This list of propositions criticized the practice of selling indulgences, remissions of the punishment meted out for sin in Purgatory.
Luther's criticism snowballed into a massive schism in the church, and from there into a split among the states of the empire.
On December 28, 1604, following military reverses and an economic crisis in Hungary, the Hungarian nobleman Stephen Bocskai launched a revolt.
The fiercely Catholic Ferdinand II had suppressed Protestantism on his lands in Styria and had repudiated the Letter of Majesty.
On August 26, 1619, the estates of Bohemia deposed Ferdinand II and elected Frederick V, elector Palatine, as king.