WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE (1562-1598) Civil wars in France between Catholics, who constituted the majority of the population, and a Protestant minority, who professed Calvinism and called themselves Huguenots. A synod of the Presbyterian Church (Huguenots) was established

religious wars

By far the highlight of the century was the emergence of an Islamic fundamentalist political movement. Extremism in Islam is a powerful current within the framework of modern Islamism, understood as a political movement that seeks to influence the process of social development based on religious norms. Having deployed its activities all over the planet, this movement has actually turned into a worldwide confrontation between the forces of Islam and the rest of the world.

The soldiers of Islam have been waging an ongoing war in many parts of the world for many years. the globe(Algeria, Egypt, Indonesia, Philippines and many other countries). It is no coincidence that the attack on the World Trade Center was almost immediately attributed to radical Islamic groups. And one of them - "Al-Qaeda" - the United States of America actually recognized as the organizers of this operation.

The object of aggressive attacks by religious extremists are modern political institutions and power structures, presented as "infidels", since they are the main obstacle to establishing the foundations of the Islamic order. The practice of Islamic radicals consists in active and immediate, and therefore usually aggressive actions to establish an Islamic state, the coming to power of true Muslims. The driving forces of modern Islamic extremism are mainly students, workers, small traders, engineers, and doctors. The expansion of the ranks of religious extremists is facilitated by the ongoing process in the modern Muslim world of the introduction of Western culture unacceptable to Islam and the lumpenization of the population. To date, according to rough estimates, under the banner of various extremist groups professing Islam, there are about sixty million fighters.

2. RELIGIOUS CONTROL IN IRELAND

Confrontation, in a huge number of cases armed, between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland, complicated by the unwillingness of the former to remain part of the UK, is very, very significant. It demonstrates the presence of the most serious conflict in a fairly prosperous region. Western Europe and once again refutes the myth of "harmony", which allegedly reigns in the countries of Western democracy.

In this case, religious contradictions are closely connected with ethnic, as well as with ideological ones. The ideological and theoretical basis of the Irish Republican Army (IRA), which was at the forefront of resistance, can be described as radical socialist. By the way, socialist and even communist ideas are being actively adopted by the majority of European "separatists". Thus, the terrorist organization ETA, which is fighting for the independence of the Basques and their secession from Spain, professes Marxism, paradoxically (it would seem paradoxically) combined with radical nationalism. Inside the famous UCHK ("Kosovo Liberation Army"), radical socialist sentiments are very strong, whimsically intertwined with nationalism and Islamism.

At the moment, Irish resistance is in a phase of fading, only an irreconcilable minority of the so-called. "true" IRA. However, the problem itself remains, and in the foreseeable future we can expect the emergence of new radical movements, moreover, of a religious-fundamentalist color.

3. ISLAMIC REVOLUTION IN IRAN

The revolution that took place in Iran is one of the most unexpected victories of Islamic fundamentalism, which certainly shook the usual course of human history. For many then, in 1979, it was a surprise that such a phenomenon as the Islamic revolution was even possible. However, all doubts were decisively dispelled by the revolutionary Iranians.

At the very source of spiritual resistance to the Shah's tyranny that shook the country stood a spiritual teacher, Ayatollah Khairi, who became a mentor and inspirer of Shiite thinkers and spiritual figures - Khomeini, Tabatabai, Motaharri, Mortezalari and others. Through his efforts, a circle of "revolutionary ayatollahs" arose, which made possible the victory of the "renovator" faction.

The cleansing of the Islamic space from the agents of the World System was successful and has withstood the test of time. More than twenty years have passed since the revolution. When the Islamic Revolution took place, the population of Iran was 37 million, now it is 60 million. Population growth occurred despite the fact that the damage from the post-revolutionary wars amounted to about 200 billion dollars.

For the Islamic religious consciousness, the figure of Imam Khomeini has outgrown the purely social worldly framework. The very word "imam" applied to Khomeini is an unprecedented concession to the special status of the leader of the Islamic revolution, since the Shia tradition recognizes only 12 imams, the last of which will be the Mahdi. Leader of the last great war that will put an end to injustice and oppression.

