Strained
Coexistence, Theocracy and Religious Politics
A Time of
Church and State
The Protestant Reformations occurred in a time when there
was very little separation between church and state. The Holy Roman Emperor,
Charles V, and his predecessors, were seen as the defenders of Christendom.
Henry VIII of England placed himself at the head of the Anglican Church.
Evangelist reformers, such as Ulrich Zwingli, Martin Bucer and John Calvin, imposed
a quasi-theocracy upon their cities of Zurich, Strasbourg, and Geneva. Martin Luther
also supported a closely-tied church and state, suggesting that the nobles lead
the pace of reformation in their domains. The German city of Augsburg, like
most other places in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, followed this
trend of a closely-allied church and state.
(Perlach,
Augsburg marketplace in 1550,Heinrich Vogtherr II (1513-1568)[Public domain],
via Creative Commons)
