Christianity HISTORICAL BACKGROUND-Cont.

Christians. In his new capitol of Constantinople, the emperor became the great patron of the church. Theodosius I, who became emperor 42 years after the death of Constantine about A.D. 380, made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire. Missionaries carried the Christian faith throughout the world. Early in the 7th century, Islam overran Syria, Persia, Egypt, Palestine, and North Africa. The adherents of Islam crossed the Mediterranean and conquered Spain. In A.D. 732, near Tours France, the Moslems were finally turned back by an army led by Charles Martel. The Moslems stayed in Spain until 1492 when their last stronghold fell into the hands of the Christian mon- archs, Ferdinand and Isabella, just before Columbus sailed for the new world. Moslems and Christians fought bitterly around the Mediterranean basin for a thousand years. The 13th century has been held by many as “the age of faith,” a time when the authority of the Christian church was accepted almost without question. This was the age that produced such pious men as St. Francis of Assisi and St. Thomas Aquinas. Early in the 16th century, a reform of Christianity was attempted by Martin Luther, an Augustinian monk in Saxoney, and John Calvin, a French intellectual. This movement became known as the Protestant Reformation. Luther declared that the Bible is the sole and sufficient source for spiritual guidance and that people have access to God without the need of inter- mediaries such as church, sacrament, priest, or saint. Calvin proclaimed the doctrine of the absolute sovereignty of God. In response to the Protestant Reformation, the Roman Catholic Church embarked on a period of correction and opposition called the Counter Reformation. The Council of Trent met intermittently for 18 years, ended many abuses, and formulated a doctrine that is still accepted today by Roman Catholics. Events of Christian history from the time of the Protestant Reformation to the present have frequently been interwoven with the history of the national states and their “state” churches. In England, King Henry VIII declared himself “head of the church” and severed England’s ties to the Church of Rome. Elsewhere in Europe, the same pattern prevailed with religion becoming an ally, and often the agent, of the state (a state church). Following the English pattern, nine of the thirteen American colonies had a state church. By 1776, however, there was a growing concern on the part of some, that the pattern of “state” churches was a major source of much of the political and religious unrest throughout that period. Consequently, the Virginia General Assembly enacted a law for estab- lishing religious freedom on 16 January 1786, the Virginia Statute of Religious Liberty. Authored by Thomas Jefferson, it is a powerful and moving statement which argues that forced support of religion—even one’s own—is a deprivation of liberty. Jefferson characterized this struggle for religious freedom as “the severest contest in which I have ever been engaged” and regarded this statute as one of his foremost contributions to history. Jefferson strongly felt that civil rights should not depend upon one’s religious convictions, or lack of convictions, nor should anyone be com- pelled to profess religious beliefs. The adoption of the first amendment to the Federal Constitution, which was strongly influenced by, and incorporated the principle of the Virginia 2-13