4. WAR ON THE HOLY GROUND

The most widely reported religious conflict is the ongoing war for the Holy Land of Palestine. A feature of the Middle East crisis, unlike any other local religious conflict, is that the main subject of the dispute - Jerusalem - is of great importance not only for the direct participants in the conflict (Muslims and Jews), but also for representatives of all Christian denominations. The issue of the status of Jerusalem is the main stumbling block in Israeli-Palestinian relations, this problem could be resolved without sacrificing religious feelings and maintaining access for believers to shrines, but so far this long-awaited peace has not been established. Endless large and small military clashes have been taking place here for more than a decade. The number of victims of this confrontation has not yet been calculated by anyone. Events in the Middle East cause a sharply negative reaction from representatives of the Arab world. Palestinian detachments continuously draw new recruits for themselves from among Muslims who are ready to fight for the liberation of Islamic shrines. In turn, the Israeli authorities constantly declare that Jerusalem was, is and will be the single and indivisible capital of Israel, remaining a holy city for the Jews. And the Israelis do not agree to give it away under any circumstances. The participants in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict are still far from agreement. Can they find mutual language and end the long-term confrontation - time will tell.

5. PERSECUTION OF RELIGION IN THE USSR

In the last century, an unprecedented atheist campaign unfolded in Russia, the most important element of which was mass repressions against clergy and ordinary believers. It is hardly worthwhile now to characterize in detail the scale of the repressions that have fallen upon the Orthodox and representatives of other confessions. Enough has been written and said about this.

I would like to say a few words about the fact that Orthodoxy did not act in those days only in a “passive”, so to speak, role. There were cases of active and passive resistance to the godless authorities. During the Civil War, the organs of church administration that existed on the "white" territory took an openly anti-Soviet position. In the army of Admiral Kolchak, a whole regiment formed from Orthodox clergy successfully fought. Demolition of churches and atheistic mockery of communist activists were often disrupted by believers, and sometimes resistance took the form of armed uprisings.

Already in the 30s, according to the NKVD, from 20 to 30% of the population did not come to work on major religious holidays, which was fraught with criminal prosecution. Along with the "Sergian" ROC, which was forced to take a conciliatory position, there were secret and overt structures of the so-called catacomb - independent - church. In emigration, the theomachist power was condemned by the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad.

It was the stubborn unwillingness of people to give up their faith that largely forced the communist leadership to take certain steps towards the believers in the 40s - the rejection of mass repressions, the return of priests from places of imprisonment and exile, the return of churches, the revival of the system of church education, etc.

6. CHINESE OCCUPATION OF TIBET

This event did not cause much resonance in the international arena, although its significance for the destinies of the world can hardly be overestimated. On May 23, 1951, the 40,000-strong army of communist China (PRC) invaded the territory of Tibet, then an independent state.

Formally, the Tibetans were guaranteed the broadest religious and political autonomy, but the Chinese communists began to violate their own promises from the very first days of their rule. During the 50 years of Maoist rule in Tibet, one and a half million people died, out of 6 thousand monasteries only 13 survived (later, for purely pragmatic reasons, the Chinese authorities allowed 1.5 thousand monasteries to open). In addition, the PRC pursued an unfavorable demographic policy for the Tibetans, aimed at ensuring Chinese ethnic predominance in the region. At present, the ratio of the local population to the Chinese is 6.5:7. The territory of Tibet has turned into a dump nuclear waste China.

There was (and still is) a place for Tibetans to resist Red China. In 1959, armed conflict broke out in the region. popular uprising brutally suppressed by the communists. Then about 100 thousand people died. The Tibetan leader, the Dalai Lama, fled to India, where he set up a government in exile.

Recently, the interest of the world community in Tibet and its religious and political problems has been awakening more and more. To give just one example, in 1989 the Dalai Lama was awarded Nobel Prize. However, attention to this ancient, "magical" country still cannot be called sufficient.

In fact, the policy of the Chinese communists in Tibet can be compared with the persecution of Orthodoxy in Russia, which was carried out by the Soviet communists.

7. RELIGIOUS WARS IN AFRICA

Throughout the last century, the African continent has become a battlefield for sectarian wars. Many countries of the continent experienced a real religious massacre. Some are still experiencing it. For the past fourteen years, Sudan has been torn apart by a fierce confrontation between the government and the opposition. The bloody civil war has already claimed 2 million human lives, and 600 thousand Sudanese were forced to leave their homeland.

Political contradictions here recede into the background and give way to religious contradictions. The Sudanese authorities express the interests of the Muslim part of the country, which makes up 70% of the total population, while the opposition is strictly focused on pagans (25%) and Christians (5%). Moreover, the situation is complicated by the fact that the ruling regime is also fighting with unorthodox Nubian Muslims, as well as with numerous Islamic sects.

In Nigeria, most major country African continent, there is an ongoing religious conflict between Christians, Muslims and pagans.

