What is one major change to belief systems in the 1450 1750 time period?

Author: David LittleThough gradual and subject to numerous influences, the undoing of the idea of papal authority in Western Christianity marked the end of the Medieval era and the beginning of the Early Modern period. At this point, West and East completely parted company, and the West, under the impact of the Protestant Reformation, pursued a radically distinctive path with portentous implications for the development of religious freedom.

Renaissance humanism, a force to contend with in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, was an important part of the background. Its emphasis on both new and ancient languages, as well as the recovery of classical and early Christian sources, produced a serious challenge to the Roman Catholic concept of Christendom and introduced a spirit of fresh inquiry and independent thought. At the same time, humanists were not reformers. Some were indifferent to social affairs, while others favored existing patterns of status or supported the growing trend toward political absolutism. The Protestant reformers, especially Anabaptists and Calvinists, would make a significant contribution to the growth of religious freedom. Free church Anabaptists, like the Swiss Brethren and the Mennonites, opposed all coercion in matters of religion, implying a radical separation of church and state. They were mercilessly persecuted but their views had influence, particularly in seventeenth century Holland and England. Neither Luther nor Calvin went nearly as far as the Anabaptists. The two reformers believed that uniform religion helped secure civic order, and therefore they supported severe limits on the freedom of conscience. Still, Luther’s was a message of spiritual liberation: Ordinary people should throw off old beliefs and take up new ones. Once familiar religious beliefs were successfully challenged, it was not difficult for others to emerge. That was even truer of Calvin. Legally educated, he embraced and enlarged upon Conciliarist themes, particularly constitutional reform of church and state, with a special place for natural rights, including the freedom of conscience. Christian liberty was not just the right to believe without interference, as with Luther, but also the right so to organize. Christians must be permitted to restructure churches and in some cases states in accord with the separation of powers, the importance of popular participation, and the independence of church from state control. As it spread throughout northern Europe, Great Britain, and colonial New England, Calvinism modeled exquisitely the ambivalence toward religious freedom characteristic of Christianity from its origins. All Calvinists, in different degrees, shared Calvin’s enthusiasm for constitutional government, but they divided sharply over the extent of rights of conscience. In seventeenth century Colonial New England, Roger Williams, invoking one side of Calvin’s legacy, helped create a radically new civil order in Rhode Island, based on the natural right of all to freedom of conscience, and the disestablishment of “national religion” in any form. However, he was ardently opposed by a majority of fellow colonists who, equally convinced of their Calvinist pedigree, favored stringent limitations on religious belief and practice. In the latter seventeenth century, John Locke influentially, if more narrowly, elaborated on Williams’ arguments that “liberty of conscience is everyone’s natural right.” This new spirit of religious freedom, gaining strength and here and there codified for the first time, had earlier been encouraged by international agreements like the Peace of Augsburg in 1555 and the Peace of Westphalia of 1648, which brought an end to thirty years of “religious wars.” The results did not guarantee equal freedom of conscience in a modern sense, for dissenting individuals and religious communities within each country were still subject to heavy restrictions by the state. Still, these agreements assured that newly emerging nation-states, having each adopted an official faith—Catholic, Lutheran, or later Calvinist—would be under great pressure to tolerate the others both internationally and domestically.

Sixteenth century Catholics like Francisco di Vittoria, Francisco Suarez, and Bartholomew de las Casas also made an important contribution to emerging concepts of religious freedom. Basing their views on the universal protection of political, territorial, and religious freedom dictated, as they saw it, by the natural law, they condemned the European invasions of Central and Latin America, and the coercive policies of European monarchs, for violating these basic freedoms of the native populations. The many sermons, debates, and other writings of these men reverberated through later centuries’ debates on religious freedom and are very much part of the conversation today.

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AP World History 🌍

One notable feature about these empires is that a number of them were the catalyst, if not outright cause, of several new or modified religious movements. These changes were sometimes used or supported by rulers, often to enhance their prestige.

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In Europe, the newly created Protestant movement within Christianity, which opposed the Catholic Church in Rome, found strong supporters in Northern Europe and in parts of France. Rulers such as Henry IV in France or Albert Duke of Prussia promoted or tolerated Protestant ideas that might have otherwise been crushed by the Catholic Counter Reformation and Inquisition, which received support from Catholic monarchs. But like their Catholic counterparts, Protestant monarchs used the newly formed Protestant churches to break away from the church in Rome and seize its property.

Martin Luther and reformers in other parts of the world often contested the authority of existing religious structures and sometimes sought to build new religious orders. Empires tried to use religion to reinforce authority, but this did not always go smoothly. Image Courtesy of thegospelcoalitio

In South Asia, the Mughal Empire represented a much deeper connection between Islam and Hinduism than had previously existed. True, Muslims had been in South Asia since the beginning of Islam, but now a Muslim power controlled almost the entire continent. These deeper interactions between the ruling faith and the majority faith led to, and were a result of, popular religious movements such as Sufism and the Bhakti Movement.

Additionally, a brand new syncretic religion known as Sikhism emerged in northern South Asia, containing many elements of Islam (monotheism) and Hinduism (reincarnation and karma). It is not an accident that Sikhism emerged in northern South Asia where Islamic-Hindu contacts were strongest.

(A note: historians and the AP World Exam use the term syncretic to describe Sikhism as a combination of Islam and Hinduism. However, many Sikhs do not describe their religion as only syncretic; and, all religions are syncretic in some ways) 

In the broader Islamic World, the political competition between the Ottomans and Safavids over territory and trade intensified the division between Sunni and Shia Muslims. The Sunni-Shia split occurred around 700 CE, long before either empire, but the conflict between them intensified, especially considering the Ottoman Sultan claimed the title of Caliph, leader of the Muslim world, and the Safavid Shahs also claimed divine connection via the Imams (leaders) of the Shia community. 

In the Americas, both the Aztec and Inca Empires continued earlier religious traditions that had developed in those regions. The Aztec religious pantheon included several Mayan deities and the Aztecs used the Mayan script as well. The Incas continued the religious practices of the Moche who came before them (and the Chavin before them influenced the Moche), specifically that of worshipping the sun and moon, though in the Moche tradition the moon was more powerful. Both the Aztecs and Incas practiced human sacrifice, as did almost every Pre-1492 American Culture before them, though the Aztecs in particular practiced it to a much greater degree.

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