mmunity of the clergy, the nobility held similar views toward the Church. Hence the Reformation presented an intriguing opportunity to break with the church and to align against the emergent national rulers - particularly in the Holy Roman Empire with the Catholic Charles V in power. It would not be until the Diet of Augsburg and the subsequent formation of the Schmalkaldic League that the nobility of the Holy Roman Empire would formally align against the Catholic emperor. Despite Charles' anti-Protestant proclamation at the meeting, with the Peace of Augsburg in 1555, the division of the Holy Roman Empire was firmly established. These events which transpired in the first years of the reformation will firmly establish the basis for the massive religious wars which are to sweep the continent in the coming years. Furthermore, these new Protestant alliances will come to define international politics in the next century. The impact of these first years of the Reformation perhaps will not be fully realized until the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648, when the Holy Roman Emperor will lose nearly all his power as some 300 German states gain their independence. The Protestant movement will bring much more than scholarly reforms to the churches of Northern Europe, changing the traditional doctrines and customs of their prior Catholic beliefs as well. Before the Reformation, the corruption of the Church was widespread and common. Rome drifted from its original pious doctrine, venturing into more secular and worldly enterprises, as demonstrated with its undertaking with the Fugger banking family and the selling of the 1517 indulgences to finance the building of St. Peter's in Rome. Scandals such the Great Schism and Valla's expos of the Donation of Constantine had created much mistrust, and abuses of the clergy were apparent from the practice of simony to the frequent violation of clerical celibacy. It is of little wonder then why Martin Lut...
