History of Christianity

== Early modern (1500–1750) ==
{{See also|Early modern period|Christianity in the modern era|Christianity in the 16th century|Christianity in the 17th century|Christianity in the 18th century|European colonization of the Americas|Catholic Church and the Age of Discovery}}Following the geographic discoveries of the 1400s and 1500s, increasing population and inflation led the emerging nation-states of [[Portugal]], [[Spain]], and France, the [[Dutch Republic]], and [[England]] to explore, conquer, colonize and exploit the newly discovered territories and their indigenous peoples.{{sfn|Matthews|Platt|1992|p=304}} Different state actors created colonies that varied widely.{{sfn|de Juan|Pierskalla|2017|p=Conditions at Times of Colonial Intervention}} Some colonies had institutions that allowed native populations to reap some benefits. Others became extractive colonies with predatory rule that produced an autocracy with a dismal record.{{sfn|de Juan|Pierskalla|2017|p=Colonial Legacies and Economic Development}}

Colonialism opened the door for Christian missionaries who accompanied the early explorers, or soon followed them.{{sfn|Nowell|Magdoff|Webster|2022}}{{sfn|Robinson|1952|p=152}} Although most missionaries avoided politics, they also generally identified themselves with the indigenous people amongst whom they worked and lived.{{sfn|Robert|2009|p=105}} On the one hand, vocal missionaries challenged colonial oppression and defended human rights, even opposing their own governments in matters of social justice for 500 years.{{sfn|Robert|2009|p=105}} On the other hand, there are as many examples of missionaries cooperating with colonial governments as there are of missionaries opposing colonialism.{{sfn|Sanneh|2007|p=134}}

Historians and political scientists see the establishment of unified, sovereign, nation-states, which led directly to the development of modern Europe, as a singularly important political development of the sixteenth century. However, while sovereign states were unifying, Christendom was coming apart.{{sfn|Matthews|Platt|1992|pp=299; 331}}{{sfn|Schaff|1960|p=2}}{{sfn|Dawson|2009|p=13}}{{sfn|Whalen|2015|p=337}} 

=== Reformation and response (1517–1700) ===
{{Main|Reformation|Counter-Reformation}}{{Further|Lutheranism|Anglican|Dutch Reformed Church|Reformed churches|History of Calvinism|Protestantism|History of Protestantism|Radical Reformation|European wars of religion}}
{{See also|Council of Trent|Age of Enlightenment}}
{{multiple image
| footer            = [[Martin Luther]] initiated the [[Reformation]] with his ''[[Ninety-five Theses]]'' in 1517.
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| alt1              = image of Martin Luther
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| alt2              = image of a page listing Luther's 95 theses.
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Protestant Reformation (1517–1648) begins with [[Martin Luther]] nailing his ''[[Ninety-five Theses]]'' to the church door in Wittenburg in 1517, even though there was no actual schism until 1521 when edicts handed down by the [[Diet of Worms]] condemned Luther and officially banned citizens of the Holy Roman Empire from defending or propagating his ideas.{{sfn|Fahlbusch|Bromiley|2003|p=362}}{{sfn|Barnett|1999|p=28}} 

Luther, [[Huldrych Zwingli]], and [[List of Protestant Reformers|many others]] protested against corruptions such as [[simony]] (the buying and selling of church offices), the holding of multiple church offices by one person at the same time, and the sale of [[indulgence]]s. The Protestant position later included the [[Five solae|Five ''solae'']] (''[[sola scriptura]]'', ''[[sola fide]]'', ''[[sola gratia]]'', ''[[solus Christus]]'', ''[[soli Deo gloria]]''), the [[Theology of Martin Luther#Universal priesthood of the baptized|priesthood of all believers]], [[Law and Gospel]], and the [[two kingdoms doctrine]].

