Page 15 - Pilgrims in Georgia

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Jan Hus on trial at the Council of Constance
This religious change brought great conflict in Europe because at that time almost all governments had official religions

for their state and all the subjects had to adhere to it. Sadly, it had become a means that the government, king, or
royalty often used to help control their subjects. Now that beliefs were changing in many places, along with the control
it gave, it resulted in hostility, persecution and war off and on up till the 1700’s. This mainly took place in the countries
of northern Europe, such as Switzerland, Germany, England, Scotland and the Netherlands and parts of France. In
France, periods of conflict and peace between Protestants, called “Huguenots”, and Catholics alternated through-out
the 1500’s and 1600’s. However, Spain was never effected by the reformation, so they remained Solidly Roman Catholic.
This may be because up until 1500 Spain had been fighting the Moslem Moors to drive them out of Spain and they had
a very strong unity of government, military, and religion as they entered the time of the Reformation. Their King Phillip
II considered himself the chief defender of Catholic Europe, both against the Moslem Ottoman Turks and against the
forces of the Protestant Reformation whom he considered to be heretics. There is usually little room for toleration of
differences when a country is at war, and they had been at war for 800 years. This may also help explain why they so

successfully conquered much of the New World so quickly. This political competition for North America and the
religious conflict between Catholicism and Protestantism will set the stage for the first group of “pilgrims” who came
into the general area of Georgia.