen Gardiner, and Blessed John Ireland, a secular priest, were Martyred for the same reason St. Thomas More was Martyred, denying Henry VIII’s Divine Rite of Kings, and supported the Pope as Supreme Head of the Church on earth.

1545
The First Period of the Ecumenical Council of Trent. Two hundred Bishops, Seven Abbots, Seven Generals of Religious Orders, and representatives of Catholic Kings and Princes attended. The General Council reaffirmed the Bible as it was written by the early Fathers, 46 Old Testament Books and 27 New Testament Books, the Bible Catholics have ALWAYS USED.

Michelangelo creates the famous sculpture of Moses.

1546
Death of Martin Luther.

French Calvinists-Huguenots, appear in France. This heretical sect was started by William Farel, a friend of John Calvin. The Huguenots held the doctrine of predestination; denied the supremacy of the Pope; Free-Will; good works; Purgatory; the Sacraments; and the forgiveness of sins. English Calvinist-Puritans appear in England. They would be later known as the Congregationalists.

1547
Death of King Henry VIII, January 28. His son, the little diseased boy King Edward VI succeeded him to the English Throne. In his will, Henry VIII said souls in Purgatory can be helped by offering up the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

Death of St. Cajetan, Co-Founder of the Theatine Clerks Regular.

Death of King Francis I of France. He was succeeded by his grandson, Francis II.

1548
Death of Catherine Parr. She was the sixth wife of Henry VIII and outlived him.

1549
Father Louis Cancer becomes the Proto-Martyr of Florida, in the New World.

St. Francis Xavier arrives in Japan and spread the Catholic Faith.

1550
Pope Paul III celebrates the Holy Year Jubilee.

Julius III becomes Pope. He was Cardinal Giovanni Maria Ciocchi Del Monte. He was a Roman by birth. As a Cardinal, he opened the Council of Trent.

Michelangelo, now seventy-five years old, scuptures the famous Florentine Pieta. The masterpiece was intended for his own tomb. The bearded man at the top is an idealized self portrait of the sculptor. Michelangelo painted the famous Crucifixion of St. Peter.

1550-1580
Erastianism. Thomas Erastus proposes the theory of Church-State relationships.

1551
Twelfth Session of the Council of Trent decided upon the prorogation, September 1. The Thirteenth Session of the Council opened on October 11. It promulgated a comprehensive Decree of the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist in eight chapters and eleven canons in regard to the supervision to be exercised by Bishops, and on Episcopal jurisdiction.

1552
The Council of Trent is suspended.

Death of St. Francis Xavier on the island of Sanction.

1553
Michael Servetus, a Spanish physician and theologian was condemned by John Calvin burned at the stake for not conforming to accepted doctrines.

Death of King Edward VI. Lady Jane Grey, a Protestant, is crowned Queen of England. She wore the Crown for a brief nine days, hence the name, Nine Days Queen.

Princess Mary Tudor, the rightful heiress, recovers the English Throne.

I will quote Hilaire Belloc:“A ridiculous picture has been drawn of a vindictive fanatical woman, attempting to repress the universal dislike of Catholicism by sort of reign of terror. Her short reign is still called, in the official English histories at Oxford and Cambridge, “the Marian Reaction,” as though the English people were then progressing in a tide towards Protestantism and in the six short years of Mary’s reign were a mere abortive and cruel effort to check a great national movement. All that, of course, is absurdly false: of all the falsehoods of our official history it is perhaps the one falsehood most widely divorced from reality. There was no national movement towards Protestantism; the Queen was popular; the prosecution and execution of the religious revolutionaries excited no national protest.”

Mary Tudor was viciously called, Bloody Mary, a title she did not deserve.

1554
Lady Jane Grey and her husband were beheaded.

Philip II of Spain marries his cousin, Queen Mary I Tudor.

1555
Marcellus II becomes Pope. His reign last less than one month. He was Cardinal Marcello Cervini. He was one of the three presidents of the Council of Trent.

Paul IV becomes Pope. He was Cardinal Giampietro Carafa. He was educated in Rome and had a thorough understanding of Hebrew and Greek. He was the Legate of Pope Leo X to King Henry VIII of England and served as Papal Nuncio in Flanders.

St. Philip Neri is ordained a Catholic priest.

Diet of Augsburg. This is the compromise reached with the Protestant states of Europe under Emperor Charles V who signed it. It established religious toleration by law, cleared the title of German Lutheran rulers to Church lands, and gave them equal status with Catholic rulers.

Nostradamus publishes his book, Centuries. This work was a series of prophesies in verse.

1556
Death of St. Ignatius of Loyola, Founder of the Society of Jesus, the Jesuits.

1556-1557
Philip II of Spain wars against the Pope.

1557
The Congregation of the Inquisition issues the Index of Forbidden Books.

1558
Death of Queen Mary I Tudor. Elizabeth I becomes Queen of England. Her reign in secular history is referred to as the Elizabethan Age.

