Editing Christendom (section)

==History==
{{See also|History of Christianity|History of Western civilization}}

===Rise of Christendom===
{{See also|Early Christianity|Hellenistic Judaism|State church of the Roman Empire}}
[[File:T and O map Guntherus Ziner 1472.jpg|thumb|This [[T-and-O map]], which abstracts the then known world to a cross inscribed within an orb, remakes geography in the service of Christian iconography. More detailed versions place [[Jerusalem in Christianity|Jerusalem]] at the center of the world.]]

Early Christianity spread in the Greek/Roman world and beyond as a 1st-century [[Judaism|Jewish]] sect,<ref>{{bibleref|Acts|3:1}}; {{bibleref|Acts|5:27–42}}; {{bibleref|Acts|21:18–26}}; {{bibleref|Acts|24:5}}; {{bibleref|Acts|24:14}}; {{bibleref|Acts|28:22}}; {{bibleref|Romans|1:16}}; Tacitus, ''Annales'' xv 44; Josephus ''Antiquities'' xviii 3; Mortimer Chambers, ''The Western Experience Volume II'' chapter 5; ''The Oxford Dictionary of the Jewish Religion'' page 158{{failed verification|date=January 2018}}.</ref> which historians refer to as [[Jewish Christianity]]. It may be divided into two distinct phases: the [[Apostolic Age|apostolic period]], when the first apostles were alive and organizing the Church, and the [[post-apostolic period]], when an early [[Historical episcopate|episcopal structure]] developed, whereby bishoprics were governed by [[bishops]] (overseers).

The post-apostolic period concerns the time roughly after the death of the apostles when bishops emerged as overseers of urban Christian populations. The earliest recorded use of the terms ''Christianity'' (Greek {{lang|grc|Χριστιανισμός}}) and ''[[Four Marks of the Church#Catholic|catholic]]'' (Greek {{lang|grc|καθολικός}}), dates to this period, the [[Christianity in the 2nd century|2nd century]], attributed to [[Ignatius of Antioch]] ''c.'' 107.<ref>Walter Bauer, ''Greek-English Lexicon''; [[Ignatius of Antioch]] [http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/ignatius-magnesians-roberts.html Letter to the Magnesians] 10, Letter to the Romans ([http://www.ccel.org/fathers2/ANF-01/anf01–19.htm#P1838_311890 Roberts-Donaldson tr.], [http://earlychristianwritings.com/text/ignatius-romans-lightfoot.html Lightfoot tr.], [http://www.ccel.org/l/lake/fathers/ignatius-romans.htm Greek text]). However, an [http://earlychristianwritings.com/text/ignatius-romans-roberts.html edition] presented on some websites, one that otherwise corresponds exactly with the Roberts-Donaldson translation, renders this passage to the interpolated inauthentic longer recension of Ignatius's letters, which does not contain the word "Christianity."</ref> Early Christendom would close at the end of [[Persecution of early Christians by the Romans|imperial persecution of Christians]] after the ascension of [[Constantine the Great]] and the [[Edict of Milan]] in AD&nbsp;313 and the [[First Council of Nicaea]] in 325.<ref>{{cite book | last1 = Schaff | first1 = Philip | author-link1 = Philip Schaff | orig-year = 1858–1890 | title = History of the Christian Church | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=Y6fBpjjN64sC | volume = 2: Ante-Nicene Christianity. A.D. 100–325 | publisher = Christian Classics Ethereal Library | date = 1998 |isbn=978-1-61025-041-2 | access-date = 13 October 2019 | quote = The ante-Nicene age&nbsp;... is the natural transition from the Apostolic age to the Nicene age.}}</ref>

According to [[Malcolm Muggeridge]] (1980), Christ founded Christianity, but Constantine founded Christendom.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.csmonitor.com/1981/0218/021801.html |title=Impish defense of Christianity; The End of Christendom, by Malcolm Muggeridge |author=Robert Peel |work=[[The Christian Science Monitor]] |date=18 February 1981 |access-date=28 January 2018}}</ref> Canadian theology professor [[Douglas John Hall]] dates the 'inauguration of Christendom' to the 4th century, with Constantine playing the primary role (so much so that he equates Christendom with "Constantinianism") and Theodosius I ([[Edict of Thessalonica]], 380) and [[Justinian I]]{{efn|In 529, Justinian closed the [[Platonic Academy#Neoplatonic Academy|Neoplatonic Academy]] of [[Athens]], a last bulwark of pagan philosophy, made rigorous efforts to exterminate [[Arianism]] and [[Montanism]], personally campaigned against [[Monophysitism]], and made [[Chalcedonian Christianity]] the Byzantine state religion.<ref>Encarta-encyclopedie Winkler Prins (1993–2002) s.v. "Justinianus I". Microsoft Corporation/Het Spectrum.</ref>}} secondary roles.<ref name="1–9Hall">Hall (2002), p. 1–9.</ref>

