Page 91 - History of Christianity - Student Textbook

Protestant state, and in four years of fighting, was unable to defeat the Catholic armies.

In 1630, Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden entered the war. At this point, the motives for fighting were shifting.
True, the Swedes were proud Lutherans, determined to defeat the Catholic forces. But another kingdom, that of
France, was providing the Swedes with financial support. And France was a Catholic country, practically
governed by a Catholic cardinal, Richelieu, who as chief minister of Louis XIII made most important political
decisions.

What was going on? The last thing France wanted was to be surrounded by the Hapsburgs. A Catholic victory in
Germany would lead to just that. So the French gave money to the Swedes, secretly at first. But by 1639, the
French were directly involved in the fighting. This marked a turning point in European politics, away from wars of
religion, towards wars of political expediency or conquest.

The fighting brought robbery, rape, murder, starvation, and disease to Germany’s land and its people. The war
finally ended with the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. Austria was defeated, and its hopes for control over a
Catholic Europe came to nothing. The Peace of Westphalia set the religious and political boundaries for Europe
for the next two centuries. The Peace of Westphalia allowed Catholics and Protestants equal rights in the Holy
Roman Empire. (http://udel.edu/~jddavies/Thirty_Years_War.html)

The Thirty Years War basically ended Reformation and brought in Enlightenment. Europe would move away
from a religious centered world to a secular world.

George Fox Founds the Society of Friends, 1648

The middle of the 1600’s marked a time of religious change. The Puritans had objected to
the Church of England, but though they disliked the Anglican priesthood, the continued it
with their clergy. George Fox, who founded the Society of Friends, taught that religion
should be informal. In his quest to find spiritual truth, George heard a voice say, “There is
one, even Jesus Christ, who can speak to thy condition.” Fox taught, as a result, that every
person must follow the “Inner Light” that God gives him. By following the “Inner Light,”
man could break Satan’s power and the hold of sin.

His teachings drew many to his new group. The Friends, as they were called, renounced oath taking, dressed
simply, ate sparingly, and spoke the truth in all honesty. They opposed warfare, protested formalism in worship,
refused to tip their hats to any man, and would not pay a tithe to the state church. Of course, this resulted in
persecution and eventual jail time for Fox. When he stood before one judge, who mocked his group’s beliefs,
Fox warned the judge to “tremble at the Word of God.” The judge replied, “You are the tremblers, the quakers!”
From then on, they were known as the Quakers.

Eventually William Penn, a Quaker, would be granted land in the New World and great numbers of Quakers
immigrated to Pennsylvania.

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