Though periodization is admittedly a matter of opinion, there is much to warrant the thesis that the later Middle Ages were born in Avignon and were shaped by the uncertainty and hierarchical confusion due to the Babylonian Captivity of the papacy (1309-1377) and the succeeding period of the Schism (1378-1415). The impact, especially of this latter event, can scarcely be overestimated, so much so that we are included to advocate the terms “pre-schismatic and schismatic Middle Ages” to replace the traditional terms “early and later Middle Ages.”

Since the publication of Voigt's classic volumes on Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini a century ago, scholarly interest in the celebrated pontiff of the mid-fifteenth century has grown, not withered, with the years. While the wealth of material contained in Aeneas's writings may in part explain this continuing interest, to a greater degree it is Aeneas himself who has fascinated historians. Yet for all the attention lavished upon him, there has been little agreement in the interpretation of Aeneas's personality and historical significance. This is not surprising. Since the days of Burckhardt, the fifteenth century in Italy has elicited different interpretations, and it is only natural that this diversity be reflected in the treatment of one who was, as all admit, the mirror of the age. Besides, it must be acknowledged that his life is so enigmatic in so many ways that agreement over its final meaning is probably impossible.

Of the Puritan sects which proliferated in Cromwellian England, the Fifth Monarchy Men were distinctive because of the extreme political implications which they drew from their deep commitment to millennialism. Sometimes called “millenaries” by their fellow countrymen, or “anabaptists” by continental observers, this sects wanted to set up the kingdom of Jesus Christ for His thousand-year rule by the Saints. Its members hoped to realize their quest for a religious utopia by making the old kingdoms of the Stuarts into new saintly kingdoms of the Lord. In order to carry out this idea, several of the leading Fifth Monarchy spokesmen urged Oliver Cromwell to convoke a “Jewish Sanhedrin” or Parliament of Saints which first assembled in June, 1653.

In France, religious persecution outlived Pierre Bayle and nearly outlived Voltaire. Only in the mid-1760's, when the Enlightenment had long been affecting other aspects of their thinking, did Catholics at last accept a measure of religious toleration. Six Calvinist pastors were put to death after 1745, and Jean Calas was condemned as late as 1762. The purpose of this article is to study why the persecution of religions persisted in a non-theological age. Our understanding in this instance requires that we set aside strictly religious categories, and examine what role the secular state played in the thinking of Catholics and anti-Catholics alike; for it was this state to which the last Huguenot victims were sacrificed.

The Lessing “legend” is grounded in paradox. It rests on his total dedication to the Enlightenment ideal of Sapere aude — dare to use one's own understanding—while at the same time he viewed himself as heir apparent to German Protestantism. Lessing was a religionist who depended on rationalism for the solution to every major problem. The unity of these apparently diverse perspectives was summed up in Lessing's program of seeking truth, not claiming its possession. “If God held in his right hand all the truth, and in his left hand the ever active longing for the truth, and said to me: ‘choose’, I should humbly grasp his left hand and cry: give me this, oh Father! the truth is for you alone”. If truth were relinquished to God, then at least Lessing could lay claims to salvaging history for man. In this form, what appeared to the philosophes as alien traditions, human revolution and divine revelation, were to be united.

Religion has been a potent social force throughout American history. The reverberations of the Protestant Revolt and the Catholic Reformation have been experienced many times in many American communities since the 17th century, in varying degrees of intensity. Colorado, in the last quarter of the 19th century, was typical of this tradition. Colorado had been part of a vast Spanish domain and, therefore, many of its citizens, particularly in the southern half, were both Spanish-speaking and Catholic in faith. On the other hand, a preponderance of the adventurers and fortune-hunters who came after the gold discoveries of 1858 and 1859 and who tended to settle around and north of Denver, were Protestants. This, then, was the religious setting as convention delegates met in Denver in the winter of 1875-1876 to write a constitution for the state.