===Late Antiquity and Early Middle Ages===
{{Further|First seven Ecumenical Councils|Germanic Christianity}}
[[File:Nicaea icon.jpg|thumb|upright|Icon depicting [[Constantine I|the Emperor Constantine]] and the [[bishop]]s of the [[First Council of Nicaea]] (AD 325) holding the [[Nicene Creed#Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed|Niceno–Constantinopolitan Creed of 381]]]]
[[File:Spread of Christianity to AD 600 (1).png|thumb|Spread of Christianity by AD 600 (shown in dark blue is the spread of [[Early Christianity]] up to AD 325)]]

"Christendom" has referred to the [[medieval]] and [[renaissance]] notion of the ''Christian world'' as a [[polity]]. In essence, the earliest vision of Christendom was a vision of a Christian [[theocracy]], a [[Forms of government|government]] founded upon and upholding [[Christian values]], whose institutions are spread through and over with [[Christian doctrine]]. In this period, members of the Christian [[clergy]] wield [[political authority]]. The specific relationship between the [[political leader]]s and the [[clergy]] varied but, in theory, the national and political divisions were at times subsumed under the leadership of the [[Christian Church|church as an institution]]. This [[Church and state in medieval Europe|model of church-state relations]] was accepted by various Church leaders and political leaders in [[European history]].<ref name="EB1911">{{Cite EB1911|wstitle= Episcopacy |volume= 9 |last= Phillips |first= Walter Alison |author-link= Walter Alison Phillips | pages = 699&ndash;701; see page 700, para 2, half way down |quote= The whole issue had, in fact, become confused with the confusion of functions of the Church and State. In the view of the Church of England the ultimate governance of the Christian community, in things spiritual and temporal, was vested not in the clergy but in the "Christian prince" as the vicegerent of God.}}</ref>

The Church gradually became a defining institution of the Roman Empire.<ref>The church in the Roman empire before A.D. 170, Part 170 By Sir William Mitchell Ramsay</ref> [[Emperor Constantine]] issued the [[Edict of Milan]] in 313 proclaiming toleration for the Christian religion, and [[convoke]]d the [[First Council of Nicaea]] in 325 whose [[Nicene Creed]] included belief in "one holy catholic and apostolic Church". Emperor [[Theodosius I]] made [[First Council of Nicaea|Nicene]] Christianity the [[state church of the Roman Empire]] with the [[Edict of Thessalonica]] of 380.<ref>Boyd, William Kenneth (1905). The ecclesiastical edicts of the Theodosian code, Columbia University Press.</ref> In terms of prosperity and cultural life, the [[Byzantine Empire]] was one of the peaks in [[Christian history]] and [[Christian civilization]],<ref name="Cameron 2006 42">{{harvnb|Cameron|2006|p=42}}.</ref> and [[Constantinople]] remained the leading city of the [[Christian world]] in size, wealth, and culture.<ref>{{harvnb|Cameron|2006|p=47}}.</ref> [[Greek scholars in the Renaissance|There was a renewed interest in classical Greek philosophy]], as well as an increase in literary output in vernacular Greek.<ref name="Browning-1992-190-218">{{harvnb|Browning|1992|pp=198–208}}.</ref>

As the [[Western Roman Empire]] [[Decline of the Roman Empire|disintegrated]] into [[feudalism|feudal kingdom]]s and [[principalities]], the concept of Christendom changed as the [[Western Christianity#History of Western Christianity|western church became one]] of five patriarchates of the [[Pentarchy]] and the Christians of the [[Eastern Roman Empire]] developed.{{Clarify|date=June 2018}} The [[Byzantine Empire]] was the last bastion of Christendom.<ref>{{cite book| last = Challand| first = Gérard| title = The Art of War in World History: From Antiquity to the Nuclear Age| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=aXuxw070d-wC&pg=PA25| year = 1994| publisher = University of California Press| isbn = 978-0-520-07964-9| page = 25 }}</ref> Christendom would take a turn with the rise of the [[Franks]], a Germanic tribe who converted to the Christian faith and entered into [[communion with Rome]].

