As your
question implies, the Protestant Reformation was in full swing during the latter part of the
sixteenth century and spreading rapidly in new lands. This was particularly the case in
Scotland, the Netherlands, France, and Hungary.
In 1560, Scotland was still
recovering from a widespread and sometimes violent church "cleansing," in which poor
and dissatisfied Scots attacked abbeys and parishes to strip them of their valuables and other
signs of Catholic excess. In August of that year, the Scottish Parliament met and restored the
Scottish church according to Protestant dogma and practices. Under this parliament, Papal
authority in Scotland was made null, and the practice of Catholic mass was made
illegal.
In the Netherlands, the 1579 Treaty of Utrecht united much of the
region under home rule. Previously, while under Spanish dominion, Protestants had been subjected
to persecution. The Dutch Republic was established largely to safeguard Dutch Protestants, and
Calvinism became the widely practiced religion of the region.
France had had
significant Protestant populations since the days of John Calvin. However, in the 1560s and
1570s, the number of French who became Huguenots increased, despite widespread persecution. In
1598, the legal status of most French Protestants became protected when King Henry IV issued the
Edict of Nantes. This led to more Calvinists and Huguenots settling in France.
There was also a large increase in Protestantism in Hungary at this time. Clashes
between Protestants and Catholics had been ongoing for much of the 1500s. However, much of this
settled down after the Transylvanian Diet of Turda in 1558, which protected the right to worship
for both Lutherans and Catholics. This religious freedom was extended to various degrees to all
Christian sects in the 1560s and led to a proliferation of Protestants in
Hungary.
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