The Culture of Old Regime Europe375passed diversity. Catholicism remained united by the
authority of the pope and by the hierarchical adminis-
trative structure directed by the Vatican. However, the
eighteenth-century papacy was too weak to resist the
absolute monarchs of Catholic lands. Louis XIV of
France had created a virtually autonomous French
Catholic Church, often called the Gallican Church.
(Gallicanism meant that the king named French cardi-
nals and bishops himself and decided whether papal de-
crees would apply in France.) Other Catholic monarchs
copied the French administrative independence from
Rome, as the kings of Piedmont did in the early eigh-
teenth century and Joseph II of Austria did later. Varia-
tions of Catholicism also depended upon the local
strength of individual orders (such as the Jesuits) or
doctrines (such as Jansenism). The Jesuits began the
eighteenth century as the most important of all
Catholic orders. They were rigorously trained men
who had acquired global influence through their educa-
tional and missionary efforts, and they had increasingly
turned their attention to politics. Their role in statecraft
made the Jesuits controversial, however, and they were
expelled from Portugal in 1759, from France in 1762,
from Spain and many Italian states in 1767, and finally
dissolved by Pope Clement XIV in 1773. Jansenism,
named for a Dutch theologian, was equally controver-
sial for teaching an austere, puritanical—almost
Calvinistic—form of Catholicism, particularly in
Belgium and France, and the doctrine was condemned
by a papal bull.
Important differences existed between Catholicism
and Protestantism, shaping cultural differences in
Europe. These extended far beyond matters of faith—
beyond the fine points of theological doctrines, such as
the nature of Christian sacraments or the route to salva-
tion. Protestant pastors, unlike Catholic priests, married
and raised families, frequently producing dynasties of
preachers when their sons also entered the church and
their wives and daughters took leading roles in Protes-
tant organizations. Protestant states abolished the
monastic orders that existed in Catholic countries and
seized church lands; thus, the church had a greater
physical presence in Catholic countries through land
ownership and especially the far greater size of the cler-
ical population. The Catholic Church owned 10 per-
cent of the land in France (30 percent in some regions),
15 percent of Castile and central Spain, and 40 percent
of Naples and southern Italy. The ecclesiastical popula-
tion of Portugal has been estimated at 80,000 to
300,000—at least 4 percent of the population, and per-
haps as much as 15 percent. A study of the island ofrope included Russia plus large portions of Poland and
the Ottoman Empire (such as Greece and Serbia).
This religious division of Europe left many minor-
ity populations inside hostile countries. Important
Catholic minorities existed in Britain (only 2 percent of
the population, but including many powerful families),
Holland (35 percent), Switzerland (40 percent), and
Prussia (especially after the annexation of Silesia). Simi-
lar Protestant minorities were found in Ireland (30 per-
cent), France (2 percent, but disproportionately
important, like Catholics in Britain), Piedmont (2 per-
cent), Poland (4 percent), and Hungary (23 percent). In
addition to Christian minorities, Europe contained
small Jewish and Moslem populations. Jews were for-
bidden to live in some countries (notably Spain) but
formed a small minority (less than 1 percent) in many
states, especially Britain, France, Holland, and Prussia;
they constituted larger minorities in eastern Europe,
chiefly in Poland (7 percent), Hungary (2 percent),
Russia, and the Ottoman territories. Moslems were al-
most entirely confined to the Ottoman Empire, in the
provinces of modern Bosnia and Albania.
Protestant Europe included three predominant
faiths: Anglicanism, Calvinism, and Lutheranism. Virtu-
ally all of the membership of the Anglican Church (the
Church of England) was found in England, Wales,
Scotland, and Ireland. Lutheranism was the dominant
form of Protestantism in the German states and Scandi-
navia, and Lutheran minorities were scattered in many
east European states. A variety of Calvinist churches—
usually called the Reformed Church—existed in west-
ern Europe. Their traditional center was Geneva, where
Calvin had established his church. Calvinist churches
were predominant in Switzerland, Holland (the Dutch
Reformed Church), and Scotland (the Presbyterian
Church); Calvinist minorities existed in many states,
notably France—where the Reformed Church was ille-
gal though 500,000 followed it in secret—Prussia, and
Hungary.
In addition to these primary Protestant churches,
many smaller Christian sects existed in 1700, and more
were founded during the eighteenth century. Small
populations of diverse Protestants—such as Quakers
(the Society of Friends) in England and the Baptists in
central Europe—lived even within Protestant states. In
England, approximately 8 percent of the population,
collectively called Dissenters or Nonconformists, be-
longed to Protestant sects outside of the Church of
England.
The Roman Catholic Church was more unified and
centralized than Protestantism, but it, too, encom-