William Cecil rises to power in England, becoming wealthy off the spoils of the Church. He was the Real power in England at this time. He was the head of the clique of new millionaires who received their fortunes from the stolen property and lands of the Catholic Church. Cecil, also known as Lord Burghley, “ran” or manipulated the Queen.

1558-1603
The Recusants are persecuted in England. These were those Catholics who refused to accept the State religion of the ruler during the reign of Elizabeth I.

1559
Pius IV becomes Pope. He was the third Medici Pope. He was Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Medici.

The Spanish Inquisition is revived.

King Henry II of France signs the Treaty of Cateau-Cambresis. This treaty formal recognized Spanish control.

King Henry II dies in the manner predicted by Nostradamus. Francis II becomes King of France. He was the first husband of Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots.

St. Charles Borromeo received his Doctorate in Canon and Civil Law.

1560
Presbyterian Protestant church formed by John Knox. Presbyterians believe in predestination; deny the authority of the Pope; Free-Will; the Sacraments; Purgatory; good works; and the forgiveness of sins.

St. Charles Borromeo and Giovanni De Medici were created Cardinal-Deacons.

Philip II marries for the third time, to Elizabeth Valois.

Francis II is assassinated. He was the son of Henry II and Catherine De Medicis.

Charles IX becomes King of France. He was the brother of Francis II.

1561
Guido De Bres, with others started the Reformed Dutch church. In this year he wrote the Statement of Faith, called the Belgic Confession, which formed the doctrinal foundation of the Reformed Dutch. This sect believed in predestination; denied the supremacy of the Pope; Free-Will; the Sacraments; good works; Purgatory the forgiveness of sins, and considered the Scriptures as the Sole Rule of Faith.

1562
Pope Pius IV reopens the suspended Council of Trent. The Council in this period condemned Lutheranism in general and all the Protestant sects that developed from it. Huguenot wars in France begin.

Laelius Socinus and his nephew, Faustus, formed the Socinians. These heretics insisted on private judgment and the free use of reason; rejected authority; discarded mysteries; denied Adam to have been endowed with peculiar gifts; set aside the Doctrine of Original Sin; admitted only two Sacraments; rejected Baptism; and denied the existence of hell, holding the wicked to be annihilated.

1563
At the end of the 25th Session, the Council of Trent was dissolved on December 4.

Pope Pius IV named Cardinal Morone president during the Council of Trent.

1564
Death of John Calvin in Geneva, Switzerland. He was succeeded by Theodore Beza; whom in his version, also changed the Bible.

Birth of Galileo Galilei, February 15.

St. Philip Neri founds the Order of Oratorians.

Death of Martin Cellarius, founder of the Unitarians. These heretics deny the Divinity of Christ; accept or reject the Bible according to private judgment; deny the doctrine of Atonement and Original Sin; reject all but two of the Sacraments and deny the Grace-conferring power and necessity even of these. They are not Christian Death of the great Renaissance artist, Michelangelo Buonarroti. He was a man of many talents and a many sided character. He was independent and persistent in his views and endeavors. His most striking characteristic was a sturdy determination, guided by a lofty ideal. He was untiring in his work, continuing the pace he set early in life until his senior years.

1565
St. Augustine, Florida, becomes the oldest city and parish in the United States, founded by Spanish Catholics.

Death of William Farel, the founder of the Huguenots.

1566
St. Pius V becomes Pope. He was Cardinal Michele Ghislieri. St. Charles Borromeo was instrumental in achieving the results of this election.

Pope St. Pius V publishes Catechismus Romanus.

Death of Nostradamus.

1567
Pope St. Pius V forbade the reinvestiture of fiefs reverting to the Holy See; any future alienation of land in the Papal State was banned with the severest penalties.

1568
Pope St. Pius V names: St. Basil the Great, St. Athanasius, St. Gregory Nazianzus, St. Thomas Aquinas, [the Angelic Doctor], St. Bonaventure, and St. John Chrysostom as Doctors of the Church. Being named “Doctor” is the highest honor the Church bestows upon her Saints. St. Thomas Aquinas is venerated a bit more with the term “Angelic” in recognition of his superior intellect.

The English College at Douay was founded.

Death of Elizabeth of Valois, the third wife of Philip II.

Catherine De Medicis spreads a rumor that Philip II had put his son, Don Carlos, to death, and makes a shameful peace with the Huguenots.

William I, Prince of Orange, also ridiculously called the Silent, leads a rebellion against Spain.

Birth of St. Aloysius Gonzaga.

1569
The Jesuits arrive in South Carolina.

Pope St. Pius V set up a commission to revise the Vulgate.

1570
Philip II marries Ann of Austria.

Queen Elizabeth I is excommunicated by Pope St. Pius V in the Papal Bull Regnans in Excelsis.

Martyrdom of Blessed Thomas Plumbtree. He was the Preacher of the Rebels. He was targeted for arrest and condemned to death.

Martyrdom of Blessed Azevedo and his companions. He was a Jesuit priest.

