European wars of religion in the context of "Religious pluralism"

The Counter-Reformation (Latin: Contrareformatio), also sometimes called the Catholic Revival, was the period of Catholic resurgence that was initiated in response to, and as an alternative to or from similar insights as, the Protestant Reformations at the time. It was a comprehensive effort arising from the decrees of the Council of Trent.

As a political-historical period, it is frequently dated to have begun with the Council of Trent (1545–1563) and to have ended with the political conclusion of the European wars of religion in 1648, though this is controversial. However, as a theological-historical description, the term may be obsolescent or over-specific: the broader term Catholic Reformation (Latin: Reformatio Catholica) also encompasses the reforms and movements within the Church in the periods immediately before Protestantism or Trent, and lasting later.

The persecution of Christians can be traced from the first century of the Christian era to the present day. Christian missionaries and converts to Christianity have both been targeted for persecution, sometimes to the point of being martyred for their faith, ever since the emergence of Christianity.

Early Christians were persecuted at the hands of both Jews, from whose religion Christianity arose, and the Romans who controlled many of the early centers of Christianity in the Roman Empire. Since the emergence of Christian states in Late Antiquity, Christians have also been persecuted by other Christians due to differences in doctrine which have been declared heretical. Early in the fourth century, the empire's official persecutions were ended by the Edict of Serdica in 311 and the practice of Christianity legalized by the Edict of Milan in 312. By the year 380, Christians had begun to persecute each other. The schisms of late antiquity and the Middle Ages – including the Rome–Constantinople schisms and the many Christological controversies – together with the later Protestant Reformation provoked severe conflicts between Christian denominations. During these conflicts, members of the various denominations frequently persecuted each other and engaged in sectarian violence.

The Province of Maryland was an English and later British colony in North America from 1634 until 1776, when the province was one of the Thirteen Colonies that joined in supporting the American Revolution against Great Britain. In 1781, Maryland was the 13th signatory to the Articles of Confederation. The province's first settlement and capital was in St. Mary's City, located at the southern end of St. Mary's County, a peninsula in the Chesapeake Bay bordered by four tidal rivers.

The province began in 1632 as the Maryland Palatinate, a proprietary palatinate granted to Cecil Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore, whose father, George, had long sought to found a colony in the New World to serve as a refuge for Catholics at the time of the European wars of religion. Palatines from the Holy Roman Empire also immigrated to Maryland, with many settling in Fredrick County, with Maryland Palatines (Palatine German: Marylandisch Pälzer) reaching a population of 50,000 by 1774.

Le Havre is a major port city in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region of northern France. It situated on the right bank of the estuary of the river Seine on the English Channel southwest of the Pays de Caux, very close to the Prime Meridian. Le Havre is the busiest port on the northern French Coast and largest container port in France. it is the second largest city in the Normandy region of France with total population of the greater Le Havre conurbation being smaller than that of Rouen.It is also the second largest subprefecture in France, after only Reims. The name Le Havre means "the harbour" or "the port". Its inhabitants are known as Havrais or Havraises.

The city and port were founded by King Francis I in 1517. Economic development in the early modern period was hampered by religious wars, conflicts with the English, epidemics, and storms. It was from the end of the 18th century that Le Havre started growing and the port took off first with the slave trade then other international trade. After the 1944 bombings the firm of Auguste Perret began to rebuild the city in concrete. The oil, chemical, and automotive industries were dynamic during the Trente Glorieuses (postwar boom) but the 1970s marked the end of the golden age of ocean liners and the beginning of the economic crisis: the population declined, unemployment increased and remains at a high level today.

The Landsknechte (singular: Landsknecht, pronounced [ˈlantsknɛçt]), also rendered as Landsknechts or Lansquenets, were German mercenaries used in pike and shot formations during the early modern period. Consisting predominantly of pikemen and supporting foot soldiers, their front line was formed by Doppelsöldner ("double-pay men") renowned for their use of Zweihänder and arquebus. They formed the bulk of the Holy Roman Empire's Imperial Army from the late 15th century to the early 17th century, fighting in the Habsburg-Valois wars, the Habsburg-Ottoman wars, and the European wars of religion.

