Pope Innocent X (1644-55) and Peace of Westphalia (1648)

The Papacy , Europe and the Westphalian Legacy

The Politics of the Church and State

BACKGROUND

The story of Europe---its development , wars , numerous power struggles and rare pockets of peace---is one that cannot be told without that of the Papacy . A reading , cursory or otherwise , of European history will readily illustrate that the history of power struggles between states and individuals will invariably include a religious dimension

The term Europe , from a nomenclature perspective , can be perceived as a relatively modern idea that gradually replaced the earlier concept of Christendom in

a complex intellectual process lasting from the fourteenth to the eighteenth century . The decisive period , however , was reached in the decades on either side of 1700 after generations of religious conflict ' However , it must be said , and has been written about in countless historical treatises , that these religious conflicts at times partook of a political , rather than an ideological (or faith-based ) nature . During the early years of the `Enlightenment , it became an embarrassment for the divided community of nations to be reminded of their common Christian identity and `Europe ' filled the need for a designation with more neutral connotations

The idea of abandoning `Christianity , at least for the purposes of continental identification , was a great leap in progressive thinking when one ponders on the central role that Christianity (as an institutionalized religion with the unquestioned powers of the Pope at its helm ) had played in shaping Europe from the time of Peter and Paul around 55 A .D . until the...