Three important traditions to emerge directly from the Reformation were the [[Lutheran]], [[Reformed tradition|Reformed]], and the [[Anglican]] traditions.{{sfn|Williams|1995|pp=xxx; xxi; xxviii}} Beginning in 1519, Huldrych Zwingli spread [[Calvinism|John Calvin's teachings]] in Switzerland leading to the [[Swiss Reformation]].{{sfn|Marabello|2021|p=abstract}}

At the same time, a collection of loosely related groups that included [[Anabaptism|Anabaptists]], Spiritualists, and [[Theistic rationalism|Evangelical Rationalists]], began the [[Radical Reformation]] in Germany and Switzerland.{{sfn|Williams|1995|p=xxix}} They opposed Lutheran, Reformed and Anglican church-state theories, supporting instead a full separation from the state.{{sfn|Williams|1995|p=xxx}}

====Counter-reformation====
The Roman Catholic Church soon struck back, launching its own Counter-Reformation beginning with [[Pope Paul III]] (1534–1549), the first in a series of 10 reforming popes from 1534 to 1605.{{sfn|Matthews|Platt|1992|pp=329; 335}} A list of books detrimental to faith or morals was established, the [[Index Librorum Prohibitorum]], which included the works of Luther, Calvin and other Protestants along with writings condemned as obscene.{{sfn|Matthews|Platt|1992|p=335}} 
[[File:Index Librorum Prohibitorum 1.jpg|thumb|The Index Librorum Prohibitorum listed books forbidden by the Catholic Church.|alt=picture of first page of the list of forbidden books in Latin from its first publication]]
New monastic orders arose including the [[Jesuits]].{{sfn|Matthews|Platt|1992|p=336}} Resembling a military company in its hierarchy, discipline, and obedience, their vow of loyalty to the Pope set them apart from other monastic orders, leading them to be called "the shock troops of the papacy". Jesuits soon became the Church's chief weapon against Protestantism.{{sfn|Matthews|Platt|1992|p=336}}

Monastic reform also led to the development of new, yet orthodox forms of spirituality, such as that of the [[Spanish mystics]] and the [[French school of spirituality]].{{sfn|MacCulloch|2004|p=404}}

The [[Council of Trent]] (1545–1563) denied each Protestant claim, and laid the foundation of Roman Catholic policies up to the twenty-first century.{{sfn|Matthews|Platt|1992|pp=336–337}} The Counter-Reformation also created the [[Eastern Catholic Churches|Uniate church]] which used Eastern liturgy but recognized Rome.{{sfn|Kenworthy|2008|pp=175-176}}

====War====
Reforming zeal and Catholic denial spread through much of Europe and became entangled with local politics. Already involved in dynastic wars, the quarreling royal houses became polarized into the two religious camps.{{sfn|Matthews|Platt|1992|pp=329–331}} "Religious" wars, ranging from international wars to internal conflicts,  began in the Holy Roman Empire with the minor [[Knights' Revolt]] in 1522, then intensified in the First [[Schmalkaldic War]] (1546–1547) and the [[Second Schmalkaldic War]] (1552–1555).{{sfn|Onnekink|2016|pp=2–3}}{{sfn|Engels|1978|p=442}} In 1562, France became the centre of [[French Wars of Religion|religious wars]].{{sfn|Parker|2023}} The involvement of foreign powers made the [[Thirty Years War]] (1618–1648) the largest and most disastrous.{{sfn|Onnekink|2016|p=3}}

The causes of these wars were mixed. Many scholars see them as fought to obtain security and freedom for differing religious confessions, however, most have interpreted these wars as struggles for political independence that coincided with the break up of medieval empires into the modern nation states.{{sfn|Onnekink|2016|pp=3,6}}{{sfn|Parker|2023}}{{refn|group=note| Theorists such as John Kelsay and James Turner Johnson argue that these religious wars were varieties of the ''[[Just war]]'' tradition for liberty and freedom.{{sfn|Onnekink|2016|p=10}} [[William T. Cavanaugh]] points out that many historians argue these ‘‘wars of religion’’ were not primarily religious, but were more about state-building, nationalism, and economics.{{sfn|Murphy|2014b|p=481}} If they had been motivated most deeply by religion, Catholics would fight Protestants, whereas Catholics often formed alliances with Protestants to fight other Catholics and vice versa. Historian Barbara Diefendorf argues that religious motives were always mixed with other motives, but the simple fact of Catholics fighting Catholics and Protestants fighting Protestants is not sufficient to prove the absence of religious motives, since religious conflict is often "familial".{{sfn|Murphy|2014b|pp=484–485}} According to Marxist theorist Henry Heller, there was "a rising tide of commoner hostility to noble oppression and growing perception of collusion between Protestant and Catholic nobles".{{sfn|Heller|1996|p=853–861}}}}

