Evolution+of+Religious+Toleration

Nolan Johnson

Prompt: Trace the evolution of Religious toleration as a political practice and assess the factors behind its development from the reformation through the enlightenment.

Outline: Paragraph 1: Factors behind development of religious toleration Paragraph 2: Religious toleration tied to political affairs

Concrete Details
 * 1) Spanish Inquisition
 * 2) Bloody Mary in England
 * 3) 30 years war
 * 4) Puritanism
 * 5) Discontent with church
 * 6) selling of indulgences
 * 7) Martin Luther's 95 theses
 * 8) emergence of protestant religons lutheranism/calvinism
 * 9) Radical Reformation-Anabaptists
 * 10) Schmalkaldic League
 * 11) Peace of Augsburg
 * 12) Ideas of Scientific Revolution contradicting church teachings
 * 13) French Wars of Religion
 * 14) Edict of Nantes
 * 15) Christian Humanism
 * 16) Erasmus' Handbook of the Christian Knight
 * 17) The Praise of Folly
 * 18) Pluralism and Absenteeism
 * 19) Voltaire's ideas of religious tolerance in Philosphic Letters on the English
 * 20) Joseph II of Austria's complete religious toleration and restrictions on Catholic Church

Thesis: At the beginning of the Reformation, religious toleration was not common among the European countries, however, the Catholic Church began to get undermined by new religious ideas and after many years of rebellions against the church, religious toleration began to spread.