On Christmas Day 800 AD, [[Pope Leo III]] crowned [[Charlemagne]], resulting in the creation of another Christian king beside the Christian emperor in the [[Byzantine]] state.<ref>{{cite book| author = Willis Mason West| title = The ancient world from the earliest times to 800 A.D. ...| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=tdEyAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA551| year = 1904| publisher = Allyn and Bacon| page = 551 }}</ref>{{Unreliable source?|date=June 2011}}<!-- An outdated source by an author whose qualifications are unknown is not a reliable source --> The [[Carolingian Empire]] created a definition of ''Christendom'' in juxtaposition with the Byzantine Empire, that of a distributed versus centralized [[culture]] respectively.<ref>{{cite book| author = Peter Brown|author2=Peter Robert Lamont Brown| title = The Rise of Western Christendom: Triumph and Diversity 200-1000 AD| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=-S9N1h_RS-IC&pg=PA443| year = 2003| publisher = Wiley| isbn = 978-0-631-22138-8| page = 443 }}</ref>

The classical heritage flourished throughout the Middle Ages in both the Byzantine Greek East and the Latin West. In the Greek philosopher [[Plato]]'s ideal state there are three major classes, which was representative of the idea of the "tripartite soul", which is expressive of three functions or capacities of the human soul: "reason", "the spirited element", and "appetites" (or "passions"). [[Will Durant]] made a convincing case that certain prominent features of Plato's [[The Republic (Plato)|ideal community]] where discernible in the organization, dogma and effectiveness of "the" Medieval Church in Europe:<ref name="Durant">{{cite book |first=Will |last=Durant |year=2005 |title=Story of Philosophy |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=suLI7RoaBEEC&pg=PA34 |publisher=Simon & Schuster |isbn=978-0-671-69500-2 |access-date=10 December 2013}}</ref>

<blockquote>... For a thousand years Europe was ruled by an order of guardians considerably like that which was visioned by our philosopher. During the Middle Ages it was customary to classify the population of Christendom into ''laboratores'' (workers), ''bellatores'' (soldiers), and ''oratores'' (clergy). The last group, though small in number, monopolized the instruments and opportunities of culture, and ruled with almost unlimited sway half of the most powerful continent on the globe. The clergy, like Plato's guardians, were placed in authority... by their talent as shown in ecclesiastical studies and administration, by their disposition to a life of meditation and simplicity, and ... by the influence of their relatives with the powers of state and church. In the latter half of the period in which they ruled [800 AD onwards], the clergy were as free from family cares as even Plato could desire [for such guardians]... [Clerical] Celibacy was part of the psychological structure of the power of the clergy; for on the one hand they were unimpeded by the narrowing egoism of the family, and on the other their apparent superiority to the call of the flesh added to the awe in which lay sinners held them....''<ref name="Durant"/>''</blockquote>

===Later Middle Ages and Renaissance===
{{Main|High Middle Ages|Late Middle Ages}}
{{Further|East–West Schism|Western Schism|Crusades|Reconquista}}
{{Further|Latin Empire|Frankokratia|Byzantine Empire under the Palaiologos dynasty|Byzantine–Ottoman Wars|Fall of Constantinople}}

After the [[collapse of Charlemagne's empire]], the southern remnants of the [[Holy Roman Empire]] became a collection of [[papal states|states loosely connected]] to the [[Holy See|Holy See of Rome]]. Tensions between [[Pope Innocent III]] and secular rulers ran high, as the [[pontiff]] exerted control over their temporal counterparts in the west and vice versa. The [[pontificate]] of Innocent III is considered the height of temporal power of the papacy. The ''[[Corpus Christianum]]'' described the then-current notion of the [[community]] of all [[Christians]] united under the [[Roman Catholic Church]]. The community was to be guided by Christian values in its politics, economics and social life.<ref>Shaping a global theological mind By Darren C. Marks. Page 45</ref> Its legal basis was the ''[[Canon Law|corpus iuris canonica]]'' (body of canon law).<ref>Somerville, R. (1998). Prefaces to Canon Law books in Latin Christianity: Selected translations, 500-1245; commentary and translations. New Haven [u.a.: Yale Univ. Press</ref><ref>VanDeWiel, C. (1991). History of canon law. Leuven: Peeters Press.</ref><ref>Canon law and the Christian community By Clarence Gallagher. Gregorian & Biblical BookShop, 1978.</ref><ref>Catholic Church., Canon Law Society of America., Catholic Church., & Libreria editrice vaticana. (1998). Code of canon law, Latin-English edition: New English translation. Washington, DC: Canon Law Society of America.</ref>

