- South America
The El Dorado tradition
At Lake Guatavita, Muisca ritual offerings of gold to the waters give rise to the legend of El Dorado that would lure Spanish expeditions inland.
Era: Goldsmiths and Megalith Carvers
Sources: Museo del Oro (Gold Museum) · Banco de la Republica de Colombia, History of Colombia · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Asia
Ismail I and the Safavid empire
Crowned shah at Tabriz with his base in Azerbaijan, Ismail I founded the Safavid dynasty and made Twelver Shia Islam the state religion, binding the land to Persia.
Era: Persian khanates and Russian annexation
Sources: Safavid dynasty · Encyclopædia Britannica, Ismāʿīl I, shah of Iran · Encyclopædia Britannica
- Asia
Ismail I founds the Safavid dynasty and Shia Iran
Ismail I captures Tabriz, proclaims himself shah, and declares Twelver Shia Islam the state religion, setting Iran apart from its Sunni neighbours and shaping its identity to the present day.
Era: Turkic and Mongol Rule and the Safavids
Sources: Safavid dynasty · Encyclopaedia Britannica, Safavid Iran · Wikipedia
- Africa
Fall of Alodia
The last Christian Nubian kingdom, Alodia, collapses as new Muslim powers rise on the central Nile, ending Nubian Christianity's long ascendancy.
Era: The Christian Kingdoms of Nubia
Sources: Funj Sultanate · Wikipedia, Nubia (Christian kingdoms: Nobatia, Makuria, Alodia) · Wikipedia
- Asia
Islam consolidates in Maguindanao
The conversion of ruling families on Mindanao, associated with the missionary Sharif Muhammad Kabungsuwan, founds the Sultanate of Maguindanao, which expands through the 16th and 17th centuries.
Era: Barangays, Indianised Polities and the Islamic Sultanates
Sources: Maguindanao people (Sultanate of Maguindanao; Sultan Kudarat) · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Europe
Rise of the theocratic Prince-Bishopric
Authority over the free Montenegrin highlands passed to the Orthodox bishops of Cetinje, who combined spiritual and temporal power as vladikas in a theocratic state that renounced Ottoman overlordship.
Era: The Prince-Bishopric and the Petrovic-Njegos Resistance
Sources: Vladika: the Montenegrin prince-bishop · Encyclopaedia Britannica, Montenegro: History · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Europe
Luther's Ninety-five Theses
Martin Luther issued his Ninety-five Theses against the sale of indulgences, sparking the Protestant Reformation that split Western Christianity and reshaped German society and language.
Era: The Holy Roman Empire and the Reformation
Sources: Ninety-five Theses · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Europe
Zwingli's Reformation in Zürich
Huldrych Zwingli began preaching reform from the Grossmünster in Zürich, launching the Swiss Reformation; the movement won over several cities while the inner cantons remained Catholic, dividing the Confederation by confession.
Era: Marignano, the Reformation and the Turn to Neutrality
Sources: Huldrych Zwingli · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Africa
Chapel of Nossa Senhora do Baluarte built
On the Island of Mozambique the Portuguese raise the small chapel of Nossa Senhora do Baluarte, often called the oldest surviving European building in the southern hemisphere.
Era: Da Gama and the Portuguese Seizure of the Coast
Sources: Island of Mozambique — World Heritage List · UNESCO, Island of Mozambique UNESCO World Heritage Site · National Geographic
- Europe
The Reformation at Västerås
At the Riksdag of Västerås, Gustav Vasa broke with Rome, transferred the Catholic Church's property to the crown and took control of church administration, beginning Sweden's transformation into a Lutheran state.
Era: The Vasa Monarchy and the Swedish Reformation
Sources: Gustav Vasa and the Reformation · Swedish History Museum (Historiska museet), Decisions that have changed Sweden 1523–2023 · Sveriges Riksdag (Swedish Parliament), Sweden: The early Vasa kings (1523–1611) · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Europe
Act of Supremacy and the break with Rome
Parliament declared Henry VIII Supreme Head of the Church of England, ending papal authority in England and launching the English Reformation and the dissolution of the monasteries.
