Book Description

Excerpt from Modern and Contemporary European History The Protestant Revolution had broken up the religious monopoly Of the Catholic Church, but it had by no means established religious equality, or even tolera The system tion. Indeed, Protestant theologians like Luther, of national Calvin, Knox, andcranmer were as insistent on churches conformity to the established religion as their Catholic opponents. The fundamental principle Of the Protestant Revolution was religious independence rather than religious freedom, the idea that every nation had the right to estab lish its own type Of Christianity. One World, one Faith, had been the demand Of the Catholic. In the warfare Of creeds in the seventeenth century, the futility Of this ideal became apparent, and a new principle, one Nation, one Faith, took its place. But as the nation had not yet attained any adequate means Of self-expression, the mon arch and the governing class were generally able to force upon it their own form of religion. Hence it came about that the religion of the king became by law the religion Of the people, and Official churches were organized to preach it. This is how we get the system of established churches. Toleration was the one thing that both Catholics and Protestants rejected. Conformity to the national religion was the law everywhere; hence nonconformists and free thinkers found themselves persons without a country. The degree Of intolerance varied with the strength Of the estab lished Church. In Spain, where Catholic hegemony was unchallenged, heretics were still burned at the stake. In England, where the established Anglican Church had many opponents, both Catholic and Protestant, nonconformists were merely fined and imprisoned. The Church, particu larly in Catholic countries, was very wealthy, as it owned vast tracts Of land which yielded enormous revenues. In addition, a special tax, called the tithe, was levied on the people, irrespective Of their religious beliefs, for the benefit Of the Official religion. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.