In the East, Christendom became more defined as the [[Byzantine Empire]]'s gradual loss of territory to an [[Early Muslim conquests|expanding Islam]] and the [[Muslim conquest of Persia]]. This caused Christianity to become important to the Byzantine identity. Before the [[East–West Schism]] which divided the Church religiously, there had been the notion of a ''universal Christendom'' that included the East and the West. After the East–West Schism, hopes of regaining religious unity with the West were ended by the [[Fourth Crusade]], when [[Crusades|Crusaders]] [[Siege of Constantinople (1204)|conquered the Byzantine capital of Constantinople]] and hastened the [[decline of the Byzantine Empire]] on the [[Byzantine–Ottoman Wars|path to its destruction]].<ref>Mango, C. (2002). The Oxford history of Byzantium. Oxford: Oxford University Press.</ref><ref>Angold, M. (1997). The Byzantine Empire, 1025-1204: A political history. New York: Longman.</ref><ref>{{cite book| last = Schevill| first = Ferdinand| title = The History of the Balkan Peninsula: From the Earliest Times to the Present Day| url = https://archive.org/details/historybalkanpe00schegoog| year = 1922| publisher = Harcourt, Brace and Company| page = [https://archive.org/details/historybalkanpe00schegoog/page/n142 124] }}</ref> With the breakup of the Byzantine Empire into individual nations with nationalist Orthodox Churches, the term Christendom described Western Europe, Catholicism, Orthodox Byzantines, and other Eastern rites of the Church.<ref>{{cite book| last = Schaff| first = Philip| title = The history of creeds| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=WVsvAAAAYAAJ| year = 1878| publisher = Harper }}</ref><ref>{{CathEncy|wstitle=Christendom}}</ref>

The [[Catholic Church]]'s peak of authority over all European Christians and their common endeavours of the Christian community—for example, the [[Crusades]], the fight against the [[Moors]] in the [[Iberian Peninsula]] and against the [[Ottoman Turks|Ottomans]] in the [[Balkans]]—helped to develop a sense of communal identity against the obstacle of Europe's deep political divisions. The popes, formally just the bishops of Rome, claimed to be the focus of all Christendom, which was largely recognised in Western Christendom from the 11th century until the Reformation, but not in Eastern Christendom.<ref>MacCulloch (2010), p. 625.</ref> Moreover, this authority was also sometimes abused, and fostered the [[Inquisition]] and [[Anti-Judaism|anti-Jewish]] [[pogroms]], to root out divergent elements and create a religiously uniform community.<ref name="lazare61">{{harvp|Lazare|1903|p=61}}</ref> Ultimately, the Inquisition was done away with by order of Pope Innocent III.<ref>{{CathEncy|wstitle=Inquisition}}</ref>

Christendom ultimately was led into specific crisis in the [[late Middle Ages]], when the [[monarch|kings]] of France managed to establish a French national church during the 14th century and the papacy became ever more aligned with the [[Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation]]. Known as the [[Western Schism]], western Christendom was a split between three men, who were driven by politics rather than any real theological disagreement for simultaneously claiming to be the true pope. The [[Avignon Papacy]] developed a reputation for corruption that estranged major parts of Western Christendom. The Avignon schism was ended by the [[Council of Constance]].<ref>Stump, P. H. (1994). The reforms of the Council of Constance, 1414-1418. Leiden: E.J. Brill</ref>