Ethnic and religious strife, constantly tearing apart Nigeria, has become one of the biggest dangers for this young country. The struggle for power in the federation between the politicians of the North (Hausa Muslims, Fulbe) and the South (Yoruba Christians, Igbo) continuously complicates the political situation in the country.

Violent clashes often paralyze Lagos, the economic capital and most Big City Nigeria. In this ten-million African metropolis, bloody clashes in the streets between Christians and Muslims are considered quite commonplace. In Lagos, the former capital of Nigeria, extremists from the Odua People's Congress, a paramilitary group of the Yoruba people, capture and lynch Hausa people.

In the state of Kaduna, after the introduction of sharia, Christians, who make up about half of the state's population, staged a massive protest march. In a matter of hours, the city was engulfed in pogroms.

8. CONFLICT BETWEEN HINDUISTS AND ISLAMS

The India-Pakistan border is in danger of becoming a global front line at any moment. The two states continuously accuse each other of starting hostilities.

The conflict between India and Pakistan, like the conflict in Yugoslavia, is a clash of two different faiths - Hinduism and Islam. The very division of India into Pakistan and the Indian Union in 1947 took place along confessional lines. Now in India, Hinduism is practiced by more than 80% of the country's population, but in some states the majority are adherents of other religions. Thus, in the state of Punjab, the majority of the population are Sikhs, more than half of the inhabitants of the state of Nagaland profess Christianity, and about two-thirds of the population of the state of Jammu and Kashmir are Muslims. Therefore, Pakistan does not stop making territorial claims against India, wanting to annex the states whose population professes Islam. A number of separatist political Islamic organizations operate in these states, whose activities are aimed at creating an independent state (for example, the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front). Seeds of discord, sown in the late 40s. with a rather conditional and arbitrary territorial delimitation, they repeatedly led to outbreaks of violence, border conflicts, which more than once escalated into local wars. Hundreds of thousands of adherents of Islam and Hinduism have already died in the course of many years of confrontation.

Assessing Pakistan's attitude to this problem, one should not forget the circumstances of the latest military coup: the reason for the dissatisfaction of the Pakistani military was the order of President Sharif to withdraw the Pakistani military from Kashmir.

As practice shows, conflicts based on confessional or ethnic reasons can last for decades or even centuries. This is evidenced by the experience of the Balkans, and the Caucasus region, and the confrontation in Northern Ireland. However, in the case of Indo-Pakistani relations, for the first time, a confessional conflict may arise between states possessing nuclear weapons.

9. OPPOSITION OF SERBS AND CROATS

This phenomenon is more than significant. It once again confirms the fact that mutual religious enmity can also be inherent in ethnically similar communities. In the case of Serbs and Croats, we are dealing with the same ethnic group, divided into two nations precisely on religious grounds.

The scale of religious and ethnic cleansing organized by Croatian Catholic nationalists against Orthodox Serbs during the Second World War is striking. The figure of five hundred people is called killed, as for various fanaticism, they amazed even the worldly-wise German Nazis. The official Vatican also condemned the persecution of the Serbs.

At the same time, it is necessary in everything and always to follow the principle of objective coverage of events. There is no doubt that in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (that was the name of Yugoslavia until 1941), the Croatian population was clearly in a humiliated position. In all significant areas of socio-political and economic life, it was the Serbs that dominated, the standard of living of the Croats was much lower than the Serbian. Serbian nationalism was rather aggressively planted in the country.

But, of course, the reaction of the Croatian nationalists to all this was, to put it mildly, inadequate. Ordinary Serbs paid for the mistakes and abuses of the ruling elite.

In conclusion, let us once again pay attention to the closest, mystical, one might say, connection between the two Orthodox Slavic peoples - Russians and Serbs. And now we are not even talking about a joint struggle against fascism. Few people know, but during the Second World War, the so-called. "Russian Corps", consisting of monarchically minded members white movement 1917-1921, who ended up in exile. They collaborated with Nazi Germany, fought against the Tito partisans, but selflessly defended fellow Serbs from the encroachments of their ill-wishers.

10. Liberation Theology

In the 70s of the last century in Latin America a powerful religious movement arose, known as "liberation theology". Its ideologists (Gustav Gutierrez, Leonardo Boffa, Sergio Menendez and others) challenged the world capitalist system based on their own interpretation of the religious principles of Christianity.

According to "liberation theologians", the life and teachings of Christ represented a social revolt against the Roman Empire and the selfishness of the nobility. In fact, they put forward the concept of a kind of Catholic "jihad" - a revolutionary religious war against capital.

