(1) Divisions in the European nations:
The schism in the church led to the division of religious practices in the same country. North Germany became Lutheran while South Germany remained Catholic. England became Protestant while Scotland and the people of Ireland became devout Catholics.
(2) Literacy:
The printing press encouraged the printing of various religious teaching of reformation movement and also reading ofthe same by common people were encouraged to read and understand the Bible. The use of vernacular language in preaching and the translation of Bible in regional languages opened a new avenue to reach ordinary people.
(3) Status of Women:
Due to the opposition of celibacy in churches, the pastors of the Protestant churches became married men. This strengthened the role of women in household and in churches. Women were encouraged to read the Bible and bring up the children in Protestant methods. This led to the increase in literacy level of women.
(4) Power of Kings:
The reformation movement gave more power to some rulers such as Henry VIII, who became the head of both the state and the Church.
(5) Race for colonies:
Both the Protestants and the Catholics wanted to convert people from other parts of the world to their own religious beliefs. The Spanish conquest in South America was followed by Jesuit priests (a new sect of Roman Catholics created to spread Catholicism). The Puritans, Catholics and Anglicansset up their churches in the thirteen British colonies of North-America.
(6) Spread of Christianity:
The availability of gold and silver from the colonies made the European nations to send explorers in the guise of missionaries to various parts of the world. ''First the missionary, then the gun boat, then the land grabbing" that was the sequence of events people of the succeeding generation had to contend with.

1. The reformation movement had a few pioneers. Erasmus was a protester of many Church practices and teachings.
2. His well known work, The Praise of Folly (1511), made fun of theologians and monks.
3. Others likehim who worked towards reform two centuries before him were John Wycliffe and John Hus.
4. They preached the gospel in the language of the people, and not in Latin. John Wycliffe, an English clergyman, was famous as the first translator of the Bible into English.
5. He managed to escape the anger of Rome during his life time, but in 1415, after thirty one years of his death, a Church Council ordered that his bones should be dug up and burnt. And this was faithfully carried out.
6. Though the bones ofWycliffe could be burnt, his views could not easily be suppressed.The event reached Bohemia, and influenced John Huss.
7. Huss, the head of the Prague University, was excommunicated by the Pope for his views. As he was popular in his town he escaped harm.
8. Promising a safe conduct by the Emperor, he was invited to Constance (Konstanz) in Switzerland, where a Church Council was in session. He was pressurised to confess his error.
9. When he refused, in spite of their promise for his safety, he was burnt alive.

The causes of the beginning of the Revolution were
(a) the capture of Mediterranean trade by the Italian cities;
(b) the development of a flourishing trade between Italian cities and the merchants of Hanseatic League (a merchant guild) in northern Europe;
(c) introduction of coins such as the Duca of Venice and the florin of Florence;
(d) the accumulation of surplus earned out of trading, shipping and mining enterprises;
(e) the demand for war materials and the encouragement given by the new monarchs to the development of commerce in order to create more taxable wealth.