Before the modern period, Christendom was in a general crisis at the time of the [[Renaissance Papacy|Renaissance Popes]] because of the moral laxity of these pontiffs and their willingness to seek and rely on temporal power as secular rulers did.{{Citation needed|date=April 2014}} Many in the Catholic Church's hierarchy in the Renaissance became increasingly entangled with insatiable greed for material wealth and temporal power, which led to many reform movements, some merely wanting a moral reformation of the Church's clergy, while others repudiated the Church and separated from it in order to form new sects.{{Citation needed|date=April 2014}} The [[Italian Renaissance]] produced ideas or institutions by which men living in society could be held together in harmony. In the early 16th century, [[Baldassare Castiglione]] (''[[The Book of the Courtier]]'') laid out his vision of the ideal gentleman and lady, while [[Machiavelli]] cast a jaundiced eye on "la verità effetuale delle cose"—the actual truth of things—in ''[[The Prince]]'', composed, humanist style, chiefly of parallel ancient and modern examples of [[Virtù]]. Some Protestant movements grew up along lines of [[mysticism]] or [[renaissance humanism]] ([[cf.]] [[Erasmus]]). The Catholic Church fell partly into general neglect under the Renaissance Popes, whose inability to govern the Church by showing personal example of high moral standards set the climate for what would ultimately become the Protestant Reformation.<ref>The Cambridge Modern History. Vol 2: [https://archive.today/20121206015231/http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=62407231 The Reformation (1903)].</ref> During the Renaissance, the papacy was mainly run by the wealthy families and also had strong secular interests. To safeguard Rome and the connected Papal States the popes became necessarily involved in temporal matters, even leading armies, as the great patron of arts [[Pope Julius II]] did. During these intermediate times, popes strove to make Rome the capital of Christendom while projecting it through art, architecture, and literature as the center of a Golden Age of unity, order, and peace.<ref>{{cite web |url = http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/pape/hd_pape.htm|title = The Papacy during the Renaissance|last = Norris |first =  Michael|date = August 2007|website = The Metropolitan Museum of Art|access-date= 11 December 2013}}</ref>

Professor Frederick J. McGinness described Rome as essential in understanding the legacy the Church and its representatives encapsulated best by [[Rome|The Eternal City]]: <blockquote>No other city in Europe matches Rome in its traditions, history, legacies, and influence in the Western world. Rome in the Renaissance under the papacy not only acted as guardian and transmitter of these elements stemming from the Roman Empire but also assumed the role as artificer and interpreter of its myths and meanings for the peoples of Europe from the Middle Ages to modern times... Under the patronage of the popes, whose wealth and income were exceeded only by their ambitions, the city became a cultural center for master architects, sculptors, musicians, painters, and artisans of every kind...In its myth and message, Rome had become the sacred city of the popes, the prime symbol of a triumphant Catholicism, the center of orthodox Christianity, a new Jerusalem.<ref>{{cite web |url = http://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780195399301/obo-9780195399301-0053.xml|title = Papal Rome|last = McGinness|first =  Frederick|date = 26 August 2011|website = Oxford Bibliographies|access-date= 11 December 2013}}</ref></blockquote>

It is clearly noticeable that the popes of the Italian Renaissance have been subjected by many writers with an overly harsh tone. Pope Julius II, for example, was not only an effective secular leader in military affairs, a deviously effective politician but foremost one of the [[Art patronage of Julius II|greatest patron of the Renaissance period]] and person who also encouraged open criticism from noted humanists.<ref>{{cite web|url = http://faculty.uml.edu/CulturalStudies/Italian_Renaissance/5.htm|title = Background for Italian Renaissance|last = Cheney|first = Liana|date = 26 August 2011|website = University of Massachusetts Lowell|access-date = 11 December 2013|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140116035753/http://faculty.uml.edu/CulturalStudies/Italian_Renaissance/5.htm|archive-date = 16 January 2014|url-status = dead}}</ref>

The blossoming of renaissance humanism was made very much possible due to the universality of the institutions of Catholic Church and represented by personalities such as [[Pope Pius II]], [[Nicolaus Copernicus]], [[Leon Battista Alberti]], [[Desiderius Erasmus]], sir [[Thomas More]], [[Bartolomé de Las Casas]], [[Leonardo da Vinci]] and [[Teresa of Ávila]]. [[George Santayana]] in his work ''[[The Life of Reason]]'' postulated the tenets of the all encompassing order the Church had brought and as the repository of the legacy of [[classical antiquity]]:<ref name="Santayana">{{cite book |last= Santayana |first= George |year= 1982 |title= The Life of Reason|url=http://www.gutenberg.org/files/15000/15000-h/vol5.html|location=New York |publisher= Dover Publications |access-date= 10 December 2013}}</ref>