Era: Tudors, the Reformation, and the first empire
Sources: Henry VIII · Encyclopaedia Britannica, The Reformation in England · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Europe
The Reformation under Christian III
After winning the Count's War, Christian III dissolved the authority of the Catholic bishops and established a Lutheran state church, making Denmark-Norway a Protestant realm and strengthening the crown.
Era: Reformation, Denmark-Norway and the Wars with Sweden
Sources: Christian III, king of Denmark and Norway · Encyclopaedia Britannica, Denmark: Reformation and war · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Europe
Calvin and the Reformation in Geneva
John Calvin began the work that made Geneva the international centre of Reformed Protestantism, deepening the confessional division between the Protestant west and Catholic centre of Switzerland.
Era: Marignano, the Reformation and the Turn to Neutrality
Sources: John Calvin · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Europe
Islamization and a multi-confessional society
Over generations much of Bosnia's Slavic population converted to Islam, creating, alongside Orthodox, Catholic and Jewish communities, the uniquely interwoven multi-confessional society that defines the country.
Era: Ottoman Bosnia and the Making of a Multi-Confessional Land
Sources: Bosnia and Herzegovina: Ottoman Bosnia · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Europe
Execution of Bishop Jón Arason
Jón Arason, bishop of Hólar and the last Catholic bishop in Iceland, was beheaded with his two sons at Skálholt for resisting the Danish-imposed Reformation, after which Iceland became fully Lutheran.
Era: Under Norway and Denmark: Reformation, Monopoly and Famine
Sources: Jón Arason · Encyclopaedia Britannica, Iceland: History · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Europe
Peace of Augsburg
The imperial diet established the first lasting legal coexistence of Lutheranism and Catholicism, letting each prince set his territory's religion under the principle cuius regio, eius religio.
Era: The Holy Roman Empire and the Reformation
Sources: Peace of Augsburg · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Europe
The Elizabethan Religious Settlement
Elizabeth I's settlement re-established royal headship of the Church and a Protestant order, ending decades of religious upheaval and shaping the Church of England for centuries.
Era: Tudors, the Reformation, and the first empire
Sources: Elizabeth I · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Europe
The Beeldenstorm (Iconoclasm)
Calvinist crowds destroy religious images in churches across the Low Countries, provoking a harsh Spanish crackdown and pushing the provinces toward revolt.
Era: The Dutch Revolt and the Birth of the Republic
Sources: Eighty Years' War · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Asia
Two communities take shape
Under Ottoman rule the Orthodox Church was restored and its archbishop made leader of the Greek Cypriots, while Muslim settlement established the Turkish Cypriot community alongside it.
Era: Crusader Kingdom, Venetian Colony and Ottoman Conquest
Sources: Cyprus: Ottoman rule · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Europe
Union of Arras and the split of the Low Countries
The Catholic southern provinces reaffirmed loyalty to Spain in the Union of Arras while the northern provinces formed the Union of Utrecht, beginning the permanent division of the Low Countries into Belgium and the Netherlands.
Era: The Burgundian and Habsburg Netherlands
Sources: Belgium: History · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Europe
Edict of Nantes
Henry IV grants toleration to Protestants, ending the Wars of Religion.
Era: The Medieval & Early-Modern Kingdom
Sources: Edict of Nantes · Encyclopædia Britannica
Religion in the 16th century
Every event in the Terralore archive tagged religion — faiths, institutions and religious change, narrowed to the 16th century — 21 of them, drawn from 18 nations, running from 1500 to 1598. Each entry keeps the sources it was verified against and links back to the chronicle it came from.
- Events
- 21
- Nations
- 18
- Earliest
- 1500
- Latest
- 1598
- Europe
- 14
- Asia
- 4
- Africa
- 2
- South America
- 1
Every entry below is the same record, with the same sources, as the one on its nation’s chronicle.