Pre-1600: Religion: Chronology

IMPORTANT EVENTS TO 1600

IMPORTANT EVENTS TO 1600

660 b.c.

• The mound-building culture with ceremonial areas and temples begins to flourish in the Mississippi Valley, near present-day St. Louis.

1000? a.d.

• Leif Ericsson’s father, Eric the Red, an early explorer of Greenland, sets forth the idea that the New World is a virgin land and earthly paradise. This theme is picked up by other explorers and especially articulated by the New England Puritans six centuries later.

1454

• Johannes Gutenberg’s Bible is printed. Despite suspicion toward any humanmade version of the Scriptures, the Church soon recognizes its value in spreading the Gospel.

1473

• Nicholaus Copernicus is born and later overturns the ancient Ptolemaic and Christian notion that humans are at the center of the universe; rather, he shows that the Earth revolves around the sun.

1491

• Ignatius Loyola, Founder of the Order of the Society of Jesus, or Jesuits, is born. Jesuits are tremendously influential in education and missionary efforts.

1499

• Amerigo Vespucci Makes his second voyage to the New World and notes that natives lack religion.

1500

• Franciscans Begin Arriving in the Americas.

1510

• The First Spanish Dominicans arrive in the Americas.

1513

• Juan Ponce De León explores the Florida coast and takes possession of the area in northern Florida which he believes to be the Fountain of Youth.

1517

• Martin Luther Draws up his Ninety-five Theses attacking the sale of indulgences by the Church and helps begin the Reformation.

1531

• 8 Dec. Juan Diego, a recent native convert to Catholicism, claims that the Virgin Mary appeared to him on the hill of Tepeyac in what is now Mexico City.

1534

• Henry Viii Signs The Act of Supremacy, making him head of the Church of England.

1536

• John Calvin Publishes The Institutes of the Christian Religion and moves to Geneva, Switzerland, a city amenable to Protestant beliefs.

1537

• 9 June In Peru the Dominican monk Bernadino de Minaya obtains a papal bull from Paul III titled Sublimus Deus. It rejects the idea that the Indians “should be treated as dumb brutes created for our service, pretending that they are incapable of receiving the Catholic faith.”

1539

• Three Franciscans Accompany Francisco de Ulloa’s expedition to the Gulf of California.

1540

• Six Priests Make The journey with Francisco Vásquez de Coronado into the Southwest.

1541

• King Charles I Of Spain requires that hospitals in the Americas be open to Spaniards and Indians alike, for caring for the sick is seen as part of doing God’s work. Catholic brothers are sent to operate the facilities.

1553

• Catholic Mary Tudor ascends the English throne, driving many Protestants into exile.

1555

• Peter Martyr, An Italian cleric in Spain who was acquainted with many explorers, publishes a systematic account of their findings in The Decades of the New World or West India.

1558

• Elizabeth I Ascends the throne and allows Protestantism to return to England.

1562

• Huguenots Found A Colony at Fort Caroline in what is present-day Jacksonville, Florida.

1565

• The Spanish Defeat the Huguenots in Florida and found St. Augustine.

1570

• A Mission Is Established in Maryland by seven Jesuits. They are guided by the converted Indian Don Luis Velasco but are ultimately killed by members of the Powhatan tribe.

1572

• The Last Of The Jesuits leave Florida after they are unsuccessful in gaining converts.
• St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre occurs in France. Twelve thousand French Protestants are killed, one of the bloodiest events in the Catholic-Huguenot conflict.

1578

• Queen Elizabeth I Gives Sir Humphrey Gilbert power to seize “remote heathen and barbarous lands.”

1580s

• For The Next Twenty years an English uncle and nephew, each named Richard Hakluyt, urge exploration and colonization of the far side of the Atlantic, in part to effect the conversion of native peoples to Protestantism.

1580

• French Author Michel de Montaigne publishes The Essays, in which he concludes that explorers are too biased against native peoples and assume, unfairly, that they lack civility and the spiritual superiority of the Europeans.

1585

• Queen Elizabeth I Of England sends six thousand troops to assist the Dutch Protestants, under attack by Phillip II of Spain’s Catholic armies.

1588

• England Defeats The powerful Spanish Armada and emerges as a stronghold of Protestantism.
• Thomas Harriot’s A Brief and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia is published, arguing that natives would wish to learn about the Protestant faith, the “true religion,” and thus “be brought to civilitie.”

1595

• Franciscan Efforts at converting Native Americans in Florida begin to show signs of success.

1597

• Guale Indians Living in missions on the Georgia coast revolt. Soldiers from St. Augustine are called to help put rebellion down.