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Christianity in the 17th century showed both deep conflict and new tolerance. The Age of Enlightenment grew to challenge Christianity as a whole, generally elevated human reason above divine revelation, and down-graded religious authorities such as the Papacy based on it.〔Lortz, IV, 7-11〕 Major conflicts with strong religious elements arose, particularly in Central Europe with the Thirty Years' War, and in Northwestern Europe with the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. Partly out of weariness with conflict, greater religious tolerance developed. In the Protestant world there was persecution of Arminians and religious Independents, such as early Unitarians, Baptists and Quakers. In the Catholic world, Rome attempted to fend off Gallicanism and Conciliarism, views which threatened the Papacy and structure of the church.〔Duffy 188-189〕 Missionary activity in Asia and the Americas grew strongly, put down roots, and developed its institutions, though it met with strong resistance in Japan in particular. At the same time Christian colonisation of some areas outside Europe succeeded, driven by economic as well as religious reasons. Christian traders were heavily involved in the Atlantic slave trade, which had the effect of transporting Africans into Christian communities. A land war between Christianity and Islam continued, in the form of the campaigns of the Habsburg Empire and Ottoman Empire in the Balkans, a turning point coming at Vienna in 1683. The Tsardom of Russia, where Orthodox Christianity was the established religion, expanded eastwards into Siberia and Central Asia, regions of Islamic and shamanistic beliefs, and also southwest into the Ukraine, where the Uniate Eastern Catholic Churches arose. There was a very large volume of Christian literature published, particularly controversial and millennial but also historical and scholarly. Hagiography became more critical with the Bollandists, and ecclesiastical history became thoroughly developed and debated, with Catholic scholars such as Baronius and Jean Mabillon, and Protestants such as David Blondel laying down the lines of scholarship. Christian art of the Baroque and music derived from church forms was striking and influential on lay artists using secular expression and themes. Poetry and drama often treated Biblical and religious matter, for example John Milton's ''Paradise Lost''. ==Changing attitudes, Protestant and Catholic== At the beginning of the century James I of England opposed the papal deposing power in a series of controversial works,〔W. B. Patterson, ''King James VI and I and the Reunion of Christendom'' (1997), pp. 50,86〕 and the assassination of Henry IV of France caused an intense focus on the theological doctrines concerned with tyrannicide.〔Roland Mousnier, ''The Assassination of Henry IV: The Tyrannicide Problem and the Consolidation of the French Absolute Monarchy in the Early 17th Century'', Part II (1973 English translation)〕 Both Henry and James, in different ways, pursued a peaceful policy of religious conciliation, aimed at eventually healing the breach caused by the Protestant Reformation. While progress along these lines seemed more possible during the Twelve Years' Truce, conflicts after 1620 changed the picture; and the situation of Western and Central Europe after the Peace of Westphalia left a more stable but entrenched polarisation of Protestant and Catholic territorial states, with religious minorities. The religious conflicts in Catholic France over Jansenism and Port-Royal produced the controversial work ''Lettres Provinciales'' by Blaise Pascal. In it he took aim at the prevailing climate of moral theology, a speciality of the Jesuit order and the attitude of the Collège de Sorbonne. Pascal argued against the casuistry at that time deployed in "cases of conscience", particularly doctrines associated with probabilism. By the end of the 17th century, the ''Dictionnaire Historique et Critique'' by Pierre Bayle represented the current debates in the Republic of Letters, a largely secular network of scholars and savants who commented in detail on religious matters as well as those of science. Proponents of wider religious toleration—and a sceptical line on many traditional beliefs—argued with increasing success for changes of attitude in many areas (including discrediting the False Decretals and the legend of Pope Joan, magic and witchcraft, millennialism and extremes of anti-Catholic propaganda, and toleration of the Jews in society). 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Christianity in the 17th century」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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