In principle, the appearance of "theology of liberation" is another evidence in favor of the fact that in the 20th century religions are becoming more and more politicized, being actively involved in the socio-political confrontation.

It should be noted that the phenomenon of "liberation theology" cannot be understood without considering it in connection with the person of the legendary Ernesto Che Guevara, who, back in the 60s, proposed creating an alliance of leftists and Catholics. Often compared to Christ by many of his followers, the fiery Comandante is a cult figure for "liberation theologians" and indeed for many Catholics. In Bolivia, in those places where the commander fought, in every family they pray to the saint of Santo Ernesto de La Higuera - Che Guevara.

The history of Western civilization is full of evidence of mass bloodshed and atrocities that have become commonplace not only in life medieval Europe but also in the recent twentieth century. In terms of the scale of bloodletting and atrocities, the 20th century surpasses the Middle Ages, and there are no guarantees that European civilization will not return to its usual practice. The narcissism of Western civilization looks rather strange when it has the audacity to teach morality and ethics to Russia.

One of the most prominent contemporary historians, Oxford professor Norman Davies, said "Everyone will agree that the crimes of the West in the twentieth century have undermined the moral basis of his claims, including his past claims."

Catherine de Medici(1519 - 1589) - Queen of France from 1547 to 1559, who organized a mass massacre of the Huguenots (Protestants) in a day St. Bartholomew on the night of August 24-25, 1572 Catholics. About 30 thousand people died on Bartholomew's night. The expression "St. Bartholomew's Night" has long been included in the languages ​​of many peoples of the world, and means the cruel treacherous murder of defenseless people who do not have the ability to resist. In other cities of France, Toulouse, Bordeaux, Lyon, Bourges, Rouen and Orleans, about 6 thousand Huguenots (Protestants).

First crowned in 1553 Queen of England Mary I Tudor(1516-1558) was nicknamed Bloody Mary. Having ascended the English throne Mary I daughter Henry VIII from marriage with Catherine of Aragon, began the reconstruction of Catholic monasteries, restoration in the state of the Catholic faith, began mass executions Protestants, in 1555 bonfires blazed all over England, about 300 ardent Protestants and church hierarchs were burned. It was ordered not to spare even those Protestants who agreed to accept Catholicism.

February 16, 1568 the Holy Inquisition condemned to death all the inhabitants of the Netherlands as heretics, and the Spanish King Philip II ordered that this sentence be carried out. It was not possible to kill everyone, but the royal army did what they could - destroyed in the Netherlands - 100 thousand people, in Haarlem alone, 20,000 inhabitants were killed.

Another classic of English “history for readers,” John Richard Green, in 1874, quoted Oliver Cromwell’s report on the work done in Ireland: “I ordered my soldiers to kill them all ... About a thousand people were killed in the church itself. I believe that all the monks, except for two, had their heads broken ... ”(John-Richard Green“ The History of the English People ”, v.3, M., ed. Soldatenkov, 1892, p. 218)

aim "pacification of Ireland" in 1649-53 by the troops of Oliver Cromwell(1599 - 1658) was the subordination of Catholic Ireland to the authorities of Protestant England. Cromwell's punitive expedition was aimed at the physical destruction of the massacre of Irish Catholics in Drogheda and Wexford, 32,000 Irish fled the country. 1/6 of the Irish population of Ireland submitted to England, from this deadly blow Ireland was never able to recover.

Historical background Schisms (schisms) of the Christian Church began in late antiquity - 410 AD. e., when Rome was sacked by troops Visigoths led by the king Alaric I. In the Christian Church, new elements appeared in church rituals, ethical and aesthetic differences in between the Western and Eastern traditions of Christianity.

The gap between Western and Eastern Christianity continued into the early Middle Ages. At the insistence of the king of the Franks and the Lombards Charlemagne(768-774) at the Council of Bishops in Aachen in 809, V " Symbol of faith" , despite the protest of Pope Leo III, the word was introduced "filioque" - "... and from the Son", that is, the Holy Spirit proceeds equally "from the Father and from the Son ..."

Charlemagne distinguished by particular cruelty not only in religious matters. During the war with the Saxons, he ordered the execution of 4,500 captured Saxon warriors in Germany.

When the Christian Church Was One. Until 1054 Christ's church was one. The Patriarchs of Constantinople did not recognize the claims of Pope Leo IX of Rome to the complete power of Rome over all the Christian Church. The church schism of 1054 divided the Christian Church into Western and Eastern.

