|
DATES |
EVENTS |
SECULAR LEADERS |
CHURCH PERSONS |
WRITINGS |
|
1647-1649 |
Westminster Assembly |
Westminster Confession |
||
|
1649 |
Quakers begin |
Fox |
||
|
1653 |
Protectorate established |
Cromwell |
||
|
1670 |
Pietism begins |
• |
Spener |
Pia Desideria |
|
1687 |
Universe as machine |
Newton |
Pr in dpi a |
|
|
1689 |
Tolerance in England |
William and Mary |
Act of Toleration |
|
|
1690 |
Humans learn through experience |
Locke |
Essay Con¬ cerning Human Understanding |
|
|
Deism advanced |
Toland |
Christianity Not Mysterious |
||
|
1722 |
Herrnhut community founded (Moravians) |
Zinzendorf |
||
|
1738 |
Aldersgate experience (Methodists) |
Wesley |
||
|
1781 |
Reason undermined |
Kant |
Critique of Pure Reason |
|
|
1784 |
First American Methodist bishop |
Coke |
||
|
1787 |
Tolerance in France |
The Habsburgs were an aristocratic family with claims to the throne in Austria, Spain, the Netherlands, and elsewhere Because of their great power, Richelieu believed whatever was bad for the Habsburgs had to be good for France!
The high point of royal power was the reign of Louis XIV (1643-1715). Louis took effective control of France in 1661. 1 By then the king was absolute in France and France was the most powerful nation in Europe Louis called himself the Sun King and built a fantastic palace at Versailles, a city southwest of Paris. Versailles became the center of an elaborate, gaudy court that was the envy of other European rulers. The court operated on a strictly enforced set of manners. Yet it was the source of endless intrigue as people vied for influence and engaged in limitless love games This intrigue led the French to be characterized as the most polite, but most immoral, people in the world
Louis felt that he embodied France and is supposed to have said, "I am the state " He believed he ruled France as Christ's appointed deputy The monarchy was directly accountable to God alone No human could judge it. He formed a strong, effective government that used the middle class in key positions. There was no participation of ordinary people in government.
The absolute power of the French monarchy was envied by other European royalty. Few rulers were as successful at establishing complete control, however. In England the monarchy was successfully resisted by a Puritan revolt and was restricted by Parliament. The British opted for a limited monarchy. The Dutch also had a monarchy that was limited by the interests of powerful merchants. The government remained very decentralized. The Dutch took advantage of their seafaring heritage to plunder Spanish and Portuguese colonies and their trading ships. They wrestled control of the very profitable East Indies from Portugal For a time, the Dutch were the dominant traders of Europe.
New Staies
Two new powers emerged in the East during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. One was Prussia. The rise of Prussia took several centuries. Its fate was connected with the activities of the Hohenzollern family. This family eventually became the electors of the province of Brandenburg, which was centered in Berlin. Frederick William, the Great Elector (1640—1688), made important strides in centralizing the government of Brandenburg. He also extended his territory by participating in the Thirty Years' War. His son, Frederick I (1701 — 1713), obtained the title of king and renamed his area Prussia. This helped Prussia establish its independence from the Holy Roman Empire Successive Hohenzollerns would rule Prussia until the end of World War I They created an efficient, military state that eventually evolved into Germany. Prussia/Germany would be a major player in world politics into the twentieth century
Russia was the other country to become a great power. The rise of Russia also occurred over several centuries and culminated with the founding of the Romanov dynasty in 1613 (The Romanovs would rule Russia until the Communist revolution in 1917.) The most notable of the early Romanov rulers was Peter I (1689—1725), also known as Peter the Great Peter opened Russia to the West He imported Western technicians to help create new industry He also extended the northern border of Russia at the expense of Sweden and the southern border at the expense of the Ottoman Turks. It was Peter who put the Orthodox church under the Holy Synod appointed by the tsar In this form, the church became a powerful tool used by the government. Catherine the Great ( 1762-1796) further extended the empire and increased the control of the tsar. By the time of her death, Russia had become a major world power
Power was increasingly concentrated in the hands of monarchs after the Reformation Some monarchs considered themselves enlightened and felt they ruled fairly and their decisions benefited the people. In spite of some good intentions, more often than not the policies of most monarchs did little to help average citizens. Other rulers ignored the needs of their people altogether. The situation was little better in the colonies. The colonists had more opportunity to do well financially, but government policy usually extended few rights to them. Moreover, Europeans regarded the colonies as places to be exploited for the good of the homeland. The exploitation of the colonies, the disregard of monarchs for their citizens' needs, and the general population's growing awareness of human rights all set the stage for revolution. The first two revolutions occurred during the late eighteenth century. The French and American Revolutions radically changed politics and religion
RELIGIOUS WARS
At the end of the sixteenth century an uneasy peace settled between Catholics and Protestants in Europe. This peace was not to continue in the seventeenth century. The Peace of Augsburg had left Germany terribly divided. There were numerous small states, each with its own religion. Political leaders exploited the religious tension for their own gains. Devout Catholics and Protestants resented one another's religion Catholics had been encouraged to defend their faith by the Council of Trent. They began taking a harder position against the Evangelicals. The Jesuits especially struggled to regain lands lost to the Protestants. Such tensions would eventually result in the Thirty Years' War.
