Absolutism And Protestantism: The Effects Of The Reformation

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The centuries of the 14th, 15th, and the early 16th, are filled with the Reformation and the effects of it; along with war, which was one of the effects of the Reformation. The Reformation caused Protestantism to come about, which greatly affected and caused many wars, such as the Schmalkaldic wars, in which the result was that the leader could decide the religion of their region. This ability would give more absolute power and control to the ruler of a country. These events and others gave away to the emergence of Absolutism, which is the belief that God appoints kings to rule over people and to control all aspects of the government, with no other authority above him, beside God. Absolutist rulers, Louis XIV of France and Philip II of Spain, …show more content…

Louis XIV led his country to being “one faith” by revoking the rights of other religious groups that could have influence in the central government, such as the Huguenots. He did this by signing in the Edict of Fontainebleau, which revoked the Edict of Nantes. The Edict of Nantes, made in 1598, made Catholicism the official religion of France; however it allowed Huguenots the right to worship and to hold office. By revoking the Edict of Nantes, Louis made it so that Protestants could not worship in Catholic France. This helped make “one faith” more attainable and would fortify the political authority of the king. Since many nobles were Huguenots, it made Protestant influence on the government diminish because the nobles rights of holding office were revoked, which again helped lower the power of authority that other groups could have on the king. In contrast, Philip II used force and fear through the Spanish Inquisition to convert people to be catholic. The Spanish Inquisition was originally introduced to Spain in 1478 under the monarchy of Ferdinand and Isabella. It was a violent group that uses different ways of force to force Catholicism onto people. Being Catholic was important to the Spanish people because they had seen themselves as those divinely chosen to save the Catholic Church from protestantism. This driving force in Philip’s nation, gave him the title of the “Most Catholic Church”, which made him the upholder of Catholicism, a role that helped in his battles. In short Catholicism was important to Philip’s rule and his rule and they way he did it was another thing he tried to control by making it “one

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