Western Christians turn to Saint Peter, as to the main stone of his Church, who set up for them the supreme cathedra in Rome. The Western Christian Church began to be called Latin Catholic, with its center in Rome.

INEastern Christians, with love flow to St. Andrew who traveled around their lands with the gospel message. ‘The path of Andrew the First-Called through Scythia, around Pontus. Saint Andrew the First-Called set the first bishop in Constantinople, in Byzantium, who became the head of everything Greek OrthodoxEastern Christianity.

After the capture of Kazan by the troops of Ivan the Terrible on October 2, 1552, the tsar ordered Archbishop Gury to convert the inhabitants of Kazan to Orthodoxy solely at the request of each person ( religious freedom), and invited the entire Kazan nobility to his service. In 1555 the ambassadors of the Siberian Khan asked Ivan the Terrible to " took all the Siberian land under his name ... and put his tribute on them and sent his man to whom to collect tribute". The Astrakhan Khanate joined the Russian kingdom, with free religion for all new citizens of Rus'.

For more than a hundred years, wars for the "true faith" raged in Europe. And only when the opponents, completely exhausted by the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648), made peace, did religious fanaticism gradually fade away.

The religious wars that followed the schism gave Europe only 25 years of peace in the 16th century, and only about 20 years in the 17th century. Moreover, those who wished to reform the papal Church treated each other with even greater hatred and malice than towards their common enemy - Rome. The lack of unity between the two main camps of the reformers - Lutherans and Calvinists undermined the already fragile position of the Protestants. The desire to create a single alliance to fight Catholicism further quarreled among themselves the reformers, each of whom considered only his own church to be true and holy. All attempts to somehow reconcile the warring parties ended in failure for those who wanted to do this.

The 17th century is characterized by the emergence among Protestants of many movements, communities and beliefs. Differing from each other in different views on the administrative structure of the Church and the understanding of the Bible, they were all similar in one thing - each community considered only itself the only true Church. Such fragmentation among the reformers was observed in all Protestant countries. However, Great Britain was especially widely covered by it.

Wars raged from the middle of the XVI to middle of the XVII century: in France (1562-1598), in Germany (1618-1648), in England (1642-1662). Religious divisions were just one of many factors, but they emphasized the division of the warring parties.

In France 1562 - 1598

The Huguenot Wars are a series of protracted civil wars between Catholics and Protestants (Huguenots) that tore apart France under the last kings of the Valois dynasty, from 1562 to 1598. The Huguenots were led by the Bourbons (Prince Condé, Henry of Navarre) and Admiral de Coligny, and the Catholics were led by Queen Mother Catherine de Medici and the powerful Giza. Its neighbors tried to influence the course of events in France - Elizabeth of England supported the Huguenots, and Philip of Spain supported the Catholics. The wars ended with the accession of Henry of Navarre to the French throne and the issuance of the compromise Edict of Nantes (1598).

There were nine of these civil wars.

In Germany 1618 - 1648

The Thirty Years' War (1618 - 1648) is one of the first pan-European military conflicts, affecting to one degree or another almost all European countries (including Russia), with the exception of Switzerland. The war began as a religious clash between Protestants and Catholics in Germany, but then escalated into a struggle against Habsburg hegemony in Europe.

It represents not only the longest, but also the most complex conflict of the 17th century. Historians note that the most terrible period of the two-century religious confrontation was the period of " Thirty Years' War". This "war of faiths" became the greatest tragedy for all European countries and especially for Germany and the Czech Republic. Millions of people, carried away by an irresistible impulse of faith, took up arms. They neglected their daily labors and worries in order to establish in Germany the undivided dominance of that faith, which they considered "right", and to force all those of other faiths to accept it by force of arms.

The reasons for this war were both religious and political. Catholic reaction, established in Europe from the second half of the 16th century, set itself the task of eradicating Protestantism and, together with the latter, of all modern individualistic culture and restoring Catholicism and Romanism.

The Jesuit Order, the Council of Trent and the Inquisition were the three powerful instruments through which reaction was also established in Germany. The religious peace of Augsburg, concluded in 1555 between the head of the Holy Roman Empire of the German nation, Charles V, and the rulers of the Protestant lands, who sought equal rights with the Catholic princes, was only a truce and contained a number of decrees that hampered the individual freedom of the Protestants. Misunderstandings between Catholics and Protestants soon resumed, leading to major conflicts in the Reichstag. The reaction goes on the offensive.

