Was there any time in history before the Protestant Reformation that the RCC could have been toppled due to extreme weakness and Protestantism begun much much earlier than the OTL PR? Please offer as many details as possible.
Ha ha ha, money invested in exploration instead of the church? A few crumbs, perhaps, but most of it will be feasted away, Harry VIII style, or spent on shiny new palaces and the like, or gifted to their cronies.
Probably the widespread wealth of the late middle ages will evaporate even faster, the social gulf will be wider, and there will be even less constraints on the power of the state. Perhaps akin to the late Roman dominate with its all-encompassing oppression.
The Gregorian Reforms don't take place. Property continues to leave the church's control while scandals rock the populace's faith. Popular discontent leads to some sort of Reformation, where the power of the Papacy is demoted to that of Patriarch of the West...
I would need to check to see if I could identify any figures who would lead that, but Cluny Abbey might be a start.
What church constraints were there to exploration and colonization?Elizabeth I repaired much of the damage that her father caused. We're trying to assume that colonizing the Americas would still be viewed as a profitable business venture, thus creating a great sense of urgency, perhaps greater than OTL, because Church constraints would not exist. Explorers and missionaries from "national" churches would be doing the work of evangelism in the Americas. All settlements would be along national lines.
What church constraints were there to exploration and colonization?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Tordesillas just to name one that stands out to me.
Which didn't really stop anyone from exploring (even the Catholic French ignored it).http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Tordesillas just to name one that stands out to me.
It's not wrong, it just badly understates how varied the early church was or how up for grabs orthodoxy was.Well the Catholic Encyclopedia states that Marcionites, "arose in the very infancy of Christianity and adopted from the beginning a strong ecclesiastical organization, parallel to that of the Catholic Church, they were perhaps the most dangerous foe Christianity has ever known."
It's not wrong, it just badly understates how varied the early church was or how up for grabs orthodoxy was.