WI Charles V embraces Luther?

Instead of issuing the Edict of Worms and condenming Luther as a heretic, Charles V respects the clamor to clean up the corruption in the Church, and becomes a champion of the Protestants. Maybe he sees an advantage in the reduction of the temporal authority of Rome.

What happens next?
 
Ah this is one of my favorite PoDs.

A great many things could happen if Charles V converts to Lutheranism. First as above stated, Aragon and especially Castille would not be happy. However the Germany would like flock to him if it meant that they would be able to keep the money that traditionally went to the church in Germany. Now likely the Pope would declare him a heretic and would force the election of an Anti-Emperor. However by then Charles would likely have been able to rally much of Austria, Burgundy, Saxony, and Bohemia to his side along with much of Northern Germany. I sure a handful of states would remain loyal to Rome especially those with a vested interest against the Emperor. Iberia is a little more interesting, while it is true Iberia was largely devotely Catholic, I think that given their fear of the inquistion, if their King stood up and denounced the Catholic Church, many, again especially in Aragon, would rise with him. In anycase you're likely to see the out break of war in both regions. What would be quite interesting is would would then happen with Henry VIII?
 
Iberia is a little more interesting, while it is true Iberia was largely devotely Catholic, I think that given their fear of the inquistion, if their King stood up and denounced the Catholic Church, many, again especially in Aragon, would rise with him. In anycase you're likely to see the out break of war in both regions. What would be quite interesting is would would then happen with Henry VIII?

I'm not sure Aragon would be inclined towards Protestantism with any POD after 1500. The Inquisition did wonders to enforce religious homogeneity, and were Charles to embrace the Lutheran heresy (as the Spanish saw it), all of Castile and Aragon would rebel against him.
 
From what I understand, the mid 16th century saw Poland trending Calvinist and some states in present-day Northern Italy trending likewise. Also, large parts of Hungary trended Calvinist before a Counter-Reformation intervention reasserted Catholicism in most parts (some Calvinist communities remain in modern Hungary.) The Reformation in Poland was crushed by the Jesuits. The "behind the scenes" work of the Counter-Reformation was successful in many instances. I hope someone can intervene and better describe the mechanisms behind "preserving" Catholic realms. I suspect, however, that not all reformations concerned the seizing of Church property.

What about France? I could very well see parts of France embracing Calvinism. Indeed, northern France became crypto-Calvinist/Jansenist for a time in the 18th century.

Why did Flanders and Wallonia remain Catholic, while Holland became Calvinist? Did the Dutch embrace Reformed Christianity in opposition to the Spanish Hapsburgs, or from religious piety, or both?

The OTL Reformation is quite a mixed bag. Out of it came the Anglican church, which is a Catholic-Reformed compromise. I wonder if in an ATL reformation more countries would have tried a 'hybrid' approach out of political expediency along the Elizabethan establishment. A settlement similar to the Anglican compromise happened in Sweden, for example: Lutheran theology merged with an apostolic episcopate. Perhaps other countries would have tried a similar route with Calvinism, creating a proto-Jansenism with an episcopate and state control. It's important to remember that the doctrines and liturgical practices of European national Protestant churches have changed markedly over time. For example, Anglican theology and liturgy has vascillated between Catholic and Reformed expressions over time. I would think that ATL Protestant-Catholic hybrids would likewise exhibit different theological and liturgical tendencies throughout the alternate history.
 
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Why did Flanders and Wallonia remain Catholic, while Holland became Calvinist? Did the Dutch embrace Reformed Christianity in opposition to the Spanish Hapsburgs, or from religious piety, or both?
It didn't, at least Flanders didn't remain Catholic. In fact the Dutch reformation started in Flanders and Brabant and spread north from there. Only when the Spanish managed to recapture these areas, they were turned back to catholisism (together with the Dutch areas who now have a catholic majority North Brabant, Limburg, Twente etc.). Many Flemish and southern Brabant protestants fled to the Netherlands when that happened, while others were converted back to catholicism (and many probably died at the hands of the inquisition).
the Walloon areas did remain catholic, I believe, although I know various Walloon protestants fled to the Netherlands too. Why the Walloon parts remained catholic, I don't know. Maybe it was the influence of France.
 
I think the big hurdle is getting Charles to not be King of Spain. This adds a new dynamic to the entire period, as he would probably be competing along with France with who ever ruled Spain for control of Italy. Perhaps Charles does something or a new pro-spanish or pro-french pope is elected, and picks a fight with Charles forcing him to truly consider abandoning Rome.

Of course if this happens I suspect that the HRE would become the German Reich several hundred years early.
 