By the beginning of the 17th century, relations escalated to the point that two unions were formed, Catholic and Protestant. Each of them had its adherents outside of Germany: the first was patronized by Rome and Spain, the second by France and partly by the Netherlands and England. The Protestant union, or union, was formed in 1608 at Aghausen, the Catholic league in 1609 at Munich; the Palatinate was at the head of the first, and Bavaria was at the head of the second.

The first period of the war - the Czech-Palatinate - lasted from 1618 to 1623. From the Czech Republic, hostilities spread to Silesia and Moravia. Under the command of Turn, part of the Czech army moved to Vienna. Frederick hoped for the help of his co-religionists in Germany and for his father-in-law James of England, but in vain: he had to fight alone. At White Mountain, November 8, 1620, the Czechs were utterly defeated and Friedrich fled. The reprisal against the vanquished was cruel: the Czechs were deprived of religious freedom, Protestantism was eradicated, the kingdom was closely connected with the hereditary lands of the Habsburgs. Ernst Mansfeld, Duke Christian of Brunswick and Margrave Georg-Friedrich of Baden-Durlach were now at the head of the Protestant troops. The conquest of the entire Palatinate, however, was still a long way off. Only by clever deceit did Ferdinand II achieve his goal: he convinced Frederick to release the troops of Mansfeld and Christian and promised to begin negotiations to end the war, but in fact he ordered the Ligists and the Spaniards to invade Frederick's possessions from all sides; in March 1623, the last Palatinate fortress, Frankenthal, fell. At a meeting of princes in Regensburg, Frederick was deprived of the electoral title, which was transferred to Maximilian of Bavaria, as a result of which Catholics received a numerical superiority in the college of electors.

The second period of the war - the Lower Saxon-Danish - lasted from 1625 to 1629. From the very beginning of the war, lively diplomatic relations began between all the Protestant sovereigns of Europe, with the aim of working out some measures against the overwhelming power of the Habsburgs. Restricted by the emperor and the Ligists, the German Protestant princes entered into early relations with the Scandinavian kings. In 1624, negotiations began on an evangelical union, in which, in addition to German Protestants, Sweden, Denmark, England and the Netherlands were to take part. Gustavus Adolphus, busy at that time fighting Poland, could not provide direct assistance to the Protestants; they found the conditions set by him excessive and therefore turned to Christian IV of Denmark. On the side of Christian IV were Wolfenbüttel, Weimar, Mecklenburg and Magdeburg. The command of the troops was divided between Christian IV and Mansfeld. The imperial army, under the command of Wallenstein (40,000 people), also joined the Ligist army (Tilli). Mansfeld was defeated on April 25, 1626 at the Dessau Bridge and fled to Bethlen Gabor, and then to Bosnia, where he died, and Christian IV was defeated at Lutter on August 27 of the same year. Tilly forced the king to retreat behind the Elbe and, together with Wallenstein, occupied all of Jutland and Mecklenburg, whose dukes were subjected to imperial disgrace and were deprived of their possessions. In February 1628, the title of Duke of Mecklenburg was granted to Wallenstein, who in April of the same year was appointed General of the Oceanic and Baltic Seas.

On June 25, 1628, an agreement was concluded between Gustavus Adolphus and Stralsund; the protectorate over the city was transferred to the king. Ferdinand, in order to win over the Catholic princes of Germany even more to his side, published, in March

1629, a restorative edict, by virtue of which all the lands taken from them since 1552 were returned to the Catholics. The execution of the edict began primarily in the imperial cities - Augsburg, Ulm, Regensburg and Kaufbeyern. In 1629 Christian IV, having exhausted all resources, had to conclude a separate peace with the emperor in Lübeck. Wallenstein was also in favor of making peace, not without reason fearing the imminent intervention of Sweden. The peace was signed on May 12, 1629. All the lands occupied by the imperial and Ligist troops were returned to the king. The Danish period of the war is over.

The third period of the war began - Swedish - lasted from 1630 to 1635. The reasons that caused Sweden's participation in the Thirty Years' War were mainly political - the desire for dominance in the Baltic Sea; the latter, according to the king, depended on the economic well-being of Sweden. Protestants at first saw in the Swedish king only a religious fighter; later it became clear to them that the struggle was not de religione, but de regione. Gustavus Adolphus landed on the island of Usedom in June 1630. His appearance in the theater of war coincides with a split in the Catholic League. The Catholic princes, true to their principle, willingly supported the emperor against the Protestants, but, noticing in the emperor’s policy the desire for absolute dominance in the empire and fearing for their autonomy, they demanded the resignation of Wallenstein from the emperor and in 1630 Wallenstein was dismissed. To please the princes, the emperor restored the dukes of Mecklenburg to their lands; in gratitude for this, the princes at the Diet of Regensburg agreed to elect the son of the emperor, the future Ferdinand III, to the Roman kings. All this, of course, played into the hands of Gustavus Adolphus. In view of the unwillingness of Saxony and Brandenburg to join Sweden, the king had to move deep into Germany with great caution.

