Protestanism

Throughout the Middle Ages, the Catholic Church continued to assert its primacy of position. The growth of the papacy had paralleled the growth of the church, but by the end of the Middle Ages challenges to papal authority from the rising power of monarchical states had resulted in a loss of papal temporal authority. An even greater threat to papal authority and church unity arose in the sixteenth century when the unity of medieval European …

…of Anglicanism and pressed for a further reformation. Because of the Anglican union of throne and altar, this agitation had direct political consequences, climaxing in the English Revolution and the execution of King Charles I in 1649. Just as many other denominations that would form such as the Quakers and Nonconformists, Puritanism found its most complete expression, both politically and theologically, in North America, where denominations could find some sanctuary from the persecution of the homeland.