AP European History, AP exams

Unit 2: Age of Reformation (c. 1450 to c. 1648)

Unit 2 covers the Protestant and Catholic Reformations and the wars, social conflicts, and cultural changes that followed. Religious division is examined as a political and social force, not just a theological dispute. The unit ends with the settlement that closed the era of religious war.

Position: 2 of 9 units
Topics covered: 6 topics in this guide

What is covered

Topics inside this unit.

These topics describe the scope students most often review for this part of AP European History. Treat them as a study checklist rather than an exhaustive list of what a single exam form can sample.

Luther and the Protestant Reformation: Indulgences, justification by faith, the role of print, and the German princes who backed reform.
Protestant reform continues: Calvinism and predestination, Anabaptist radicalism, and the political origins of the English Reformation.
The Catholic Reformation: The Council of Trent, the Jesuits, new religious orders, and renewed church discipline and missionary activity.
Wars of religion: The French wars of religion, the Dutch revolt, and the Thirty Years War ending in the Peace of Westphalia.
Society, gender, and witch hunts: Family and marriage norms, changing expectations of women, and the early modern persecution of accused witches.
Art of the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries: Mannerism and Baroque style as expressions of religious conflict and absolutist display.

Study tips

How to practice Reformation.

Section-specific guidance that follows from how this material is usually tested.

Compare Lutheran, Calvinist, Anabaptist, and Anglican positions in a single table of beliefs and politics.
Track how each war of religion ended, since the settlements are common short-answer targets.
Practice arguing that political motives, not only faith, drove the Reformation, using specific rulers as evidence.

Where this fits

Unit 2: Age of Reformation (c. 1450 to c. 1648) is 2 of 9 units in the AP European History guide. Use the full guide to balance it against everything else you have to review.

Back to the AP European History guide Official exam information

Sample Reformation questions

Practice questions, not yet expert-reviewed

Original practice questions written to the published framework for this section. No expert has reviewed them, and they are not taken from any official exam. Try each one before you open the answer.

Question 1Foundational
The sale of which item, said to reduce the punishment due for sin, provoked Martin Luther's Ninety-Five Theses in 1517?
1. AIndulgences
2. BTithes
3. CChurch offices
4. DRelics
Show answer
Answer: A. Indulgences
Luther objected that an indulgence campaign raising money for the rebuilding of Saint Peter's misled ordinary Christians about repentance and cheapened forgiveness. Church offices are the tempting distractor because their sale, called simony, was another notorious abuse, but it was the indulgence preaching in Germany that prompted the Theses.
Key insight: The Reformation began as a protest over a specific practice and expanded into a dispute over authority itself.
Question 2Foundational
Which doctrine at the center of Luther's teaching held that salvation comes through faith alone rather than through good works?
1. AJustification by faith alone
2. BPredestination
3. CTransubstantiation
4. DPapal supremacy
Show answer
Answer: A. Justification by faith alone
Luther taught that grace received by faith justifies the sinner, which stripped pilgrimages, indulgences, and other meritorious works of their saving value. Predestination is the tempting distractor because it is also a Protestant doctrine, but it is most closely associated with Calvin's teaching that God has already chosen who will be saved.
Key insight: Doctrinal differences among reformers were also political, because they implied different church structures.
Question 3Intermediate
Which reformer taught the doctrine of predestination and built a disciplined reformed church order in Geneva?
1. AJohn Calvin
2. BMartin Luther
3. CHuldrych Zwingli
4. DJohn Knox
Show answer
Answer: A. John Calvin
Calvin set out his system in the Institutes of the Christian Religion and made Geneva a training ground that sent preachers to France, the Netherlands, Scotland, and England. John Knox is the tempting distractor because he spread the same theology, but he did so in Scotland after studying Calvin's Geneva firsthand.
Key insight: Calvinism spread through an organized international network, which made it the most portable form of Protestantism.
Question 4Intermediate
Which council meeting between 1545 and 1563 reaffirmed Catholic doctrine and tightened clerical discipline in response to the Protestant Reformation?
1. AThe Council of Trent
2. BThe Council of Constance
3. CThe Diet of Worms
4. DThe Peace of Augsburg
Show answer
Answer: A. The Council of Trent
Trent restated the doctrines Protestants had rejected, upheld tradition alongside scripture, and required seminaries to train better-educated clergy. The Diet of Worms is the tempting distractor because it also responded to Luther, but it was the 1521 imperial assembly at which he refused to recant.
Key insight: The Catholic Reformation combined doctrinal defense with genuine institutional reform and new missionary energy.
Question 5Advanced
Which 1648 settlement ended the Thirty Years War and extended the right of rulers to determine their state's religion to include Calvinism?
1. AThe Peace of Westphalia
2. BThe Peace of Augsburg
3. CThe Edict of Nantes
4. DThe Treaty of Utrecht
Show answer
Answer: A. The Peace of Westphalia
Westphalia closed the last great war of religion, recognized Dutch and Swiss independence, and applied the principle that a ruler's faith set the official religion to Calvinist as well as Lutheran and Catholic states. The Peace of Augsburg is the tempting distractor because it established that principle in 1555, but it recognized only Lutheranism and Catholicism.
Key insight: Track how each war of religion ended, since the settlements are frequent short-answer targets.

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Unit 2: Age of Reformation (c. 1450 to c. 1648)