hist notlarim cont'd

Christianity has been relocated from the Middle East to Europe under Constantine the Great who legalized it in the Roman Empire. Until AD 1000 there were no major distinctions within Christianity. It was largely for political reasons that the split happened between the Western and Eastern churches. Before that, the churches were organized as Bishoprics, governed by the bishop and constituted in certain locations. In addition there was no hierarchy among them until gradually the Bishop of Rome (West) and Bishop of Constantinople (East) emerged as superiors. Different interpretation of the trinity is the main cause of this division. Although they were separate they have not fought and the disputed points did not escalate. Ottomans pressured them to unite but they remained separate inside Catholicism. However, the Catholic sect did not remain unchallenged.

One of the first challenges came from Luther who was a churchman and university professor in Wittenberg, Germany. In 1517 he posted the famous ’95 Theses’ on his church door and news spread rapidly. He was critical of the selling of indulgences and many other wrongdoings of the Catholic Church. For three years nobody acted against him and the Protestant Reformation has started. The northern humanists who were also critical of the papacy influenced him. They were on dangerous ground since they were sometimes labeled as heretics.

When Charles V was elected as the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, papacy and the empire joined forces to against Martin Luther. In 1521 after his interrogation, Luther fled as he was put under enormous pressure. However, he did not take his words back and said that his conscious as a Christian can only be persuaded by the word of God. The next years he hides in castles under the protection of Frederick and translated the old and new testaments. Although the Pope excommunicated him, his supports grew in the next years. This led to the Spiers Diet in 1526, when an Imperial diet meeting took place. The Lutherans achieved a majority momentarily and passed an agreement for relative religious freedom. In the second Spiers diet meeting in 1529 Catholics achieved a majority and this relative religious freedom was abolished and reversed. Lutherans left the meeting and adopted a declaration among them, starting with the words ‘we declare that…’ which gave them the name ‘protestants’ later. After this declaration the Schmalkaldic league was formed in 1531. An open warfare with Catholic started and went on for the next 25 years inside the Germanic Empire.

The religious peace of Augsburg of 1555 ended this conflict, when they allowed their subjects to choose their own sects. This has also spread into the Holy Roman Empire, France (Catholics versus Huguenots), the Netherlands, and Catholic Spain. When the Dutch became Protestants, they revolt against Catholic Spaniards and carried out a war of independence against them. In France, many influential intellectuals, officials became Protestants, named as Huguenots. This arose a tense situation in Paris around the king and within aristocracy, while both sides were hostile to each other. The Catholics were looking for an opportunity to attack them. Massacres happened in the St. Barthlomew’s night, on which the a royal wedding of king’s sister Margaret to the Protestant Henry III of Navarre was taking place. The Huguenot leadership was curbed and they fled to Mediterranean. Although the Protestants were wounded they continued to survive and the Nantes Edict of Tolerance of 1598 was a critical moment for them. A dynastic crisis due to the rival candidates for French thrown occurred. Although Henry had the support but he was a Huguenot and as long as he remained so, it was likely for him to not be accepted. He thought that taking Paris is worth converting to Catholicism. Hence, he converted to Catholicism and was accepted as the king of France. He also announced a public decree stating that Protestants and Catholics are equal subjects in France, so they have to respect each other. Religious violence ended inside France as a result.

Apart from religious wars between Catholicism and Protestantism, more splits started to occur inside the Catholic Church. And the Church of England is a vivid example of this disintegration. Church in the medieval times was like a transnational cooperation cutting across all kingdoms and claiming superiority above all of them. Since the lands of the church were the accepted as the property of God, they were immune to taxation. When states faced liquidity starve, they started eying the territories in a greedy fashion. Henry VIII took two crucial steps: confiscating of all the monastery properties and proclaiming that he has taken the church of England away from the papacy. Hence their church was nationalized and took orders directly from the king. Although in theory the Anglican Church was still Catholic it was no longer subservient of Rome. The Pope excommunicates Henry the VIII while he continues to suppress the ones who are in favor of the Roman Catholic Church (called the papist). This Anglicanism versus Catholicism, piracy and conspiracy to get rid of Elizabeth (who was the only Anglican candidate after the death of Henry the VIII) led to the journey of Spanish Armada in 1588.

Philipp II decides to conquest England and gathers a big army called as Armada. It turns out to be a military disaster as he neglected a fundamental principle of military operation:  if you are planning to invade a country you must make sure to eliminate the other enemies that might stand on your way. Overlooking this fact, the Spanish armada sailed to the English channel, the English navy attacked them not from side to side but by long distance fire. As a result the Spanish navy was destroyed in 1588. Europe became more divided between the Protestant north and Catholic South, leading to Thirty Years’ War between 1618 and 1648. In the meanwhile, the English Civil War (or the English Revolution) burst out between the Puritan supporters of the parliament and the Charles I of the Catholic Stuart dynasty. Forces of Protestants led by Oliver Cromwell, defeated the royal forces and Charles I was captured and beheaded.

