Jovial

At one time, the Catholic Church was very powerful. It control much of what is now modern Italy, then called the "Papal States", as I documented in http://www.fivedoves.com/letters/apr2015/jovial45-1.htm . And because of its moral leadership, it could make or break kings. It crowned and controlled many kings and declared others to be dethroned. They ran governments behind the scenes. They were the power behind the power in Western Europe. In Eastern Europe, where the Orthodox Church reigned supreme, there was not the same entanglement of Church and State.

Today all that has changed, and one of the reasons for the many conspiracy theories about Rome running the government behind the scenes today is because at one time they did, but those who allege Rome still does simply haven't caught up with modern times. By "modern times", I mean the 16th century, when...

By this time, Rome had lost its grip on being able to influence or control kings. The Vatican's power rested in a king being afraid of either the Vatican's army or the ability of the Vatican to convince the public to rise up against the king and overthrow him by saying who was and wasn't God's choice. Protestantism had become too popular, and if the Vatican could convince one section of the populace to overthrow the king, the Protestant section might defend the king just to prove the pope wrong. kings were not afraid to align with Protestantism if they believed in it after the Reformation. Those that aligned with Catholicism did so because they believed in Catholicism and not out of political fear of the pope anymore or the population he could influence, as was the case in the past.

The Vatican's army was no longer feared. If they invaded a country, they knew that voluteer protestant militias would rise up just to oppose the Vatican armies and Protestant states would send troops to help fellow protestant states just because the Vatican got involved. Overnight allies could be presumed without even signing a treaty. Those potential protestant militias were now scarier than the Vatican's armies, because you knew where the Vatican would attack from, but one could not predict where the militias would come from. The Vatican battleground could be spotted by spies miles before they arrived. But protestant militias could sneak up on a king and assassinate him undetected because they didn't wear uniforms.

Proof of the loss of Vatican power is multi fold. Many German kings embraced Lutherism and war broken out in Germany between the Catholic kings and Protestant kings from 1618 to 1648, known as the 30 Years War. While France was Catholic, it allied itself with the Protestant kings in this religious based war simply because they did not like the Habsburgs. For the French, it was not about religion. The pope was powerless to influence the French, whose kings were Catholic, and stop them from aiding the Protestant kings fighting against the Catholic Habsburgs. The French were more afraid of the Habsburgs than the Vatican.

The 30 Years War ended with a peace treaty being signed. The Pope declared that peace treaty null and void, and tried to encourage the Catholic kings to continue in their quest for dominance, but they refused to listen to the pope. The inability of the Catholic Church to convince Catholic kings to ignore the treaty was proof that the Vatican had lost its power and influence even over its religious allies and was no longer able to pull the strings of the kings of Europe anymore.

The widespread adoption of the Protestant movement was the chief reason why. Even an all-powerful king knows he cannot stay in power if he tries to force TOO MUCH on the public. He might get away with treating one person unfairly one person at a time. But if he treats 30% of his population unfairly with one decision, that 30% could riot, march on the castle and overthrow the king. It is easier for Democracies to treat 30% unfairly, since they'll wait for the next election. Mobs won't wait for a king to die. They'll just kill him.

By 1648, most European kings had realized they could not force ALL their subjects to be all Catholic or all Protestant and would only stay in power by being tolerant of both religions. And because tolerance of both was needed, the Pope could no longer function as the power behind the power like he could when the overwhelming percentage of the populace was Catholic.

When the United States declared its Independence in 1776, only 1.2% percentage of the population was Catholic (click here for reference) . It was so small that Washington decided to cross the Delaware on Christmas Day of 1776 because he knew most British troops would be celebrating Christmas and most of his Protestant troops would not. Christmas was seen as a Catholic holiday that the Anglican Church had kept, but that Protestant America did not care about. It was not until the wave of Catholic immigrants in the mid 1800s that Christmas would spread to Protestant Americans.

The influence of the Vatican at America's founding was a big fat ZERO. Many of the early settlers were Protestants who came to America to get away from the Catholic/Anglican majority and pursue religous freedom. The Catholic Church was seen as the cause of all problems in the countries they left, and early American settlers wanted nothing to do with the influence of Rome. Anti-Catholicism reigned throughout America and the Vatican was seen as that bohemith empire that enslaved Europe for too long and Americans wanted to be free of that in their new world and many local American governments were making decisions based on simply snubbing their noses at Rome and defying the Vatican. The celebration of Christmas was outlawed in many local governments throughout early America simply because it was seen as a Catholic holiday.

Catholicism was so widely disliked by early American Government that many anti-Catholic laws were passed.

In 1642, Virginia prohibited Catholic settlers from coming to Virginia.
In 1647, Massechusettes Bay PUNISHED BY DEATH "all and every Jesuit, seminary priest, missionary or other spiritual or ecclesiastical person made or ordained by any authority, power or jurisdiction, derived, challenged or pretended, from the Pope or See of Rome."
In 1692, the formerly Catholic Maryland settlement made the Church of England the official state religion and forced Catholics to pay heavy taxes to it. This was an attempt to drive Catholics out of Maryland.
In 1701, Catholics were barred from holding public office in Pennsylvania.
In 1719, Rhode Island imposed many restrictions on Catholics. They were not allowed to vote. Parents could be fined for sending their children abroad to Catholic school.
In 1732, Georgia pronounced freedom of worship to everyone "except papists", meaning Catholics.
From 1776 to 1835, Catholics were not allowed to hold public office in North Carolina
Until 1877, Catholics were not allowed to hold public office in New Hampshire. Public finding of Protestant schools existed, but not Catholic Schools until 1968.

And this is just some of the specifically Catholic measures. 10 of the 13 original colonies punished people for being Catholic in some fashion, most refusing them to be allowed to hold public office or vote or both. Laws against dates the Catholic Church held dear, like Christmas Day, were even more widespread. Some Protestant groups celebrated Saturday as the Sabbath and mandated work on Sunday in order to discourage Catholicism from settling in their area.

Obviously, the Vatican was not secretly running our government from behind the scenes. And if anyone was running the government in secret, it was clearly an anti-Catholic force, not the Vatican.

Catholics were only 1.2% of the American population in 1776. In 1850 it was only 5% . They grew through immigration in the 19th century and today, 1 out of 4 americans are Catholic.

Napoleon wanted to rule the world and in 1796 he arrested the pope. After Napoleon's defeat in 1815, things did not go back to normal for the Vatican for very long. As I documented at http://www.fivedoves.com/letters/apr2015/jovial45-1.htm, The formation of modern day Italy in 1870 broke the Vatican's army and last vestiges of their kingdom.