REL 231 - History of the Christian Church
Course Notes
Week 11 - Reason and Revival, 1650 - 1780
The Reformation paved the way for a time of questioning and challenging the existing structure of society, particularly the basis for authority. The older feudal system based on an "Upper Class" of rulers, nobles, and Church authorities, and a "Lower Class" of illiterate peasants, land workers, and servants had been swept aside in the aftermath of the Black Death, the growth of independent towns, the increasing wealth and power of the merchant class, and the spread of literacy and education.
The Hapsburg kings of Spain and the "Holy Roman Emperors" of Austria-Hungary-Germany were still powerful, but the French kings, particularly Louis XIV (born 1638, ruled 1643-1715) were even richer and more autocratic.
England and Scotland were a "Constitutional Monarchy", with power mainly in the hands of an elected Parliament.
Holland (the Netherlands) gained independence from Spain by the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648), and became the leader of Europe for trade and tolerance of differing political and religious views. The Pilgrims, who left England to found a new Puritan community, tried living in Holland first before they crossed the Atlantic in the Mayflower to found the colony at Plymouth in the New World in 1620
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