These wars and conflicts came to an end with the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. Mutual tolerance was accepted, though it arrived in a bloody and tortious way. Both Protestants and Catholics were equally good as citizens. Loyalty was not based on the sect but the nation. This soon led to nationalism as the rulers had to find a base for tutelage. Another principle of loyalty had to be implemented, that was not just limited to Catholics and Protestant. After the wars of religion, Christianity reconciled on the basis of explicit formulation of tolerance. It extends to 19^th c. and the colonialized people. Christianity as once an abstract thing was formulated, acquired a life of itself. In addition an ideological framework was created which can get different shapes in time with regard to Jews, blacks, colonial people.

After summarizing the conflicts between the churches, some information regarding the Medieval Church will be given. The Church in the Middle Ages if basically an organized faith and religious organization, keeps preaching Christianity, propagating and making sure that community of believers conforms to certain Christian principals and practices. It has been the force of solidarity and social bounding. As a physical building, it became the house of the living and abode of the dead. Because territory is holy, the dead was buried in the yard and all marriages were also be registered here. All sacraments – baptism, the mass (right of the Eucharist), marriage x celibacy, regular confession of sins, extreme unction- were administrated by the church. There was also the he doctrine of Papal Infallibility, starting with St. Peter as the 1^st successor of Jesus who inherited his infallibility which is passed on to the other Popes. It was politically and economically very powerful, as it collects all kinds of taxes from the faithful. Moreover the church was the biggest landowner, in each country possesses huge lands – monasteries. Rich people donate for the salvation of souls. There were Church estates in the name of bishops, while peasants and serves were working and turning over the surplus to the church. It was also the source of knowledge, ultimately everything based on revelation, traceable and answerable by the holy scripts. From AD 1000 onwards this situation changed as it entered into conflict with other newly emerging authorities based on three questions.

Investiture, meaning the question of whenever a certain bishopric is empty who has the authority to appoint a new one. Previously it was obvious that the pope had the ultimate right, but the Kings challenged it from the high middle ages onwards. In 1077, German emperor Heinrich wants to appoint the bishop in his country, Gregory V rejects and excommunicates him. But his princes turn against him to decrease the emperor’s power. As a result Gregory V asks for pardon to restore his authority in Germany, and enters into northern Italy. Pope barricades himself in the castle of Canossa and makes him wait outside. The second challenge arises due to the confusion of which law to apply when someone is tried in the court. As the state formation proceeds the royal courts develop more and refused to use the Canon law of the church. Lastly, as mentioned before the Church is the bigger landowner and its lands are immune to taxes. As state develops it needs more taxes. Especially in 15^th and 16^th centuries more money in cash needed due to fiscal starvation. And rulers looked around for additional sources of income and gave themselves the royal right to tax even the lands of the Church. But it keeps branding the kings as heresies and suppressing them violently and wins most of the wars. However, its prestige kept eroding between 1300 and 1510s due to several events.

In the beginning of 1300s, France is a very wealth country and it faces a Strong challenge from pope, publishes a declaration beginning with ‘Unam sanctam…’ (over we claim authority). A new Pope gets elected and moves to Avignon and soon moves back to Rome. But soon after 1378 – 1417, schism occurred, as there were three popes in Rome and Avignon at the same time. Cardinals cannot meet in full. Each was claiming of being the true and one pope, the others as anti-Christ. But actually all of them were virtual puppets of the kings. Popes are supposed to be morally good and infallible, and there should only be one pope in a given time. Huge councils were brought together to put an end to this situation. The Church was once again united, with a more collective decision-making process while maintaining also the royal despotism.

The Italian wars once again ruined the reputation. The papacy was also a small state in Italy that has created armies to attack and expand its own territory. The common perception was that the Papacy should not be doing this. As it will make the Church no better than others in spiritual terms. There was secular supremacy of politics over the religious. Moreover starting in the 15^th century the great movement of brilliance of architecture, culture and painting called ‘Renaissance’ has also changed the minds of people. Especially northern Italy has grown wealthy and urbanized. This wealth was based on maritime trade, spice and silk root, textiles and banking activities. Growing rich led families to compete against each other for the supremacy in the same city. Paintings, statues, and architectural designs were the means of competition, since the objects of consumption became the signs of prestige. Papacy became just another rich family involved in this competition that alienated people further. Printing press has facilitated the spread of ideas against the church in a rapid pace.

Further reasons can be categorized as political factors. The Catholic counter-reformation is the alliance between the papacy and emperor to act against Luther. It was also the attempt of the church to re-order and re-align, undertake reforms to tighten up itself and create new mechanisms of control. The society of Jesus was also formed as the ultra-militant branch of the Catholic church that supported also the counter-reformation movement. The Holy Office was created in Spain for the Reconquista movement against Muslims and Jews. Censorship was used to put under control the rapid circulation of information. Anybody in the Christian lands who want to be published cannot just take their writings to the printers. They first have to be officially approved otherwise the punishment was inquisition. If it was in line with the standards, the book was stamped as ‘nihil obstat imprimatur’. This unstoppable repressive apparatus was rooted deep down in the lowest level of society, which has its reflection in the political police of today.