Text 1: Historian Park argues that the Reformation succeeded in Northern Europe and failed in Southern Europe largely because of political fragmentation. In the Holy Roman Empire's patchwork of principalities, individual rulers could break with Rome; centralized monarchies in Spain and Italy more easily suppressed dissent.
Text 2: Historian Singh accepts political fragmentation as a factor but argues that economic geography mattered as much. Northern Europe's growing commercial cities provided audiences for reformist pamphlets and merchants who chafed at Roman fees; the rural, agrarian South had less of either. Politics shaped possibilities, Singh contends, but economics shaped which possibilities were pursued.
Both authors would most likely agree that
- Acheck_circle
the geographical pattern of Reformation success had structural causes.
- B
the Reformation succeeded equally everywhere in Europe.
- C
Northern and Southern Europe had identical political structures.
- D
no political or economic factors shaped religious change.
Explanation
Both authors offer structural explanations for the geographical pattern. A is shared. B, C, and D contradict both.