First, he cleared the Baltic coast and Pomerania of imperial troops, then went up the Oder to besiege Frankfurt and divert Tilly from Protestant Magdeburg. Frankfurt surrendered to the Swedes almost without resistance. Gustav wanted, without delay, to go to the aid of Magdeburg, but the Electors of Saxony and Brandenburg did not give him a pass through their lands. George Wilhelm of Brandenburg was the first to yield, John George of Saxony persisted. In May 1631, Magdeburg fell, Tilly betrayed him to fire and robbery and moved against the Swedes. In January 1631, Gustavus Adolphus concluded an agreement with France (in Berwald), which undertook to support Sweden with money in its struggle against the Habsburgs. The Elector of Saxony turned to Gustavus Adolf for help, who moved into Saxony and utterly defeated Tilly at Breitenfeld, September 7, 1631. The league army was destroyed, the king became the protector of the German Protestants. The troops of the elector, joining the Swedish, invaded Bohemia and occupied Prague. Gustavus Adolf in the spring of 1632 entered Bavaria. Tilly was defeated for the second time by the Swedes at Lech and soon died. Bavaria was all in the hands of the Swedes.

Since 1635, France has been taking an active part in the war in order to prevent the Habsburg policy from reaching complete triumph. The war was waged by her both with Spain and with the emperor.

The fourth period of the war - French-Swedish - lasted from 1635 to 1648. John Banner commanded the Swedish troops. He attacked the Elector of Saxony, who had changed the cause of the Protestants, defeated him at Wittstock in 1636, occupied Erfurt and devastated Saxony. In February 1637, Ferdinand II died and his son Ferdinand III (1637-1657) became emperor. On October 24, 1648, the Peace of Westphalia was concluded. The economic condition of Germany after the war was the most difficult, the enemies remained in it long after 1648, and the old order of things was restored very slowly. The population of Germany has decreased significantly: in Württemberg, for example, the population has gone from 400,000 to 48,000; in Bavaria, it has also decreased by 10 times.

The Thirty Years' War was the first war that affected all sections of the population. In Western history, it has remained one of the most difficult European conflicts among the predecessors of the World Wars of the 20th century. The greatest damage was inflicted on Germany, where, according to some estimates, 5 million people died.

The Swedes burned and destroyed almost all metallurgical and foundry plants and ore mines in Germany, as well as a third of German cities. Villages were especially easy prey for marauding armies. The demographic losses of the war were made up in Germany only 100 years later. The immediate result of the war was that over 300 small German states received full sovereignty with nominal membership in the Holy Roman Empire. This situation continued until the end of the first empire in 1806.

The war did not lead to the automatic collapse of the Habsburgs, but changed the balance of power in Europe. Hegemony passed to France. The decline of Spain became evident. In addition, Sweden became a great power, significantly strengthening its position in the Baltic.

Adherents of all religions (Catholicism, Lutheranism, Calvinism) gained equal rights in the empire. The main result of the Thirty Years' War was a sharp weakening of the influence of religious factors on the life of European states. Their foreign policy began to be based on economic, dynastic and geopolitical interests.

In England 1642 - 1662

English revolution XVII century - the process of transition in England from absolute monarchy to a constitutional one, in which the power of the king is limited by the power of parliament, and civil liberties are also guaranteed. The revolution took the form of a conflict between the executive and legislative powers (King vs. Parliament), resulting in civil war, as well as a form of religious warfare between Anglicans and Puritans. The religious character also consisted in the fact that one of the main goals of the war was the cleansing of the Anglican Church from the remnants of Catholicism; political "parties" of the revolutionary period (Independents, Levellers, etc.) often had different attitudes towards certain religious issues.

The Reformation prompted people to radically reconsider their ideas about the Church, the state and the relationship between them. These events represented something more than another chapter in the history of the struggle between spiritual and worldly forces.

The medieval church could not withstand the two-sided attack of the secular state from the outside and the increased religious tension from within. With the advent of Calvinism, Protestant piety became more militant and gave rise to a religious ideology that served as the basis for national movements in Europe.

