alternatehistory.com

So I've recently became interested in the early 1500s and have began pondering this: what if the Protestant reformation never occurred? The POD can be any number of things: Pope Leo X never being elected or never going so far in selling indulgences, Martin Luther never penning the ninety five theses, Luther's ideas never catching on or some other reason. The end result is that the reformation died before it began. What is the short and long-term repercussions of such a momentous change? Would we see Europe remaining Catholic until the present day? Would the Holy Roman Empire as a semi-centralized institution survive without the religious wars of the 1500 and 1600s? Could the various reformists of the renaissance era successfully implement their ideas? Or would we see a more violent era, with various nations attempting to reform the church on a national level?
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