In the eighteenth century, religious faith not only endured but grew in many parts of Europe. The local parish church remained the focal point of religious devotion and community cohesion. Neighbors came together in church for baptisms, marriages, funerals, and special events. Priests and parsons kept the community records, distributed charity, looked after orphans, and provided primary education to the common people. Thus the parish church was woven into the very fabric of community life.

While the parish church remained central to the community, it was also subject to greater control from the state. In Protestant areas, princes and monarchs headed the official church, selecting personnel and imposing detailed rules. Clergy of the official church dominated education, and followers of other faiths suffered religious and civil discrimination.

Catholic monarchs in this period also took greater control of religious matters in their kingdoms, weakening papal authority. In both Spain and Portugal, the Catholic Church was closely associated with the state, a legacy of the long internal reconquista and sixteenth-century imperial conquests overseas. In the eighteenth century, the Spanish crown took firm control of ecclesiastical appointments.

France went even further in establishing a national Catholic Church, known as the Gallican Church. Louis XIV’s expulsion of Protestants in 1685 was accompanied by an insistence on the king’s prerogative to choose and control bishops and issue laws regarding church affairs. Catholicism gained new ground in the Holy Roman Empire with the conversion of a number of Protestant princes and with successful missionary work by Catholic orders among the populace. While it could not eradicate Protestantism altogether, the Habsburg monarchy successfully consolidated Catholicism as a pillar of its political control.