Approving reforms based on the understanding of the church as a community of believers, and not an institution with rigid hierarchical authority, religious reformers emphasized important role each individual and challenged the claims of the church hierarchy to secular power. English Revolution 1640-1660 was one of major events European history, disputes about the nature of which have never ceased in historiography.

During the reign of Mary Tudor (1553-1558) many Protestants went into exile. Having become acquainted with the ideas of one of the leaders of the Reformation of that time, John Calvin from Switzerland, they returned back to their homeland when Elizabeth I was already on the throne. They were upset by the situation in the country and the fact that the Anglican Church borrowed a lot from Catholicism. The Puritans were a Protestant religious sect that wanted to purge the English Church of Catholic traditions.

In Parliament, the Puritans formed two parties: the Presbyterians and the Independents. The Presbyterians were a moderate party, they wanted to abolish the institution of the priesthood, and put elected elders accountable to the assembly at the head of the congregations. The Independents, unlike the Presbyterians, were opposed to any church hierarchy. They formed an extremist revolutionary party and fought to limit the power of the monarch. Oliver Cromwell became the leader of the Independents.

Lode also disappointed the Presbyterians in Scotland by insisting that they must use the English Prayer Book. Angry Scottish Presbyterians said they were ready to fight to defend their religion. In 1639 the Scottish army marched on London. At that time, Charles was not able to muster a strong army to repulse the Scots. He was forced to agree to no longer interfere in the religious affairs of Scotland, and also to pay for her military expenses.

The terrible "witch-hunt" mania common in Catholic and Protestant countries during the wars of religion was less widespread in England than in other countries, but reached its highest development in the first half of the 17th century. In the history of England, the two darkest periods were during the first half of the reign of the superstitious James I and during the reign of the Long Parliament (1645-1647), when 200 "witches" were executed in the eastern counties, mainly as a result of the crusade of Matthew Hopkins, the seeker of "witches". ". The government of Charles I, as well as the republic of the "roundheads" and the protectorate, stopped this ridiculous cruelty.

In the ecclesiastical area, the result of the Restoration of 1660 was the restoration of the bishops, the Book of Common Prayer, and the Anglican attitude to religion instead of the Puritan one. During it, many of the leaders of the "roundheads" sunk into obscurity or went into exile; others, like Monk, Ashley Cooper, Colonel Birch, and Andrew Marvell, retained their positions in Parliament or government officials. Since the regicides were done away with, the former "roundheads" were not outlawed, except for those who stubbornly continued to visit the secret "sectarian prayer houses", as the places of Puritan worship were now called. After the Restoration, only a small handful of landowners who attended secret sectarian chapels survived. Prior to the beginning of the Wesleyan Methodist movement, congregations and sextant meetings were concentrated almost exclusively in the City, market towns, and industrial districts, although there were separate Quaker and Baptist families in many villages. Some of them were poor artisans, such as John Bunyan; others, especially in London and Bristol, were merchants so rich that they could buy up the estates of the squires who pursued them. And often such merchants really bought up the property of needy nobles after accumulating mortgages on their lands. In the next generation, the son of a sextant merchant was already a squire or priest. In another generation, and the ladies of these families will speak with disdain of anyone who attends sextant meetings or is engaged in trade.

The English Revolution was the last European revolution to take place in a religious veneer. It can be said that secularization itself (that is, liberation from the control of the church and the clergy, from the influence of religion, giving a secular character to socio-political life in the second half of the 17th century) is still taking place in a religious shell. It proceeded as a process of liberation of the church from functions that were not characteristic of it, as a separation from it of those aspects of life that belong only to the earthly sphere of interests and the occupation of which is capable of removing religion from its true and highest goal. The teaching of the Catholic Church about the duality of truth - religion and science - turned into a desire to present religion as indifferent to the field of science. Such aspiration was not alien to the outstanding thinkers and scientists who were the living embodiment of this process of secularization - Descartes and Galileo, Hobbes, Locke and Newton. This process was slowed down, of course, by absolutism, whose progressive role was increasingly receding into the past. The latest clerical historiography is trying to smooth out or completely deny the conflict between religion and science. This conflict is portrayed not as a clash of foundations, but only as a contradiction between a certain level scientific and religious worldviews. Of course, the tactics of the church in relation to science have changed more than once - the method of repression or direct attacks was replaced by the search for an agreement, which is so characteristic of the policy of the church in the modern era. Hence the desire to find these searches in the past, even in the 16th and first half of the 17th centuries, when the age-old conflict was accompanied by a sharp aggravation of the conflict between religion and experiential knowledge, which was gaining strength.