<blockquote>The enterprise of individuals or of small aristocratic bodies has meantime sown the world which we call civilised with some seeds and nuclei of order. There are scattered about a variety of churches, industries, academies, and governments. But the universal order once dreamt of and nominally almost established, the empire of universal peace, all-permeating rational art, and philosophical worship, is mentioned no more. An unformulated conception, the prerational ethics of private privilege and national unity, fills the background of men's minds. It represents feudal traditions rather than the tendency really involved in contemporary industry, science, or philanthropy. Those dark ages, from which our political practice is derived, had a political theory which we should do well to study; for their theory about a universal empire and a Catholic church was in turn the echo of a former age of reason, when a few men conscious of ruling the world had for a moment sought to survey it as a whole and to rule it justly.<ref name="Santayana"/></blockquote>

===Reformation and Early Modern era===
{{Further|Reformation|Counter-Reformation|History of Protestantism|European wars of religion}}
{{Further|Ottoman wars in Europe|History of the Russo-Turkish wars|History of the Serbian–Turkish wars}}
{{Further|Jesuit China missions|Spanish missions in the Americas}}

Developments in [[western philosophy]] and European events brought change to the notion of the ''Corpus Christianum''. The [[Hundred Years' War]] accelerated the process of transforming France from a feudal monarchy to a centralized state. The rise of [[Absolutism (European history)|strong, centralized monarchies]]<ref>This was presaging the modern [[nation-state]]</ref> denoted the European transition from [[feudalism]] to [[capitalism]]. By the end of the Hundred Years' War, both France and England were able to raise enough money through taxation to create independent standing armies. In the [[Wars of the Roses]], [[Henry VII of England|Henry Tudor]] took the crown of England. His heir, the [[Absolutism (European history)|absolute]] king [[Henry VIII of England|Henry VIII]] establishing the [[Church of England|English church]].<ref>{{cite web| url = http://anglican.org/church/ChurchHistory.html| title = The Anglican Domain: Church History}}</ref>

In [[modern history]], [[the Reformation]] and rise of [[modernity]] in the early 16th century entailed a change in the ''Corpus Christianum''. In the [[Holy Roman Empire]], the [[Peace of Augsburg]] of 1555 officially ended the idea among secular leaders that all Christians must be united under one church.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-09-18 |title=Peace of Augsburg {{!}} Germany [1555], Religion & Politics {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/event/Peace-of-Augsburg |access-date=2023-10-30 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}</ref> The principle of ''[[cuius regio, eius religio]]'' ("whose the region is, his religion") established the religious, political and geographic divisions of Christianity, and this was established with the [[Treaty of Westphalia]] in 1648, which legally ended the concept of a single Christian hegemony in the territories of the Holy Roman Empire, despite the [[Catholic Church]]'s doctrine that it alone is the one true Church founded by Christ.<ref name="Excerpts">{{cite web |title=The Peace of Westphalia |url=https://pages.uoregon.edu/dluebke/301ModernEurope/Treaty%20of%20Westphalia%20%5BExcerpts%5D.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120617200242/https://pages.uoregon.edu/dluebke/301ModernEurope/Treaty%20of%20Westphalia%20%5BExcerpts%5D.pdf |archive-date=17 June 2012 |access-date=6 October 2021 |website=University of Oregon}}</ref>
Subsequently, each government determined the religion of their own state. Christians living in states where their denomination was ''not'' the established one were guaranteed the right to practice their faith in public during allotted hours and in private at their will.<ref name="Excerpts" /> At times there were mass expulsions of dissenting faiths as happened with the [[Salzburg Protestants]]. Some people passed as adhering to the official church, but instead lived as [[Nicodemite]]s or [[crypto-protestantism|crypto-protestants]].<ref>Žalta, Anja. 2004. Protestantizem in bukovništvo med koroškimi Slovenci. ''Anthropos'' 36(1/4): 1–23, p. 7.</ref>

The [[European wars of religion]] are usually taken to have ended with the Treaty of Westphalia (1648),<ref name="Becker">{{cite book|first1=Uwe|last1=Becker|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hKqN5FPL6-cC&pg=PA54|title=Europese democratieën: vrijheid, gelijkheid, solidariteit en soevereiniteit in praktijk|isbn=90-5589-128-2|year=1999|publisher=Het Spinhuis}}</ref> or arguably, including the [[Nine Years' War]] and the [[War of the Spanish Succession]] in this period, with the [[Treaty of Utrecht]] of 1713.<ref>{{Cite web|date=June 26, 2021|title=Wars of Religion|url=https://www.britannica.com/event/Wars-of-Religion|access-date=June 26, 2021|website=Britannica Online}}</ref> In the 18th century, the focus shifts away from religious conflicts, either between Christian factions or against the external threat of Islamic factions.{{citation needed|date=January 2018}}

