ABSTRACT
By mid-century the Reformations were solidly established. The year 1555 saw Lutheranism recognized in the Empire at the Peace o f Augsburg and Calvin’s final and decisive victory in Geneva. It was also the year in which King Sigismund II Augustus o f Poland granted freedom o f worship to all Protestants, including the radicals. The Catholic Reformation had embarked on its course: the second session o f the Council o f Trent at which the Lutherans had made a brief appearance was over, and in 1555 Paul IV ascended the papal throne, typifying the radicalization o f Catholicism in its opposition against the Protestants. Poland, in the east, seemed definitely lost, but England that same year was returning to the Catholic fold.