It didn't, at least Flanders didn't remain Catholic. In fact the Dutch reformation started in Flanders and Brabant and spread north from there. Only when the Spanish managed to recapture these areas, they were turned back to catholisism (together with the Dutch areas who now have a catholic majority North Brabant, Limburg, Twente etc.). Many Flemish and southern Brabant protestants fled to the Netherlands when that happened, while others were converted back to catholicism (and many probably died at the hands of the inquisition).
the Walloon areas did remain catholic, I believe, although I know various Walloon protestants fled to the Netherlands too. Why the Walloon parts remained catholic, I don't know. Maybe it was the influence of France.

Thanks pompejus for the clarification. Are there any visible remains of Reformation in Flanders/Brabant? By this I mean iconoclasm -- along the lines of what happened in OTL 16th/17th century England? Perhaps it's a stereotype, but when I think of Dutch Calvinism I think of a strong iconoclastic tradition. One of the more fascinating aspects of the Reformation is its effect on Church art and architecture. I've always been interested in the iconoclastic effects, and wonder what those effects would look like in an ATL Reformation where more areas of Europe trended Protestant.
 
Ah this is one of my favorite PoDs.

A great many things could happen if Charles V converts to Lutheranism. First as above stated, Aragon and especially Castille would not be happy. However the Germany would like flock to him if it meant that they would be able to keep the money that traditionally went to the church in Germany. Now likely the Pope would declare him a heretic and would force the election of an Anti-Emperor. However by then Charles would likely have been able to rally much of Austria, Burgundy, Saxony, and Bohemia to his side along with much of Northern Germany. I sure a handful of states would remain loyal to Rome especially those with a vested interest against the Emperor. Iberia is a little more interesting, while it is true Iberia was largely devotely Catholic, I think that given their fear of the inquistion, if their King stood up and denounced the Catholic Church, many, again especially in Aragon, would rise with him. In anycase you're likely to see the out break of war in both regions. What would be quite interesting is would would then happen with Henry VIII?

One of the really important parts of this POD that you are missing is that Charles V would not be converting to Lutheranism, he would simply be embracing Luther's proposed reforms of the Catholic Church. This is an important distinction because (I believe) if Charles V embraced these concepts it would be in an effort to get out in front of a about-to-be-prevailing trend. Part of the point of embracing Luther is to gain Imperial control over the Church, but in order to do that the structure of the Church needs to be maintained, ala Henry VIII's "reform" of England's Church.

I think a Charles V sans Spain would be willing to embrace these kinds of Lutheran reforms, seeing as he has the humanist background growing up in the Netherlands, and without Spain to worry about he would probably be looking for a way to gain more control over the HRE. Not being the King of Spain would also not terribly handicap him in the effort to become HRE, since his bid was financed by German bankers anyway (the wealth of the Americas having not yet arrived).

For Spain, how about that Portugese kid survives, so that all three crowns of Spain can be united by a single King? This is a family member, so Charles can maintain a German-Spanish alliance against France. I don't know how exactly he came to inherit the Italian possessions, but IIRC they were all inherited through the Spanish line. This will really help out the alliance with Spain, since Charles will be able to focus on the Northern France border and the Turks to the East, and with this reduction in strategic competition the embrace of Luther might even not stir too much emnity.

The reforms that Luther proposed were basically for the reduction of corruption within the Church, measures that were later carried out during the Counter-Reformation. If the reformer Luther is embraced by the Holy Roman Emperor during the height of corruption in Rome, isn't it possible that this will simply spur other royal attempts at battling corruption within their national churchs?
 
Thanks pompejus for the clarification. Are there any visible remains of Reformation in Flanders/Brabant? By this I mean iconoclasm -- along the lines of what happened in OTL 16th/17th century England? Perhaps it's a stereotype, but when I think of Dutch Calvinism I think of a strong iconoclastic tradition. One of the more fascinating aspects of the Reformation is its effect on Church art and architecture. I've always been interested in the iconoclastic effects, and wonder what those effects would look like in an ATL Reformation where more areas of Europe trended Protestant.

There was the beeldenstorm, a big iconoclastic event that started in Flanders and spread towards the rest of the Netherlands. I don't know of any visible remains of it, maybe a slight lack of medieval religious artifacts compared to other catholic areas, but i don't think there are more remains, the cotrareformation was ruthless.
 
What about France? I could very well see parts of France embracing Calvinism. Indeed, northern France became crypto-Calvinist/Jansenist for a time in the 18th century.
Huguenots. A fair portion of southern France was protestant in the 16th century, with some considerable power behind them-- see the 7/8-odd French Wars of Religion for proof of that. As to how Calvinist the Huguenots were... I'm not really certain. I'd assume they were quite Calvinist, what with Jean Calvin being French and Dutch Calvinism spreading from southern provinces and French preachers.
 
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