In France, Henry IV had produced peace by extending tolerance to the Huguenots in the Edict of Nantes. The Huguenots' freedom was guaranteed by being permitted to maintain a number of fortified cities. Richelieu considered the cities a threat to the Crown. He launched a series of vicious attacks against the Protestants. These attacks began a long period of persecution that continued under successive leaders.
In England tension continued between Protestants and Catholics. However, Puritans gained more power. They not only rejected the Elizabethan Settlement but also resisted the control of the king. This opposition eventually led to a revolt that established a brief period of Puritan rule In the following sections we review the religious conflicts in Germany, France, and England
The Thirty Years' War
Tensions between Protestants and Catholics in Germany resulted in occasional open conflicts. Anger built until some of the Protestant groups formed the
Evangelical Union in 1608 The Catholics responded in 1609 by creating the powerful Catholic League Open warfare was avoided until the situation worsened in nearby Bohemia.
Bohemia was the land of the Hussites, who aligned themselves with the Reformed tradition Their ranks were swelled by Calvinists who had fled there from Germany to avoid persecution. Only Lutheranism and Catholicism were accepted in Germany by the Peace of Augsburg and Calvinism was still illegal. The Calvinists had won the right to practice their religion with some degree of freedom in Bohemia Because there were so many different faiths, Bohemia was a hotbed of unrest
In 1617 Ferdinand of Styria, a Habsburg, became king of Bohemia. Ferdinand was a staunch Catholic educated by the Jesuits and had Jesuits as his counselors He soon alienated his Protestant subjects by canceling the religious freedoms they had enjoyed A group of armed Protestant nobles confronted the royal council in Prague in May 1618 and demanded a return of their liberties When the council refused to hear their case, the nobles threw two of the king's counselors out a high window Fortunately the counselors were not hurt because they landed in a pile of dung This act became known as the "Defenestration of Prague," and it marked the beginning of the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648).
The war was marked by strange blendings of religion and politics. It was basically between Protestants and Catholics Initially, however, the Lutheran Protestants would not support the Bohemians because they were of the Reformed (Calvinist) tradition Moreover, the emperor was a Habsburg. Many, including the English, the French royal family (the Bourbons), and the Dutch, Danes, Swedish, and assorted German nobles, feared the power of the Habs- burgs As a result they were drawn into the conflict on the side of the Evangelicals partly to curb the influence of the Habsburg emperor. Even some Catholics sided with the Protestants for this reason!
In the early phases of the war, the Bohemian Calvinists enjoyed some advantage They successfully defended their territory against imperial forces. They installed Frederick V of Palatinate as their king. Frederick was the son- in-law of James I of England By this time Ferdinand II (1619-1637) had become the Holy Roman emperor He had no intention of seeing parts of his empire fall to Protestantism With the help of the Catholic League, Bohemia was invaded and Frederick V was driven from the throne Much blood
was shed as Catholicism was restored to the area under the direction of the
%
Jesuits
In 1625, England, the Netherlands, and Denmark formed the Protestant League for the purpose of invading Germany and restoring Frederick to his lands The major part of the task fell to the Danish with only limited support coming from their allies King Christian IV of Denmark invaded Germany. Fighting devastated large sections of the countryside Christian's forces were