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Welcome to Europe and the Faith! Europe has a long and intriguing history, one which most history books will not completely cover, or will outright ignore. The tale of Europe's history and its relationship with the Christian faith is pivotal to the understanding of how the world came to its present state. This is the story which this site is designed to tell. This website chronicles my own historical research as it happens, so it may not be as ordered as it probably should be.

What you can find here:

• At the top right is the index of published historical posts on this site.
• I've laboured to create a comprehensive online historical bibliography containing the best online historical texts available which can be found here.
• In addition to these, I've also compiled a list of online webpages touching on the history of Europe and of the faith covering as many areas as possible which can be found here and on the side bar to the left.

At the Gates of Vienna

From Tea at Trianon

On September 12, the fifth day within the octave of the Nativity of the Virgin, in 1683, the army of the Turkish Sultan, 300,000 strong, was miraculously defeated at the gates of Vienna after an attempt to sweep across Europe. The King of Poland, Jan Sobieski, had come to the aid of the Habsburg Emperor Leopold, and they attributed the victory to the fact that they had put the name of Mary on their banners, thus invoking the aid of the Mother of God. The triumph, won against overwhelming odds, saved Europe from becoming a Moslem colony, and September 12 became the Feast of the Holy Name of Mary.

The Reformation: An Introduction

This will be the beginning of our series on the Protestant Reformation, its history, and doctrine, and will be based upon some of the greater works already present in the literary world concerning this topic. I will here attempt to bring them together to provide as much of the story as possible in order to gain a full knowledge of why the world is they way that it is now: unapologetically anti-Catholic, immoral, and chocked full of Protestant ideologies.

By the 16th century, the Catholic Church was the primary cause of European unity & fraternity, and, therefore, played a significant role in the functions of everyday European life. What transpires 10 months and 31 days into the 17th year of this century is a breaking of that unity, and, a rejection of the power and authority which motivated European faith and culture, i. e. the Catholic Church; a schism begun in the abjuration of legitimate authority, it is the Protestant revolution kindled by Martin Luther and fueled by tumultuous insurgencies subsequently led by others following his example.

Europe had suffered the Black plague, which eliminated over a third of it's population. Immediately after that terrible incident, came the Great Western Schism, in which Christendom was witness to two, eventually three, rival claimants to the Papacy; each claiming the allegiance of all of the faithful of Christendom and at the same time excommunicating the rival claimant(s) and his/their adherents. Naturally this was a great scandal to the faithful, and, became an ammunition of the humanists against papal primacy, an issue which the Protestants later expanded upon.The Mohammetans have been invading Europe for some time and are pressing on the very doorstep of Eastern Europe. For over 600 years they had been waging war on Christendom and now they had just taken Constantinople, the heart of Eastern European Culture, society, and religion. The Popes were preaching a crusade against these infidels with little or no success, the city fell while Europe stood and watched; and now, while Europe fights for its very existence from its external enemies, there is an internal cancer threatening to destroy it from within. Christendom, however, would survive, but would not escape unscathed; the Protestant revolts would leave Europe divided for centuries to come.

Corruption is rampant at this time, and the neglect of the Church to reform itself is the cause of many scandals, priests and clergy are lax in their duties and thus many abuses have crept into their practices, such as the sale of indulgences, and the selling of Church offices [Simony] ect., being among of the major complaints of the Protestant insurgents. Since their [the clergy's] influence was so vast and played such an integral role in society, their immorality and corruption would also have an equally vast result. An antagonistic feeling towards clericalism [which was the real start of the thing] was taking Europe by storm, which the Protestant revolutionaries were about to advantage of.

"In Germany all were in deadly earnest: the good men earnest against the wicked indifference of the ecclesiastical rulers, against their greed and their simony; the bad men earnest against the system which held them to obligations they had for years neglected and broken through. As to the German attitude towards the Holy See, the whole nation, for generations now, had been consumed with resentment at what, seemingly, was now almost Rome's sole interest in Germany, its possibilities as a source of revenue for curial dignitaries." [1]

In view of this, there were men who saw an opportunity for personal gain and advancement, they started movements within Christendom for whay they promised was "the bringing back the humble faith of the Early Christians". But the alleged reform turns into an outright revolt against the structure with which reform was the supposed intent. Instead of reforming the Catholic Church's practices, it leads to a rejection of the wholesome Traditions of the faith which was the glue that held the European peoples together. It proves to be not a reform, but the opposite, it is the further corrupting and uprooting of Christendom, the outright destructive dismantling of the Church in all areas where the Protestant fury spread. leaving wars, riots, and wide-spread destruction, looting, criminality, immorality, and general disunity in its wake, such is the legacy of the Protestant revolt.