Trinitarian Christianity in Europe 153of the Jews, Unitarian Christians and Muslims in Europe had been
eliminated for the time being - for this inevitably meant that the
Inquisitors were obliged to tum on their fellow Christians, even if
it meant having to accuse them of practising witchcraft and magic,
in order to sustain and finance the lifestyle to which they had all
become accustomed.
The inevitable result of all this was a growing feeling of resent
ment and protest which resulted in several movements - includ
ing those of Luther and Calvin - during the 15th and 16th centu
ries AD, in what is generally known as 'the Reformation'.
Although the Inquisition eventually fell into decline and was
finally disbanded, on the 15th of [uly 1834, the overall result of the
Reformation movement -and of the inevitable counter-Reforma
tion movement which was triggered off within the Roman Catho
lie Church -was merely the institution of yet more Trinitarian
Church hierarchies, accompanied by a deeper entrenchment of all
the fundamental Trinitarian doctrines.
Thus with the event of the Reformation, and the subsequent
establishment of various Protestant Churches, which like the Ro
man Catholic Church also eventually became very powerful, the
doctrine of Trinity became even more firmly established, even
though the Protestants and the Roman Catholics remained bitterly
opposed to each other over other issues such as who should be the
head of the Trinitarian Church, and what about the validity of the
document which authorised the 'Gift of Constantine' - whereby, it
will be remembered, the Roman Catholic Church had acquired so
much property in and around Rome. (Sorne scholars took a closer
look at the deed and discovered that it was a forgery. Since then,
the Vatican has ceased to boast of it.)
The famous Thirty Years War which took place in the 17th cen
tury AD (1618-1648) between the Protestants and the Catholics was
yet another indication that these Churches' battles were not really
fought with the intention of establishing the true guidance of Jesus
in the land. Like the Pauline Church's aggression towards the fol
lowers of Arius and Donatus, and later the Muslims, this warclearly
demonstrated that what the various Church hierarchies wanted
was power. Indeed ever since its inception, the PaulineTrinitarian
Church had only fought in order to establish and consolidate its
own existence as an institution, and not in order to spread what
Jesus had taught.