Clement V moves the papacy to Avignon, in a move which is expected to be temporary but which lasts for nearly seventy years

John Wycliffe, writing mainly in Oxford, is critical of the contemporary church and can find no basis for the pope's authority

The papal curia returns to Rome in what would seem a conclusive move if there were not, two years later, two popes - one of them elected back in Avignon

The French cardinals, objecting to the new Italian pope, elect their own man as Clement VII - and thus inaugurate the Great Schism of the papacy

The followers of Wycliffe, after his death, become known as Lollards or 'mutterers'

John Huss, known for his radical approach to Christianity, is put in charge of the Bethlehem Chapel in Prague

The Council at Pisa elects a new pope, Alexander V, without persuading the other two to resign - bringing the total to an unprecedented three

A council is called at Constance, to consider the radical views of John Huss and to deal with the present excess of popes

John Huss, invited to Constance under a promise of safe conduct, is arrested, tried and burnt at the stake as a heretic

The Compacts of Prague, agreed with the papacy in 1433, allow the Hussite laity to receive the sacrament in both kinds

The French clergy pass a resolution at Bourges, limiting the power of the papacy within France, which is adopted by the king as a 'pragmatic sanction'

Erasmus publishes an influential edition of the New Testament in its original Greek

The local sale of indulgences by Johann Tetzel outrages a friar teaching in Wittenberg, Martin Luther

Martin Luther nails his 95 Theses to the door of the castle church in Wittenberg

Philipp Melanchthon joins the Wittenberg university to teach Greek and inspires Luther to translate the New Testament

Europe's new printing presses make possible the first pamphlet war, spreading instant arguments for and against the Reformation

Luther's writings are burnt in Rome by order of the pope

Pope Leo X excommunicates Martin Luther after he has refused to recant

Luther travels to the German city of Worms to present his case to an imperial diet

Luther bears witness to a Protestant conscience, stating at Worms: 'Here I stand, I can not do otherwise.'

Outlawed by the Edict of Worms, Luther lives secretly in the Wartburg as Junker Georg

Huldreich Zwingli eats sausage in Lent in Zurich, launching the Swiss Reformation

Hans Sachs, popular poet and master singer, describes Luther as the Wittenberg nightingale

William Tyndale studies in the university at Wittenberg and plans to translate the Bible into English

Luther, a former friar, marries Catherine von Bora, a former nun who has just emerged from her convent