<P> The Catholic Church responded to the Reformation with the Counter Reformation . Some of Luther and Calvin's criticisms were heeded: the selling of indulgences was reined in by the Council of Trent in 1562 . But exuberant baroque architecture and art was embraced as an affirmation of the faith and new seminaries and orders were established to lead missions to far off lands . An important leader in this movement was Saint Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus (Jesuit Order) which gained many converts and sent such famous missionaries as Saints Matteo Ricci to China, Francis Xavier to India and Peter Claver to the Americas . </P> <P> As princes, kings and emperors chose sides in religious debates and sought national unity, religious wars erupted throughout Europe, especially in the Holy Roman Empire . Emperor Charles V was able to arrange the Peace of Augsburg between the warring Catholic and Protestant nobility . However, in 1618, the Thirty Years' War began between Protestants and Catholics in the empire, which eventually involved neighboring countries like France . The devastating war finally ended in 1648 . In the Peace of Westphalia ending the war, Lutheranism, Catholicism and Calvinism were all granted toleration in the empire . The two major centers of power in the empire after the war were Protestant Prussia in the north and Catholic Austria in the south . The Dutch, who were ruled by the Spanish at the time, revolted and gained independence, founding a Protestant country . In 1588 the staunchly Catholic Spanish attempted to conquer Protestant England with a large fleet of ships (the Spanish Armada), however a storm destroyed the fleet, bringing a famous victory to Queen Elizabeth I of England . The defeat of the Spanish Armada associated her name forever with what is popularly viewed as one of the greatest victories in English history . The Elizabethan era is famous above all for the flourishing of English drama, led by playwrights such as William Shakespeare and for the seafaring prowess of English adventurers such as Sir Francis Drake . Her 44 years on the throne provided welcome stability and helped forge a sense of national identity . One of her first moves as queen was to support the establishment of an English Protestant church, of which she became the Supreme Governor of what was to become the Church of England . </P> <P> By 1650, the religious map of Europe had been redrawn: Scandinavia, Iceland, north Germany, part of Switzerland, Netherlands and Britain were Protestant, while the rest of the West remained Catholic . A byproduct of the Reformation was increasingly literacy as Protestant powers pursued an aim of educating more people to be able to read the Bible . </P> <P> From its dawn until modern times, the West had suffered invasions from Africa, Asia, and non-Western parts of Europe . By 1500 Westerners took advantage of their new technologies, sallied forth into unknown waters, expanded their power and the Age of Discovery began, with Western explorers from seafaring nations like Portugal and Castile (later Spain) and later Holland, France and England setting forth from the "Old World" to chart faraway shipping routes and discover "new worlds". </P>

What was important about the canterbury tales that had been done rarely before