Although prone to mutiny if unpaid and divided within their ranks between Catholics and Lutherans, the Landsknechte were well-armed and experienced warriors, recruitable in large numbers throughout Germany and Austria by the Holy Roman Emperor. This guaranteed both quantity and quality to the Imperial military for a century and a half. At their peak during the reign of Charles V of Habsburg, and under the leadership of notable captains such as Georg von Frundsberg and Nicholas of Salm, the Imperial Landsknechts obtained important successes such as the capture of the French King Francis I at the Battle of Pavia in 1525 and the resistance against the Ottoman Turks led by Suleiman the Magnificent at the Siege of Vienna in 1529, while also being responsible for the Sack of Rome in 1527.

Pope Paul III (Latin: Paulus III; Italian: Paolo III; born Alessandro Farnese; 29 February 1468 – 10 November 1549) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 13 October 1534 to his death, in November 1549.

Paul III came to the papal throne in the time following the sack of Rome in 1527, which was rife with uncertainties in the Catholic Church as the Protestant Reformation progressed. His pontificate initiated the Catholic Reformation with the Council of Trent in 1545, and witnessed wars of religion in which Emperor Charles V launched military campaigns against the Protestants in Germany. He recognized new Catholic religious orders and societies such as the Jesuits, the Barnabites, and the Congregation of the Oratory. His efforts were distracted by nepotism to advance the power and fortunes of his family, including his illegitimate son Pier Luigi Farnese.

While belief in the sanctity of human life has ancient precedents in many religions of the world, the foundations of modern human rights began during the era of renaissance humanism in the early modern period. The European wars of religion and the civil wars of seventeenth-century Kingdom of England gave rise to the philosophy of liberalism and belief in natural rights became a central concern of European intellectual culture during the eighteenth-century Age of Enlightenment. Ideas of natural rights, which had a basis in natural law, lay at the core of the American and French Revolutions which occurred toward the end of that century, but the idea of human rights came about later. Democratic evolution through the nineteenth century paved the way for the advent of universal suffrage in the twentieth century. Two world wars led to the creation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The post-war era saw movements arising from specific groups experiencing a shortfall in their rights, such as feminism and the civil rights of African Americans. The human rights movements of members of the Soviet bloc emerged in the 1970s along with workers' rights movements in the West. The movements quickly jelled as social activism and political rhetoric in many nations put human rights high on the world agenda. By the 21st century, historian Samuel Moyn has argued, the human rights movement expanded beyond its original anti-totalitarianism to include numerous causes involving humanitarianism and social and economic development in the Developing World.

The Nine Years' War (May 1593 – 30 March 1603) was a conflict in Ireland between a confederacy of Irish lords (with Spanish support) and the English-led government. The war was primarily a response to the English Crown's advances into territory traditionally owned by the Gaelic nobility. The war was also part of the Anglo-Spanish War and the European wars of religion.

The Kingdom of Ireland was established as an English client state in 1542, with various clans accepting English sovereignty under "surrender and regrant". By the early 1590s, widespread resentment against English rule developed amongst the Gaelic nobility, due to the execution of Gaelic lords, the pillaging of settlements by appointed sheriffs and Catholic persecution.

In the early modern period, from about 1400 to 1775, about 100,000 people were prosecuted for witchcraft in Europe and British America. Between 40,000 and 60,000 were executed, almost all in Europe. The witch hunts were particularly severe in parts of the Holy Roman Empire. Prosecutions for witchcraft reached a high point from 1560 to 1630, during the Counter-Reformation and the European wars of religion. Among the lower classes, accusations of witchcraft were usually made by neighbors, and women and men made formal accusations of witchcraft. Magical healers or 'cunning folk' were sometimes prosecuted for witchcraft, but seem to have made up a minority of the accused. Roughly 80% of those convicted were women, most of them over the age of 40. In some regions, convicted witches were burnt at the stake, the traditional punishment for religious heresy.