TL: Holy Empire of the Church of Christ

My first timeline!

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The Protestant Reformation: Luther's Revolution

The Holy Roman Empire forms after the collapse of the Roman Empire, and divides, East and West, with the East being absorbed and defeated by the Ottomans. Catholicism is now the dominate religion of Europe.

In 1517, a friar from Wittenberg named Martin Luther denounces church practices, and writes 95 theses on church abuses. Fellow Germans listen to him, and he begins a revolution, attacking the Catholic Church for selling indulgences. He begins a Lutheran ministry, and the Holy Roman Emperor excommunicates him from the church.

Philip Melanchthon, Luther's primary follower, gathers a corps of Lutherans in Saxony, and declares a "war" against the Catholic Church. Meanwhile, other reformations are occurring in Switzerland with Huldrych Zwingli and in the Netherlands with Jean Cauvin.

A group of Prussian princes decide to aide the Lutherans and establish a quasi-government in Saxony, a religious government based on the system of the Holy Roman Empire. Scholars suggest the young government to follow a system similar to the Ottomans, who created a religious empire based on Islam. The new government forms as the "Holy Empire of the Church of Christ," led by Luther and other Lutheran followers. The HRE denounces this new "regime" as illegitimate, and openly declares war, marching into Saxony.

The HECC based its government on the Ottoman system, with a "sultan" (in this case, "friar") as the supreme leader, with Lutheran-based common law and legal system. It's structured similar to the church.

HECC System -- Leader(s)
Friar Martin Luther (1517 - 1520)
Parson Philip Melanchthon
Various Ministers
Legislative parliament, the Reichstat
Various provinces governed by Lutheran churches

To be continued...
 
No, sorry, that's really not how the H.R.E formed.

More to the point, Melancthon was a moderate. In the early 1520s, Luther was under house arrest, and unable to act to lead the Reformation. Finally, both Melancthon and Luther were instinctive social conservatives who are unlikely to have founded a new state, certainly not one based on the Ottomans.
 
No, sorry, that's really not how the H.R.E formed.

More to the point, Melancthon was a moderate. In the early 1520s, Luther was under house arrest, and unable to act to lead the Reformation. Finally, both Melancthon and Luther were instinctive social conservatives who are unlikely to have founded a new state, certainly not one based on the Ottomans.

Ok, I am new at this, cut me a break. I'll revise it. Give me some time.
 
Ok, I am new at this, cut me a break. I'll revise it. Give me some time.

Apologies, I got quite irate once I noticed the blatant ignorance of later Roman history.

Your best bet is probably something later on involving the Schmalkaldic League; in OTL, the main reason the Protestants never formed a particuarly strong defensive alliance is that the Ottomans kept continually relieving the pressure when they were most in danger. If you can reduce Ottoman power in the Mediterranean, then Charles V's attention is consistently focused on the Lutherans, giving them much more incentive to form a permanent millitary alliance.

Hope this helps. :)
 

Philip

Donor
Geoffrey Chaucer;2928545[B said:
][/B]The Holy Roman Empire forms after the collapse of the Roman Empire, and divides, East and West,

Not really.

In 1517, a friar from Wittenberg named Martin Luther denounces church practices, and writes 95 theses on church abuses. Fellow Germans listen to him, and he begins a revolution, attacking the Catholic Church for selling indulgences.

So, I guess TTL has a radically different Luther than OTL?

He begins a Lutheran ministry, and the Holy Roman Emperor excommunicates him from the church.
Um, the HRE can't excommunicate anyone. That's a job for a bishop.

Philip Melanchthon, Luther's primary follower, gathers a corps of Lutherans in Saxony, and declares a "war" against the Catholic Church.

And Melanchthon bears no resemblance to OTL's version? And why do the German princes permit this?

Meanwhile, other reformations are occurring in Switzerland with Huldrych Zwingli and in the Netherlands with Jean Cauvin.
Calvin was 8 years old in 1517. How much time has passed in these few sentences?

A group of Prussian princes decide to aide the Lutherans and establish a quasi-government in Saxony, a religious government based on the system of the Holy Roman Empire.

This makes little sense -- it completely flies in the face of Luther's Doctrine of the Two Kingdoms.

Scholars suggest the young government to follow a system similar to the Ottomans, who created a religious empire based on Islam.

Why would they do that?

To be continued...
I think you should first look some more at OTL persons you are using here.
 
Revised!!!

The Creation of the "Holy Church of Christ"

In 1517, a Dominican friar named Martin Luther wrote 95 theses denouncing church practices, mainly the selling of indulgences. This sparked an uproar, and Luther was excommunicated from the church. Following Luther's excommunication, a group of German radicals, intellectuals, and moderate Catholics formed an abbey in Wittenberg, Luther's hometown; the abbey was governed by an order, the "Augustinian Order of Luther." In 1546, Luther died, and he was sainted, and the Order re-named itself the "Augustinian Order of Saint Luther the Intellectual."

The Order created its own church, moving to Saxony, the Holy Church of Christ. The HCC was governed by an Abbot (and sometimes Abbotess), under strict Lutheran guidelines. The abbots who governed the monastery dreamed of uniting all of the Protestant sects (mainly now Zwinglianism and Calvinism) under one religion, and welcomed those followers into the abbey. The HCC wanted to challenge the HRE, and eventually topple it, but it seemed unlikely. The new church grew a large following, and eventually went non-denominational Christian, although it allowed no Catholics (except moderates) into its church. Its influences spread mainly south into the Italian provinces, notably Piedmont and Sardinia.

Although not a "true government" per se, the Order based its system on the theocracy of Huldrych Zwingli. It created a parliament, called the Reichstat, and was more of an international institution: meaning, as the HCC grew, it allowed Protestant nations to send representatives into the Reichstat to make policy.
 
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