History of Münster Tower of St. Lamberti's steeple. The signing of the Peace of Westphalia of 1648 at Münster and Osnabrück ended the Thirty Years' War and Eighty Years' War and was one of the foundations upon which modern Europe was built. It also guaranteed the future of the prince-bishop and the diocese; the area was to be exclusively Roman Catholic. In 1780 the University of Münster (official name: German "Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität") was established, now a major European centre for excellence in education and research with large faculties in the arts, humanities, theology, sciences, business and law. Currently there are about 40,000 undergraduate
European wars of religion wars continued to be waged in the post-Westphalian period until the 1710s, and collective memory of the wars lasted even longer. The European wars of religion are also known as the Wars of the Reformation (and Counter-Reformation). The wars were closely connected to the theological disputes within Western Christendom, which erupted after the publication of Martin Luther's "Ninety-five Theses" in 1517. The Protestant Reformation led to a schism within the Catholic Church, as Protestant churches and rulers no longer recognised the authority of the papacy. Although most of the wars ended with the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, religious conflicts