The word or phrase that best describes the political and religious atmosphere of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries is "tumultuous" (D). During this period, the church was in a crisis. It was losing power and the European peasants were rising up against the way they were being treated by the church and the noblemen. The Reformation also moved the centre of power from the Roman Catholic Church to the German Lutheran church. Martin Luther was one of the leaders of the Reformation.