===End of Christendom===
[[File:Christian World—Pew Research Center 2010.svg|thumb|330px|Christian majority countries in 2010; Countries with 50% or more Christians are colored purple while countries with 10% to 50% Christians are colored pink.<ref name="assets_pewresearch_org" />{{Update inline|date=March 2024}}]]
The [[European Miracle]], the [[Age of Enlightenment]] and the formation of the great [[colonial empire]]s, together with the beginning [[decline of the Ottoman Empire]], mark the end of the geopolitical "history of Christendom".<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Carroll |first=Warren |title=The Cleaving of Christendom - A history of Christendom vol. 4 |publisher=Christendom Press |year=2000 |isbn=9780931888755}}</ref> Instead, the focus of Western history shifts to the development of the [[nation-state]], accompanied by increasing [[History of atheism|atheism]] and [[secularism]], culminating with the [[French Revolution]] and the [[Napoleonic Wars]] at the turn of the 19th century.<ref name=":0" />

In his 1964 [[encyclical letter]] ''[[Ecclesiam Suam]]'', [[Pope Paul VI]] observed that{{quote|One part of [the] world ... has in recent years detached itself and broken away from the Christian foundations of its culture, although formerly it had been so imbued with Christianity and had drawn from it such strength and vigor that the people of these nations in many cases owe to Christianity all that is best in their own tradition.<ref>Pope Paul VI, [https://www.vatican.va/content/paul-vi/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-vi_enc_06081964_ecclesiam.html Ecclesiam Suam], paragraph 13, published on 6 August 1964, accessed on 11 July 2024</ref>}}Writing in 1997, Canadian [[theology]] professor [[Douglas John Hall]] argued that Christendom had either fallen already or was in its death throes; although its end was gradual and not as clear to pin down as its 4th-century establishment, the "transition to the post-Constantinian, or post-Christendom, situation (...) has already been in process for a century or two", beginning with the 18th-century rationalist Enlightenment and the French Revolution (the first attempt to topple the Christian establishment).<ref name="1–9Hall"/> American Catholic bishop [[Thomas John Curry]] stated in 2001 that the end of Christendom came about because modern governments refused to "uphold the teachings, customs, ethos, and practice of Christianity".<ref name="Curry12"/> He argued the [[First Amendment to the United States Constitution]] (1791) and the [[Second Vatican Council]]'s [[Dignitatis humanae|Declaration on Religious Freedom]] (1965) are two of the most important documents setting the stage for its end.<ref name="Curry12"/> According to British historian Diarmaid MacCulloch (2010), Christendom was 'killed' by the [[First World War]] (1914–18), which led to the fall of the three main Christian empires ([[Russian Empire|Russian]], [[German Empire|German]] and [[Austria-Hungary|Austrian]]) of Europe, as well as the Ottoman Empire, rupturing the Eastern Christian communities that had existed on its territory. The Christian empires were replaced by secular, even anti-clerical republics seeking to definitively keep the churches out of politics. The only surviving monarchy with an established church, Britain, was severely damaged by the war, lost [[Irish Free State|most of Ireland]] due to Catholic–Protestant infighting, and was starting to lose grip on its colonies.<ref name="MacCulloch1024">MacCulloch (2010), p. 1024–1030.</ref>

Changes in worldwide Christianity over the last century have been significant, since 1900, Christianity has spread rapidly in the [[Global South]] and Third World countries.<ref>{{cite book |last=Jenkins |first=Philip |author-link=Philip Jenkins |year=2011 |title=The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity |chapter=The Rise of the New Christianity |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rPBoAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA101 |location=[[Oxford]] and [[New York City|New York]] |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |pages=101–133 |isbn=9780199767465 |lccn=2010046058}}</ref> The late 20th century has shown the shift of Christian adherence to the [[Third World]] and the Southern Hemisphere in general,<ref>{{cite book|page=2|title=Christianity as a World Religion|author-last1=Kim|author-first1=Sebastian|author-last2=Kim|author-link=Sebastian Kim|author-first2=Kirsteen|author-link2=Kirsteen Kim|publisher=Continuum|location=London|date=2008}}</ref> by 2010 about 157 countries and territories in the world had [[Christianity by country|Christian majorities]].<ref name="assets_pewresearch_org" />