History of Christianity

===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}}