- Apr 29 Flemish woman introduces practice of starching linen into England
- Jun 26 Christ's Hospital in London, England, granted a charter by King Edward VI to house and teach children of the poor
- Jul 9 Battle at Sievershausen: Saxons-Brunwick alliance led by Elector Maurice defeat forces of Margrave Albert Alcibiades of Brandenburg-Bayreuth in a bloody battle with 4,000 killed
Pope Orders Talmud Burned
Aug 12 Pope Julius III orders confiscation & burning of Jewish Talmud
Servetus Arrested
Aug 13 Spanish theologian and physician Michael Servetus arrested as a heretic in Geneva (put on trial the next day, eventually found guilty of heresy and burned to death)
- Aug 23 Bishop Stephen Gardiner appointed English Lord Chancellor
- Sep 9 The Roman Inquisition burns all copies of the Talmud and other Jewish texts in Rome's Campo de Fiori
- Sep 13 English bishop Hugh Latimer arrested
- Oct 27 Condemned as a heretic, Michael Servetus is burned at the stake just outside Geneva
- Nov 13 English Lady Jane Grey and Archbishop Thomas Cranmer accused of high treason
- Dec 25 Battle of Tucapel: Mapuche rebels under Lautaro defeats the Spanish conquistadors and executes the governor of Chile Pedro de Valdivia
Gregory I
Gregory XIII
Julius II
Julius III
Leo X
Pius V