====Tolerance====
Debate on whether peace required allowing only one faith and punishing heretics, or if ancient opinions defending leniency, (based on the [[parable of the tares]]), should be revived, began to occupy every version of the Christian faith.{{sfn|Mout|2007|p=229}} Radical Protestants steadfastly sought toleration for heresy, blasphemy, [[Roman Catholic Church|Catholicism]], non-Christian religions, and even [[atheism]].{{sfn|Coffey|1998|p=961}} Anglicans and other Christian moderates also wrote and argued for toleration.{{sfn|Coffey|2014|p=12}} [[Deism]] emerged, and in the 1690s, following debates that started in the 1640s, a non-Christian third group also advocated for religious toleration.{{sfn|Patterson|1997|p=64}}{{sfn|Mout|2007|pp=227–233; 242}} It became necessary to rethink on a political level, all of the State's reasons for persecution.{{sfn|Mout|2007|p=229}} Over the next two and a half centuries, many treaties and political declarations of tolerance followed, until concepts of freedom of religion, freedom of speech and freedom of thought became established in most western countries.{{sfn|Mout|2007|pp=225–243}}{{sfn|Kaplan|2009|p=119}}{{sfn|Franck|1997|pp=594–595}}

=== Witch trials ({{circa|1450–1750}}) ===
{{See also|Christian views on magic|Witch-hunt|Witch trials in the early modern period|Salem witch trials|Little ice age}}
Until the 1300s, the official position of the Roman Catholic Church was that [[Witchcraft|witches]] did not exist.{{sfn|Kwiatkowska|2010|p=30}} While historians have been unable to pinpoint a single cause of what became known as the "witch frenzy", scholars have noted that, without changing church doctrine, a new but common stream of thought developed at every level of society that witches were both real and malevolent.{{sfn|Levack|2013|p=6}} Records show the belief in magic had remained so widespread among the rural people, it has convinced some historians that Christianization had not been as successful as previously supposed.{{sfn|Herlihy|2023}} The main pressure to prosecute witches came from the common people, and trials were mostly civil trials.{{sfn|Levack|2013|p=7}}{{sfn|Ankarloo|Clark|Monter|2002|p=xiii}} There is broad agreement that approximately 100,000 people were prosecuted, of which 80% were women, and 40,000 to 50,000 people were executed between 1561 and 1670.{{sfn|Monter|2023}}{{sfn|Levack|2013|p=6}}

===The Enlightenment===
The era of absolutist states followed the breakdown of Christian universalism.{{sfn|Aguilera-Barchet|2015|p=141}} Abuses inherent in political [[Absolutism (European history)|absolutism]], practiced by kings, and supported by Catholicism, gave rise to a virulent anti-clerical, anti-Catholic, and anti-Christian sentiment that emerged in the 1680s.{{sfn|Jacob|2006|pp=265–267}}

Critique of Christianity began among the more extreme Protestant reformers who were enraged by fear, tyranny and persecution.{{sfn|Jacob|2006|pp=265; 268; 270}}{{sfn|Aston|2006|pp=13–15}} Twenty-first century scholars tend to see the relationship between Christianity and the Enlightenment as complex with many regional and national variations.{{sfn|Rosenblatt|2006|pp=283–284}}{{sfn|Jacob|2006|p=265}}

[[Cyril Lucaris]], Patriarch of Constantinople from 1620– 1638, was devoted to the Christian church and its renewal.{{sfn|Kenworthy|2008|p=175}} However, the French Revolution resulted in Eastern Orthodox church leaders rejecting Enlightenment ideas as too dangerous to embrace.{{sfn|Kenworthy|2008|p=175}}
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