250 Ch. 7 • The Age of Absolutism, 1650-1720

In France, the very existence

of the French, or Gallican

Church, defied papal claims to

complete authority over the

Church. By the Concordat of

Bologna in 1516, the pope had

given the kings of France

virtual control (subject to

papal confirmation) over the

appointment of bishops in

France and the right to over­

rule the judgments of ecclesi­

astical courts. This irritated

French “ultramontane” clergy,

who recognized only the

authority of the pope “beyond

the mountains,” that is, over

the Alps in distant Rome. The

provincial parlements, or

noble law courts, by contrast,

remained defiantly Gallican.

The Gallican Church itself

was far more likely to remain

loyal to the monarchy that

defended its prerogatives,

even if Gallicans themselves

insisted that the pope and

bishops retain spiritual authority, with the king having a monopoly only on

temporal power.

Recognizing no distinction between church and state, the Turkish

Ottoman Empire remained a theocracy. The sultan’s subjects believed his

despotic authority to be divine. The Muslim religious hierarchy, which

included judges, theologians, and teachers, provided officials for the imper­

ial administration. The supreme religious dignitary occasionally invoked

religious law, of which he was the main interpreter, to counter orders of the

sultan, but the latter’s political authority remained absolute.

The expansion of the Ottoman Empire had been based upon the concept

of the crusading “Holy War” against infidels, that is, non-Muslims. As the

Turks destroyed the Byzantine Empire, capturing Constantinople in 1453,

they confiscated many of the resources of the Orthodox Church and other

Christian denominations. The Ottoman Turks enslaved prisoners of war,

purchased slaves abroad, and imposed slave levies upon the Christians of

the empire. Many Christian children had been trained as officials or sol­

diers and had converted to Islam. The empire also depended on the contri­

butions of nonslave Christians, including skilled Greek sailors who made

The siege of Constantinople by the Turks in

1453 from a French manuscript illumination.