Martyrdom of Blessed John Felton. Mr. Felton, a gentleman from a Norfolk family, placed copies of the Papal Bull used to excommunicate Queen Elizabeth at the doorsteps of his neighbors and other places. For this act he was killed. He was cut down while still alive, and his heart was torn out. His last words were “I am ready to die for the Catholic Faith.”

Bishop Felice Peretti was elevated to the College of Cardinals. He is the future Pope Sixtus V. He was called Cardinal Montalto.

1571
Pope St. Pius V suppresses the Humiliati movement.

Martyrdom of Blessed John Storey. He was in charge of a Lectureship of King Henry VIII. He was also a contemporary of St. Thomas More.

Battle of Lepanto. This was a navel battle fought in the gulf of Corinth between the Ottoman Turks and Christian forces. Don Juan led the Catholic Christians to victory.

1572
St. Gregory XIII becomes Pope. He was Cardinal Ugo Boncompagni. He was ordained a priest at the age of forty in 1539.

Philip II sends his son, Don Juan, to Austria.

Martyrdom of St. Nicholas Pieck and his companions. The nineteen priests and religious, were taken by Calvinists in Gorkum, near, Dordrecht, and hung on account of their religion. They are known as the Gorkum Martyrs.

Martyrdom of Blessed Thomas Percy. He, like many others, died for denying the supremacy of the English Crown over the Catholic Church.

Death of the schismatic, John Knox.

Pope St. Gregory XIII reconstructs and endows the Roman College.

St. Bartholomew’s Day. Catherine De Medicis massacres the leading Huguenots in Paris to foil their plans for assassinating the Royal Family. It not only saved her life and the lives of her family, but also saved Philip II’s cause in the Netherlands.

1573
Plantin Press publishes the Antwerp Bible.

Martyrdom of Blessed Thomas Woodhouse. He was the second priest to suffer Martyrdom under Queen Elizabeth I.

1574
Henry III become King of France. He was the last Valois King.

Death of St. Catherine of Palma, virgin.

Alessandro Ottaviano De Medici becomes Archbishop of Florence.

1575
Pope St. Gregory XIII celebrates the Holy Year Jubilee.

Pope St. Gregory XIII recognizes St. Philip Neri’s New Society of Orators.

1576
Blessed John Nelson is ordained a priest. He will glorify our Blessed Lord in Martyrdom.

Rudolph II becomes Holy Roman Emperor.

The Spanish fury at Antwerp. Antwerp is a city of Belgium, in the Archdiocese of Mechlin, situated on the Scheldt (Escaut), about sixty miles from the sea, at the confluence of the little River Schyn, at this time it was navigable. The people had been Catholic since the middle of the Seventh Century. The city was probably founded by a wandering Teutonic Tribe. On November 4 of this year, Antwerp was sacked by mutinous Spanish troops. French troops attempted a repeat of this 1583. This famous siege of the city was led by Spain’s great officer, Captain Alessandro Farnese, Duke of Parma and Piacenza. This event is among the darkest pages of the great city’s pitiful story in last decades of the Sixteenth century. At a cruel price, set rather by politics than by Religion, the Catholic Faith had been preserved in Antwerp, and Protestant domination excluded in favor of Catholic Rule.

Bishop Giovanni Antonio Fachinetti leaves his See in Venice, for health reasons, and is appointed to responsible positions in the Curia and the Holy Office of the Inquisition as well as being named Patriarch of Jerusalem by Pope St. Gregory XIII. He is the future Pope Innocent IX.

1577
Martyrdom of Blessed Cuthbert Mayne. He was the First “Seminary Priest” to be Martyred. He was a Devon man, born at Youlston, in 1544. He was brought up as a Protestant by his uncle, a schismatic priest. He abjured Protestantism and was accepted at the English College at Douay in 1573. He renounced the Queen’s supremacy over the Church.

1578
Treaty of Utrecht: Calvinism established in Holland; Belgium saved for the Catholic Faith.

Martyrdom of Blessed John Nelson. His death was the result of refusing to take Queen Elizabeth’s Oath of Supremacy. He was drawn on a hurdle from Newgate to Tyburn, where he was hanged, disembowel and quartered. He was a Jesuit priest.

Martyrdom of Blessed Thomas Sherwood. He was only 27. He too met his death for refusing to take the Queen’s Oath of Supremacy.

Emanuele Filiberto of Savoy transferred the Holy Shroud to Turin, a small town in the Piedmont area. This is where the Holy Shroud rests to this day. It was at this date that the Shroud became known as the Holy Shroud of Turin.

1579
The Dutch Republic is formed. Today the Dutch Republic is the Netherlands.

1580
Philip II, King of Spain, conquered Portugal. He became Philip I of Portugal.

Death of King Henry of Portugal. His death ended the Avis Dynasty. He was the successor to the young King Sebastian, who was killed in the battle of Alcazar.

Philip II sent the Duke of Alva to occupy Portugal. Iberian unity was realized; it lasted until 1640.